A question about the movie Ice Castles

[FSWer]

Say,I was thinking of the movie Ice Castles,and this question came to me. But in the scene were Lexy crashes against the Boards and ends up getting blind. I was wondering if anyone knows if there is any known correct way coaches teach skaters to land to slow an inpact so that doesn't happen to them? As we all know that really can happen in real life if skaters aren't careful. Does anyone know an answer? Thanks.

[saras]

Say,I was thinking of the movie Ice Castles,and this question came to me. But in the scene were Lexy crashes against the Boards and ends up getting blind. I was wondering if anyone knows if there is any known correct way coaches teach skaters to land to slow an inpact so that doesn't happen to them? As we all know that really can happen in real life if skaters aren't careful. Does anyone know an answer? Thanks.

Of all the injuries I have heard of happening to a figure skater or had happen myself, I have *never* heard of blindness except for in the movie Ice Castles.

Yes, any coach worth his or her salt will teach a new skater how to fall, but not with the goal of preventing blindness - rather, to lesson a fall. However, ice is slippery, falls happen.

Anyone really worried about head/brain injuries (which is what could conceivably cause blindness, though it's a stretch and a host of other things would happen first IMO) should wear a helmet on the ice.

[AgnesNitt]

Deleted by user....

[RachelSk8er]

Most skaters will tell you their worst skating injuries came from the stupid, unexpected falls. Standing still talking to your coach, leaning back too far (this mainly applies to dance blades) and crashing down hard on your tailbone, tripping over your toepicks at the end of a session when you're tired and going straight down on your kneecaps, catching a blade in the leg of your pants, catching a rut in the ice, etc.

Falls with momentum (mainly jumps) aren't going to injure you as much, even tough sometimes they may look worse, because the momentum kind of softens the impact on the ice. Granted sometimes it still hurts, just not as much.

If you fall with enough momentum and go sliding toward the boards, it's pretty much instinct to do whatever is in your power to turn yourself so you don't crash head-first, or to use your hands/arms to strike first.

[Rusty Blades]

If you fall with enough momentum and go sliding toward the boards, it's pretty much instinct to do whatever is in your power to turn yourself so you don't crash head-first, or to use your hands/arms to strike first.

Try to avoid knees-first into the boards. That wrecked my knees for 15 years.

[Kim to the Max]

If you fall with enough momentum and go sliding toward the boards, it's pretty much instinct to do whatever is in your power to turn yourself so you don't crash head-first, or to use your hands/arms to strike first.

Agreed!! Can't tell you how many times I wiped out on the Intermediate power circles and had to twist myself as my head raced to the boards!!

[LWalsh]

OK I guess I'm showing my age here...

In the movie she doesn't run into the boards. She's on an outside rink (Rockefellar center?) does a triple jump and trips on some sort of divider and then crashes into some cast iron looking patio furniture.

LW

[kander]

I always thought it was next to impossible to teach somebody how to fall. It happens so fast you don't have time to think.

[katz in boots]

OK I guess I'm showing my age here...

In the movie she doesn't run into the boards. She's on an outside rink (Rockefellar center?) does a triple jump and trips on some sort of divider and then crashes into some cast iron looking patio furniture. LW
Yep, you're right, it's the furniture she crashes into.

Try to avoid knees-first into the boards. That wrecked my knees for 15 years.
OOOWWWWWWW!!!8O

I always thought it was next to impossible to teach somebody how to fall. It happens so fast you don't have time to think.

ITA. The falls taught in first level of skate school don't really prepare you for the whoppers.

I had a glorious fall the other day, doing dance with coach. I went down, made sure I didn't hit my knees. I slid parallel to the boards the width of our rink trying to make sure I didn't hit the barrier. It would've been easier if coach hadn't misguidedly tried to prevent my fall, only to fall herself.:lol:

[Clarice]

I always thought it was next to impossible to teach somebody how to fall. It happens so fast you don't have time to think.

You can't prepare for every eventuality. But you can train yourself to relax into a fall so you go down softly, if you know the fall is happening. You can also train yourself not to try to break a fall with your hands. If you're not afraid to fall, that's half the battle. My worst falls have been on bunny hops and brackets, where I didn't anticipate going down and, as you say, it happens too fast to think. Even then, I've never actually hurt myself falling. Falls on jumps are generally pretty easy to control, since you usually know you're going down. When I work with little kids, the first goal is to take away the fear of falling as much as possible, by playing games that require "falling" and getting up again.

[RachelSk8er]

OK I guess I'm showing my age here...

In the movie she doesn't run into the boards. She's on an outside rink (Rockefellar center?) does a triple jump and trips on some sort of divider and then crashes into some cast iron looking patio furniture.

LW

Yeah I've never seen the movie :)

[LilJen]

What I want to know is, HOW did she do figures after going blind???

[fsk8r]

What I want to know is, HOW did she do figures after going blind???

I know there's a guy who does ice dance and is blind, but I agree that checking your tracing doing a figure might be a little difficult without being able to see it...

[Thin-Ice]

What I want to know is, HOW did she do figures after going blind???

The movie totally glosses over figures. As I recall, in the movie competition is all based only on the big freeskate program. Nobody said it was realistic....

[liz_on_ice]

Of all the injuries I have heard of happening to a figure skater or had happen myself, I have *never* heard of blindness except for in the movie Ice Castles.


I've never heard it either, but it isn't that far-fetched. I knew a woman who permanently lost her sense of smell after a head injury.

[LWalsh]

The movie totally glosses over figures. As I recall, in the movie competition is all based only on the big freeskate program. Nobody said it was realistic....

After showing my age, now I'll demonstrate how I watched the movie a million times:

That's one of the quotes from the movie where she decides to compete again "figures only count for 15% now". Then they decide she can do so well that she'll make it to do her freestyle program. Still unrealistic but at least she wasn't tracing figures blind...

LW

[Skittl1321]

After showing my age, now I'll demonstrate how I watched the movie a million times:

That's one of the quotes from the movie where she decides to compete again "figures only count for 15% now". Then they decide she can do so well that she'll make it to do her freestyle program. Still unrealistic but at least she wasn't tracing figures blind...

LW

And in the remake they are using IJS, so figures are a non-issue :)

[Query]

I have a site on falling, which mentions collisions

http://mgrunes.com/falling.html

but basically, you hit should the boards much the same way you should fall - spread out the impact energy and momentum to as much of the body as possible. Try to roll against the surface, rather than hitting hard and stopping dead on one body part. As with any impact, it becomes gentle only if you practice making it so. The proper response must reach instinctive speeds, and overide the incorrect instinctive responses most adults and many kids produce without practice. It works best if you can make it a fluid extension of the instinctive motion.

Watch hockey players or speed skaters practice hitting the boards. Most of them do it pretty well.

It's easy to imagine blindness and other head injuries if you fall and another skater runs their blade into your face. I think that would be pretty common in hockey and speed if people didn't where helmets. I haven't watched Ice Castles, so don't know what is supposed to have happened.

[katz in boots]

What I want to know is, HOW did she do figures after going blind???

My understanding is that you weren't really meant to look down when doing figures, well not right down at your feet anyway. I am told you could feel the tracing, if you were good at figures 8O

I've never heard it either, but it isn't that far-fetched. I knew a woman who permanently lost her sense of smell after a head injury.

That's a common injury for surfers. Apparently getting hit on the head can sheer off some nerve connections and they don't always grow back. My husband had this happen, bit of a worry for a chef!

And in the remake they are using IJS, so figures are a non-issue
They're doing a remake? Tell me more....

[Clarice]

My understanding is that you weren't really meant to look down when doing figures, well not right down at your feet anyway. I am told you could feel the tracing, if you were good at figures 8O

They're doing a remake? Tell me more....

Yes, in theory the tracing is the inevitable result of correct lean and body position. If you set the edge and set the lean and hold that position steady, you'll trace a perfect circle. So I suppose you could learn to do figures by feel alone, although I think it would be really hard. I don't exactly look at the tracing while I'm doing them, but I do look for the center of the figure.

There's a thread about Ice Castles in Skating News - apparently they're doing a remake with Taylor Firth cast in the role of Lexie.

[kayskate]

What I want to know is, HOW did she do figures after going blind???

I'll sho wmy age, my dorkiness for watching this movie hundreds of times (I have DVD and VHS), and reading the book (I still have the paperback from the late 70s, another from a used bookstore, and a photonovel).

In the book, her coach, Beulah, tells her to feel the figure w her entire body. The original movie, pretty much glossed over it except for the 15% someone else mentioned. And that was in the context of her famous coach taking her on before the accident. Now its a non-issue.

Wonder if the novel will be modernized too. Personally, I loved the tackiness of Beulah's Ice Castle.

Kay

[Clarice]

Personally, I loved the tackiness of Beulah's Ice Castle.


My daughter and I actually detoured through Waverly, IA once on the way home from a competition. We knew there wouldn't really be a Beulah's Ice Castle, but we were still sad that there wasn't.

[doubletoe]

Another reminder about how completely unrealistic that movie was. . . Did anyone else notice they completely left out any scenes showing the official 6-minute warmup before the competition? I always giggle imagining 5 other skaters trying to warm up all of their elements without colliding with this blind girl! :lol:

[daisies]

In the book, her coach, Beulah, tells her to feel the figure w her entire body. The original movie, pretty much glossed over it except for the 15% someone else mentioned. And that was in the context of her famous coach taking her on before the accident.
And didn't the new coach say something to the effect of, "But the figures ... she's too old to ..." -- basically saying she was too old for figures, which is stupid, but whatever. Then Beulah made the 15% remark ... except they weren't worth 15% back then, they were worth 30%! (SP was 20% and LP was 50% ... and if you weren't doing an SP, at Novice and below, figures were still 50%!)

That movie was so unrealistic but of course I watched it 70 million times because I was 12. I also skated to Ice Castles for ISIA (now known as ISI) Freestyle 4!

(At least the movie didn't have them skating in spotlight at competition, like in "The Cutting Edge"!)

[Mel On Ice]

daisies... don't forget about the flowers!

[miraclegro]

:PI have enjoyed reading this thread immensely! I still think Ice Castles is way more realistic, though than that awful Ice Princess movie.

Anyway, i think i have injured myself more from other falls other than running into the boards. I wish i could tell people the reason i fell was falling on a triple!

[Isk8NYC]

I'm a geek - I liked Ice Princess. I think the scifi fan in me is well-trained in suspending disbelief, lol.

I remember HATING Robby Benson's voice in Ice Castles and wishing they had cast someone else. I also bought the album, but somehow the music was better on screen than on ice.

The best part of Blades of Glory was going to see it with a few of the ladies from this board...and the silly waiter afterwards that Renetale kept calling "Scott (Hamilton)" lol.

[kayskate]

I remember HATING Robby Benson's voice in Ice Castles and wishing they had cast someone else. I also bought the album, but somehow the music was better on screen than on ice.


The grossest scene of the original IC was when Nick (Benson) was on the pay phone to Lexie. He was standing there in his underwear. Yuck.

Kay

[Isk8NYC]

I remember that scene. They could have saved it by having him wear Underoos or something silly. Still, he really wasn't what you would call "eye candy."

I was really surprised to find out that he played the Beast in the Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast. I guess they told him to do that husky voice for Ice Castles, but it wasn't sexy, it was sickly, lol.

[Isk8NYC]

I thought of this thread yesterday, while reading a column in the paper that critiqued a new performing arts center. She pointed out the good things this venue did to make the center handicap-accessible and friendly.

She went on to say that, since the parking was located in a garage a block or so away, it would be nice if they added a drop-off area in front of the building. I thought about it and agreed with her. My husband had dropped me off there last month with the kids right in front of the building, but it wasn't marked as a drop-off zone. It took him several minutes to park the car and meet us in the lobby.

The author went on to say they should add a canopy to this drop off zone. It gave me this creepy feeling that she had gone too far. In this recession, this new facility's struggling to put bottoms in seats. I didn't even finish the article after reading that paragraph. The sense of "ask for the stars, settle for the moon" just overwhelmed me. But, the article did make me think about how much better people facing challenges have it today vs. 25 years ago.

I wonder if they'll have to change the premise of "Ice Castles" to bring the movie up to date? If the story were to happen in real-life today, the Lighthouse for the Visually Impaired would be able to provide support for the skater. If the skating organizations tried to prevent her from entering, fifteen lawyers would come out the woodwork with a class-action lawsuit. There would be special assistance provided to help her participate, such as a short, private warmup and definitely no throwies on the ice, lol.

It might be interesting to see what they do with the visually impaired skater storyline.

[MQSeries]

I remember that scene. They could have saved it by having him wear Underoos or something silly. Still, he really wasn't what you would call "eye candy."


Back in the days RB was considered a teen idol.

[doubletoe]

Back in the days RB was considered a teen idol.

Yep! My best friend had a total crush on him. She dragged me to "One on One" (a basketball movie he starred in) after we saw Ice Castles. . . or maybe it was before. . .

[Mel On Ice]

my sister had a crush on him too!

I can't name any one skating movie that doesn't suspend belief, from Ice Castles to Blades of Glory to Ice Princess to Cutting Edge.

[Isk8NYC]

Back in the days RB was considered a teen idol.
To be a teen idol you didn't need a great body, just a cute face, which he has/had.

Speaking of which, Donny Osmond is still handsome. I saw a proposed pilot episode of an Idol-wannabe show hosted by Donny & Marie. Cheesy and sentimental, but he was as cute as ever.

[TiggerTooSkates]

To be a teen idol you didn't need a great body, just a cute face, which he has/had.

Speaking of which, Donny Osmond is still handsome. I saw a proposed pilot episode of an Idol-wannabe show hosted by Donny & Marie. Cheesy and sentimental, but he was as cute as ever.

Donny Osmond is HOT. H-O-T. OMG. 8O:twisted:8-)

THAT show I'd watch!

I've seen Ice Castles at least a thousand times and I've really watched the scene where she falls. If you smack the back of your head in the right place with enough force, you can kill yourself (do irreparable damage to your brain stem, and it's curtains - your brain stem controls respirations, blood pressure, and heart rate, so without it, you can't live) - so it's really NOT farfetched that she could fall, strike her head on metal furniture (or even the ice), and lose her vision.

What happens is your head stops moving, but your brain (which isn't solid, but soft) keeps moving - and slams into your skull at the exact same speed your head was moving before it stopped (good old physics working against you). If the damage occurred to the occipital lobe (which is where sight is processed) - then you're blind. (You can even have an injury where your EYES can see, but because your brain can't interpret what you see due to injury, you're blind.) She could also have done damage to her optic nerve, which then completely prevents information from even reaching your brain in the first place.

On a simpler level, she could have sustained a bleed in the area - and blindness was the result.

Incidentally (can you tell I love neuro?), you can sustain such an injury WITHOUT an impact - all you need is that sudden stop. This is why someone in a car wreck can sustain a head injury without their head hitting the dashboard. Even just slamming forward and slamming back can damage your brain - you're going fifty miles an hour, slam into someone, and your head snaps back. Your head snaps back BEFORE your brain stops moving forward (your head is now going fifty miles an hour in the OPPOSITE direction, while your brain is still going fifty miles an hour going FORWARD, so to speak) - so your brain hits your skull and the result can be just as traumatic.

Sorry - I ran off a bit there. . . :)

[kayskate]

OK I guess I'm showing my age here...

In the movie she doesn't run into the boards. She's on an outside rink (Rockefellar center?) does a triple jump and trips on some sort of divider and then crashes into some cast iron looking patio furniture.

LW

Okay. I'll show my age and IC-geekiness again. According to the novelization, the rink was at the home of the host of the sectional party. The host supposedly owned a boot company. He was supposedly one of Lexie's sponsors. Lexie "borrowed" a pair of boots from the closet and skated on his rink when no one was looking b/c she was upset about Nick seeing her kissing Brian, the TV man.

She was trying a 3axel in unknown boots that supposedly did not fit well. That was stupid. In the movie, she does not prep her axel by skating backward then stepping forward for the take-off. She just skates forward and takes off. That is possible, but no one does it. Maybe for a single. In the movie, the jump is never identified as a 3axel only as a "triple". However, the forward take-off gives away what it is supposed to be.

Kay