Thoughts on protective gear (e.g. Knee protectors, pads)?

[Traceekins]

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.

[sarahonice]

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.

[sampaguita]

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.

[jjane45]

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!

[Clarice]

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.

[karne]

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? 

[JSM]

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.

[TreSk8sAZ]

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.

[rachelplotkin]

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.

[Sk8tmum]

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.

[jjane45]

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 

[Traceekins]

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!

[slcbelle]

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.

[slcbelle]

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.

[jjane45]

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.

[AgnesNitt]

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. 
Still go in the ladies room to put them in.   

[icedancer]

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!

[slcbelle]

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!   

[jjane45]

Crafty!

now I think about it, maybe I should invest in another Akton gel pad and make a thicker piece.

[Query]

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.

[eillie]

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.  :-)

[jjane45]

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.

[sarahonice]

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.

[jjane45]

...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  

[supra]

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.