Getting Bad Foot Pain, Can't Skate

[hockeyfan10 1]

I've been playing hockey for a while but recently didn't skate for about a year because of work. When I tried to skate again, I got extreme foot pain, especially on the bottom of my foot, but also on both sides. It also kind of extends a bit up the calf. This is on the left and right feet. I figured it was maybe my skates that didn't fit because I have oddly shaped feet so I got custom-made skates (VH), but that didn't fix the issue. The custom-made skates don't seem to fit all that well either. I know there isn't anything medically wrong. I have flat feet that pronate a bit and use orthotics in my shoes, and also tried orthotics in my Bauer skates. This didn't help either. Any suggestions on what to do here? Should I still be looking for skates that fit me better? The pain is so much that I can barely move on the ice. Thank you everyone.

[Anjin-san 29]

You wrote that you took a year off. How long have you been back at it? If you're just getting back into it then perhaps the muscles in your feet need time to acclimate to skating. Since you've invested in VH skates you should contact Scott Van Horn and see if he can either suggest or make adjustments to your skates. That appears to me the most logical next step.

[Mimizk 114]

I'm curious. You wrote you have become not able to skate without pain after a few years blank though, if so, how was before you left hockey? Had you been able to skate with your boots no pain?

If you already having VH boots, the best way is talk with Scott. Send him your foot photos and tell pain situation.

If Scott will not be able to solve your problem, almost people can't either, I think. And if you will buy something retail skates as pray, it will be waste in high probability. I can't imagine that retail thing will work well than something which have been made for solving your problem.

[ktang 34]

How many years were you playing hockey before the 1-yr break? What durations, and how many times, did you skate when you started again?

[hockeyfan10 1]

6 hours ago, Anjin-san said:

You wrote that you took a year off. How long have you been back at it? If you're just getting back into it then perhaps the muscles in your feet need time to acclimate to skating. Since you've invested in VH skates you should contact Scott Van Horn and see if he can either suggest or make adjustments to your skates. That appears to me the most logical next step.

I've been back at it for the last year or so. Only about once a week or once every two weeks though. The reason I don't think it's a muscle issue is because the pain is so extreme, but I don't know that for sure. Do you know if I'd send the skates to Scott or if I'd visit him in a shop?

 

5 hours ago, Mimizk said:

I'm curious. You wrote you have become not able to skate without pain after a few years blank though, if so, how was before you left hockey? Had you been able to skate with your boots no pain?

If you already having VH boots, the best way is talk with Scott. Send him your foot photos and tell pain situation.

If Scott will not be able to solve your problem, almost people can't either, I think. And if you will buy something retail skates as pray, it will be waste in high probability. I can't imagine that retail thing will work well than something which have been made for solving your problem.

Before hockey I wouldn't say I had no pain, but I was able to play. Now it is so painful I can barely play. Yeah it looks like contacting Scott seems to be a good option here.

 

3 hours ago, ktang said:

How many years were you playing hockey before the 1-yr break? What durations, and how many times, did you skate when you started again?

I was playing hockey for about 15 years before the 1 year break. And I've been skating off an on for the past year or so. About every month or every other week.

[Vet88 673]

You pronate, this will be your biggest issue. Having custom built skates doesn't fix pronation and can sometimes make it worse because there is no room in the boot for the foot to move. Without the right support, your foot will roll inwards as you skate and this causes the outer edges of your feet to press hard against the skate. From here you can have various symptoms including the ones you have described. If you got VH's made to your foot shape from a diagram then VH may have missed something, a scan would be a better option or a visit.

 

There are various options to address your pronation:

1: shim the outside of the boot (not my favourite choice but it is easy to do and you can easily experiment with different thicknesses of shims until you find the right balance)

2: realign the blade holder inwards (sometime difficult if there is not a lot of room to move the holder)

3: get orthotics designed for a ice hockey boot (expensive and time consuming and may require your boots to be punched out for the orthotics to fit)

4: any combination of the above. imho a combination of options 2 and 3 give the best result.

 

If Scott agrees, another option (a little bit more outside the box) is to get him to widen your skates along the outside of the skate (this bit is important, it needs to be the outside of the skate only that gets stretched out). You are looking to get an extra 2 -3mm of width along the length of the skate. Now with various inserts (made from silicon gel or memory foam or other suitable material) designed to fit along the inner edge of your skate you can experiment with the inserts to find where your feet best sit over the blade to address your pronation. From here you can get some orthotics designed to stabilise the foot and have Scott punch out the boot if needed so the orthotics will fit. 

[Mimizk 114]

I don't negate any opinions on here though, just my thinking is that pronate don't cause pain hockey or skating.

Perhaps some muscles would make pain by over work due to get enough performance in not suitable situation. But hockeyfan10 wrote about it as he think his pain have not been caused by such muscle problem.

Honestly I have heavy bow legs so usually can't be satisfied with normal holder/runner settings, so make some special tuning. But if I didn't do such adjustment, I don't get pain. Only it makes me can't skate well. Because people can stand on the ice with wearing skates as no relationship each angles of their foot and ice level.

 

I hope Scott will be able to provide good help for you.

[ktang 34]

Maybe you need to build up the strength and endurance in your feet again with shorter skating periods after your year off? I'm assuming that before, the pain was manageable, but now it is too much because there is more more muscle soreness. Hopefully it's not something ligament- or inflammation-related, like plantar fascitiis.

[mojo122 529]

You also mention having no arch and extreme pain on the bottom of your foot.  Look into a better innersole such as SuperFeet or SpeedPlate.  I've seen a few pairs of VH skates and haven't been impressed with the footbeds in them.

[hockeyfan10 1]

On 7/2/2016 at 7:09 PM, Vet88 said:

You pronate, this will be your biggest issue. Having custom built skates doesn't fix pronation and can sometimes make it worse because there is no room in the boot for the foot to move. Without the right support, your foot will roll inwards as you skate and this causes the outer edges of your feet to press hard against the skate. From here you can have various symptoms including the ones you have described. If you got VH's made to your foot shape from a diagram then VH may have missed something, a scan would be a better option or a visit.

 

There are various options to address your pronation:

1: shim the outside of the boot (not my favourite choice but it is easy to do and you can easily experiment with different thicknesses of shims until you find the right balance)

2: realign the blade holder inwards (sometime difficult if there is not a lot of room to move the holder)

3: get orthotics designed for a ice hockey boot (expensive and time consuming and may require your boots to be punched out for the orthotics to fit)

4: any combination of the above. imho a combination of options 2 and 3 give the best result.

 

If Scott agrees, another option (a little bit more outside the box) is to get him to widen your skates along the outside of the skate (this bit is important, it needs to be the outside of the skate only that gets stretched out). You are looking to get an extra 2 -3mm of width along the length of the skate. Now with various inserts (made from silicon gel or memory foam or other suitable material) designed to fit along the inner edge of your skate you can experiment with the inserts to find where your feet best sit over the blade to address your pronation. From here you can get some orthotics designed to stabilise the foot and have Scott punch out the boot if needed so the orthotics will fit. 

Thank you for reply. I'd be very interested in going with some combination of 2 and 3 but I'm not exactly sure where to get that done. The hockey shops near me have just been suggesting a variety of different footbeds and things like heel lifts. I'm also not sure where to get orthotics made specifically for hockey boots; I can only find podiatrists who mainly make orthotics for shoes. I'm trying to get in touch with people from VH though to see if they can give me some suggestions. I really like your suggestions and will try to implement them. Please let me know if there are any specific places you recommend or know of.

 

On 7/2/2016 at 9:33 PM, Mimizk said:

I don't negate any opinions on here though, just my thinking is that pronate don't cause pain hockey or skating.

Perhaps some muscles would make pain by over work due to get enough performance in not suitable situation. But hockeyfan10 wrote about it as he think his pain have not been caused by such muscle problem.

Honestly I have heavy bow legs so usually can't be satisfied with normal holder/runner settings, so make some special tuning. But if I didn't do such adjustment, I don't get pain. Only it makes me can't skate well. Because people can stand on the ice with wearing skates as no relationship each angles of their foot and ice level.

 

I hope Scott will be able to provide good help for you.

I'm going to try and skate more consistently, maybe about twice a week for the next month, to see if that helps improve things. I have bow legs as well and although it didn't lead to pain in your case, I will try working with Scott and VH to make adjustments to see if it helps me.

 

18 hours ago, ktang said:

Maybe you need to build up the strength and endurance in your feet again with shorter skating periods after your year off? I'm assuming that before, the pain was manageable, but now it is too much because there is more more muscle soreness. Hopefully it's not something ligament- or inflammation-related, like plantar fascitiis.

It's definitely possible, but I've been fairly active over the last couple months so I don't think it's that. I'm going to try and skate more consistently now to rule that out. I've also seen a doctor about this and they've pretty much ruled-out ligament issues.

 

15 hours ago, mojo122 said:

You also mention having no arch and extreme pain on the bottom of your foot.  Look into a better innersole such as SuperFeet or SpeedPlate.  I've seen a few pairs of VH skates and haven't been impressed with the footbeds in them.

Yeah that's what I was thinking as well which is why I'm hoping proper orthotics in the VH skates might help. I've never had any aftermarket footbeds in the VH skates and the stocks ones, as you mentioned, aren't great. Outside of your standard Superfeet or other arch support footbeds, I'm not sure where to get orthotics made for skates though.

[canard 2]

I started using SpeedPlates 3 month ago and noticed a lot of lower back pain and I'm now having pain on the bottom of my heel.  I have very high arches and after baking, the stiff/hard sides of the SpeedPlates around the heel are at a 45 sharp degree angle.  It looks like this is pressing into the sides of my heel and causing the pain.  The SpeedPlates are my favorite insoles, but they seem to be causing the pain on the bottom of my heel pad.

[Vet88 673]

On 7/3/2016 at 1:33 PM, Mimizk said:

I don't negate any opinions on here though, just my thinking is that pronate don't cause pain hockey or skating.

If this is your thinking then you really don't have any clues as to how pronation affects the foot and the rest of the body such as knees, groin and lower back. 

[Vet88 673]

On 7/3/2016 at 0:16 AM, hockeyfan10 said:

 Any suggestions on what to do here? 

Read this article on pronation then contact the aapsm, hopefully they will be able to guide you to someone nearby where you live who has experience with fitting ice hockey boots.

http://www.aapsm.org/pdf/humble-skatinga.pdf

[Mimizk 114]

2 hours ago, Vet88 said:

If this is your thinking then you really don't have any clues as to how pronation affects the foot and the rest of the body such as knees, groin and lower back. 

 

I've just been talking about his situation. He doesn't said he is usually suffering with pain by his pronation and also about his rest of the body, knees or lower back. These are just you are talking by your imagination. If there were pain on such points, that are caused by pronate, not by skating.

He has asked as "I got extreme foot pain, especially on the bottom of my foot, but also on both sides. It also kind of extends a bit up the calf ". You should see him in front.

[Vet88 673]

"I don't negate any opinions on here though, just my thinking is that pronate don't cause pain hockey or skating " reads as a general statement that pronation does not cause pain for hockey or skating, which couldn't be further from the truth hence my comments.

As you were commenting just on the OP then you could possibly be correct, the OP leaves out lots of information about his background which may have helped to better understand his situation for eg: what skates (brand / model / size / width) was he in before he stopped for his break? Did he have any pain in these skates or any other skates prior to the break? What skates was he in after the break? Was the pain in those the same as the VH? Did anything change in his life during the year break (eg medical issue, accident, didn't wear shoes, growth (no indication of age), job change, life style change, weight etc)?

It could be as simple as 1: tight skates (which he can get punched out) and 2: a decent footbed and 3: retraining the muscles to skate again.

What we do know is that his pronation has led him to wearing orthotics in his shoes. Even if it is found that his pain comes from something other than pronation, if he wants to be in a position to skate to the best of his ability and avoid any long term issues then he should get his pronation sorted out. If by doing this he can also address his foot pain then that is the best outcome he could reach.