Stiff Skates and Skating Backwards

[boo10 323]

Being an older player, I grew up wearing softer skates (Daoust 301, Micron Mega 10-90, etc.).  I've tried skating in some high end modern skates that are very stiff (9090 Tacks, FT390, etc.) but find skating backwards in them causes pain above my ankles.  I don't think it's the side of the boot digging in where the comfort pads are, (though I guess it's possible).  Is this normal for a stiff skate during break in?  Skating forwards is pain free and I actually found the Tacks to be very comfortable.  The issue is only skating backwards.  I don't tie the top eyelet, and even dropped the top two, but still felt the pain near the ankles.

[Vet88 674]

Top of the ankle bone or the edge of the boot? Skating backwards shifts your weight forward in the skate and requires a lot more effort from the mid foot and ankle muscles to support you in the correct position. So you could be pronating slightly into the inside edge (top of the boot pain on the outside of the leg) or the heel is lifting more than you think it is and the ankle bone is hitting the top of the pocket (top of the ankle bone pain and can be on either side of the foot). For the former the first fix is to heat the top and roll it out, for the latter try a punch at the top of the pocket. Neither option address the root of the problem but they do provide a simple fix which is often all most players want.

[boo10 323]

1 hour ago, Vet88 said:

Top of the ankle bone or the edge of the boot? Skating backwards shifts your weight forward in the skate and requires a lot more effort from the mid foot and ankle muscles to support you in the correct position. So you could be pronating slightly into the inside edge (top of the boot pain on the outside of the leg) or the heel is lifting more than you think it is and the ankle bone is hitting the top of the pocket (top of the ankle bone pain and can be on either side of the foot). For the former the first fix is to heat the top and roll it out, for the latter try a punch at the top of the pocket. Neither option address the root of the problem but they do provide a simple fix which is often all most players want.

This actually makes quite a bit of sense to me.  I do pronate a little bit, but not enough to be a major issue.  I learned how to skate without laces when I was about 10 or 11 years old, so I don't need the boot to provide support.  I assumed that since an aggressive forward stride has me in a much deeper knee bend, that it must be something else.  My backwards skating style is to use rapid crossovers to quickly generate speed, so my weight is definitely distributed in a way that would out pressure on the sides of the boot.

[Vet88 674]

3 hours ago, boo10 said:

This actually makes quite a bit of sense to me.  I do pronate a little bit, but not enough to be a major issue.  I learned how to skate without laces when I was about 10 or 11 years old, so I don't need the boot to provide support.  

As I found when I started my journey without laces, skating backwards was a totally different kettle of fish than skating forward. Sure, I could glide backwards, do crossovers and turns and stops without any issues but as soon as I really drove hard onto the inside edge to generate power, my foot (due to my pronation) would collapse on me. This was still going on a long time after I had pretty much mastered my forward skating without laces. Even today I still get caught out occasionally, on my last skate 2 weeks ago I was at a stick and puck doing 1 on 1 D work against some ex pros, every now and then when I drove hard off the inside edge it would partially collapse on me. Backward skating power moves are the ones that expose any weakness in your foot mechanics the most. As you can skate without laces / untied I'd suggest that, once rinks are open again, go for a skate this way. If you find your foot collapsing on you doing whatever move it is that causes the pain then this is a good guide as to where you need to do extra work to correct it.