How do i know when the ankle support in my skates has gone?

Your jumps and spins will worsen and it'll feel like you can't keep your ankles straight.

The leather shouldn't flex more than your foot can flex. If you can do a dip/sit spin without meeting any kind of resistance, as if you were wearing socks, the support is gone. (This is if the skate is laced tightly enough.)

When the skate is off your foot, try bending the leather of the upper ankle part. Will it bend easily? Or is it rigid? It's ok if it bends a little bit but if you can bend the top of the skate all the way over to touch the bottom, the support has been shot for quite a while.

If the leather feels floppy, the support is gone.

If you say yes to any of these questions, the support is slipping.

-Does your ankle move side to side when you land jumps? (Moving up to down just means your laces are loose.)

-Have you had incidents where you go into a deep edge or are doing backward crossovers and your ankle falls to the outside instead of staying rigidly in place?

-Have you started faceplanting and wobbling forward while in a high spiral?

-Do you wobble while in a sit spin position, unable to keep your ankle straight?

-Have you been relying too much on your inside edge to keep your ankles upright? (Think of the way a beginner skater that is wearing loosely laced skates will move around. Their ankles are bent way to the inside edge.)

It's pretty easy to feel the leather flopping around your ankles rather than supporting them, think of the way a rental skate feels. Like that, but worse.

Look at your skates:

If the uppers are crooked and can be bent easily, they're breaking down.

If there are deep creases in the ankle area, they're broken down.

If you ankles hurt after you skate, like you twisted your ankle, that's a dangerous sign that the support is worn out.

Don't wait too long - they become comfortable, like bedroom slippers, and the break-in process for new skates is difficult when you're become accustomed to broken-down skates.

You'll know when the leather is worn and really bendy. When you go into a spin, your ankle will go more forward than you usually do and it's hard to balance because there isn't any support. It's like RENTAL SHOES!

Hope this helps! :]

when your ankle feels like there is not much support when you land a jump and when your skates feel looser and almost easier to bend.