Frame alignment, the position of the blades of your skates with respect to your foot, can be a little confusing for beginners and, when you're more experienced, less relevant. But it can help you over come some of the initial problems you may have when starting out with your skating, allowing you to get going in a little more comfort.
Edges, pronation, supanation
There seems to be some confusion and misinformation surrounding edges, particularly when people talk about outside edges. I want to try to set this right, so here's the correct information you are looking for:
We name 4 edges for a pair of skates. Yes, you read that right, 4. They are:
Outside, where both skates lean out away from each other. |
Inside, where both skates lean in towards each other. |
Center, where both skates are upright. |
And the one very few people get: corresponding, where both skates lean in the same direction. |
Before you say it I will: why aren't there edges like one skate on center, the other on outside? The answer is I don't know; it does come up, in skills like T-stop, but is rarely found in the core skills you'll learn. I suspect it's just simpler to talk about the two skates separately in those circumstances, rather than saying something like left-outside-right-center!
The concept of edges comes from ice skates, where the blade has a curve (into the blade, not out like a skate wheel) along its length that defines two edges: inside and outside. In inline skating it's more edges, as the curved profile of the wheels doesn't have a definite edge.
Then you have pronation and supanation, along with what I'll call neutral, which are all related to angle made by the ankle. For me, it's slightly easier to think about the tilt of the sole of the foot when compared to a vertical shin:
Pronation is where the sole is tilted towards the inside; in the extreme the inside of the foot, the part with the arch, would be on the ground and the outside lifted off it. |
Supination is the opposite, with the sole tilted towards the outside. |
With neutral the sole of the foot is flat on the floor. |
It's important to note that bow legged people do not necessarily suffer from supination, nor is knock-kneed a sign of pronation. Both of these are due to the angle formed at the knee, whereas pronation and supination occur at the ankle; you can be bow legged and still have a neutral, or even pronated, ankles.
Here's where the confusion starts: sometimes beginners are told that outside edges are good, and they are, but not if they are forced. As Dan says in his article on this subject (which is about having center edges when you stand on your skates), if you are nose-knees-toes aligned and are on an outside edge, then your weight is central over the point where the wheels meet the ground. Too many students hear outside edges and then proceed to roll their ankles for supination, or adjust their frame in an attempt to force it. You have to have a little bit of patience and allow outside edging to come naturally.
Duck footed, pidgeon toed
Most people, when they stand still with their feet side-by-side, have a slightly duck footed stance: the toes of their feet point outwards. Imagine an analog clock and the toes of their left and right feet are pointed towards 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock, respectively (although probably not that bad).
A few may stand pidgeon toed, with their toes pointing inwards. Using the analog clock analogy: the left and right feet are pointed at 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock, respectively. It's unusual and, if it happens with you, it's likely to be a physical issue, in my experience.
Occassionally people stand with their feet pointing perfectly straight ahead, and this is the position that you should be aiming for your skates to be in when you skate: stride 3 talks about a straight ahead setdown and, more importantly, it's the position of the feet when in the ready position.
Lateral frame adjustment
A number of skates allow you to adjust the position of the frame on the base of the skate boot. Seba skates use several mounting holes on the boot, and several mounting slots on the frames; the Powerslide FSK Hardcore Evo skates use a slot running toe-heel at the mounting points on the boot, and a side-to-side slot on the frame. This adjustable nature can help you overcome some of the common body related problems, at least at the start of your skating or if you have a physical alignment issue.
Normal frame alignment.
In all situations you are aiming to have your frames upright, on center edges. Normal alignment, used by most skaters, is to have the frame positioned so that the toe wheel is somewhere between their big toe and the second toe, and the heel wheel is under their Achilles tendon.
Most new students I see pronate, basically because their ankles are weak and not used to holding the skates upright. Exercises, like swizzles, can help to build that ankle strength but, to get you started, you can compensate for this pronation by moving the frames inwards, towards each other, slightly. Doing this puts more of the pressure from your weight on the outside of the frame and can also be used if you develop blisters around the arches of your feet.
Some people are recommending that, to compensate for pronation, you move your frames away from each other, towards the outsides of the boots. Whilst this might, in theory, sound like it'll work what you're actually asking your ankles to do is work harder, and they'll tire quicker. Bill Begg, internationally recognised speed skating coach and trainer of his daughter Nicole, mentions frame alignment with respect to pronation in this article. It's better to properly adjust your frames inwards and work on improving your ankle strength through exercise, rather than torture.
For supination move you frames away from each other slightly, so they are towards the outside of your skates.
Note that these adjustments are not intended to be permanent: as your ankle strength improves you should move your frames towards a more neutral position.
Duck footedness can be addressed by pointing the toe of the blade inwards, or heel outwards. This means that your skates will be more straight ahead, when you body is relaxed, giving you a better setdown. Equally, pidgeon toes can be helped by pointing the toe outwards, or heel inwards.
A common problem is that one foot points outwards more than the other. I suffer from this, with my right foot turning out a little more than my left. I know that, by turning the right blade in slightly, so that the toe points inwards, I get a better push and feel more central on my skates.
Physiological pronation or supination; knock knees or bow legs
If you suffer from pronation or supination for a physical reason, other than ankle strength, then you probably wear special insoles in your shoes to correct for this. So it's actually better for you to get some of those insoles for your skates. Snow+Rock offer a service for skiers to do exactly this and, if you explain that you want the blades of your skates to be on center edges when you stand in them, they can do the same for you.
For knock kneed, or bow legs, I'm not entirely sure what would be the right thing to do, although adjusting the frame is an unlikely solution. If you have neutral ankles but suffer from one of these complaints then part of me thinks that shims (a small insert on one side of the frame that tilts the frame in relation to the boot at the mounting point) may be the better option. My thinking on this is that your foot and ankle fit properly within the boot itself, but the knees cause the frame to lean over; by introducing the shim you correct the frame without altering the fit of the boot. More likely it becomes a combination of the insoles and the shims, but I'd like to hear from people who deal with this issue so that I can update this post.
These are permanent and are much better options than frame alignment, for physically induced pronation, supination, bow legs or knock knees. In fact, I personally don't believe that adjusting your frame will help with a physical cause and would leave the frame in the normal central position.
Final notes
As I've said, lateral frame adjustment is really a temporary fix: your problem is, more than likely, ankle strength and exercising should improve it. In fact, more experienced skaters can put on a pair of skates, pretty much regardless of the frame position, and adjust their skating to suit; unfortunately, when you start out, you don't have this awareness of what your body is doing or how it should feel to be on your skates. Frame adjustment gives you the ability to build that knowledge and then becomes less important.
As with all things physical, if you have any doubts your should speak to your doctor or physiotherapist.
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