Why do ankles roll to inside?

[Sunnyside_Skater]

My 7 year old has been skating about 10 times. Her ankles tend to roll toward the inside edges when she skates. I'm thinking the boots are slightly too big for her, although not by much. We've been tying the laces snugly, and I cut an extra insole layer to make the boots fit a little more snug. Sometimes she gets a blister on her inner ankle, so there's occasional rubbing, too. She's in a used pair of Riedell's model 12 that were sharpened when we got them. She seems to "get" the mechanics of skating; I'm thinking it's something about the fit of the boot that's making her roll to the inside. Just wondering if there's anything else we can do?

[hopskipjump]

Was she fitted for the skates?  it doesn't sound like they fit correctly (or that they are too  broken in.  I only see the ankles look rolled when the child is in rental skates or they lack muscle tone. 

[sarahspins]

Most of the time I see this it's kids in rental skates that are past their prime and 1-2 sizes too big.  Usually fitting a smaller skate fixes the problem.

In kids that tend to pronate the position of the blades may also need to be adjusted (this is usually not a big problem until they start learning edges though), but my thoughts are that these skates are either too long for her feet or they just don't have enough support.. boots CAN be broken down without "looking" like they have completely compromised support (such as creases all the way to the heel counter - that would be obvious), but the fact that her ankles aren't supported suggests that they don't have as much lateral support as they could have.  A well fitting pair of skates shouldn't have room to rub, the skates should fit snug, there shouldn't be much of any room at the toes - at most skates can be fit about 1/2 size larger for growing room, but more than that is probably too much.  Skates that are the wrong width can also cause problems... she might need a narrower boot if her ankles have room to rub.

[platyhiker]

Some kids are more prone to rolling in the ankles in general.  My daughter is one of those kids - her ankles roll noticeably inward when she's wearing Mary Jane style shoes.  She started skating last year and I noticed that the ankle roll was making it more difficult to learn some things, especially outside edges.  In last year's skates, I made her some inserts from craft foam (placed under the insole) that raised the inner part of the ball and heel up a bit.  I think that helped a little.  In this year's skates, the shop fitter put a leather shim between the outside of the heel and the blade after watching how she walked in the skates.  She still does tend to tip her ankles in a bit.  Reminding her to get her skate fully under her body and make sure that the blade is fully vertical helps.

I agree with other folks that skates that don't fit quite right can cause ankle rolling.  One helpful thing to do to check the fit is to pull out the insoles and have your daughter stand on them.  That will show you how much room there is in inside the skate, both lengthwise and widthwise.  (Kids can have difficulty determining where (and whether) and skate is not fitting right.)  Ankle rubbing is definitely a troubling indicator - once the skates are laced snugly, the foot shouldn't be moving relative to the boot.

[Query]

Many, perhaps most new skaters have this problem, regardless of equipment problems, because of fear. In particular it feels safe to be on your inside edge, when balanced on one foot, because if you start to fall, you can stop the fall with your other foot. On the other hand, balancing the outside edge feels unsafe, because the other foot isn't placed to stop the fall. Hopefully, the coach can guess whether the skater would benefit from changes to equipment.

Rather than just an extra insole layer under the entire insole, try making the insole thicker under the portion of the foot that needs more support - i.e., under the inside edges.

An alternate technique is to offset the mount of the blade sideways towards the inside of the boot. To some extant this is equivalent to the method mentioned above, but if there is too much space inside the boot, or if part of the foot is not in strong contact, you would still have a skate and blade control problem.

If you can, involve a good coach or other suitably qualified person. They can tell a lot by looking at the alignment of ankles, knees and hips.