competing with pads

[Skittl1321]

This comes up a lot on this board, so I thought some people might be interested to know.Ksenia Marakova (that last name might be wrong) wore a pad on her hip/butt at NHK (the grand.prix event)  See the second to last picture in this slideshow: http://web.icenetwork.com/photos/gallery.jsp?content_id=40407696

It was visually distracting, which seems to be the argument against them. But if elites can wear them in competition, so can adults!  If you feel you need a pad, do it.

[AgnesNitt]

I gotta say, I think a skating safe pad would have been less distracting.

[jjane45]

I was watching NBC just now and thought wow what brand was it? Quite bulky! Not sure how the effectiveness compares. Skating safe hip pads are 3/16" thick, hers I'd guess as much as 1/2".

IIRC she did the same in her last event too. If she plans to wear padding, might as well make the dress a tad longer?

[sampaguita]

It's only distracting because it's not the norm. If ISU made pads mandatory, people wouldn't find anything odd about it.

Over-the-boot tights had the same status before they became used by majority of skaters. People used to find them odd, but not anymore.

[Skittl1321]

Tons of people still complain about otb tights.

I do not want to see.pads be.made mandatory, as to be effective you'd have to cover yourself head to toe.  That would be a lot of unnecessary movement restriction. I do want skaters to feel comfortable wearing them. Especially in practice.

[Sk8tmum]

OTB tights are virtually never seen in our area.  It's an area by area thing. But, that's off topic ... I actually just realized after reading your post that I've not really seen a pair in a few years!

The skater in question has a vulnerable area that the coach is attempting to protect.  High level skaters generally are trained to/experienced enough to fall effectively (barring freak falls) which limits the need for protection; pads are really only for injury recovery or for learning something that is causing successive falls.  We haul them out when we know that a jump is likely to result in a high level of falls on a hip or a knee, or the tailbone (or if there's an injury being nursed); otherwise, they stay in the bag as, regardless of how thin or light they are (we use Skating Safe) - they do restrict movement to a certain degree.

[Query]

If she plans to wear padding, might as well make the dress a tad longer?

ITA.

[sarahspins]

She wore that same pad at Skate Canada too...