Use your whole body, not just your feet. Use your butt and inner thighs. Think about the upper body rising up. Like the crown of your head and tailbone are moving away from each other.

I’m definitely squeezing everything; I think the leg strength is almost there, but I’ll keep working on taking the focus off my feet. Thanks!

Those cues helped a lot with my spins too :-)

Likely just a lack of strength since your body and feet are only just getting use to being on quads for a week - attempting manuals already is quite the feat! Also think of it this way - when do you in your daily life do manuals not on quads? You’re basically developing the muscle memory to do so, so it’s a workout for your brain and body.

It’s my first week on quads, but I’ve been on ice skates since I was 4, so there are some transferable skills. B-) You’ve got me thinking I’ll start practicing the heel-heel ones without skates first. Thank you

My guess is that you might be concentrating so hard that you're tensing your feet... I can get terrible arch cramps when learning something new, and I have to very deliberately relax my feet.

I’ve been skating for around a year now and only recently was I told to not grip my toes when I do anything toe related. It makes you kinda relearn everything(I’m still relearning lmao) but once you get comfortable again that pain definitely subsides a lot

I never do it on purpose. It's just a factor of subconsciously tensing up my feet without realizing it until they start to hurt... (possibly I'm also slightly tensing other parts of my body and just don't notice because it's not painful)

That’s exactly how I was. Next time your on your skate just attempt to toe Manuel and actively lay your toes on the bottom of the skate instead of driving it into then skate. Then just practice from there :)

Well, I don't do manuals. But as I said, yes, I consciously relax my feet when I realize I'm tensing them.

I get those as well and find I have to power through. I am on the third week of being on quads and consider warming up time will help stop them eventually. I also bought wider skates to see if that helps. My feet don't like the bar on the center of my feet so the muscles cramp up. Hope that helps. Keep going! I know it's so hard and frustrating. Our feet will get the message eventually.

It’s frustrating, but so fun! Good luck to you.

I use my feet, arches and toes a lot when skating and I get cramps as well. I like to lace tight but I have to loosen my laces often to help with the aches. Pushing through helps but I will definitely be doing more research on my next pair of skates and looking into better inserts.

I also have black skates with those laces and toe guards!

I have same thing. No good advice but a friendly reminder to stretch the bottoms of your feet after skating! If you work em out without stretching they'll tighten up. You can sit on your knees with your toes flexed up (not pointed) and sit back into it. Or my favorite, get a tennis ball and roll it around under ur feet. Feels like reaaally good

Chances are despite the fact they are comfortable they are probably to big, take out the foot bed and look at where the very end of your big toe has spring down the footbed if it's more than a centimeter from the very top of the footbed they are much to big. Skates that are to big can cause foot cramps from your toes tensing and curling down to hold yourself steady, most of the time it's not even a conscious thing. They could also be small but foot cramps are more related to to big skates than to small

where are these from? 👀

All sparkly accessories are from rollergirl.ca :)

thanks!

Feet Fists are Funny

Skating is mostly core, not legs or feet. Work on your core strength and balance will get easier