Beginner roller skating
Loose Laces Are Not the Fix You Think
When skates hurt, the instinct is to open them up. Don't. On inlines the ankle has to stay held, because there is no second row of wheels to catch a bad edge - and the hard shell locking your ankle is exactly what makes the skate an extension of your leg. Loosening is for relief, or for people who have stopped doing anything demanding on skates.
When skates hurt, the instinct is to open them up. It is the wrong instinct, and it makes the skate harder to control rather than kinder to your foot.
On inlines the ankle has to stay held. There is no second row of wheels to catch a bad edge for you, so the ankle is doing work that a quad plate would otherwise absorb.
The mechanism is the same one that makes inlines stable in the first place: the hard shell locks your ankle, and the wheels become an extension of your leg. Loosening the laces undoes precisely the thing that holds you up.
Loosening is for relief between sessions, or for skaters who have stopped doing anything demanding on wheels. It is not a fit fix, and it is never the advice for a beginner.
Keep going: this is one section of the full Roller Skating for Beginners guide — sizing, gear, stopping, and where to skate, in one page.