I got injured trying...

[kayskate]

A lot of ppl on this board have written about their injuries. I am wondering what ppl were doing on the ice when they were injured. I am referring to "serious injuries" such a break or other injury that takes you off the ice for a few weeks or more, not just a bruise or soreness. My theory is that most of these injuries do NOT happen during jumps and spins but tripping in footwork or basic skating. IOW, when falling is not even expected.

Kay

[icedancer2]

The worst injury I've incurred on ice was when I was just standing there in front of my friend talking to her. All of a sudden my feet went out from under me and I was flat on my back in between her feet (her reaction was, "Where is she?") -- anyway, I got up and skated for about a half hour and then realized how bad my left hip hurt. I don't know how I made it home that night because by the next day I couldn't walk at all. The Dr. said that my femur had jammed up into the hip socket and had caused some major bruising. I walked with crutches for about 3 weeks and got back on the ice 6 weeks later.

Strangely, that hip has never once bothered me again. But the OTHER hip - yow!

[cecealias]

My worst injury involved breaking an ankle in learn to skate at age 23. I was off ice for the whole year after. I was horribly overweight at the time too. But it hasnt stopped me from figure skating since then nor has it stopped from landing axels or doubles- i have not had any major injury jumping into my thirties, and i am confident i am a better athlete and in much better shape now than i was ever before.

I have seen some adults injure themselves badly from spins or jumps but i think this is mostly caused by forcing the spin or muscling it instead of patiently trying to learn the right techique. The more experience I acquire in figure skating the more I've come to realize that success really comes from finesse, attention to detail, and the patience to consistently make changes in order to master an on-ice skill.

[Isk8NYC]

My last bad injury happened while demonstrating a mohawk. Just a FI mohawk - stepped on my own blade (chipped the edges) and flew up into the air, landing on my back and slamming my head back onto the ice. I was stiff and sore for weeks. Fortunately, it wasn't a concussion, but I had to stay off for over a week.

[jenlyon60]

I didn't open my hips enough preparing for the mohawk (in hold with coach). Finished the turn-out onto the outside edge as I put my foot down.

Over and over and over.

The cartilage in my right knee was not very appreciative of this maneuver.

Then kept skating for 3 years until I couldn't hardly bend the knee without immense pain, and couldn't hardly walk up or down stairs normally.

[Kim to the Max]

I sprained my ankle badly at a very, very, very cold rink when I was younger...I was doing a backspin and I got stuck in a hockey rut :(

Knock on wood...I have been injury free for a while...

[dbny]

Broke my wrist on the Pre-Pre BI edge pattern a few days before I was supposed to test :oops:. Just pulled the skating foot out and did not get the new foot down. Went straight down instead and stuck my R arm down, palm first. A witness later said he heard the bone break. It took me two years to be ready to test again, mostly because I freaked on FO three turns, which had just clicked for me the day before I broke my wrist.

[Sessy]

All my serious injuries, including fracture, occurred on spins. Probably one of the reasons I hate the spins so much.
Never anything really serious on footwork. Not even the bellyflops out of the forward biellmann spiral reminded of themselves for more than 2 weeks. Just the spins.

[Sessy]

I sprained my ankle badly at a very, very, very cold rink when I was younger...I was doing a backspin and I got stuck in a hockey rut :(

Knock on wood...I have been injury free for a while...

Eek that's how I hurt my ankle a few weeks ago just when it was looking like it was really on the way to recovery from the fracture and when I could do some jumps again already...
HOCKEYERS ARE EVIL! :evil:

[phoenix]

Well, you missed the "stepping on the ice w/ guards on" category, which claimed me 4 years ago now. I still have to have regular deep massage work on that hip to keep the scar tissue from seriously getting everything stuck together & majorly hurting.

The worst actual skating injury was from working on my layback spin for my AN program last year, which resulted in a pulled hip flexor, which I ignored until it cost me 2 months off the ice. :evil:

[Morgail]

I voted for footwork/MITF (dangerous stuff! :lol: ).

Lunge = dislocated my right knee & tore a small ligament

RBI bracket = high ankle sprain & broken fibula when I lost my balance and caught my left toepick in the ice

I've also had quite a few hip bruises from doing nosedives on spirals.

[Kim to the Max]

Eek that's how I hurt my ankle a few weeks ago just when it was looking like it was really on the way to recovery from the fracture and when I could do some jumps again already...
HOCKEYERS ARE EVIL! :evil:

Yea, I remember that that particular sprain was quite nasty...my ankle was the size of a grapefruit...and I was getting new boots that week too!

[kayskate]

Well, you missed the "stepping on the ice w/ guards on" category, which claimed me 4 years ago now. I still have to have regular deep massage work on that hip to keep the scar tissue from seriously getting everything stuck together & majorly hurting.


I actually thought of that, but the poll only allows 12 responses. I figured everyone has done this but never heard of anyone getting seriously hurt. Sorry to hear you did.

BTW, I picked footwork/MITF. I broke my ankle doing a 3turn. Just tripped and went down w my foot trapped under me.

Kay

[TreSk8sAZ]

I wish I could have picked more than one!

Broken wrist = stopping on freshly sharpened blades and hitting a ditch in the ice

Broken hand = flying camel

Concussion (2) = footwork

Torn ligaments, cartilege, meniscus, etc. = something around stepping forward into a spiral. I don't remember the fall, thank God.

[FlyAndCrash]

No major injuries for me yet. But I did get the palms of both hands swollen for about a month (and no I did not stop skating during that time...) because I was falling on my axels so hard. I was at about 50/50 for a clean axel, but the 50 that weren't clean ended up on my palms, thus the swelling.

[phoenix]

Oooo, forgot about the concussion!! :o

That was while doing totally innocent footwork w/ the choreographer.

(does anyone else go to great pains to make sure their insurance company does NOT know about their hobby??)

[Rusty Blades]

The spring of 1969. I was 19 and had been working on multi-rotation jumps. It was about 7:30 a.m. in a deserted rink. I still don't know what happened. I went UP, my free foot caught on something in the air (lace, pant cuff, who knows) and I landed with my feet crossed under me. I have always been a FAST skater and my momentum carried me into the boards knees-first HARD! I couldn't get up and I couldn't straighten my legs.

X-Rays didn't show much and "sports medicine" didn't exist. The hick-town doctor just shrugged his shoulders. I spent many months on crutches and well into the 1980's my knee (either one) would just "go out" on me, loose all strength and control, and suddenly just collapse. Needless to say, that ended my skating.

It has been well over 10 years since I have had a knee give out and two years that I have been back skating again with no knee problems (yet). The speed is still there (or has come back) and I am starting to jump again but I have ZERO desire to "push the jump envelope"! This time I just want to keep skating.

(Since my return, I have had 2 sprained ankles and a cracked rib but they're nothing compared to 15 years of bad knees!)

[dbny]

I actually thought of that, but the poll only allows 12 responses. I figured everyone has done this but never heard of anyone getting seriously hurt.

A member of RSSIR broke her kneecap doing that. I think she's popped in here too from time to time.

[sue123]

I dislocated my knee standing on the ice. Found out just recently I also tore my PCL when I did that. I was literally standing on the ice, next thing I knew, I fell right onto my knee. And silly me, I thought the fact that I really couldn't bend my knee or bear weight on it was because I fell, not because I did any major damage, because really, how badly can you hurt yourself standing still? :oops:

My other serious injury, a concussion, I don't remember what I was doing. I think the fall knocked the memory of it out of my head. It was just me and a friend on the ice a few years ago. I was doing something, next thing I knew, I'm lying on the ice. Don't remember what I was doing before I fell, and after the fall is a bit foggy as well. I'm sure it was something stupid though.

[teresa]

My worst falls are doing moves.

teresa

[sk8tmum]

DS picked his leg on a double sal, ripped a huge hole in it and bled like a pig all over the place ... all sorts of stuff done to close that one up. Had med techs freaking all over the place (it happened in a competition, of course!). Naturally, caught on tape, and his coach was able to do an "I told you so" moment ... and we were able to seperate the girls with weak stomachs from the ones who thought it was cool :P

[vesperholly]

First time I sprained my right ankle was on the landing of a loop-toe loop-loop. Second time was on the RFO rocker going into the end pattern of the quick rocker-choctaw sequence from Novice MIF.

[Isk8NYC]

Well, you missed the "stepping on the ice w/ guards on" categoryI was able to add two more options - guard falls and "Other."

[Sessy]

for fairness' sake you should have this poll at a board with many young serious skaters too, just to make sure adult injuries don't differ from youngsters injuries?

[NickiT]

I have to say I have the worst falls on footwork and field moves. It was this that caused me to break my wrist. When I broke my ankle I wasn't doing much - just skating out of a spiral. Just one of those stupid falls doing nothing!

Nicki

[kayskate]

for fairness' sake you should have this poll at a board with many young serious skaters too, just to make sure adult injuries don't differ from youngsters injuries?

Okay. Please suggest one. Personally, I am an adult skater, so that is my primary interest. But I agree w your point. It would be interesting to break out age vs. injury. I will try to edit the poll to allow more than one response b/c it seems ppl here have had more than one serious injury. I am curious about all of them.

Seems I cannot figure a way to do this. Can an admin step in to edit the poll to allow multi responses?

Kay

[sk8pics]

Wow, look at all the people with injuries from footwork or MITF! Me, too. I was doing footwork for my free skating program, in a lesson with my coach when I lost my balance and fell, but caught my edge in the ice so that my foot couldn't slide out from unde me. Poof! Broken left ankle.

[Isk8NYC]

Seems I cannot figure a way to do this. Can an admin step in to edit the poll to allow multi responses?I'm sorry, but I can't switch the type of poll once it's been opened. I can add new options or change the vote counts, though.

You could start a different thread with the options you want and I'll copy over the posts to the new thread. It would mean everyone would have to vote all over again, though.

[sk8_4fun]

just turned to skate forward at very low speed, toe-picked with full force onto left knee and damaged ligaments. Off ice for 6 weeks + 9 months under the physio.

[LilJen]

I seem to remember I was playing around with spirals--going on my left foot and was holding my right foot/leg up (what is that? An I-spiral? Can't remember what the heck it's called, but I'm sure not to an I position yet. More like a 120-degree angle maybe). Got too far onto the toepick and POP!! Broke the left ankle in 2 places. . . . :roll:

[Skittl1321]

I caught a toepick on a spiral as I was moving my body position to catch my foot and the doctor said I broke my lowest rib- but we didn't get an x-ray, since there was nothing she could do to help it if it was really broken.

I was off the ice for 2 weeks and was only in pain for about 3 weeks, so I'm not sure if that is actually true.

I guess that counts as moves/footwork.

[Mrs Redboots]

Oddly, most skaters' injuries that I know about have occurred off the ice - at least two from falling downstairs.... My worst falls have been either not doing anything at all, or when Husband has kicked my feet from under me (as has happened more times than I care to recall, but only twice bad enough that I've had to get off the ice).

[jazzpants]

DRATS!!! I can't choose more than one of those??? WAAAAH!!! :cry:

I have a nasty fall from dodging a small little skaters while I was doing 5 step mohawks. I had a nasty fall on my loop jump that took me out a couple of weeks at least. I've had plenty of click of death falls on crossovers and mohawks. I bashed my hip on a spin entry. I've had a collision with a skater -- both her and me were doing back crossovers. I can go on and on... :giveup:
Oddly, most skaters' injuries that I know about have occurred off the ice - at least two from falling downstairs....And I was probably one of those skaters too! LOL!!! :lol: :P Yup! I was off for a couple of weeks recovering from that too. Lucky for me, nothing broken... and hey, I got my cholesterol reading b/c of that! (Since I fainted at the time of the fall and had no memory of falling off the stairs until I was already on the floor, I had to do a complete blood test to rule out low iron count. That got counted out but that's when I found out my cholesterol was borderline high.) Shocked me into making a lifestyle change on my health, so I count it as a blessing in the end. :bow:

[peanutskates]

well... I was off the ice for 1 week once when I hit my tailbone. It's not really THAT serious I guess, but it hurt soo much for 3 days, and was very sore for another 3/4 days.

I was doing a back teapot, much faster than I thought I was, and being too stubborn to fall, but too weak to get up, I decided to stop by hitting the wall. OWWW. tailbone began to ache. Then I did a backspin, leant back too much and fell... right on my poor, aching tailbone... ow a million times.

I guess compared to all these other awful injuries, it's not that bad. but still, it hurt lots at the time.

[CaraSkates]

I picked MITF....those darn 8 step mohawks. I broke my right arm in 2005 doing the mohawk section, stepped on my blade heel and landed on my wrist/arm. Took the docs a month to figure out it was broken. I actually skated in two competitions those two months - one before I knew it was broken and one after with the cast! I shouldn't have been even working on 8stepMO's yet but someone taught me in a group lesson...

Then on Tuesday, same mohawk. Only this time it was my head!:frus:
I can't wait to test and hopefully pass Juv MIF in Feb....

[Skate@Delaware]

Ok, I also picked "other"....

The first was my concussion from skating in hockey skates. Lesson learned? Don't try it without a helmet AND mouthguard!!!

Second major injury was off ice...moving furniture. Diagnosis: herniated disc....2+ months and counting in the recovery. Happened in September (our rink was only open for 2 weeks-this injury messed up my competitive YEAR); still in physical therapy/rehab AND getting a nerve block soon....

A recent injury happened on ice-was teaching my kids and got clipped from behind by a wild hockey boy who lost control doing crossovers....I landed on my tailbone and backside, and it knocked the breath from me. Mind you, this was AFTER my herniated disc injury.

This is why little falls from toepicks/jumps, etc don't really bother me as much anymore. As long as I can breathe, not bleeding, can get back up, I'm ok.

[Gareth]

I chose stepping on the ice with guards on.

In August this year I stepped onto the ice with my blade guards, the result was a spiral fracture in my hand which required surgery and a metal plate 8O

What made this worse was it was 2 weeks before show auditions and 3 weeks before rehearsals :frus: Luckily the coaches that were doing the show knew how I skate and gave me on of the main parts without an audition!

[cecealias]

I seem to remember I was playing around with spirals--going on my left foot and was holding my right foot/leg up (what is that? An I-spiral? Can't remember what the heck it's called, but I'm sure not to an I position yet. More like a 120-degree angle maybe). Got too far onto the toepick and POP!! Broke the left ankle in 2 places. . . . :roll:

I caught a toepick on a spiral as I was moving my body position to catch my foot and the doctor said I broke my lowest rib- but we didn't get an x-ray, since there was nothing she could do to help it if it was really broken.

These two injuries are very similar in description to the hockey stop injury I had... it involved catching an edge or toe pick, preventing the skate from moving but the rest of the body keeps going.....

perhaps "edge or toe pick catching" should be named a specific "class" of injuries?

[coskater64]

Jr moves, forward CW power circle, full speed last x/o tripped face first into wall, luckily put arm forward elbow (stress fractured) hit hip/ 10 days before first hip surgery, hit other hip, split open left Knee got 3 stitches, had to cancel Jr test attempt. So annoying....:frus:

[tidesong]

My two worse injuries were falling on a bunny hop and falling on an axel.

Bunny hop took me off the ice directly for how long I cannot remember but my knee was definetly in too much pain to skate after.

The axel, I had trouble walking for a while and was off the ice for months, after which my ankle still hurt on turns which kept me off figure skating for almost a year.

[Morgail]

Okay. Please suggest one. Personally, I am an adult skater, so that is my primary interest. But I agree w your point. It would be interesting to break out age vs. injury. I will try to edit the poll to allow more than one response b/c it seems ppl here have had more than one serious injury. I am curious about all of them.

Seems I cannot figure a way to do this. Can an admin step in to edit the poll to allow multi responses?

Kay

Kay-
If you wanted to post this same poll at a board with more young skaters, you could try www.sashafans.com/forum . They have a lively skater's chat forum with mostly teenage skaters.

[GordonSk8erBoi]

I chose spins because my last injury in May I seriously hurt my calf and ankle on a spin... one minute I was going into the spin, reminding myself of my coach's admonition not to bail out so soon on it :-), and the next, I'm lying on the ice. I wound up being off the ice for something like 10 weeks I think.

My most serious injury though was a broken wrist from a colllision while doing BXOs at a public session. Yow.

[blackmanskating]

I've never been seriously injured. *Knocks on Wood as he praises the Lord* :bow:




BlackManSkating

[Query]

I said footwork. Broke a leg over ten years ago while learning to skate backwards.

I believe I broke it through excessive muscle tension, when I started to fall.

I've had off-ice injuries too.

I used to sprain my ankle once/week, hiking or walking. Didn't know enough to stop and rest, tried to walk it off. Thought skating would strengthen my ankle enough to stop the sprains. It actually did, sort of - the leg break enforced a long rest, which stopped the sprains. :)

I once had a march fracture - a break in a meta-tarsal (extensions of a toe into the middle of the foot), also hiking. It was a steep uphill climb, and I was struggling to keep up with the group, so I was pounding down hard with my feet. About 30 minutes after the hike, while riding home in a car, it started to hurt.

Once the leg healed, I tried to figure out why I was so injury prone. Took lessons in how to fall, spent a lot of time on my own working on it. Came to feel relaxation was the key. Trained myself not to tense as I fell, supressed a little too much the body's healthy tendency to tense muscles as they are stretched.

Was so confident I could fall without danger, became convinced I couldn't hurt myself anymore (fool). Started doing crazy things. Started skating again (idiot). Bought a pair of short little trick skis (without safety release bindings), and took a lesson in basic tricks like skiing backwards, skating, and whirlygigs (spins). Fell backwards. Did a fall that I had practiced extensively on skates, expected a very gentle back roll. The tail ends of the skis crossed, forcing my hips wide open. Totally relaxed, one leg's entire chain of muscles must have been strained (torn a bit) as the stretch abruptly ran out of my range of motion. Ouch! I had paid for an hour lesson, so of course I didn't stop, nor was there time to cancel my ice skating lesson the next day (stupid). Later realized I should have let it heal first. Took months to heal. The failure of that injury to heal from rest alone forced me to learn about theraputic exercise, and that pure relaxation as an injury prevention technique has limits.

Well OK, fall practice was still The Answer to injuries, just needed to refine the techinique. Also took classes in things related to injury prevention. That way I couldn't possibly be hurt ever again, right? (I'm not very smart.) Bought inline skates. Wow do they go fast. Much faster than ice skates. Especially downhill. Hey, that's a big curb. How do you stop? No time to turn. Better fall. No problem, I know how to do that. Started down towards a sliding roll through my hip. Wait! asphalt is rougher than ice. better stop falling (as I'm going down). Oh dear (stopped the motion that would have created a safe slide or roll). Let's think things through. Do we have time to think things through on the way down? Boof. Absorbed most of the force on the hip, ended up with a bruise that took a couple weeks to heal. Oh but that doesn't count as an injury, the bruise that would probably not have formed if I had iced it for 4 days instead of 2.

I had a couple minor sprains as well over the next few years, doing stupid things, though the pain was gone in a day or two.

I've probably spent close to 2000 hours practicing falls by now. One time was practicing falls on ice, in a short sleeve shirt. Must have scratched the elbow without realizing it. Became infected. So the exercise designed to prevent injuries created one. Sigh. (I still practice - in a long sleeve shirt, gloves, and long pants.)

One of the classes I took on injury prevention was with a bunch of college aged ballerinas. The typical ballet dancer has a continuous stream of acute and chronic injuries. Half of the college kids were arthritic. They keep dancing with fractured foot and leg bones, herniated disks, various dislocated joints, and with a complete lack of common sense. They mostly can't do things like tape or wrap, because it would interfere with the chosen line, and I think they don't want anyone to know they are injured, for fear they might not win an audition. They say if they stop dancing for more than a day they will lose all their technique. Have met a few skaters in the same category.

It's been a few years since the last injury. Oh wait. The sore knee I got after too many three turns doesn't count either - it went away after taking ibuprofen for a week or so. Nah. Really doesn't count.

It is possible not all athletically active people demonstrate a logical approach to injuries. At around 50, I completely lack the sense to stop skating or doing outdoor activities. Surely no one else on this board has such a problem.

Here are some other boards you might pump for info, in addition the the sasha board:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=rec.sport.skating
Usenet archive for rec.sport.skating groups
http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Recreation___Sports/Sports/Skating/Ice_Skating
Other Yahoo ice skating groups
http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Recreation___Sports/Sports/Skating/Ice_Skating/Ice_Dance?show_groups=1
Yahoo Ice Dance Groups E.g.,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/icedancers
Ice dancers
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ICW-DC
ICWDC: Ice Club of Washington, DC
http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=adultedge
AdultEdge Mailing list for intermediate to advanced adult figure skaters
http://board.usfigureskating.org/forums
USFSA Skating forums
http://www.mkforum.net/forum
The Michelle Kwan Forum The "On The Ice" forum is about technique
http://www.fsuniverse.net
Figure Skating Universe (Forums mostly for fans)

P.S. I see some of those don't work anymore. Oh well.

[momsk8er]

Worst on ice injury - sprained all my back muscles and had major pain even walking for the next 6 months when a small child fell right in front of me and I had to avoid skating over his hand. So I fell flat on my back.

Worst skating-related injury - broke my foot practicing loop jumps in my family room.

[looplover]

Not surprised to see the results for footwork/MITF...

Fractured shoulder during ISI FS4 footwork.

Probably damaged left knee cartilage merely skating forward - caught toe pick, flew superman style. Haven't had it checked out ...

[montanarose]

In my case, I was hardly doing anything even remotely exotic: I was simply doing back power perimeter crossovers (and feeling quite smug, I must say, about how well they were going) when I started to fall into the circle and put my left arm out instinctively to break my fall. But instead of breaking my fall, I broke my wrist. 8O

Talk about pride goeth-ing before a fall! :oops:

Ellen

[Kelli]

Landed a loop with my left foot crossed on top of my right, cut my right foot at the joint where the big toe joins the foot. I cut through the boot, skin, and down to the tendon. The ER wanted to xray and give me a course of IV antibiotics (tendon infections are bad), but we wound up going with just stitches and oral antibiotics. Oh, and I have permanent scar tissue on my knee cap that's really fun to play with (doesn't hurt at all) from landing Axels forward.

[doubletoe]

Wow, based on these results, I'm thinking maybe I should stay on this footwork avoidance path, LOL! The only falls I've ever had that have landed me in the ER have been on stupid, random stuff. The first time I was doing back cross rolls (cross-behinds) before I knew how to do them correctly and didn't realize I had to keep my weight on the ball of the foot. . . I fell backwards onto my head and left the ice looking like the Japanese flag.
The second time I was stepping out onto a LFO edge from a RBI edge and I caught the left toepick in the heel of the right blade. There's another reason to keep your knees deeply bent; it keeps your feet away from each other! :roll:

[fmh]

my worst injury was stopping hahaha...I always seem to hurt myself on the easy stuff, I'll fall hard on doubles and triples but never seem to hurt myself, but if i fall hard on a crosscut or a stop, I guess I'm not expecting it haha. so on that particular stopping incident I almost broke my kneecap, luckily I didnt but I still had to wear a brace for a year and it acts up still 2 1/2 years later!!

[kander]

Most injuries don't keep me off more than a couple sessions. When I had back surgery I was back on the ice in 3 weeks! My doctor would have had a cow if I fell and undid all his work.

The worst injury I ever had on the ice was when I rolled up on my ankle in a new pair of skaing boots on a double toe. I thought I shredded it. It kept me off for a couple weeks, and I couldn't skate normally for months.

Kevin

[NCSkater02]

I broke my left ankle spinning. It wasn't my poor technique, it was an equipment issue--stupid kid had sharpened my blades (against my wishes) and took both the rocker and the left outside edge off.

I've had at least two concussions--the first just standing around--and we won't talk about the number of bruises. My knees have taken the brunt of most of my falls, but I have cracked a rib and sprained wrists, too.

The real question is, why do we keep going, even after we keep hurting ourselves??

[xofivebyfive]

Hmm well I've had a few. One was when I first tried spinning and I got too excited and fell on my tailbone and it hurt for 3 months. Another I did tripping over my toepick doing backward crossovers. But the worst was when I was doing too many loop jumps and I got a stress fracture which kept me off the ice for about a month.

[Sessy]

Reminds me - my ribs hurt whenever I laughed or coughed for 3 months after bellyflopping from a biellmann spiral. Wouldn't really call that serious though, minor inconvenience. Didn't stop me from stretching.

[Sexy_Lexy]

It wasn't serious at all, but I once got on the ice with my guards on at a competition. That had to be the most embarrasing moment of my life!