As some of you may have read in my recent posts, I recently (2 weeks ago) started breaking in Klingbeils. I've reached the point where I'm doing some jumping and spinning, but I'm spending most of my time on Bronze moves, edge exercises, and forward and back crossovers.

I'm lacing my skates at the usual level of tightness (I'm leaving the top hook undone) and today I started feeling some pain/rubbing along the ankles. When I got home from skating and changed, I saw that I had red marks on the top of both ankles. I've also noticed that the tongue is the only thing that seems to be bending (and I got a flex notch on the skates) which is exactly what happened with my old skates - in a nutshell, the boots were too stiff, never really broke in, and as a result I would get pushed forward so I'd make scratchy sounds, esp on back crossovers.

When I got fitted for the Klingbeils, I brought my last pair and showed them the problems, so they knew to make these skates softer (they also asked me the typical questions of how often I skate and what jumps I was working on) which they are, but I'm obviously worried about the possibility of only the tongue bending and the rest of the skates staying stiff. I definitely don't want to be leaning forward in these skates (the thought also crossed my mind that maybe b/c I'm used to pitching forward, I've been conditioned to do that even though the skates are more bendable).

I wonder if I should lace them looser, but then I worry that my feet (and skating) will be unsteady and not supported enough and that the skates will never break in b/c they won't need to conform around my foot.

Thoughts?

to break my skates in i wore them around the house for a couple hours a day until they felt good

i have new boots that i just got a few weeks ago (big stiff harlicks). the tongue is the first thing to bend. just be patient, the boots themselves should start creasing or flexing too sometime soon. meanwhile if the rubbing on your ankles really hurts you could try the bunga ankle sleeves, which are thin but provide a small cushion. i don't know if the flex notch is supposed to help the boot crease more or make it not need to crease as much.