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!
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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.