New to hockey w/ foot pain

[Paddy 11]

Hello, my first post...

So I'm brand new to hockey, and a beginner skater. Probably skated 5 or 6 times as a child, and including hockey on Sunday, I've skated 3 times as an adult. Forward, backwards, and crossovers with OK confidence. I started learning backwards crossovers Sunday. I blab all that so you have the background on my inexperience.

I bought my skates, Bauer Supreme One.8, in 2012 I believe. I baked them, and hit the ice for public skate twice before losing interest due to a lack of local hockey. 

Fast forward to Sunday. New coworkers/friends rent ice weekly and do a mix of stick and puck, followed by pick-up half ice and full ice. This was the first time I've skated aggressively, or with pads. After about 25-30min my feet were killing me. I originally thought they may be slightly tight in the forefoot, but probably properly snug. The pain however is in the arch. I've never had arch pain in my life, so I assume I have normal arches. I laced them a new way that i found on this site, and liked it. It gave me the ability to bend very low without getting lacebite discomfort, but still strong ankle support.

 

Short version:

Bauer One.8's, ~1/2 size too big

First aggressive skate

Terrible pain in arches, no history or arch pain

 

So I'm curious if this pain is a sign of horrible fit, skates need broken in, or maybe just normal since I went from no skating to giving it everything I have for 2 hours straight. My hip flexors definitely agree I was pushing it...

Ramble over. Thanks

[Buzz_LightBeer 973]

Welcome. 

 

First; simple answer, you haven't skated for a while and have some foot fatigue and aches, fairly normal. Taking that amount of time off plus our propensity for wearing non structured footwear in the nice weather contributes to this.

 

More involved; if you're feet are killing you and you intend to keep skating, something must be done. Simple cheap experiment/fix would be to try some heel cups to lift your ankle. It will affect the way your skate fits slightly, but if it cures the aches you can progress from there.

https://www.drscholls.com/products/comfort-and-energy/comfort-heel-cushions/

The goal  with those would be to raise your heel and not place all your weight on flat arches when you skate. I have flat feet and used these in all of my skates until I learned to use a boot stretcher and stretch the arches in my skates (a more extreme remedy I wouldn't recommend)

If you have a place local to you, tell them you took some time off and you're having some aches, perhaps a rebaking would fix it.. A higher quality footbed has helped some people in your situation as well. 

[Paddy 11]

Thanks for the reply. When you said "that amount of time off", it made me think. I've also gained probably 25-30 lbs since I got the skates. So I've definitely never skated with the extra weight.

I'm confident I don't have flat feet; the rumors always said you can't join the military with flat feet, could be a wives' tale though, lol. Thanks for the link, I'll read about those options and some of the hockey specific footbeds I've seen mentioned here.

[Paddy 11]

Also, I slightly fail the pen test. It barely touches my body right at the corner of the "L". Does that put downward pressure on the top of the foot, and cause arch pain? 

[mojo122 538]

No, that shouldn't result in arch pain.  Buzz hit on the important points.  If you have a higher arch than you think then having a skate that is too big will allow for your arch to collapse inside the skate and result in arch pain.  If that's the case, then look for an aftermarket footbed that provides better arch support.  Give it a few skates to see whether it gets better, worse, or  stays the same.

[Vet88 674]

It does but if your arch / footbed fit was ok then this shouldn't bother it. Think about trying some superfeet to give you better arch support. Don't use normal orthotics you get from a shoe store etc, they are generally to thick and therefore lift the heel out of the heel pocket and add to any volume issues. Add some foot strengthening exercises to the mix and then reevaluate things after 4 or 5 skates. But it doesn't hep if your skates are 1/2 a size to big for you....

[theinfamoust94 30]

I never felt pain in my old skates when I used them frequently then I did a 2 year service mission for my church where we didn't have time to skate. When I came back they hurt for a few skates around the arches and bottom of my feet. After four or five skates they didn't hurt as bad and eventually got painless again.

Obviously skates needs to fit and be broken in, but sometimes your feet need to get used to being in skates again as well.

[marka 526]

Howdy,

I had a ton of foot pain when I started a few years ago.  Went through various skates.

Today, I think that the skates did contribute to the pain, but I _also_ think that I was clenching my foot pretty tight because I wasn't sure in my skating and that led to arch pain.  I would say to give it say ten skates or so, maybe playing with less lace tightness over your mid foot above the arch.  It's pretty common I think to crank those laces down tight and at least for me, if I do that it for sure gives me foot pain.  But see if just skating and getting more comfortable that you're not about to crash and burn helps you relax your foot / have less pain.  :-)

Mark

[Paddy 11]

Thanks everyone

[specs78 33]

Not sure if you have played around with it but the footbed can have a pretty huge impact on arch pain. I had been skating for years in a pair of mission roller hockey skates and switched to ice hockey. Never had any arch pain playing roller. I went and got fit, skates baked and ended up with a pair of Vapors. Started having mild/moderate arch pain. Tried my roller footbeds, no change. Tried another footbed from an old pair of ice skates that never really fit right, slightly better. Tried superfeet....agony. My feet hurt like crazy. Got a pair of speedplates...perfect! I am not saying get speedplates in particular, but for me, the right insole eliminated my arch pain.

[Paddy 11]

Superfeet arrived in the mail today. The "carbon" version. Hopefully we get the rink tomorrow so I can try them out.

I put just one in and laced up at home. I couldn't tell a damn difference... until I put my weight forward. Once I got my weight up on my toes there was a large difference, that I'd describe as my arch "stretching". In the stock Bauer footbed my arch was stretching, on the superfeet it was much less pronounced.

 

Good news is, on the ice, this isn't a mod that I have to worry about the placebo effect. My feet will either feel much better, or still hurt like hell.

[specs78 33]

That stretching pain sounds almost exactly like what I was getting. For me, the higher arch in the speed plates fit my foot better and I don’t get that discomfort in my arch. Hopefully the superfeet do the trick!

[DRR 112]

If your skates are truly half a size too big as you say in the original post, you'll definitely want to get properly fitting skates if you want to continue with hockey.

This goes beyond simply the size (number) of the skate but also the width at different points in the skate, how much volume is in the skate, weight of the skater, ability of the skater, etc. A proper skate fitting takes into account at least a dozen different factors, but done properly and you'll have little to no break in time and a comfortable skate.

The suggestions above are all good and valid, and a good starting point but I would view them as short term solutions. Too-large skates can lead to longer term foot problems down the road if ignored.

 

[Paddy 11]

Well, the superfeet was not a fix. Granted, it didn't seem any worse, though I might say the arch support of the superfeet seems to start a little bit far back towards the heel.

I made a point today, at skating lessons, to try and pinpoint the pain as soon as I took my skates off. I can't tell, while I'm skating, where the pain is centered. And 5min after I leave it's totally gone. I think maybe the mid-foot area is too narrow, but I'm not sure.

Running my fingers along the outside of my foot, from pinky toe back towards the heel, I found there is a bone(joint) that protrudes outward in the mid-foot area. The pain is not that bone itself, but under it on the bottom of my foot. A Google image search, says it's the base of the 5th metatarsal, maybe where it meets the cuboid.

Skates feel fine when I lace them up, it's only once I've been on my feet for 15min+ the pain just gets worse and worse until I sit down.

[Paddy 11]

Correction to my first post. The skates are Supreme One.6, not One.8 like I had originally said. I still think they were mid-level skates when I purchased them... But maybe I'm wrong and they're entry level.

[Larry54 243]

1 hour ago, Paddy said:

Well, the superfeet was not a fix. Granted, it didn't seem any worse, though I might say the arch support of the superfeet seems to start a little bit far back towards the heel.

I made a point today, at skating lessons, to try and pinpoint the pain as soon as I took my skates off. I can't tell, while I'm skating, where the pain is centered. And 5min after I leave it's totally gone. I think maybe the mid-foot area is too narrow, but I'm not sure.

Running my fingers along the outside of my foot, from pinky toe back towards the heel, I found there is a bone(joint) that protrudes outward in the mid-foot area. The pain is not that bone itself, but under it on the bottom of my foot. A Google image search, says it's the base of the 5th metatarsal, maybe where it meets the cuboid.

Skates feel fine when I lace them up, it's only once I've been on my feet for 15min+ the pain just gets worse and worse until I sit down.

I had the same problem with Superfeet. The arch was too far back relative to the natural arch of my foot. I even tried one size larger as is recommended for this situation, but my arches are much too far forward for Superfeet. Superfeet are not compatible with all feet. At the time, I ended up with Graf SIDAS molded footbeds.

[Paddy 11]

Well, dropped my skates off. They'll be on the stretcher all night.

 

Hopefully that helps.

[BruinDust 42]

Try experimenting with how you tie your laces. Do you run them through the eyelets from the outside in, or the inside out?

And how do you tighten your laces? Do you tighten all of them, or just some?

Me I barely tighten any lace except the two at the top of the skate. If I tighten the ones below them, even the 3rd from the top, I find it puts to much downward pressure on my foot and I get arch pain.

Try out some different configurations, might be a simple and cheap solution to your foot pain issue.

 

[Paddy 11]

2 minutes ago, BruinDust said:

Try experimenting with how you tie your laces. Do you run them through the eyelets from the outside in, or the inside out?

And how do you tighten your laces? Do you tighten all of them, or just some?

Me I barely tighten any lace except the two at the top of the skate. If I tighten the ones below them, even the 3rd from the top, I find it puts to much downward pressure on my foot and I get arch pain.

Try out some different configurations, might be a simple and cheap solution to your foot pain issue.

 

I have experimented just a bit, and solved the lacebite by changing how I lace. I picked up waxed laces at the store tonight, so I can try going loose on one part and tight up top.

[BruinDust 42]

1 minute ago, Paddy said:

I have experimented just a bit, and solved the lacebite by changing how I lace. I picked up waxed laces at the store tonight, so I can try going loose on one part and tight up top.

I use waxed laces as well, I find them better where I only tighten at the top of the skate, the don't loosen up as much from the start of the game until the end.

[Paddy 11]

Well, I changed two things at once, so I can't really pinpoint what helped, but I had a much better night. I think the stretch (widening in mid-foot) had a big effect. I also tried lacing with the boot much more loose, and then tight up top.

The wax laces seem to help, but they aren't miracle workers. I'm a weak skater, and throughout the night I lost ankle support. Hard to notice, as it slowly creeped up on me, but eventually I realized why I was getting stuck on bad edges (like someone learning to ski) and a bit out of control.

I may take them up on the offer to stretch them again. Pain is way way down, but they certainly aren't slippers. I'd really like to be able to lace them tighter.