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And I would hazard a guess that customer experience has lead to that decision. I repeat what I said before, you cannot address pronation by "building" arch support into the boot and or by building a boot such that the inside ankle wall is so stiff it will never flex. Been there, done it and in a year or so the results will be published in a dissertation. If your pronation is mild enough then arch support may help and possibly help enough so that you no longer notice it but the underlying issue remains, your center of gravity (ie center line) is no longer through the middle of your heel to the 2nd toe.

In the VH days if you identified your pronation at the time of ordering they could build the necessary modifications right into the boot. No idea if that’s still possible though.

So there's a broad spectrum of neurological issues that can affect a player, including what is typically called mental illness, but it depends on what you're asking about. Certain learning disabilities such as dyslexia can make learning things like "right" and "left" difficult, as well as pattern recognition. Autism spectrum disorders and sensory processing disorders can have an effect on how a player interprets external stimuli (instructions, whistles, lights, etc) as stressful or confusing. Many learning disabilities (language based and nonverbal) affect gross and fine motor control. For example I know some people who, because of their particular wiring, have a very hard time with things like swimming because it's difficult for them to coordinate a pattern of movement (treading water, stroke-breathe-stroke, etc) as well as being a sensory-disorienting environment. What are typically called mental or psychiatric illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder, are generally considered to have a genetic component that causes a miswiring in the brain, much the same as the above disorders. Sometimes, these are co-morbid, meaning a person with ADHD can have anxiety, or someone with dyslexia can have depression or bipolar disorder. Unfortunately, substance use or misuse is also often co-morbid with mental illness, in part due to lack of access to appropriate support, treatment, and education. First good tactic is get to know your players. Especially young players - let them engage you in conversation, connect with them. Having a good, stable connection to a supportive person does wonders for folks with neurological differences (as it does for most people, but especially important). An added bonus here is that young people with disabilities/mental illness are at significantly higher risk for abuse, and connecting with a trustworthy adult makes them that much less vulnerable. Have clear, consistent expectations. Doesn't mean you have to have the ice-hockey Code of Hammurabi in stone at your rink, but come up with some basic expectations for both you and your players. If you have a formal team format (vs. the free for all of a learn to play), feel free to write them down and distribute them. Things like treating each other with respect (don't call names, no hurting people on purpose, etc), following the rules of the game, being good listeners, are things that apply to player and coach. If you don't follow your own rules, no one will feel like following them either. Consistent, but flexible. Mean what you say - if you say "I will give you two warnings [for behavior] and on the third, you sit on the bench/on the side for [x] minutes", then follow through. Relatedly, change is hard for folks with learning disabilities and mental illness, who may already feel extra stress from trying to navigate neurotypical norms and internal chaos. Come up with a plan - today we will have 5 stations, and we will rotate every 10 minutes (do the math as you like), explain the plan, confirm the plan. When players arrive at a station, be ready, explain, and give appropriate warning when you're going to switch - "in 2 minutes, Coach Bob will blow the whistle, and everyone will go to Coach Jen's station". Having clear plans and expectations is far less anxiety provoking than surprises (tho again, being flexible and asking for input from players is good). In my magical imaginary world, there's about a 3:8-12 coach to player ratio (depending on age and player need - younger players need a higher coach-to-player ratio), so you can have someone who explains verbally, someone who demonstrates, and someone who can physically go through and help players with the exercise. Back to learning your players - in a team format where you can wrangle them in a locker room, go over a practice. What was the best thing? What was the worst thing? Open the lines of communication - maybe they really liked something that you didn't expect, or maybe someone has an idea. Watch them, and pick up on things like who the leaders are, and who the more shy kids are, who the disruptive ones are. Kids with ADHD can be easily overstimulated but when they like something, they can hyperfocus on it for hours. Give your disruptive kid something to do - say, ok, Teddy, you're going to help me demonstrate. Or, Kate, Liam, Sean, your job today is to pick up all the cones at the end of practice, and bring them to the bench. Talk with parents, too. Just like you would for a child with diabetes or asthma or a severe allergy - connect with the parents and say, hey, what works for your kid? What can I do that will make things consistent? Is anything going on, anything changing like medication or a new therapist or a new school? I think the meat of it honestly is communication and connection. Understand that some people will get more easily overwhelmed, and be ready to adapt to that. Use your players' strengths and give them agency and keep them from feeling isolated.

I don’t think anyone here wants this thread about True skates deviating into a thread about podiatry but I guess it relates to True skates so I’ll keep posting. 😊 As IP6Freely and Nicholas have said, they are known to have done modifications for people with screwy feet and have bragged about them in news interviews that I’ve seen online. I also figured that since VH/True was known for their customer service and being a small operation compared to Bauer & CCM, that they would be better able and more willing to do modifications which is the main reason that I went with them over the other two. The weird thing is that barefoot or in flip flops, I’m perfectly fine and don’t feel any pain or discomfort in my feet or calves but when I put on a pair of shoes off-the-shelf, I have pain in the outside edge of my right foot and my Achilles tendon in my right calf kills me. After I got my first set of skates and had done handful of public sessions, I had a podiatrist make me a set of skate orthotics for my skates and after wearing them a handful of times, I started having the opposite problem and started pronating badly in the skates and the combination of my weight and $200 skates, there wasn’t enough stiffness in the boot for me. After skating for a while, my shoe orthotics had to be adjusted since I wasn’t supinating as badly. I went to my orthotist and told him what was going on, he thought I was BS’ing him, but he tested me and sure enough, he had to adjust my orthotics since I wasn’t supinating nearly as badly as before when wearing shoes. I bought a pair of Super Feet which helped some but was still having pain in the ball of my right foot, so I got some metatarsal pads to put on top of my Super Feet, which helped somewhat but I still had to wear toe caps in both feet, which I think is more of a volume/space issue in the toe box than pronation issue due to the weird shape of my feet as they aren’t comfortable to wear sitting down without any weight put on them as well as the bunion sleeves. Even if pronating for me wasn’t an issue, the skates are too tight and don’t have enough room in the toe box and enough vertical volume. They are uncomfortable to have them on laced up while sitting down and not putting any weight on my feet. Since I was advised to remove the foam spacer in the toe cap, there is zero padding in that area and my toes and bunions have hard plastic or whatever the material is digging into them, even after rebaking doing the tissue technique. I don’t doubt what Vet88 is saying at all but the reality for me is that I live in Alabama and there is nowhere within a day’s drive that I can have shims installed, get holders moved, etc. The one decent LHS in Atlanta I don’t believe can do either thing and after their experience dealing with VH after True bought them, I doubt they would even touch them. That’s why I ideally would want larger skates with more volume in them for footbeds or Bauer Speed Plates as well as extra padding around the bunion and toe box, in general. I emailed them yesterday with my issues but have yet to hear back. We all read and hear the stories of getting custom skates, regardless of manufacturer and that they’re either an improvement of some kind or outright the most comfortable footwear the person owns but these make me want to go back to my $200 N7000’s… ☹