My 8 year old compained that her left knee hurt a lot since yesterday.I heard some young skaters have knee problem and the fact that she skated the day before made me worry. She landed a few single axels and had many falls with 2 sal. Do you think the pain is due to axel/2sal? She's been skating for 4 years and skates twice a week. This is the first time that she has knee pain.

Sounds like the double sals and/or the falls are hurting her knee. It's considered an overuse injury. Try RICE therapy for a few days: rest (no doubles), ice (cold compresses), compression (wrap it with an elastic bandage), and exercise (gentle stretching to stop it from stiffening.) ETA: An anti-inflammatory pain reliever will also help.

It'll be bad the day after, worse the second day after the injury. A warm bath with epsom salts will help it feel better on the third day after an injury. From what I've heard at coaches' conferences, they're limiting the number of jump attempts to prevent injuries like this. The repeated "fling and pray" attempts with no rest/recovery periods are causing setbacks and fear in those skaters who get injured as a result.

Young female skaters are prone to a particular type of knee injury, but I'm not sure what it's called - DBNY can name&explain if you PM her directly. She might not answer right away because she's on retreat.

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Is it Osgood-Schlatter's? I think it is somewhat common in young athletes both male and female. I think (can't recall specifically, so again, as DBNY for more info) the pain is on the bony prominence of the tibia just below the kneecap--extreme tenderness. I think it can occur especially after rapid growth--something about the muscles or tendons pulling on the bone and causing pain.

There's another condition called chondromalacia (softening of the cartilage behind the patella), but I don't know much about that.

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Yes, that's the one. (All medical names are greek to me!)

Thanks.

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Thank you Isk8NYC and mikawendy!
I remember reading DBNY's post about this knee problem. My question is my daughter only skates twice a week (2 hours/week), much less than most competitive skaters of her age, and only her left knee hurts. Is it possilbe that the knee is injured because of falls on 2sal?

DBNY's Post

Absolutely possible. The salchow and loop often cause twist injuries on the takeoff knee. Assuming your daughter jumps CCW, she uses her left leg to take off for that jump. If she jumps CW, she may be twisting or banging her left leg on the landing.

Let's see if I can get the timeline correct:

Mon - She skated the session and blew a bunch of double sals with falls.
Tue - Her knee hurt a bit, but not enough to complain about.
Wed - She complained that her knee's been hurting for two days.
Thu - What's the status today?

My guess is that, if you've done the RICE therapy, she'll be feeling better today. If not, and a warm soak/gentle stretch doesn't relieve the pain, ask the pediatrician and/or an orthoped specialist to take a look at the knee.

Don't let her do any double sals without her coach if she's better and wants to go on the ice. She needs to let the injury heal completely. Her coach should take a look at her technique and correct it if it's wrong. A harness (not always an option) will help lessen the impact of falls, if that's what the pain is from.

For future reference, she should be wearing knee pads while learning the jump. Once the falls become fewer, she can do without them so we don't start up the "dependence" threads again! LOL

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Yes! You guessed it. She feels much better today, many thanks to your RICE advice.
She jumps regular direction, is it CW or CCW? I am getting her knee pads for her next lesson! :

I had knee surgery. Stretched my ACL(tendon) and torn my Maniscus(cartilage). That was about 5 years ago. But my knee's still give me some trouble

sk8rabbi_07: did you start knee pain in early age? Take care!

I've had knee pain for quite sometime. I didn't start sk8ing till i was 9 (am now 18) I started getting it about age 7. I was always outside rollerbladeing being a typical kid. Skating just made it worse and worse, landings are specifically hard on the knee's. I actually blew my knee out playing softball for my school. I was the catcher and a girl slid into the side of my leg and it just got worse from there. I couldn't walk on it for a good 7 months after surgery

And here I thought the "Rabbi" was a boy! Interesting choice of IDs.

If your knee's still bothering you, go see the orthopedist. Maybe a round of PT will help.

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Lol It's actually supposed to be Sk8r Abbi but i didn't space them. And I had surgery on my knee so it's ok now.. once and a while a little sore