Sunday we had our coached team practice, and we had the best turnout of the winter so far, something like 15 or 16 skaters. I had taken three days off and done nothing but my stretching for my back. The jury is still out on whether this is helping or not. I have another appointment with my therapist tonight, and we’ll certainly go over my exercises and she’ll treat me. We’ll see how that goes.
I’ve been battling numbness in my forefoot and overall instability on my skates lately. I had Cale put the skates on the stretcher, and that has helped the forefoot numbness. Last week my arch was hurting on the right foot, and he suggested that I not tighten the skates so much. Having them too tight can be as troublesome as having them too loose.
I tried this (and I also got the ultra thin pair of ezee-fits) this week. I have been having trouble feeling unstable at the ankle, and loosening the skates made that seem slightly worse. But I was determined to try it. One of our first drills was group lap the pack, and for some reason I got very nervous, I still am not quite sure why. I think it was because of the skates being looser and I was actually apprehensive about going into the turns - I’m already not feeling good there.
I have a clear problem with not being able to keep my ankles strong in the turn. That in turn makes me have no confidence going there. I glided through way too many turns instead of skating through them. And overall, I just don’t feel right on the skates, I feel unbalanced. If anything, I feel worse now than I did a month ago. Maybe this is the accumulated stresses of the indoor environment, I really don’t know.
I watched the Barry Publow DVD this weekend, Breakaway Speed. He gave a good demonstration on how to adjust your frames. I think in general I have them close to where they need to be, but I think they need to be moved in slightly on both sides. I’m going to give that a shot. Meanwhile I’ve been trying to get back to working in daily on the balance board, even if it’s just five minutes - anything to help strengthen the ankles.
I’m sure part of this is just getting used to speed boots, and I do have historically bad ankles (lots of hockey and football injuries). But it’s hard to work on technique when you are just feeling unstable on your skates.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Cor // Feb 4, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Okay. Do this. Seriously.
Buy some white hockey tape. The canvas type, not the electrical type. Buy the wide one.
Put two “wraps” around your arch where you are having problems. Not tight, but not loose either.
I guarantee it will help. With just that pressure on the arches, my months of pain disappeared overnight. If it doesn’t work, well you are only out 1.99
2 Tom // Feb 4, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Thanks for the tip Cor - I have hockey tape in my case. When you say wrap - do you mean around the whole foot horizontally at the arch section? (So over the top, under the bottom of the foot) One next to each other?
3 Cor // Feb 5, 2008 at 6:55 am
Yup. Don’t wrap it too tight, just a light 2 times around. Enough so that you “feel” the support but not too much because that will cause a new kind of numbness. I start at the top and finish there after 2 loops.
Has worked wonders for me and others.
4 admin // Feb 5, 2008 at 7:27 am
Ok thanks man, I will try it tonight!
5 Cor // Feb 8, 2008 at 11:39 am
Hey, did the tape work?
6 Tom // Feb 8, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I’m not quite sure. I did use it on Tuesday. I didn’t have a problem with my arch, but I’m not sure I can definitively say it was the tape. I guess the only way to know is to try it without. I also loosened my skates so I had two variables going. I’ll try the loose skates without the tape next and see what happens.
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