This article is a quick rundown of how to properly tie figure skates, not hockey skates. If you would like to read how to properly tie hockey skates click here.
Correctly fitting your figure skate is an important first step. If you are wearing the wrong size, it won’t matter how well you tie your skate, you will still be uncomfortable on the ice. Here’s a trick to tell if the skate is the right size.
Put your foot in the skate with the laces loose and untied. Then stand parallel to a wall or a step and lightly kick the wall until your toes touch the front of the skate.
There should be a small gap between your heel and the heel of the skate boot. If there is no gap and your toes are touching the front of the skate, that means the skate is too small. You will need a bigger size.
If there is a small gap between your heel and the skate boot, point your index and middle fingers behind your heel, if you can do that then that’s a good fit.
If you can fit them behind your heel and there is still a gap, that means the skate is too big, you will need to downsize your skate.
Okay, now that we know the figure skate is a good fit we can start tying.
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Sit down
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Put skates on (make sure to have your laces loose when doing this, you will cause major damage to your skates if you shove your foot into a skate that is not loose enough)
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Kick your heel against floor a few times to make sure your foot is all the way back to the heel.
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There should be around 8-9 eyelets on your skate before you get to the top easy-lace hooks. For ease of explanation I will number the eyelets from 1-8. (1 being the closest to your toes).
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Grab the lace around the 3rd eyelet.
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Pull tight! Now pull again, tighter.
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Then grab the lace on the 4th eyelet and pull just as hard, repeat until you get to 6th eyelet (right at the base of your ankle.) pull tight and hold.
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This next part is very important. When you pull the next lace you do not want it to be too tight like you have been doing. Your ankles need a little flexibility. However, it cannot be too loose or your ankles will collapse inward when skating. Just pull at a comfortable tightness that still gives you support until you get to the hooks.
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When threading the hooks you want to lace them firmly, as this is your main area of ankle support. People lace the hooks differently, but for ease of explanation we will just stick with the classic way.
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Lace through all the hooks at a medium tightness.
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Once at the top you want to finish with a tight pull of the lace. This will secure your foot.
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Finish with a nice bow and you’re ready to skate!
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If you get out on the ice and are feeling like your ankles don’t have much support and are bending in towards the ice, that means your skates are too loose around your ankles, so go re-tie them a little tighter.
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If you get out on the ice and are feeling like your foot is no longer there and is getting numb, that means you tied it way too tight near your ankle and it needs to be a bit looser.
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This is what your ankles should look like when finished:
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Make sure when you are done skating and are tired and cold and just want to take your skates off and leave, loosen your skates all the way so your foot slips out with ease, you will kill your skate if you need to yank it out or step on the heel to yank your foot out. Respect the skate and unlace the first few eyelets and then loosen the rest…your foot should pop right out.
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