Beginner roller skating
Sore Feet: Two Causes, and Only One Is the Boot
Bad-quality skates hurt whether new or not, a rigid shell always produces some pain, and most beginner foot pain is a fitting problem in disguise — Cass. But a certified coach names a second cause, nothing to do with the boot: the muscles of the feet and ankles are weak, and skating demands intense use of them. Two causes, two fixes. From ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby.
Sore feet after skating get blamed on one thing at a time, and that is why the answer so often fails. There are two causes, they are unrelated, and they have different fixes.
The first one is the boot, and this part is mine rather than hers: bad-quality skates hurt whether they are new or not — it is quality, not newness. A rigid shell produces some pain no matter what, and that is a fact of the sport rather than a fault to repair. And most beginner foot pain is really a fitting problem in disguise: blisters, numb toes, a heel that lifts. Measure your foot in millimetres, standing, at the end of the day — Cass, a non-professional street skater.
The second one has nothing to do with the boot. A certified coach names it plainly: the muscles of the feet and ankles are weak, and skating demands intense use of them. No amount of correct fitting trains a muscle, and no amount of foot exercise rescues a skate that does not fit.
Which is why it is worth knowing which one you have. If the pain arrives in one spot and always the same spot, look at the fit. If it arrives everywhere and fades a day later, look at the muscles.
Technique from Asha Kirkby of Skatefresh, an instructor certified by the Inline Certification Program. She teaches inline skating, and that is the discipline this page is about.
Keep going: this is one section of the full Roller Skating for Beginners guide — sizing, gear, stopping, and where to skate, in one page. Free, no sign-up, nothing to buy.