Most skating injuries are...

[Query]

I just talked to the manager of a local rink about injury frequency.

She says the vast majority occur in group lessons and public sessions, by low level skaters. Most are falling face plants (attributed by her to toe picks - not collisions), in which the chin or the area near the eyebows bleed. Relatively few are backwards head smacks, or arm, shoulder or elbow injuries.

Hockey session injuries are much less common. Generally they are neck and shoulder injuries that occur for the Pee-Wee hockey leagues, just after kids start using checks into the boards.

Freestyle session injuries hardly ever happen. An occaisional cut when someone skates a spiral into someone else.

Anyone have knowledge of injury type frequency at other rinks?

Perhaps this depends on how crowded the rink is? I find Ice Dance sessions are the most scary, because many people don't look where they are going.

Might also depend on what gets reported. Bet many minor cuts and abrasions aren't. I doubt most people report minor bruises, or maybe even minor ankle sprains. The manager mentioned many injuries aren't obvious until a few hours later. I doubt many people report blisters and other minor foot problems.

The discussion happened after an ankle injury. The injured child and the parent sat in the rink office for an hour or more, while the ankle swelled up. I vaguely remember something from a book which said that a detached (at one end) muscle or ligament will die within an hour or two if not re-attached surgically, and you can die altogether even faster from internal bleeding. But the manager said they are not allowed by their insurance policy to diagnose anything (even sprains), and they aren't supposed to encourage skaters to seek emergency medical care too much. (Incidentally, it costs them more to hire someone with higher than first aid level training, because they need more insurance. Remember that when you apply for jobs.)

[CoachPA]

Freestyle session injuries hardly ever happen. An occaisional cut when someone skates a spiral into someone else.

Might also depend on what gets reported. Bet many minor cuts and abrasions aren't.

I had an incident happen a few months ago where one of my little skaters, who was on lesson with me, was accidently bumped in the head by a Senior-level freestyler doing a back extension while both were skating backwards. It was a total freak accident, and thankfully, this girl's boot only bumped my skater's head and didn't knick her neck or cut her head open, but still--the whole incident was pretty scary.

Both skaters were fine, but my skating director still requested that I file an accident report at the front desk. Okay, no problem; however, when I tried giving the employees the completed accident report, they had absolutely no idea what to do with it or why I was filling one out, even though I told them what had happened and that my skating director wanted it submitted if only for precautionary reasons.

I'm pretty sure they ended up tossing it aside or throwing it away all together. :roll:

In a slightly unrelated note, the PSA offers a First Aid for Coaches (https://www.redcrossonlinetraining.org/Distance/Default.aspx?CID=67) course in conjunction with the American Red Cross that can be taken online. (And, I've heard it doesn't take the four hours it says in the course description, although I have yet to actually take the course and cannot confirm that.) Hopefully, by the start of May I'll get around to taking this.

[Isk8NYC]

There are always people who come on the ice with their skates unlaced (or incrediblye loose) and splat out repeatedly. They're not tripping over the toepicks - most of them have been sharpened off anyway! Even better - they get skates that are too large and then they are tripping over their own feet. The skaters pulling themselves along the wall inevitably twist to talk to someone then slip and fall, hitting their head or back on the wall.

Rental skates invite accidents because they're usually in poor condition at many rinks. They have dull or badly oversharpened blades and worn-out boots that provide no support. Even the newish ones are damaged by people flushing the toilet with their foot while wearing the skates. I once saw a guy with a whet stone (for hunting knives) grinding away at the rental skates to "clean them up." (They had rust on the sides.) He took off the entire hollow before anyone stopped him. Must have been fun to skate on those!

Add in chewed-up ice and no rink guards and it's a recipe for disaster. The hockey players want to go fast and weave in and out, using the other skaters as pylons. The figure skaters doing spirals, camels, flying camels, and huge double jumps are dangerous as well. Even though the center's supposed to be for figure skaters, no one knows that so people cut through regularly or camp out with their little ones in the "safety zone." (I always laugh when I think of the center - it's probably even more dangerous when you consider the thrust of a spin entrance.)

In my experience, injuries are usually to knees (from falling forward), hands (trying to "catch" themselves or leaving hands on the ice while others try to skate around them.) There's usually one or two head bumps thrown into the mix.

One woman fell several times at the last public session I went to. Her last one was a doozy of a head-smack that required an ambulance and a reported overnight stay for dizziness and nausea. I think you can attribute some injuries to not knowing when to say "when."

[Query]

In my experience, injuries are usually to knees (from falling forward), hands (trying to "catch" themselves or leaving hands on the ice while others try to skate around them.) There's usually one or two head bumps thrown into the mix.

Are you talking about your experience as a coach and skater, or are you knowledgeable about the number of injuries employees handle at your rink? If the latter, I wonder why you see such different statistics than my cited rink manager.

And what type of session are you talking about?

Do you count falls that just hurt for a minute or two, or do you only count obvious physical damage?

We all see young children fall to the ice and cry once or more a reasonably crowded session, with more confusion and desire for attention then with any sign of actual injury. I'd guess I see a genuine injury once every 10-30 sessions I skate, most of which are minor scrapes and bruises and are not reported to or noticed by management. A lot of skaters routinely skate with blisters and similar foot problems, which they rarely mention unless asked.

Then again, I mostly skate at uncrowded rinks with smooth ice (BTW, usually without rink guards), and am not in a position of authority.

I assume you don't usually see one or two head bumps in a typical public session, unless people in NY are genuinely crazy. Do you mean in a month or year?

[Isk8NYC]

Are you talking about your experience as a coach and skater, or are you knowledgeable about the number of injuries employees handle at your rink? If the latter, I wonder why you see such different statistics than my cited rink manager.

And what type of session are you talking about?

Do you count falls that just hurt for a minute or two, or do you only count obvious physical damage?

We all see young children fall to the ice and cry once or more a reasonably crowded session, with more confusion and desire for attention then with any sign of actual injury. I'd guess I see a genuine injury once every 10-30 sessions I skate, most of which are minor scrapes and bruises and are not reported to or noticed by management. A lot of skaters routinely skate with blisters and similar foot problems, which they rarely mention unless asked.

Then again, I mostly skate at uncrowded rinks with smooth ice (BTW, usually without rink guards), and am not in a position of authority.

I assume you don't usually see one or two head bumps in a typical public session, unless people in NY are genuinely crazy. Do you mean in a month or year?
Remember what Felix Unger said about assuming.... ;)

This is an interesting topic - I witnessed an injury a few weeks ago on an abnormally-busy public session. It's a public, so they're supposed to go around the rink in a CCW direction with figure skating in the middle. Usually, the session has only a dozen skaters, but there was a competition that weekend so a lot of young skaters came to practice their programs.

Two girls were practicing their programs, skating backwards when suddenly one changed direction, heading against the traffic and putting her on a collision course for the other. I called out "Look out." but there wasn't enough time for them to stop. They clicked blades and both went down. I helped them up and said "You both have to look behind when you're going backwards with others on the ice. You never know when someone's going to fall on the ice behind you." I knew one of the girls from group lessons, but neither of them had looked behind after they started skating backwards, so they both needed to hear that.

The girl I didn't know kept holding her hand - she must have fallen on a rough patch of ice because she had a little indent. I told her to get some ice from the snack bar. Her mother came over to thank me for helping her, but took a minute to say that "the other girl" was wrong because she didn't look. I was tongue-tied because her daughter was going against traffic. Two wrongs don't make a right!

I decided to stay out of it and said "I told them both the same thing - everyone needs to look behind themselves when they're skating backwards." I also told her that she could file an accident report at the front desk, but she decided it wasn't that serious.

So, why are you surprised that someone ON THE ICE would know more about what's going on than the guy sitting in a heated office or at a front desk without a view of the session?

My view is based on:
∙ My experience as a coach and skater.
∙ I'm on three or four publics each week with students as well as skating for myself.
∙ Moderate to busy public sessions.
∙ Skaters that take more than a few minutes to get back up after a fall.

There are usually no ice guards at the public sessions I've skated on in the last two years, so when someone falls and doesn't get right back up, I usually help them if no one else gets there first. It's partly my first aid training, partly my own sense of responsiblity as an adult and a staffer. I'm sure people think I'm a busybody, but I just can't ignore an injured person laying on the ice. My skaters and their parents don't have an issue with it because I never cheat them out of lesson time and I explain that I would want someone to do the same for anyone.

Accident reports in both the NYC and NC rinks are only filled out if the skater needed assistance from staffers to leave the ice or if an ambulance was called. That's been the rule of thumb in pretty much every rink I've worked at in the last ten years. If your manager's only looking at people who come to him/her, that's not a proactive approach or a complete survey.

I see at least one head bump on almost every public session and the first lesson of each LTS session. Most are minor, some leave a goose egg, but only rarely are they enough to require first aid (and a report).

I usually give the little ones stickers to distract them and subtly check to make sure that they're not seriously injured. I tell the parents to get ice from the snack bar and guilt them about wearing helmets. (I guilt the adult beginners too, esp. the ones who have kids at the session with them. Imagine trying to drive a vanful of kids home with a concussion!)

Whenever someone gets hurt, I tell them to get ice from the snack bar, figuring the front desk is right there and they can get more help if they need it.

There's one public session that the front desk staff, the lifeguards (who provide first aid) and I are astonished by - there's at least one injury each week. It's become a running joke between us, we started a pool this week - "How many are going down hard this week?" The session is at a convenient time, it's inexpensive, and uncrowded. It attracts a lot of beginners and first-time skaters.

[jazzpants]

Let's see... as the person who probably had the most injuries at my rink... :P :lol:

I've had so far:


Knee cut and badly bruised knee from dodging (by jumping over) a beginning kiddie skater who fell in front of me during 5 step mohawks. (No report filed but a fellow skater who's a nurse did take good care of me! She knows who she is... :P ) Ironically, the next time this happened (where another kid fell right in front of me) I'd managed to learn to jump over and fall properly this time. No report filed. FS session. My primary coach and the fellow skater/nurse helped me up.
A collision where I ended up with a bruise near my eye... both of us were doing back crossovers... No report filed... FS session. I think a fellow skater escorted me out.
(At another rink) The evil "click of death" on a forward crossovers!!! Knees badly bruised for 3 weeks... (No reports filed... coffee club session)
(At yet another rink) Nasty fall on the knees from dodging another skater... wasn't that bad though... was back on ice right after the incident, but I did file a report there since an ice guard had to escort me off the ice!!! (Public session)
(At the previous rink) Bad landing on a waltz-waltz sequence! Don't know how I ended up landing funny but I pulled my shin on the landing and just couldn't hold an edge. DROVE myself to home (to get DH) and then to ER. Was on crutches for about 3 weeks and wasn't back on the ice for a few more afterward. No report filed...but only b/c there wasn't a fall or a collision involved and the ice guard didn't help me out of the rink. If anything, I kinda didn't tell anyone about it. Just quietly slipped off ice, took off skates and hobbled over to car. (Public session.)

Same as ISK8NYC on the accident report policy... usually the case that unless I am escort out by staffers or an ambulance is called that I don't file an accident report. (But don't coaches count on the "staffers" part? :?? )

[Skittl1321]

I don't think accident reports are a reliable source of injury reporting. They just don't get reported.
I personally have broken a rib and severely bruised my tailbone at the rink, I didn't fill out an accident report either time, and I doubt they know about it.

The only injury I've personally had to deal with in LTS was a MAJOR bump to the front of the head- coming OFF the rink, he tripped over the step and slammed into the boards. I got ice for him, and his parents took him home. The next week he came with a still visible bump, but still not accident report was filed.

[Scarlett]

I also wouldn't trust the statistics on incident reports....I smacked my face hard on a public session, got cleaned up by my coach and ended up going to the ED to get stitches. No incident report was ever filed though one of the rink mgmt who ended up going on the ice to clean up the blood did ask my coach how I was doing.

[phoenix]

Same here--I'd say knee bangs, wrists/arms, head bumps the most common. This is from my own experience, speaking for myself, and my students/other skaters around me (14 years worth). I've never reported my injuries to the rink. I've had a concussion, majorly bashed knees, tailbone & hip, and various other less serious bangs. I had a student with a concussion (that one left in an ambulance, so it was reported), and another w/ a broken wrist (which they didn't figure out was broken for a few days, & it wasn't reported).

On publics the most common (major) thing I see is people go over backwards & bang their head.

[Sessy]

I haven't talked to the management or anything, but from my own observations, in almost all accidents that happen during public sessions that require the involvement of the personnell there is an involvement of those skating racks that are allowed on the ice for beginners supposedly to learn to skate. In fact I very much doubt they do, since if you lean on such a rack you are learning the balance wrongly.
Worst of all, these injuries in children are almost always injuries to the head, specifically, the front and the sides of the head like between the forehead and the ears - a very bad spot to get hit. People get run into by a different skater, or they trip themselves, and for children - the top 2 bars of the rack are at head level or just below. The first thing that happens during such a fall is, one of the bars smacks into their head. For adult people, the rack often just slides away but for children... Wouldn't give my kid one if I had one, that's for sure. How come the racks are such a commonplace still is beyond me.
Usually it doesn't look like the kid has more than a bump but neck injuries usually don't hurt right away and concussion doesn't always go with nausea.

The other public skate accident prone group are young men in (often rental) hockey skates doing stupid things. Mimicking toe jumps and landing on the jaw, sitting on the boardings and falling off them backward smacking their head into a hockey booth seat, that sorta stuff - I've only seen two but there have been several more. These are often the stuff an ambulance is called in for so there's probably some sort of accident report for these. They rarely happen but you know... gossip mill. In the absence of patch ice everybody trains at publics too so pick any public, there's almost certainly someone from the club there...

On the non-accident side... Blisters. That's what you get for hard plastic rental skates... Anti blister plasters are probably more popular than coca cola bottles and fries...

Other than that... Well collisions and falls that people fix up themselves are probably not even recorded, it just wouldn't be the dutch style. We're not a sue-prone people. I'd also say it's a good bet that skating accidents that happen during training hours aren't reported since there isn't even any staff around, just the club's coaches, and they'd be the club's responsibility anyway (unless maybe if somebody got like... run over by a zamboni or something). :lol:

[Sessy]

I don't think accident reports are a reliable source of injury reporting. They just don't get reported.
I personally have broken a rib and severely bruised my tailbone at the rink, I didn't fill out an accident report either time, and I doubt they know about it.

I broke my ankle during a club training, bellyflopped in a competition a my local rink after which my ribs hurt for months (never actually saw a doctor about that, lol) and banged my knee so badly it got all swollen up once - never reported any of it either. Gashed my hand once on my blade in a biellmann, that one was noticed by staff because I was bleeding all over the place but I doubt they reported that either. Official rink policy is that you must wear gloves, you're reminded of it everywhere and if you don't it's your own problem.

[NCSkater02]

young men in (often rental) hockey skates doing stupid things.

Do young men do any thing that's not stupid?

I've had at least three concussions, multiple bruises and bumps, one broken ankle, separated a rib once.......I'll stop there. The only incident report was for the first concussion. The rink had only been open about three months, and I was the first injury. Such a dubious honor.

[Isk8NYC]

I really think that figure skaters should file accident reports if they are truly injured. Not the minor bumps and bruises, but a cracked rib or broken ankle - definitely. I once hit a woman while doing a spiral and she ended up needing several stitches, A week later, she asked me to help her fill out the insurance claim and the details (time, witnesses) were hard to remember. (We were the only two on the ice, but others were in the rink.)

The reason, in my mind, is that the USFSA and ISI both provide insurance coverage for these injuries. Without an accident report, we might not be able to file a claim if needed. (That insurance is secondary to our personal insurance.)

[AgnesNitt]

I don't know what the official rink policy is where I skate but I do know that when a woman fell and cut her scalp open, adult rink staff appeared with a first aid kit and surgical gloves. I think all they did was assess it to describe it to the woman and give her a cold compress. They seemed to have an injury protocol for public sessions.

[Skate@Delaware]

Hockey session injuries are much less common. Generally they are neck and shoulder injuries that occur for the Pee-Wee hockey leagues, just after kids start using checks into the boards.

This is disconcerting---I didn't think that pee-wee leagues were ALLOWED to check?

We have the typical run of injuries: split foreheads, face-plants, banged up knees, elbows, etc. Some concussions. As far as I am aware, only 2 reports of broken bones on publics (can't say for hockey games except for one and I know the guy personally).

close calls from backward spirals are common. as are jump landings occupying the same space as another skater (less common).

and, the jewel of all of them, taking the ice with guards on.

[sk8lady]

When my home rink has ice, I'm on either public skating or figure skating 5-6 times a week, plus coaching an hour of hockey Learn to Play, plus the occasional hour of coaching Pee Wees (Pee Wees in the U.S. DO check; Pee Wees in Canada do not); an hour of refereeing Mite or Squirt games; and one to two hours watching Pee Wee games (who thinks up these hockey level names anyway?), plus I talk to management about injuries pretty regularly.

We had one broken leg in Basic Skills last year. The same week, one of the older referees fell and broke his leg and ankle. The week before that, one of the travel Pee Wees checked another player (a girl who weighed about as much as his right leg) into the boards in the last 3 seconds of a game (his team was ahead by a substantial amount, he was just a jerk). The other girl on the team had already had to leave the ice after an ankle injury. There are always a lot of minor injuries and concussions. (I can't imagine what kind of hockey sessions your rink has where there are hardly any injuries--do you have very polite teams?) Anything which does not require an ambulance to come and take the injured person away does not merit an accident report.

There are rarely injuries of more than the falling-down-and-being-briefly stunned variety at weekday public skates, but a fair amount of injuries, including concussions, cuts, falling into the boards, collisions (sometimes resulting in the aforementioned concussions) on weekend public skates when it's crowded.

The figure skating sessions rarely result in injuries other than falling down and getting the wind knocked out of someone--they are not very crowded and that makes them safer.

Hockey results in SUBSTANTIALLY more injuries than anything else at the rink--although there are probably still less than they have in soccer at the same level!

[Query]

Now that I think of it, to first approximation, single person injuries should be roughly proportional to N (the number of people on the ice), and injuries from two person collisions should be roughly proportional to N*(N-1).

So the rink sessions my estimates were based on, where N is usually 1 to 10 when I choose to skate, of course has much lower injuries accident rates, and far, far fewer accidents caused by collisions than at more popular rinks and sessions.

So one probably can not generalize injury rates rink to rink or session to session. Now that I think about it, I've skated a lot in the rink the mananger was estimating rates for - and what I see on ice doesn't match what she says. (She consulted a rink guard - but I guess he wouldn't choose to disagree with his boss.)

(BTW, plastic boots are not the reason for blisters here. They mostly use pretty good leather rentals, but in only one width, and they don't give people much guidance sizing and lacing. They have Soft Tek, etc. boots too, but most people find them pretty comfortable).

I've had several injuries I can think of, in 9 or 10 years of skating, between 5 and 20 hours a week. (About 5000 hours total. Guess I've wasted a lot of time on the ice.) One broken leg (fought a fall too hard), one bloodied palm (forgot skate guards), one scratched elbow (in a practice fall while foolishly wearing a short sleeve shirt) that became infected (didn't realize it was scratched, so didn't wash it). Once made a muscle strain worse by skating in spite of the injury. And sometimes got blisters before learning how to prevent them. None were reported (wasn't sure that leg was broken). I helped cause an injury, when two of us skating backwards collided, and the other guy fell and hit the back of his head. He clearly had a concussion, but kept skating. That was very scary.

As for the low injury rates in hockey sessions, D.C. area people are too competitive to be polite - you should see our roads. The rink in question makes them dress in full safety gear, even for stick and puck, and at least one coach spends a lot of time teaching them to fall and collide safely.

The walkers beginning skaters use to learn are involved in a lot of collisions - because kids who can skate use them to ram each other and others at high speed.

[katz in boots]

"Most skating injuries are..."

Not reported at our rink. There is a sign saying that they have no insurance and we skate at our own risk. We sign waivers for our association saying they are not held accountable for any loss or injury at their sessions/events, coachs' forms ask us to sign to the same thing.
So who would we report to?

[Sessy]

"Most skating injuries are..."

Not reported at our rink. There is a sign saying that they have no insurance and we skate at our own risk. We sign waivers for our association saying they are not held accountable for any loss or injury at their sessions/events, coachs' forms ask us to sign to the same thing.
So who would we report to?

Well I guess every rink has a complaint form procedure, but that's more appropriate for like... If they don't remove a person who keeps pushing others over, or if you get run over by a zamboni or something... :twisted:

[Skate@Delaware]

I guess my rink is different-our hockey leagues (Pee-Wee's) do NOT check and you can get banned if you do.

Adult leagues are another story.

I've cut my hands on my blades, suffered a concussion myself (dumb, fell forward whiile skating in hockey skates and had temporary amnesia forgetting they had no toepick-kersplat). Other assorted bumps and bruises. My back injury was NOT caused from skating (home moving furniture and herniated my back).

[Skittl1321]

"Most skating injuries are..."

Not reported at our rink. There is a sign saying that they have no insurance and we skate at our own risk. We sign waivers for our association saying they are not held accountable for any loss or injury at their sessions/events, coachs' forms ask us to sign to the same thing.
So who would we report to?

It doesn't look like you are in the US, but in the US- this would not fly. A waiver is essentially meaningless if you get a good lawyer. When I broke my neck at a paintball place where I had signed a waiver, they were all over the place trying to keep us happy so we wouldn't sue (we didn't intend to, accidents happen, but I was only 17 when I signed it, and a minor can't agree to a contract, technically). It would have been pretty easy to prove negligence, and I think at our rink, it would be pretty easy to do the same- they have rules posted but do nothing to enforce them, nor do they employ rink guards. The staff is often not within view of the rink. For that reason I won't skate early mornings unless someone else is on the ice. I shudder to think how long I could be down on the ice hurt before someone notices. (During the day I figure a mall walker might see...) Skate at your own risk still implies some sort of responsibility to the rink.

Not to mention, while you are probably talking about freestyle sessions, unaccompanied minors are allowed to skate on public sessions (say middle schoolers who come to the mall) without a parent's permission, so they can't legally agree to an "unspoken contract" of agreeing with the rules.

The rinks do carry insurance- but it's to protect themselves, not those on their ice.

I thought of another injury- on a freestyle session a girl had to get several stitches after running into another skater- both were going backwards with their legs up, and he ran into her and slashed her wrist. (And the injury stories my group coach tells me- man I want to get out of skating. He said he and his partner once had to both go to the hospital for bleeding head injuries after a fall in a lift- the hospital thought it was a car crash. This was a story told to get me to stop doing something in mohawks that might result in me stepping on my blade, the cause of said fall, but instead it just scared me like crazy and made mohawks harder!!)

[Isk8NYC]

It doesn't look like you are in the US, but in the US- this would not fly. A waiver is essentially meaningless if you get a good lawyer. <snip> The rinks do carry insurance- but it's to protect themselves, not those on their ice.There's a company that manages several rinks in NYC. They not only had the parents sign a waiver that clearly said they couldn't sue and were not insured in any way, they had a "form room" like a ski place with a NOTARY to notarize the forms, lol. This is for ANY session at those rinks, including birthday parties.

I had asked my law professor about the forms. He said they wouldn't work - if they're negligent, they can be sued. You cannot be forced to sign away your right to sue, according to him. The forms were just intended to discourage frivolous lawsuits and threats, but they were toothless.

[Sessy]

I had asked my law professor about the forms. He said they wouldn't work - if they're negligent, they can be sued. You cannot be forced to sign away your right to sue, according to him. The forms were just intended to discourage frivolous lawsuits and threats, but they were toothless.

It's the same thing over here in the Netherlands, although you can, in some cases, be forced to sign away your day in court in favor of mediation or an ombudsman.

[Yui]

i injured myself while helping my beginner friend. ive been skating for a year and a half

[SkatEn]

I studied Business Law last semester. In Singapore, there is the Unfair Contract Terms Act (UCTA). Basically, even if you sign a contract stating that you will not hold someone responsible for any personal loss, injury or even death, it is not recognizable in the eyes of law if said injury or death arises from negligence or carelessness of the company/employee and is preventable.

I think it's similar in the UK? Some of Singapore's laws are passed down from British colonial rule.

Also, the contract must be made known to the person signing it. For one, I already spot how the limitation of liability is well, limited. At my rink, there's this panel of rules and regulations and stuff like that at the rental skates area. You'll only get to see that AFTER you paid to enter.

From the past times I fell, no one told me to file any accident report. I have never seen anyone filing any reports.

The thing is, how many people are actually willing to shell out so much money for a lawsuit when the hospital bill does not even come up to a tenth of the lawyer's fees?

[Sessy]

Here in the Netherlands, with any costs that you declare to your health insurance, you have to check a box on the declaration form that says "Was this the result of an accident which may be somebody else's fault?"
Presumably, it would be the health insurance company (who tend to have in-house lawyers) trying to get some of their money back who'd sue, possibly. Well obviously, not for a few stitches. But for something require long-term treatment, they might if there was negligience.

And as far as I know, most countries don't allow contracts which go against certain (vital) parts of the law, they just declare them unbinding from the beginning. Otherwise, you could just enter into a contract that says you're somebody else's slave or something!

[liz_on_ice]

Ickiest injury I've seen - someone just standing against the boards for a few minutes just suddenly went down. Her feet got tangled and she got herself a good slice in the shin with the tail of her blade. She didn't feel it and bled a fair bit onto the ice before she realized she was hurt.

I think this is pretty common, I've got several healing nicks and scrapes around my legs from falls that were otherwise completely harmless, except for those knives stuck to my flailing feet.

Worst I've had myself - I went flying off my toepick on a forward spiral. I landed well, distributing the fall from hands to forearms to chest so nothing hit too hard except my free leg went out of control and into the ice knee first. That was seriously painful, but didn't break anything.

[AgnesNitt]

I think this is pretty common, I've got several healing nicks and scrapes around my legs from falls that were otherwise completely harmless, except for those knives stuck to my flailing feet.



Yep, same here. Doing a Jenkins spiral, caught a toepick, jammed the heel of the blade of the free leg into the thigh of my skating leg.

The Big Guy says the most dangerous move in figure skating is standing on the ice listening to someone tell you something funny. You laugh, you fall.

[Isk8NYC]

One of my group lesson students took a spill during a class on new, sharp skates. She said she "scratched" her leg, so I helped her into a hockey box and pulled up her pant leg. I think I turned green when I saw that her shin was sliced to the bone. I had someone cover the class and carried her off the ice to get first aid. Fortunately, it wasn't bleeding yet. Her mother was a nurse, but she was panic-stricken by the sight of that gash - it had to be 4" long. After the ER and stitches, the kid never came back to skating.

[RoaringSkates]

I've seen several serious injuries on the ice. I just want to add that if your gut tells you to call an ambulance, you call an ambulance - even if the person on the ice tells you not to. Call. Let the injured party refuse medical treatment once the ambulance arrives.

Because 9 times out of 10, the injured person wants you not to call the ambulance. 8 times out of 10, maybe they're right, and they don't need it. But that 1 time...