Author Topic: Please help, How do I stop skating on my inside edge?  (Read 2627 times)

serendipity

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Please help, How do I stop skating on my inside edge?
« on: December 08, 2017, 10:53:29 pm »
Hello, i am struggling at the moment to properly skate. When I skate, I am too much on my inside edge at all times. Weirdly, one foot is more on the inside edge than the other.
I don't have any foot problems at all. Whenever i try to correct it, I lose my balance. It's starting to become painful in my knee after I skate and I think it may be because of how I skate. It's not my feet, so I don't know if it's me, my boots, or my blades. I feel like my feet are "locked" in the inside edge position, if i try to move my feet inside my boot to change to a neutral edge they dont move that tiny bit i need them to. I am scared because I have recently gotten new skates and I don't want to break them in this way. Can anyone offer advice to help me skate the right way? thank you!

transmissionoftheflame

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Re: Please help, How do I stop skating on my inside edge?
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2017, 12:07:56 am »
It's natural to feel more secure on your inside edges because if you try to skate on one leg and need to put your foot down you can simply go inwards - the direction of the putting down will follow the angle of the skate.


Skate on two feet in a straight line, with your feet parallel, taking great care to be on flat edges and having your feet really close together - more or less ankles touching.  Get some speed up.  Once in this position, experiment with lifting one foot, then the other.  Keep your feet close together even when lifting the free foot.  The closer to the centre and under you everything is, the more balanced you will be.  You need to get used to shifting your weight so that the skate is under you when skating on one foot.  Feel where your weight is.  You can practice this on land with shoes on.  You will notice that when you go to pick one foot up you will stick your hip out slightly so that the foot you are standing on is under you.  You need to learn to do that with skates on, on the ice.  Try to go for as long as possible on one foot.  IMO you need to master this before you will be able to make any meaningful progress skating.  Skating is about balancing on one foot and weight transfer.  In my experience beginners are told to do all sorts of quite difficult things that they simply can't do with any kind of control because they are unable to transfer weight from one skate to the other.

WednesdayMarch

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Re: Please help, How do I stop skating on my inside edge?
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2017, 09:37:10 am »
Okay, that's not good.

How do you know that it's not your feet?  I was suffering vast amounts of pain in my right knee (landing leg) which turned out to be corrected by simple orthotics to support my arches.  I had been absolutely adamant there was no fallen arch problem but I was - happily - very wrong indeed.  I say "happily" because I hobbled into the Scholl shop in terrible pain and practically skipped out with the orthotics in my shoes!

Also, try skating forwards - or backwards - on two feet, with them parallel and touching.  Just slowly glide in a straight line, on two feet with them together.  If one or other of them tries to trip you up by "going underneath" (I can't really explain it very well but it's almost like one foot is trying to dive under the other) then your blades need moving slightly.

Ask your coach (if you have one) or a more experienced skater if they can see any reason for your inability to skate on the flat or outside edges.  It is very common for beginners to fall onto the inside edges but should be easily correctable.
Returned to the ice in Sept 2017 after a major leg injury in 1999. Skating in Jackson Elite Pro & MK Vision Syncro. Still scary after all these years.

transmissionoftheflame

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Re: Please help, How do I stop skating on my inside edge?
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2017, 11:26:09 am »
Also bend your knees and ankles such that you cannot see your toes when you look down (but don't skate along looking down!).  Really feel your weight going down into the ice.


Your body will need time to develop the feeling and strength it needs to balance on one skate - your ankles, calves, quads, glutes, core muscles.


As well as practising off ice, with and without skates, you can practice on the barrier standing still.

spinZZ

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Re: Please help, How do I stop skating on my inside edge?
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2017, 03:11:03 am »
Hello, i am struggling at the moment to properly skate. When I skate, I am too much on my inside edge at all times. Weirdly, one foot is more on the inside edge than the other.
I don't have any foot problems at all. Whenever i try to correct it, I lose my balance. It's starting to become painful in my knee after I skate and I think it may be because of how I skate. It's not my feet, so I don't know if it's me, my boots, or my blades. I feel like my feet are "locked" in the inside edge position, if i try to move my feet inside my boot to change to a neutral edge they dont move that tiny bit i need them to. I am scared because I have recently gotten new skates and I don't want to break them in this way. Can anyone offer advice to help me skate the right way? thank you!
<<Emphasis added>>

Something is not right here.  You don't shift from edge to edge (or from edge to neutral, or from neutral to edge) by moving your foot within your boot.  You shift edges by shifting body alignment:  neutral (both edges) by balancing your weight over the longitudinal axis of the blade, inside edge by leaning in, outside edge by leaning out.  Your foot should not be able to move inside your boot.  You should be able to wiggle your toes, but certainly not be able to move your foot side to side, front to back, or up and down.  If you can, your boots are too big, and that typically will cause you to flop over to an inside edge.

Off ice, check the fit of your boot by sitting down and having someone hold your blade down firmly.  Now try to move your foot around.  If you can, your boot is too large; it's especially important that your heel be locked in place.

Assuming your boot is not too large, you can do some preliminary checks off ice.   With your blade guards off, walk on a rubber mat (such as the rubber flooring at your rink, or on a rubber runner at home).  Have someone look at your feet from the front and the back as you walk in a straight line.  If you are walking on an inside edge, there are three things you can do:


(1) Move the blade towards the inside.  Even for people with nominally normal feet, the weight distribution is such that the blade should be mounted towards the inside of the center axis of the boot (drawn from center of toe to center of heel).

(2) Replace your current insole with one that has a higher arch support.  Even if you have no problems walking in regular shoes, skating is different, and you may be pronating more than you know.

(3) As a last resort, shim your blade mount such that the blade is angled (the thick part of the shim is along the outside edge).

If you're new at this, have your skate tech do it.

Final testing is on ice, of course.  Look for a patch of clean ice,  Get up some speed.  Glide straight on two feet.  Look at the tracings on the ice.  For each foot, there should be two equal traces.   Then repeat similarly for one foot straight glides on the left foot and on the right foot.  For each foot, there should be two equal traces.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2017, 03:16:17 am by spinZZ »

Gerbil

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Re: Please help, How do I stop skating on my inside edge?
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2018, 10:40:10 pm »
This is the problem I have had. After three years my ankles are getting stronger. So are my hamstrings and hip muscles. Now I am no longer pronating nearly so much. It has taken ages for me to be able to skate a bit on the outside edges but getting there and as a result benefits to my posture and everything. When my feet really pronated my upper back was bent forward. Now I'm upright or nearly.

laurenSkatesicenice

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Re: Please help, How do I stop skating on my inside edge?
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2018, 11:37:30 am »
It's natural to feel more secure on your inside edges because if you try to skate on one leg and need to put your foot down you can simply go inwards - the direction of the putting down will follow the angle of the skate.


Skate on two feet in a straight line, with your feet parallel, taking great care to be on flat edges and having your feet really close together - more or less ankles touching.  Get some speed up.  Once in this position, experiment with lifting one foot, then the other.  Keep your feet close together even when lifting the free foot.  The closer to the centre and under you everything is, the more balanced you will be.  You need to get used to shifting your weight so that the skate is under you when skating on one foot.  Feel where your weight is.  You can practice this on land with shoes on.  You will notice that when you go to pick one foot up you will stick your hip out slightly so that the foot you are standing on is under you.  You need to learn to do that with skates on, on the ice.  Try to go for as long as possible on one foot.  IMO you need to master this before you will be able to make any meaningful progress skating.  Skating is about balancing on one foot and weight transfer.  In my experience beginners are told to do all sorts of quite difficult things that they simply can't do with any kind of control because they are unable to transfer weight from one skate to the other.

Thank you for this tip, I will try this out, that's really helpful (and more than I got out of my instructor in group lessons..)



 

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