Sore Feet

[cameocooper]

I have just received my new skates, Riedell Motion, I have just wore them sitting on the sofa, to stay breaking them in, I generally don't have issues breaking in skates, but these seem to be hurting in the arch of my left foot, just the left, the right is fine. Is this a sign of them being too narrow, or is the arch too high or low for me.

There is no pro shop near, so brought online, but I can get my rink to bake them for me.

[tstop4me]

I have just received my new skates, Riedell Motion, I have just wore them sitting on the sofa, to stay breaking them in, I generally don't have issues breaking in skates, but these seem to be hurting in the arch of my left foot, just the left, the right is fine. Is this a sign of them being too narrow, or is the arch too high or low for me.

There is no pro shop near, so brought online, but I can get my rink to bake them for me.

(1) There are many possible causes; I don't think anyone can diagnose the cause over the net.

(2) You should check with Riedell whether the Motions are in fact heat moldable.  If so, find out what the proper baking procedure is (temperature and time).  I'm not familiar with recent Riedells, but their website makes no mention of heat molding.

(3)  I'm not sure what you mean by "There is no pro shop near, so brought online, but I can get my rink to bake them for me."  Does that simply mean that a hockey team, or other group, has a boot oven at the rink that you can use?  If so, that's not good enough.  You need an experienced person (preferably someone who has handled your model boot, assuming it is in fact heat moldable) to do it right.

(4) How far is your nearest pro-shop with a competent skate tech?

[tothepointe]

The Motions are heat moldable.

[nicklaszlo]

In my experience if you wear boots without skating, they will hurt due to insufficient circulation. 

[nicklaszlo]

You need an experienced person (preferably someone who has handled your model boot, assuming it is in fact heat moldable) to do it right.

It's really simple to heat mold boots and you can do it in a regular oven.   Jackson posted instructions on YouTube.  It's definitely possible to get it catastrophically wrong, though.

[Query]

Everything you mentioned could cause the rather unspecific pain you mention.

Another possibility: https://ice.riedellskates.com/products/boots/255-motion says it has a "Plus our higher box toe and forefoot relief area". If that means the foot bends more near the ball of the foot, it might be more than your foot can comfortably and safely bend there.

It is also possible the place where it bends does not match the location of the ball of your foot.

If the heat mold isn't enough, you can start playing with making your own insole, or with modifying the current one's shape with tape or adhesive foam (like moleskin, molefoam).

If you are in a hurry, and can find a really good skate technician, they might be able to help. So can some PTs, podiatrists, and some orthopedic surgeons who specialize in feet, though they don't come cheap.

But it helps a lot if you can "listen to" your body - e.g., figure out exactly where it hurts. Is there more or less pressure on the boot there? Does it take a while after you start skating for it to occur, so it might be rubbing (as in starting to form a blister), or one part of the current insole might be a little higher than the corresponding part of your foot, forcing you to use extra muscle to control the boot?

A lot of people have to experiment a bit to figure out what eliminates their particular pain. But it is well worth it - not only is it good for your feet to eliminate problems, but pain can be very distracting, and misfits can affect skating performance in other ways.

[Doubletoe]

I cannot guarantee that this is the issue, but whenever I've had arch cramping, it has been due to insufficient width in the forefoot. Unless you're sure that boot is wide enough in the front, I'd try getting it stretched.  Of course, that's only if the issue continues after heat-molding.

[sampaguita]

Some diagnostic steps you can take:

1. Do you feel the insole of the foot in your arch? If you don't, you can try taping some foam on it. Nothing permanent, just enough to diagnose the problem.

2. Does the pain go away when you loosen the skates? It could be the boot width.

[Query]

I cannot guarantee that this is the issue, but whenever I've had arch cramping, it has been due to insufficient width in the forefoot. Unless you're sure that boot is wide enough in the front, I'd try getting it stretched.  Of course, that's only if the issue continues after heat-molding.

For me, the best thing proved to be to reshape the insole (or make a new one) that equalized pressure all over most of my feet (except that I like to minimize or eliminate pressure  on the sides and front of the toes). But there are people actually need excessive pressure in certain places - e.g., they might need extra pressure at the sides to prevent collapse, if their foot collapses too easily, to the point of creating pain, under weight. Yes, you can do much the same thing by adding extra foam under the arch of the foot, to try to prevent arch collapse that way, but for reasons that are beyond my understanding, many podiatrists have concluded that that doesn't work well enough for a few people.

E.g., if the o.p. happens to have a high arch (i.e., he/she has feet that need to be higher in the center or in the principle arch than the bottom of the boot is shaped to create), widening the boot could actually make things worse, because the pressure from the sides may be helping keep the center line or the arch of the foot high. In addition, if the foot is already not snug on the sides, widening the boot can make the foot slip around, causing blisters and/or losing control of the skate.

It's hard to give definitive advice without more info.

I'm somewhat with sampaguita on this - sometimes it helps a lot to try multiple temporary things to see what works.