Thanks for your help guys! I've come back from injury before OK - the issue this time is that my rehab timing sucks. The weird thing is not that I'm afraid of reinjuring the knee as much as how much it would hurt if I re-whack it!
Skittl and techskater, I actually already have the skatingsafe ones and they're the ones I've been using. I do plan to continue to wear them as a regular thing, including for official practices, but would really prefer not to wear them for actual competitions. I compete synchro, it's our Nationals coming up next week (not the Olys haha
), but I don't need to help the tech panel identify an individual to follow to call the program!
Mad Mac - the skatingsafe ones don't inhibit kneebend as much as they restrict my ability to keep my knees and feet together, and make bracket turns etc more difficult as a result. More to the point, they "remind" me that there's something wrong with my knees - even though there isn't any more - so I don't tend to work the kneebend and push as hard as I ought.
I went padless again today, and it was an improvement on yesterday. Next time I skate (Sunday night) is our dress rehearsal for competition, so I'd like to stay padless until after that. Then learn to switch between "pads" and "no pads" frequently so as not to have this little issue again.