skatingforums
On the Ice => The Pro Shop => Topic started by: Traceekins on June 17, 2013, 01:55:43 AM
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What are your thoughts on protective gear for figure skaters? Specifically knee protectors, hip pads, etc.? I've found that most skaters have mixed feelings--while some swear by it, others say that protective gear serves as a "crutch" for skaters and "conditions your brain to think that it's okay to fall."
I recently looked into this because I've been falling on my knees a lot, and it's making me more afraid to try certain moves (mostly right-over-left crossovers). I'd love to have some protection so I don't fall as hard.
So, what do you think? If you wear protectors, does it help with your training?
Mod note: This topic has been moved to The Pro Shop.
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I wear knee pads every day. I can see the crutch argument, and I think it might have merit. However, I'm in my thirties, I take much longer to heal than I used to, and the threat of falling keeps me from approaching elements with the necessary speed/attack/confidence that I need to progress the way I want to. When I started wearing knee pads (the gel Skating Safe pads), I found myself improving faster because I wasn't thinking so much about "Don't fall, don't fall." I don't actually fall that often, but when I do I have huge bruises that take weeks to heal. Even if I never fell on them at all, just to be able to remove a layer of timidity in my skating makes wearing pads completely worth it for me.
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I wear hip, butt, and knee pads everytime I skate. Because unlike kids, I can't afford an injury. My body is not as strong as kids, and since I started as an adult, I am not conditioned for sports. I started wearing pads when I got hip bursitis, and I never regretted buying them. I don't fall as often as I did before, but the pads have done a very good job of lessening (even eliminating!) the pain.
Even some of the best kids in my rink wear pads. I don't think it's a big deal.
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head, knee, elbow, hip, tailbone, wrist guards are the standards for me. except for the wrist guards everything is made of skating safe type gel pads and fairly discreet, can move freely without thinking of them. my (previously) semi permanent knee bruises certainly went away! one time I got a bruise while wearing the knee pad, cannot even imagine how bad it would have been without the protective gear.
I test and skate shows couple times a year, personally I don't feel much difference skating without padding for those occasions as long as I'm well trained and ready. if anything, I'm lighter because all the paddings probably weigh 4-5 pounds together, lol.
So, what do you think? If you wear protectors, does it help with your training?
tremendously! skate safe and best of luck!
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I don't wear any kind of padding or protective gear. The exception would be knee pads if I'm working on a program that includes some kind of knee slide, where it would hurt to keep repeating the move on a bruise. I'll also wear wrist guards if I'm in my patch skates because I don't use them very often and don't have secure balance going backwards on them yet. I always kind of considered bruises to be "badges of honor", and so never really worried about falling. My daughter only ever wore pads when she was working on double axel and kept hitting the same spot on her hip over and over. Otherwise, both of us kind of just took our knocks and kept skating.
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I'm very much of the latter opinion - for younger people/kids/high levels, etc. For older adults I think it's perfectly okay and at their personal comfort level.
For me I don't bother. It freaks my mum a bit sometimes. But if I break something, so be it. As I proved last December, I'm perfectly capable of hurting myself badly off the ice, so why take special precautions on it? ;D
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I've seen some kids use it as a crutch. One girl who wore knee pads would fall on her knees constantly, even in competition. I don't know if she ever broke the habit.
However, I think pads can definitely serve the majority of users well, especially with new elements. It takes away the fear of getting hurt so you can really focus what you are trying to learn.
I've never worn pads, however, even though I'm now in my 30s, I don't really bruise, even after repeated hard falls. Or getting beaned with a softball. Or tripping down stairs... If I ever do bruise I know it was a bad impact! My injury worries are joint related now, sadly, and pads won't help that.
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I think pads have their place, but I also think they can become something that becomes a mental block.
I generally only wear them when learning new jumps or a new spin that involves falling. For example, I'm working on my axel now and falling on the same hip every time. I just use a gel pad on that one area so that I don't keep bruising it. When I came back after 4 years from a serious knee injury, I wore the hip pad on flip and lutz until I was landing it at least 50% of the time. Once I hit that mark, I had to take it off because I could feel that I was beginning to not want to jump them without it, and since I knew I would be competing I needed to get rid of that feeling.
I think as long as you use it reasonably, as in when you are first learning a skill, but wean yourself off of the pad once you are more proficient it makes sense. But if you absolutely cannot and will not ever do that skill without the pad ever again (which I have absolutely seen) then maybe you need to rethink how you're using it.
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I started skating just over a year ago (in my 50's) and wore no protective equipment until very recently. Now I am wearing knee pads and wrist guards at the suggestion of my coach. I have only fallen a few times over the year. My coach feels I have a fear of falling and it is holding me back. So we are trying this as an experiment. The wrist guards are particularly annoying and in general I prefer to skate without this stuff on. But I trust his instincts and will stick with it until we agree it either served the purpose or didn't.
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Pads are absolutely necessary if wearing them is to protect or prevent an injury. My kid still pulls them on when working on triples IF the training means that multiple falls will be happening; it's not a crutch, it's to prevent an injury that will cause delays in training, and also to allow the jump to be practiced with more repetitions. The pad prevents bruising (or worse) which allows the coach and skater to focus on the jump itself. Once the jumps is mastered, and the falls are reduced, then, the need for pads are reduced and they are removed. They have also been used to protect recently healed injuries to prevent reinjury and to facilitate return to training.
They can also work to remove mental blocks. A skater who is having difficulty in focussing on learning a technique due to fear of falling can master the technique/eliminate the fear while wearing the pads, then remove them when the mental block os overcome. Seen it work nicely on kids who were worried about an axel due to fear issues: when the fear factor was reduced, they went aggressively after the jump: once the confidence in execution was there, the pads could be reduced.
No shame ever in protecting your body and your body parts: My kid is still on the ice, competing, where other kids who started at the same time are off ice due to injury or are on ice with a litany of woes ... we always played safe over sorry.
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No shame ever in protecting your body and your body parts: My kid is still on the ice, competing, where other kids who started at the same time are off ice due to injury or are on ice with a litany of woes ... we always played safe over sorry.
+1 :love:
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Thanks for all the great feedback. It's helpful to know the opinions of more seasoned skaters, especially if it has to do with something that could hinder my progress.
I definitely see how falling is part of the sport, but I'm in my late 20's (and overweight), so I fall a lot harder than the younger skaters. I also have a major mental block when it comes to right-over-left crossovers, and when I fell on my knees the other day I was too scared to try again. I hope that knee protectors will help me get past my mental block so I can master these crossovers!
Thanks again! :)
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I always wear my SkatingSafe tailbone pad, wrist guards, and a Ribcap for head protection. I'll whip out the SkatingSafe hip pads if I am working jumps or something where I know I need to push myself to the edge of my comfort level. I have the knee pads but don't wear them. I wouldn't be out there without protective gear. I don't think of it as a crutch. I still avoid falling at all costs! But, I know I will fall and, when I do, though I will TRY not to put my arms out to break my fall or land smack on my tailbone, at least I have a better chance of getting up again without injury.
For testing and (someday) competitions, I won't wear the wrist guards but I will wear the tailbone pad. No one can see it so why not? I'm still seriously contemplating wearing the Ribcap for those events, though. I wore it for my Pre-Bronze MITF and FS tests. A concussion or cracked skull is nothing to take lightly and the likelihood of a bad fall is higher when I'm nervous.
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head, knee, elbow, hip, tailbone, wrist guards are the standards for me
jjane45, what did you buy for head protection? I watched your videos but I can't make it out.
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jjane45, what did you buy for head protection? I watched your videos but I can't make it out.
I make a band from leftover gel pads after the ice halo, then put a winter hat over it. probably not the strongest protection, but more secure / comfortable than an ice halo, for me.
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I wear skating safe hip pads. I used to go into the ladies room to take them off, but I've got the action down to pull them out so quickly and discretely, no one realizes what I'm doing. 88)
Still go in the ladies room to put them in. :blush:
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I make a band from leftover gel pads after the ice halo, then put a winter hat over it. probably not the strongest protection, but more secure / comfortable than an ice halo, for me.
I have an ice halo - at the cold rink I arrange my hat around it - works for me great.
One of our ice dancers fell and hit her head yesterday at the dance session - amongst the ice dancers we had a few medical people and managed to help with some basic first aid before one of us drove her to the nearest hospital 5 minutes away! Who needs an ambulance when you have skating friends?
I suspect we will be seeing more ice halos at that dance session - about half of the women wear them!
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I make a band from leftover gel pads after the ice halo, then put a winter hat over it. probably not the strongest protection, but more secure / comfortable than an ice halo, for me.
Crafty!
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Crafty!
now I think about it, maybe I should invest in another Akton gel pad and make a thicker piece.
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I've practiced enough falls to be reasonably certain that major injuries won't happen. But when I didn't cover my skin, I've twice had abrasions when my skin slid across scratches in the ice.
So I wear gloves, long sleeve shirts or jacket, and long pants.
For my purposes, the fabric doesn't need to be thick or cushioned. But if I wasn't confident of my falls, I'd wear more.
It's a matter of personal comfort. It makes sense for people to wear whatever they need to, to feel safe. It isn't fair to tell a frightened figure skater they can't dress like a football or hockey player if they feel safer that way. IMO.
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I wear the skating safe gel knee pads every time I skate. Before that, I went about a year without any protection (when I first started skating), and I routinely fell on my knees learning forward/backward crossovers. This caused pain that didn't go away for months, and only fully healed when I took an entire summer off when my local rink closed!
So now I wear knee pads, and I find that it gives me more confidence to go a little bit outside of my comfort zone when I'm working on 'harder'/new things. At the same time, I don't think I'm getting into any bad habits by feeling that it's OK to fall. Actually I rarely fall on my knees anymore, but when I do I'm glad that the pads are there! (Nowadays I mainly just fall on my bum, but I already have natural padding there. :-)
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The wrist guards are particularly annoying and in general I prefer to skate without this stuff on. But I trust his instincts and will stick with it until we agree it either served the purpose or didn't.
You have a great coach, wink wink. I started wrist guards because 1) I tend to break falls in a bad way; 2) in my first year of skating a friend quit because she broke her right wrist.
Wrist guards don't bother me. They may annoy my friends when the high fives hurt. Definitely have to take them off for partnered dances though.
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You have a great coach, wink wink. I started wrist guards because 1) I tend to break falls in a bad way; 2) in my first year of skating a friend quit because she broke her right wrist.
I got knee pads at the suggestion of my coach, too. I wasn't keen to make it a high priority until the second time she reminded me, and while we were in that lesson a beginning adult skater fell on a crossover and shattered her kneecap. (I've never seen her back.) Knee pads were on by next lesson and rarely do I practice without them. I do leave them off for testing and performances, and I feel fine so I don't think I've developed any crutch-like habits. Just spared myself some pain.
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...and shattered her kneecap. (I've never seen her back.)
Saw kneecap shatter in front of my eyes too, on a simple three turn that my friend could have done in his sleep :(
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I don't wear pads. So far I've done OK for injuries. Worst has been my wrists getting pulled for like 2-3 weeks. With the wrists after stretching them out with lifting, when I fall I have less problems now. I probably fall 3-4x a week, not a lot. Also, I took judo as a kid and a lot of time was spent making sure you learned how to fall, so I've fallen off, say, 10 foot walls as a kid and just got straight back up. Even recently I fell off like a 7-8 foot high fallen tree over a stream onto a mossy rock while hiking, I landed in a squat straight on my feet. Maybe plyos helped there? I'm pretty thankful for either God being extraordinarily nice in not accumulating injuries or my training.
Anyway, skating. There's the whole "If you're not falling you're not trying hard enough." Thing, which is true. For example, my sister refuses to fall, and makes zero progress ice skating (been on the wall for months...) She's afraid of falling because as a kid she fell and broke stuff, and is afraid it'd happen again. I've never broken anything so I don't have that fear (rightfully or not.) But I think once you get to a higher level, you shouldn't be "forcing" stuff to happen. When you fall, it's generally from "forcing" stuff, at least with edging (I'm assuming jumps you're gonna fall more no matter what.) In lifting, there's an argument like this, too. Does missing teach you anything, or does successfully completing the lift teach you? One coach I know told a story of how he tried a lift 35 times in a row and got it on the 36th or something, but that's rare. I think "missing" generally teaches less than success with a lighter load (in skating's case, less speed...) Because if you're missing, you're not getting a good motor pattern going on at all. That and, recklessness is only helpful to a point. You should be conservative and be honest about your skills, and evaluate your skills and figure out why exactly you're falling and fix it.
Also, regarding falling, my first coach-ish guy, he told me "Yeah, if you're trying to kill yourself out there, usually you'll be totally fine. My worst fall I've ever had was turning around to talk to someone." And he fractured like his hip or something. Some little kid also told my sister who was afraid of falling "Don't worry, it's just ice!"
That's my take. Again, I'm not really jumping right now and I could be wrong. Anyway, if once I get to jumps I find I fall alot, I'll probably buy pads. Or maybe I won't. I don't know.
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Saw kneecap shatter in front of my eyes too, on a simple three turn that my friend could have done in his sleep :(
(La, la, la...I can't hear you. I didn't read this. Nope. Carry on!). :-[
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Saw kneecap shatter in front of my eyes too, on a simple three turn that my friend could have done in his sleep :(
That's awful! :(
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One coach I know saw a 9 year old kid die on the ice from hitting her head.
Another guy who used to skate at my rink skated into the boards and fell and tore the tendons connecting his shoulder to his clavicle and lost feeling in some of his fingers.
You can get hurt or die skating. But I figure statistically I'm more likely to die or be hurt on the car ride to the rink than actually at the rink.
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Saw kneecap shatter in front of my eyes too, on a simple three turn that my friend could have done in his sleep :(
I'm just starting to work on my 3 turns now and am having a serious mental block with them. I know it's because I'm scared of falling. After reading this, I'm digging out the clunky, ugly skateboarder kneepads before my practice session tomorrow...
Anyone know anywhere in the UK I can get the gel knee/elbow pads? I can make retention doo-dahs for them no problem, just need the actual gel parts...
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Anyone know anywhere in the UK I can get the gel knee/elbow pads? I can make retention doo-dahs for them no problem, just need the actual gel parts...
for DIY, search for 1/4" akton polymer pads.
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I always wear knee pads when I skate because I have hit my knee on the ice so many times. After I broke my kneecap, that's when I started wearing pads.
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Well, I have more first-hand horror stories!! Ice is slippery and I see no reason not to protect ourselves.
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Worst has been my wrists getting pulled for like 2-3 weeks.
What does "pulled" mean? A "pulled" (stretched to the point of injury) muscle - i.e., a muscle "strain"?
Is such an injury particularly consistent with judo style falls? - another judo person said that many judo falls involve "slapping" the floor hard with a hand.
It's great that you've never broken anything. A lot of us are probably jealous!
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After I broke my kneecap, that's when I started wearing pads.
Me too. I'd fallen doing nothing at all, and copped a "star" series of cracks on the kneecap, radiating out from the impact site. Took me off the ice for months, and I was extremely lucky it wasn't worse. Where were my skatingsafe knee pads at the time? Why, they were doing a fine job protecting my bag at rinkside of course 88). Orthopod made a rule: "No kneepads? No skating." I've followed it since, except that I do remove them for competition.
At my advancing age :P, I can't afford to increase the risk of a debilitating injury. Sure, I might fall over on the street or down the stairs - if we want to avoid all risk, we'd sit at home and probably die of a heart attack - but the reality is that slippery ice adds a whole other dimension of risk. I vaguely recall reading a post some time ago from an adult skater, whose coach refused to allow protection of any sort. I remember thinking at the time, "So will that coach pay the skater's mortgage and bills while s/he is unable to work following a preventable injury??"
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Instead of making fun of someone for their helmets, I say "good thinking." Hitting your head on ice hurts like crazy!
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I wear my safety pads under my clothing (long pants, long sleeve shirts/Ts). Only the wrist guards are apparent, worn over the gloves.
At the end of the day, even the most experienced elite skaters cannot predict when they're gonna fall. I'm just a recreational skater and I wanna have fun, not pain. So I take the precautions. No point risking breaking an elbow, knee and wrist over a recreational activity.
The thing about falls is you never know when it's coming or how bad it'll be. You can be going through a standard routine done countless times, and then it happens.
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I never wore crash pads until this year when I kept falling on the same spot on my knee. It was so badly bruised that it is still discolored to this day. I wear the skating safe gel knee pad under my tights and it's been a saving grace. I don't think about it being there. I can skate with or without it, make no difference in how I skate. LOVE this thing. Now I can wear shorts again without looking like I was playing football or something.
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What does "pulled" mean? A "pulled" (stretched to the point of injury) muscle - i.e., a muscle "strain"?
Is such an injury particularly consistent with judo style falls? - another judo person said that many judo falls involve "slapping" the floor hard with a hand.
It's great that you've never broken anything. A lot of us are probably jealous!
Yeah, muscle strain I guess. I dunno, my wrist hurt to do stuff with for like 2-3 weeks. I guess overstretched would be accurate. And yeah, judo falls do involve slapping the mat. But it's not even totally a slap, it's done more to get up from the ground quickly. On ice it's not really ideal, using your hands to fall, as you can break your hands/everything up to your shoulder. So it's better more to just slide, ala baseball slides, which is something else I experienced a lot of as a kid. So parents, sign your kids up for a wide variety of sports so they get a bunch of random seemingly useless skills that may help them later on.
If I were a girl and not wearing pants, one thing I'd get imo is some leggings that were fairly thick and went up to around your knees. I've cut my calves on my toepicks falling, usually slicing through whatever workout pants I'm wearing. I'd imagine it'd be much worse wearing tights or whatever.
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I'm another who always wears SkatingSafe gel knee pads. I'm 66 and a coach. I can't afford injuries. I also saw a woman break her knee cap on forward crossovers.
Besides knee pads, the best protection against that type of fall, IMO, is to learn to chasse the under foot out from under the crossover. I now always teach chasses as part of the learning progression for forward crossovers. I had observed on my own that catching the under toe was a risk, and taught myself (clueless coach at the time) to lift that toe, but chasses give the skater practice in the exact move needed before tackling the crossovers. I need to give credit for that idea to someone here, but can't remember who it was. Sorry!
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I'm just starting to work on my 3 turns now and am having a serious mental block with them. I know it's because I'm scared of falling.
I know how it feels. Have you considered whether the problem was trying to "force" the turn by turning the shoulders too much (abruptly) and consciously "twisting" the waist to make the turn? The experts here will give better advice but personally, I found it helped by forgetting about the twist. No need to twist. Just let the body & shoulders naturally lean into the turn and tilt the weight forward onto the ball. Most IMPORTANT thing for me is the CHECK. As soon as you make the turn, have to swing your shoulders & waist INSTANTLY in the opposite direction to maintain balance. Must be instant cos the turn happens so fast.
Till this day, I'm still struggling with the forward outside. I can't keep it relatively straight after the turn. It curves too much. Surprisingly, I'm better on the forward inside. No problems.
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I know how it feels. Have you considered whether the problem was trying to "force" the turn by turning the shoulders too much (abruptly) and consciously "twisting" the waist to make the turn? The experts here will give better advice but personally, I found it helped by forgetting about the twist. No need to twist. Just let the body & shoulders naturally lean into the turn and tilt the weight forward onto the ball. Most IMPORTANT thing for me is the CHECK. As soon as you make the turn, have to swing your shoulders & waist INSTANTLY in the opposite direction to maintain balance. Must be instant cos the turn happens so fast.
Till this day, I'm still struggling with the forward outside. I can't keep it relatively straight after the turn. It curves too much. Surprisingly, I'm better on the forward inside. No problems.
That was my thing, with "forcing" stuff. If you have to force moves, you should go back to the drawing board and figure out why you're having to force it. For me personally with the turns, I've learned it's mostly about just riding the edge out until the end, if that makes sense. Once you're at the end of the edge, the turn will almost happen by itself. But if you just try to "go" and you're on, say, the middle of the blade, with no arc created, it won't turn all too well.
Oddly I've almost never fallen learning to do 3s slowly. It's only when I try to do them when I'm blasting down the ice is when I fall and it sucks. If you're just learning slowly on the hockey goal area or something, just put your foot down if you feel like you're gonna fall and save yourself.
Also, I have a theory that it's easier to save yourself on a shallower radius, too. You're less likely to catch edge and just fall seemingly randomly, or if you put your foot down it's easier as it won't force you on edge without you pushing down harder/leaning in more.
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I misplaced my pads and didn't wear them. My knees have 4 colorful bruises on them. Whoops.
Yes, crash pads are important. :sweat
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I have fallen on my knees several times in the past. Ouch!
I've already got bad knees to start with. Hearing now about shattered kneecaps totally convinced me - Skating safe knee crash pads are ordered and on the way.
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I just ordered the Bunheads gel knee support pads. Though I have the Skating Safe knee pads as well, I rarely use them. The other day, I had a slow and controlled fall (I can't recall what I was doing) and landed on my knees. It was nothing major but it was enough to remind me of the knee shattering stories on this thread. I'm going to give the Bunheads pads a try as my daily knee pads. I'll just slip them on over my tights and under my yoga pants. Easy on, easy off. When I work on new jumps or difficult elements, I'll wear the Skating Safe. I'll post a review once I've received them and put them in action.
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Any updates on the bunhead pads? I'm less than a week away from getting back on the ice, and feeling like it's probably time for me to consider some pads. I'm SO over being on the injured list! :blush:
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Any updates on the bunhead pads? I'm less than a week away from getting back on the ice, and feeling like it's probably time for me to consider some pads. I'm SO over being on the injured list! :blush:
Hi Elsa. I haven't skated since the first week of July and haven't tried them out yet. My Riedells are so brutal on my feet that I just had to stop while waiting for my custom Harlicks to arrive. Those came in last week but needed punching so I sent them back to Harlick. Ho hum. I'm ready to get back on the ice already! I've tried them on and they are very slim. I like them more than my SkatingSafe knee pads but I haven't fallen with them.
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Any updates on the bunhead pads? I'm less than a week away from getting back on the ice, and feeling like it's probably time for me to consider some pads. I'm SO over being on the injured list! :blush:
I have them, and I quite like them. I have been using them for repeated falls on my axel attempts. I started getting a really bad bruise from getting up and pushing off the same knee every time. In addition to providing some padding, they also provide some knee stability support. I only wear them on days when I'm jumping, but when I fall and hit my knee or I get up, you can't even feel the ice under your knee. Although not large, they have quite a bit of padding and I think could take a direct fall well, though that's not how I've fallen on them.
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I started skating just over a year ago (in my 50's) and wore no protective equipment until very recently. Now I am wearing knee pads and wrist guards at the suggestion of my coach. I have only fallen a few times over the year. My coach feels I have a fear of falling and it is holding me back. So we are trying this as an experiment. The wrist guards are particularly annoying and in general I prefer to skate without this stuff on. But I trust his instincts and will stick with it until we agree it either served the purpose or didn't.
I too just started skating in my 50's and wore wrist guards the first few lessons, but have stopped wearing them for now. Once I start learning spins I will probably wear them again. I have been wearing them for years with my inline skates so they really weren't a nuisance, just hot with gloves. I may go with wrist guards and no gloves and see how that feels.
I have soft foam (volleyball) knee pads and hard shell (inline skate) knee pads but haven't used either yet. Figure the soft won't do much and the hard would be too restrictive. I will investigate the soft gel skate pads others have mentioned here.
I work as a ski instructor in the winter and am used to skiing without protective gear beyond a helmet so I feel comfortable not wearing much on the ice.
I do have a question about helmets. I have a ski helmet that feels too heavy to want to wear skating and a tear drop shaped bicycle helmet I wear inline skating, but I have heard negative comments about wearing that type of helmet due to the shape. What are opinions on helmet use and types?
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The soft knee pads actually are quite good. I had a great deal of difficulty getting the skate safe gel pads to stay in place so I returned them. The volleyball pads have worked out nicely for me. My rare falls tend to land me on my knees and I've yet to sustain even a bruise since starting with the pads. Several of the adults I skate with also wear these knee pads and have similar experiences to mine.
Tear drop shaped bike helmets are not a good idea for skaters. Falling backwards and landing on that tear shaped back is likely to cause more harm, especially to your neck. After a recent backwards fall I used a helmet for a couple of weeks. It had a flat back and I rather felt like a roller derby player wearing it. I wore it until my injuries healed and my confidence was at pre-fall level.
My biggest complaint with any of the protective gear is the heat they generate. Not wearing gloves (which I rarely do anyway) helps when wearing wrist guards. But all of it tends to heat me up faster than when skating without it. But in general a little more sweat is worth the payoff of protecting myself from injury.
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Bike helmets are tear-drop shaped to reduce air resistance. If yours has a removable plastic piece that comes to a point, take it off for skating. It can break during a fall and you could get hurt. The ski helmet (or a hockey helmet) is best for a beginner - bonus is that you have to really hold up your head to see where you're going, so it develops a good habit of looking up, rather than, down. Wrist braces present the same challenge: if your arms aren't hanging at your side, that's good.
I think it's smart for adults to start out with pads and I don't care during lessons one way or another. As long as they don't interfere with knee bend, it's fine. I wish the ISI and USFSA would issue a statement saying *discreet* knee/elbow pads are okay for tests and competitions so that there won't be any concern about bias from the judges.
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I do have a question about helmets. I have a ski helmet that feels too heavy to want to wear skating and a tear drop shaped bicycle helmet I wear inline skating, but I have heard negative comments about wearing that type of helmet due to the shape. What are opinions on helmet use and types?
I skate in a Jackson Ribcap for head protection. If you search the forum for "Ribcap", you'll find a lot of discussion about it (from me) and I LOVE it. I've fallen smack on the back of the head and was fine. http://www.sk8express.com/ribcapjackson.html (http://www.sk8express.com/ribcapjackson.html) There are other Ribcap styles if you prefer. It's perfect for skating and not blocky at all like a ski or bike helmet.
I, too, am a ski instructor!
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talking about heat, I generally don't have problems skating indoor. the gel pads all get sweaty but not uncomfortable. head is the trickiest, so far ice halo generated the most heat among the head protection I've tried, more so than ski helmet.