Why do my ankles hurt so much when I ski?

I’d wager - no I take that back- I’m not really a betting kind of person so I’ll just make a statement. If you tallied up all of the ski boot complaints ever made to a bootfitter, sore ankles would sit firmly in the top three ski boot complaints of all time.

The great news about this all too common, and all too painful, ski boot malaise, is that there's a solution. But first of all, let's talk about the causes.

Causes:

Excess pronation

The ankle joint is a very important part of what allows us to walk. One of the things it does when it rolls forward is it also rolls in toward the other foot (medially) just a little bit (as part of pronation – you’ve probably heard this term before. Pronation is often purported to be the villain in many foot stories, but the foot and ankle are meant to pronate. It’s a necessary part of their movement).

In a ski boot we don't want excessive rolling in. It can be that little bit of too much inward roll that ends up pushing the skier’s ankles onto the hard plastic of their ski boots. Pain with every turn. Just like in general footwear the way that we control and support our foot movements is with a good pair of ski orthotics. The correct pair of ski orthotics designed for ski movements (not walking or running orthotics – they’re different) will help reduce this excess motion, resolving ankle pain.

Shape

The second half of this ankle equation is the shape of your ankle. If you’ve got a big bony prominent inside (medial) ankle then it's always going to be predisposed to putting more pressure on the shells. In this case, we need to adapt the shape of the shell to match.

If on the other hand you have dainty little sticky-outy bones on the side of your leg, but they still hurt, then it’s likely that you’ve got the space in the shell but the shape of your ski boot is not holding your lower leg properly. You don’t need more space, you need to adapt the liner to give you better lower leg hold.  For either one of these shape issues, the first step is also good ski orthotic to stabilise and support the foot postion.

Fix it:

Lucky for you our Ski Podiatrists can do just that. Our registered podiatrists are skilled at prescribing and actually making custom foot orthotics! (We don’t send them away to a lab to be made, we make them right there on the spot). They’re all trained in bootfitting, so customising the shell to your foot and ankle shape, as well as adapting liners is their bread and butter. So, it’s an instant fix for you and your ankles, making your skiing days far more enjoyable. You can book now at any one of our locations.