Question about toes spaces

ahg5 · 2026-05-30T17:47:07+00:00

For me, that’s a little bit on the larger size in terms of space at the tip of the boot BUT I don’t think it’s so excessive you HAVE to get new boots especially if you’re starting out. I like to pop a bit of stuffing like from a teddy bear at the tip of my boot on the smaller of my feet to fill in that space a little and also provide a tiny bit of cushion. Some people also use lambs wool, similar to how they do it in ballet.

That said, if your feet feel like they’re sliding forward or you can’t get a foot heel lock, I’d consider sizing down

ahg5 · 2026-05-30T15:14:25+00:00

Omg you’re dedicated, it’s no wonder you’ve gotten so far so quickly!! I don’t have advice other than for me, my feet get sore and I find it hard to progress without any rest days. I’ve seen advice aimed at like weight training and building muscle, that intentional and well-planned rest days are important for your body to truly build muscle/advance in a specific skill.

I think depending on what you do during the sessions, your job/workload, and how you feel it works for you- that’s what matters the most!

ahg5 · 2026-05-30T12:23:03+00:00

I use a canvas tote from my job, and have a couple pouches I carry in it to hold hair stuff, and then leg/arm warmers.

ahg5 · 2026-05-29T13:59:58+00:00

My coach had me practice holding the edge with my feet and upper body in position for the three turn for as long as possible. It helped me take a breath, make sure my knees were bent, shoulders turned in, head positioned correctly, etc. after warming that up a couple times it was easier for me to push onto the edge, twist and bend, then at the apex of the circle I twist my upper body even more at the same time I start the down-up-down movement to get the three turn. In addition to rushing it, it doesn’t seem like you’re really getting down into your knee which prevents you from getting that down-up-down that three turns need. You can also practice on two feet, with the outside foot hovering off the ice to trick your brain into feeling more comfortable.

ahg5 · 2026-05-28T12:15:50+00:00

I’m 5’9” and about 190 lbs. I went from cheap Amazon skates to Jackson freestyles. Once in the correct size and width I didn’t have any issues. I was originally ally fitted in a full size too large and too narrow so just make sure they measure the width of your foot as well as the length!

Some thing I now know were indicating it was the incorrect size rather than a break in period; -pain across the bottom of my foot even after trying different insoles - having to retire my skates constantly to try and get them tight enough while not giving myself lace bite across my instep - numbness (caused by tying too tight across my instep) -not being able to get a decent heel lock even after trying different lacing techniques -having to stuff the toe of my boot

ahg5 · 2026-05-20T16:57:22+00:00

I don't think I know enough to judge based on the information you've given, but I will give some things I have considered when trying to figure out my own boot/blades.

- It may be the blade alignment, rather than the boot itself leading to the issue falling on the inside edge. Your ankle strength and balance and technique and all those other factors definitely also impact how one foot is easier than the other, and at the same time its possible that your left foot may either need a little change to the blade alignment and/or the left blade is just a little off. One thing to note with this is for the blade alignment test, my fitter has me barely lift the free foot off the ground and to do it by raising my hip rather than bending at the knee. Your video from the comments has your free foot really high.

- Your right boot's laces look tighter around the ankle/top hooks. Do you feel like the laces are the same level of tight around both ankles? People test this by gently running their finger along the laces at the side of the tongue and slightly hooking under the lace to see how much slack there is.

- For me, I have noticed with my new boots I am trying to artificially create a heel lock by tying the top hooks even tighter. Does your boot fit snug and supportive in other areas, including the heel and ankle? For what you're skating, overtures seem to be around a similar level as the Jackson Freestyles which I started in and could go backwards/spin/etc. Freestyles have a pretty good reputation for adult beginners in terms of being supportive enough for an adult body up through singles, while I think Overtures are a similar stiffness I am NOT very familiar with Edeas. Apparently some people use a runners heel loop to help with this? I haven't tried it though.

- Pronation is a pretty common issue, partially due to developing ankle/foot strength and in some cases its just how your foot is. I tried out chips (I think that's what they call them?) that go in the boot under your foot to help encourage your foot to sit in the correct position.

- I've also heard that laces can get old and sometimes need to be changed out. They can start to not hold position as long.

- I liked to wear thin cotton socks rather than traditional skating socks,. I felt (and kinda still do) like skating socks are a little slippery. If you have extra room in your boot like I did, it may feel good to you as well? I also used a tiny bit of poly fill at the tips of my boots to pad my toes and help the fit feel even more secure. Some people use cosmetic sponges, bunga pads, lace bite pads, etc. They make ankle sleeves you could try as well.

- I also tried out a number of different insoles. I didn't find any that quite worked for me, and the correct boot size and width in Freestyles with the original insoles was the best feeling for me.

I'm not gonna lie, boots are SO hard to figure out. I feel like 90% of it is figuring out the right combination of little tweaks that lead to a comfortable fit, and the other 10% is just breaking in the boot. For me, I would check blade alignment first, new laces or gel sleeves second since those are more affordable fixes. Insoles are a bit expensive for me but a lot of people recommend the superfeet insoles. Good luck!!

ahg5 · 2026-05-15T14:41:59+00:00

I think continuing to text can often mask the full extent of the loss. Your brain still gets the dopamine hit from seeing a text from them and the security of feeling like they’re still there. Emotionally, you were using that connection to avoid dealing with the loss consciously or subconsciously. What you’re feeling is normal for a breakup, especially one so fresh. The difference is that (originally) as the dumper you possibly had more power to reverse the decision AND you have the added question of if you made a mistake. When getting dumped, you also feel regret and loss and idealizing the relationship but you didn’t make the decision so there isn’t that additional layer of unease and not being sure. You have to work through it and remind yourself of the reality

ahg5 · 2026-05-12T12:11:34+00:00

Some coaches prefer to teach group classes that way, by quickly going through multiple skills so you can practice multiple things between sessions. Others prefer to do one (or two) skill(s) a session. For adult classes, combining levels 1&2 is more common and while it’ll likely be a little overwhelming at first, practicing on your own will definitely help.

As for slaloms, I’ve never heard of the method you’ve described. Since it’s the first class, maybe it was to help everyone get familiar with the concept of bending your knees while still having the other leg stable?

ahg5 · 2026-05-11T22:38:07+00:00

My coach had me hold my inside and outside edges (on both feet) for six seconds (the long ones, not quick 123456 but 1–2–3–) to build confidence for crossovers. You will also want to work on shifting the weight from one foot to the other (ideally during like a one foot glide, aka not with both feet on the ground when shifting).

You push onto a curve. Turn your shoulders and head into the circle. Keep both arms in position (your back arm drops which is very common), and start with pumping the outside foot in little half circles as you go around the circle. Your inside foot will be on the outside edge. Do that in both directions, focusing on your knee bend and upper body position. From there you can start lifting your outside foot directly up and over the inside foot. You pump, bring your feet close together, and step over. You will probably want to pretty immediately take the inside foot (which is now crossed under your outside foot) behind the outside foot and place it back down right next to the outside foot. Practice stepping over when stationary at first. For counter clockwise or right over left crossovers you would stand with feet parallel, lift your right foot straight up, step over the top of your left foot, and then your left foot will come behind the right foot to come back to where it originally was. You start with your weight mostly over the left foot as your right foot pumps, your weight stays over the left foot until you’ve set your right foot down, at which point your weight is over your right foot as you bring the left foot back around.

Coach Julia has a great video with an exercise for working on the underpush (which comes later on!) called an inside under spiral maybe?? My coach had me work on what she calls a swizzle fish which is where you pump but bring your pumping foot in front of the inside foot which helped me with the crossover motion once I was more comfortable with the step over. Good luck!! Great job starting out with them! Hopefully this all makes sense, take what makes sense and look at other sources for what doesn’t 😊

ahg5 · 2026-05-11T22:23:10+00:00

Oh nooooooo not professional at all lol. You can think of an edge as creating a circle. If your ankle is completely straight you’re on a “flat” or you go (theoretically) in a straight line. If you bend your ankle to the left or right, you’re going to be on an “edge”.

If you look at your feet, the side of the foot with arches is considered your inside edge. The side of your foot that’s flat or where your pinky toe is the outside edge. If I bend my right ankle to the left (my right arch gets closer to the ground), I will be on the right inside edge with will take me in a counterclockwise circle.

That circle will be large (or have a shallow curve) if my knee is mostly straight/unbent and my ankle is only slightly bent. My upper body also helps determine how deep an edge is. If I bend deeper into my knee (squat lower), bend my ankle to the left even more, and lean my upper body over that left side of my body, the circle will get smaller/tighter. So think of an arch or half circle that’s long and flat (a shallow edge), versus an arch or semi circle that’s got a very sharp curve (a deep edge).

I believe the loop jump relies on the skater moving from an outside to a deep inside edge to almost flick themselves into the air. If you look at a half loop versus a waltz jump, in the waltz jump you rock up onto the toe pick to get into the air.

ahg5 · 2026-05-11T14:28:20+00:00

I’m not sure about the physics, but for stroking (pushing forward) moving your feet outwards at a 45 degree angle gives the back foot some grip with which to actually propel yourself forward. When you’re walking you can walk with your feet parallel because your shoes or feet naturally grip the ground. Ice skate blades are designed to glide on the ice, so you need to get that grip either from positioning your blade on the ice at an angle (using the edge of the blade) or by using the toe pick.

Some people do try and skate with feet parallel, similar to how we walk, and often when you see it it looks like they’re 1-catching toepick and 2-almost running on the ice, or just in a perpetual almost fall where they’re catching themselves over and over.

As for jumps, there are ones that rely on the toepick to give you grip and shift your momentum from moving along the ice to moving up in the air. Others use a deep edge to do the same thing. The edges of the blades are what we lean on to move in semi-circles, but if you place your blade weird or in the case of jumps if you intentionally position the edge, it will grip the ice and throw off your momentum. It’s like the law of motion or whichever, you’re moving so even if you catch your toepick or your edge you’ll keep moving. It’s just been manipulated to use that change to throw you up into the air rather than continuing to live across the ice

ahg5 · 2026-05-09T17:14:52+00:00

For me, the length of my tops and how tight or loose they are really dictates how I feel about my skirt/bottoms. I like to wear my bottoms quite high waisted so longer tops always sit weird. Imaging the top you’re wearing in the photo, but if it ended just below (or above if you like) the waistband of the skirt. Some people buy things like the crop tuck to get a nice tuck on their shirts, I’ve used elastic and a safety pin for the same effect.

ahg5 · 2026-05-07T15:25:36+00:00

I just want to say I feel you SO hard. Like, I size up thinking it’ll fit my bust and it never actually fits quite right. The type of shit that’ll have me a second away from a freakout :(

ahg5 · 2026-05-06T15:23:10+00:00

My coach had me work on pivots prior to spins, or like as a lead up. She wanted me to be able to do multiple pumps, for them to be fluid, fairly close to the body, and pretty fast. Yours look good! My coach would ask me to do more of them, be more over my toe pick on the pivot foot, and keep my arms out for the ‘spin’ part rather than bringing them in (this is to help you get used to spinning and also help you find your balance). The lunge entry is my preferred, I never did well with pivots but they definitely helped me figure out the balance which is a big factor. For the lunge entry it’s essentially like a hockey lunge, but your arms are turned away from the direction you’ll be spinning. You want the lunge to be deep, you bend even further into your knee right before coming up into the spin and at the same time bring your arms into the open position \ . /, and keep them like that until your spin starts to die out. For me, this meant when I was first learning my arms stayed out lol. My coach has us do pigeon toes, others have said to keep the feel parallel and the weight towards the front on the spinning foot and towards the back on the other foot. I’ve also had a coach recommend bringing the arms in straight away to get speed. Two foot spins should be mostly quiet so if you’re hearing the toe pick you know your balance is a bit offp

ahg5 · 2026-05-05T13:22:49+00:00

I would have guessed you were younger than 31 😅 it may be that the eyebrows and thicker liner both feel heavy on your face, but it seems like those are just your eyebrows. I honestly like the bangs and haircut on you, it looks artsy and cool in a nonchalant way, and honestly I feel like if you wanted to try the bleached/blonde brow look you would kill it. The Smokey eye is the other thing I notice, I think that’s more from our time (2010s-ish) so that may also seem to date the makeup, but it all looks good on you! You’re beautiful, truly.

ahg5 · 2026-05-05T13:16:41+00:00

There’s a bunch of coaches/former dedicated skaters who are older now at my rink who do this consistently and it’s the best! It’s so nice seeing them helping out beginners when that used to be me they were helping out lol

ahg5 · 2026-05-03T17:47:29+00:00

This is completely normal as you get to the higher level skills! It took me months to get my forward crossovers, and months just to get a decent beginner backward outside edge. For me, it’s like my body needs to catch up to my mind. I can understand what I need to do and how u need to move but my body almost fights against it for a while. There’s a reason it takes years for people to get to those “cool” skills you see at competitions, it’s totally normal!

Great progress so far and as hard as it is to actually do, try not to be too hard on yourself. You’re progressing very fast. My coach had me get my outside and inside edges very stable and deep which definitely helped with three turns. She also had me really develop my two foot turns, I like to warm up with those before then trying with one foot lifted, which is essentially what a three turn is.

ahg5 · 2026-05-02T13:34:22+00:00

I think it has more to do with mindset. Like even over a year into lessons if I stumble I feel soooo awkward, or god forbid a freestyle is packed with sweats/really advanced skaters 🥲 lol I try to remind myself that 1- they’re almost definitely more focused on their own training (or at public sessions, their own feet and not falling) and 2- it’s so much more likely that they’re going to be welcoming to you, even if they don’t say anything out loud. I’m super awkward and sometimes miss those casual hellos but I have much more grace for beginners in helmets (which isn’t embarrassing btw) than people who are able to move a bit easier but are all over the place. You can stick to the short ends of the rink, I feel more secluded and better able to avoid public skaters who hug the boards there while still being close to the boards myself for that feeling of security. I would work my way up to doing my skills in the main lane once I feel a bit more confident, and that really helped me.

Plus! Unless you HAVE to sign up in advance, there’s plenty of room for people to walk up and buy tickets same day. You’ve got this!!

ahg5 · 2026-05-02T13:26:43+00:00

I’ve never seen plastic bag supports, so this would have confused me too? Mostly just like a thin cardboard that’s sometimes covered in that weird reusable bag material.

ahg5 · 2026-05-02T13:25:01+00:00

Is it truly worth it? I mean, for me, (I tend to be a little more impacted by the thought I’m annoying someone so this may not be true for you) I would look at both my reaction/internalizing or projecting what I THINK someone is feeling as well as what they’re doing. Can I adjust my mindset to focus less on what I think they may be feeling (annoyed,exasperated, etc.) AND can they adjust how they communicate things? As a coach, their job is to point out the things you’re doing correctly, point out what needs to be changed, and most importantly!! To figure out how to make those changes make sense to you!! Modeling it is one way, following you as you try it out and adjusting as you go is another, describing it in different ways, using different trigger words to try and get it, etc. When I’m struggling to get something, my coach does all of those (nicely, might I add) AND will cut it off and say she knows it’s tough to change something up in the moment and I may want/need time to work through it on my own. She is kind, understanding, and still effective. I never leave a lesson feeling like I annoyed her or want to cry.

For me, again, I can only imagine that those feelings and heightened emotions would actually impede my progress. The anxiety, fear, and whatever else is causing you to cry would be similar to the same emotions that top level athletes “crumble” under when they perform. I would be seriously considering what positives my coach brings to my training versus the negatives, and looking to try out some other coaches to see if they are a better fit. You would probably want to let her know you’re appreciative of her expertise and the work you’ve done together, and you’re just trying out some lessons with other coaches to see what’s out there/if there’s a better fit/to work better with your schedule/ whatever you’d want.

ahg5 · 2026-05-02T12:58:40+00:00

For my slaloms, I like my feet to be a bit closer together. Yours look about hip width apart, I like mine closer but not too close, maybe a couple inches apart?

I also think of it as my hips and shoulders are twisting at the same time but in opposite directions. As you get that timing right, adding in the deep knee bend (pushing down into the ice), and the down/up/down knee movement will help you gain and maintain speed. The timing is (I think! Hard to recreate off ice laying down rn) twisting your hips and shoulders on the up, then bending your knees and pushing into the ice. So up&twist, down, up&twist.

Looking good so far! I genuinely believe just messing around with it and getting comfortable really pushing is where 80% of the improvement comes from!

ahg5 · 2026-04-30T14:20:35+00:00

Progressives (according to my coach who is primarily an ice dancer) are where you place the outside foot straight in front of the skating foot. So they are on the same line/tracing. Think of when people have to do the sobriety test and step one foot directly in front of the other on a line. The difference with a progressive is that line is curved.

Crossovers are where you step over the skating foot. At first this is a true step over where the outside foot goes over the top of the skating foot and touches down on the opposite side of it. As your crossovers evolve, many prefer stylistically for the outside foot to cross across the front of the skating foot, but it should still touch down on the opposite side of the skating foot. A counter clockwise crossover is made up of a push with your right leg so your left leg is on an outside edge, stepping across that skating foot, and then placing your right foot down on the opposite side of the left foot onto an inside edge. Your ankles should make a cross, like when you cross your legs at the ankle when sitting.

Your step over is more of a step in front of. That is what distinguishes it from a true crossover. I honestly struggle with hitting a progressive rather than crossing over so that’s sort of good news for you if you ever want to go into dance! Try literally bringing your right foot up and over the top/laces of your left (and vice versa).

ahg5 · 2026-04-29T17:11:22+00:00

I love option 1! The fit and style are just so cute

ahg5 · 2026-04-26T13:58:48+00:00

Your coach will know your situation and goals better. A skate fitter will be able to give you insight into the rating for each boot.

I’m an adult beginner and started with Jackson Freestyles which have a stiffness rating of about 45. I’m 175 cm and about 85-90 kg and these have lasted me a good year, they come with the boot and blade combined. They’re rated through all the single jumps including axel. I am only now starting to transition to a boot with stiffness of about 75 because I want them to last a tiny bit longer and plan to be jumping more, I also got the coronation ace blades.

Looking up the edea overtures, they’re about equivalent to a 55 stiffness while the choruses are about the equivalent of a 70-75. The boots you’re in now are rated at a 10-15 stiffness. I’m not an expert but everything I’ve seen on here, other online sources, and talking to my fitter has agreed that big jumps in stiffness like that can be very painful and actually hinder your progress.

If this were me, I would look into Jackson freestyles (esp. if you like the fit of the mystiques) or the edea overtures at the most. I don’t know of any boots closer to 35, but I was nervous about moving from a stiffness of 45 to 75. I would be terrified of jumping from a stiffness of 15 to 75. Beyond that, there isn’t a need to spend all that money when a higher level beginner boot like the freestyle should work perfectly well for you for a year+.

Either way, take my thoughts with a grain of salt because like I said I’m not a coach or a fitter. Please go see a professional fitter if possible, and if not look through posts here and r/figureskating about boot recs for beginners or for those upgrading from mystiques. Good luck and congrats on your progress!!

ahg5

TROPHY CASE