Exercises for ankles

[tstop4me]

This led me to sit down and think. Remember what I just said about thick feet and ankles? The laces that came with the skates (108") weren't really long enough, even the longer laces (120") I'd bought at the rink pro shop weren't. I had to crank them down really tight through the instep to have enough lace to get even the first three of the speed laces (hooks) which I needed for ankle support.

So I went to the store and got two pair of 72" laces. I tied two laces together (twice) giving me 140" laces. And ta dah! I was able to keep them just snug over my instep and get up all four pairs of speed laces. I still got some foot pain, bad arches aren't magically going away, but it was manageable .

Here are two other lacing options you can consider:

(1) Instead of tying two shorter laces together into one long lace (which can get awkward to lace up because of the intermediate knot), just use the two short laces separately (you may need lengths different from the 72", however).  You mentioned you have the Riedell Motion boots.  Use one lace through all the regular eyelets (excluding the ankle notch eyelets), and tie a first bow.  Then use a second lace starting with the ankle notch eyelets and continuing with the speed hooks, and tie a second bow.  This also allows you to more readily vary the lace tension independently between the lower and upper sections of the boot.  A lot easier to manage two shorter laces than one super long lace, too.  This won't work on all boots, but for you, it should be fine.  I used to use two separate laces per boot on my old Riedell Royals (different eyelet/hook pattern from the Motion's).

(2) Jackson has 146" laces.  Jackson laces are slightly wider than Riedell laces, but they'll work fine.


Good luck!

[Bill_S]

I'm happy to hear that you are making progress, and that you have discovered the cause of your discomfort.

You sound like someone not afraid to experiment. I'm confident that you will continue to explore further improvements.

I predict that you and your skates will become much better friends as time goes on.