Weak forward right outside edge?

I took a few years of lessons when I was a kid and have recently started up skating again The thing is my forward right outside edge has always been very weak, I can't trust that edge. My left foot doesn't have this problem, but it takes considerably more effort for me to have my right foot on an outside edge.

I know practice is probably the only way to improve on it and I've been doing some two foot slalom exercises to try to work on my edges but are there any other drills/practices that I can use to get my outside edge better? Please tell me I'm not the only one with issues with my forward outside edge

Have you taken your skates to a pro at a skate shop and had him look at the blade mounting on the right foot? If you don't have right foot/leg/hip issues off the ice, then I would suspect the mounting is off.

Hmmm..I haven't had them looked at at the pro shop, is it obvious when a blade is mounted a bit off? I just compared it to my left one and it looks fairly similar :S

May I ask how many times the skate has been sharpened and do they use a leveling device? Sometimes a skate's level can be off on one skate and not the other. If they don't check the level of the blade before and after and simply use test taps to find the "square" shape then they may not even realize it's off and just leave it where it is. I know that may sound crazy but I've seen it before where a shop just assumes your skate is level and simply sharpens it exactly to where it is when you brought it in. It can just be sharpened over and over again at an incorrect angle until someone checks the level.

What's worse is if it's off differently in the front than the back which also leads to skidding. Sometimes blades can warp too. You can find this yourself by looking directly down the blade from back to front and point it toward a light source on the ceiling and look for any curving. Ugh... Just a few thoughts to consider.


Good luck.,.ususlly if it's a boot or blade thing it's not that big of a deal.

Thanks for the info! The skates are still relatively new and I have not yet had to bring them in for a sharpen yet. So I would assume that nothing special has been done/checked with the blades unless they had done so when I first bought them? They're nothing special, just mirage blades on a GAM boot which came together as a set.

I'd get them sharpened and leveled. A lot of skates are not properly sharpened out of the box. They can check out your boot mount too if they do that but not all sharpeners are capable of properly doing so. Once you find a sharpener you trust stay with the same person. It's more important than getting your hair cut :yes:

FWIW I ususlly recommend 9/16 or 5/8 hollow on figure skates if they ask what you want on them.

If you can skate for a half hour to an hour before your next lesson after the sharpening it will be time well spent feeling them out. Might be a completely different feel.

Good luck.

Thanks I just put my skates on and took a look in the mirror and realized that my right foot does supinate outwards, so I wonder if that may be causing my frustrations with the edge. I do wear orthotics in my regular shoes so I guess I should have thought about that sooner...I tried fitting my orthotics into my skates but I couldn't fit them in!

I'm definitely going to go to the pro shop tomorrow for them to take a look at them and ask to get them sharped/leveled. I've also heard that blade adjustment might help with issues like this?

You're not alone - I have the same problem with my RFO edge.

Since you said you've always had trouble with this edge and that you wear orthotics to correct supination on that foot, it sounds like that could be throwing your balance off.

If sharpening your blades doesn't help and the skate tech has no other suggestions (liking moving the blade), you might consider seeing a podiatrist who specializes in sports medicine - even better if s/he regularly works with skaters. You can get orthotics made to fit your skates.

Strengthening my core (planks) and using a wobble board for balance have helped me.

I was able to bring in my skates to the shop yesterday and they were amazing They had me put them on and checked my foot positioning... Turns out my left blade was not levelled and the alignment for my right one had to be adjusted due to the pronation. I went to try them on today at the rink and wow!! My RFO edges now require way less effort and are so much easier! I'm so glad that I was about to get my blades properly aligned...what a difference it makes!