Please explain why you would even cut the tongue off your boot? Do you cut it off completely? Because I would never.I'm a competitive figure skater and recreational ballet dancer. I started ballet when I was 3 and planned to do it professionally. I started skating when I was 9 or 10 (don't remember) but it was mostly for fun. When I was 11 it became known to me that my hips were just not meant to do turnout as much as is needed to be professional nowadays (I naturally have 70° internal rotation and 20° external on my more extreme hip, and that's just 100% my genetics). So that's how I ended up with an injured hip that still haunts me to this day on the ice. Anyway, that's how I ended up switching to competitive figure skating while still having a serious background in ballet with enough training to go en pointe.
I'm currently not dancing because of COVID knowing that it is not my main focus, but I wear Suffolks and Edea Pianos. My skates are much more comfortable. I've done basically every customization imaginable:
What I've found is I can do much more to my skates vs my pointe shoes. My pointe shoes will always make my toenails and toes really hurt because that's just what pointe does, with my skates I can do much more customizations.
To my skates I:
I just can't do the same to my pointe shoes. They will always hurt no matter what I do.
- Punch out the toe region
- Add insoles
- Cut off the tongue
- Add a little ankle padding
- Add more padding around the heel to keep it down a bit more.
- Tilt my blade a bit.
- Move my blade from center.