This Q is prompted by the LtS thread.
What kind of injuries have happened in your classes or during your private lessons? Age, level of student?

1. Basic 1 student (12 yrs old?) caught toe pick doing back swizzle, fell on her face and split her chin. Needed stitches.

2. Uncoordinated Basic 1 boy (10 yrs) skating fast caught toe pick and slammed into the wall. Bruised cheek. Mother acted like he was mortally wounded.

3. Low FS girl (13 yrs) caught toe pick doing lunge, took a nosedive, bruise elbow and knee, cried hysterically for at least 15 minutes.

Kay

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I get a sense that you have toepick fear. That's not the only way that people get hurt in ice skating.

I've seen:

Skaters of all levels step on the ice wearing their guards and go splat!

Beginners love to stand with their backs to the wall and hang both arms backwards over the wall. SLAM! as their feet slip out and their (hopefully helmeted) heads hit the wall on the way down.
FWIW, our school now has us draw (with marker) a "safety line" about three feet away - the skaters have to stay on that line and aren't allowed to stand next to the wall. That would be great if the Basic 1 students could stand on their own and/or stop anywhere near the line. I plop them down in a circle for the first 10 minutes.

The worst accident I ever had a student experience was during a Basic 4 class. We were working on three turns, with all the students lined up on a hockey line for the t-push. One girl had JUST gotten new skates and she got bored of practicing. She turned away for a second, lost her balance and fell.

I was at the other end of the line, of course, but I skated over and helped her up. She said she 'scraped' her leg with her blade. I called a helper to take over the class and took the girl to the hockey box, figuring it was a little nothing, we'd just rub away the pain. I lifted her pant leg and there was a huge, gaping wound. Carried her off the ice and called the SD who took over, but I was green for a while, mainly out of shock. I don't even know how many stitches she received in the ER, but she never returned for lessons. The pro shop took back the skates, I believe.

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Actually, I do not have toepick fear. These were falls taken by my students. I broke my ankle tripping (catching an edge) in a turn.

Kay

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maybe it's the rental skates at the rink. If the blades have been oversharpened/flattened, that could cause the tripping. (No offense intended, I thought you were someone who IS a beginner skater.)

I've noticed that the Jackson Softecs we use for rentals have the beginners falling backwards more than tripping. The skates are relatively new, but it's a battle to get the kids to stay forward. They fling their arms backwards for balancing and voila! They're sitting on the ice, hopefully without hitting their heads.

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My kids all love to slam into the boards instead of stopping properly. Many of them are at the height where their noses and mouths are at the same level as the top of the boards. I'm just waiting for the day when someone hits their nose or teeth on them. I can totally see it happening the way they like to hit the wall. I've told them over and over to stop properly and they usually don't. I've tried drawing a line away from the wall and telling them they can't go past it and it dosen't work.

I wish we had Jacksons for rentals at my rink. Ours are beyind crappy.

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

The only injury one of my students ever had that required getting off the ice for the entire session turned out to be a broken leg. I don't know WHAT the heck she was doing as she was supposed to be slowly working on 3-turns--I'd just spent quite a bit of time watching her carefully since she was exceedingly enthusiastic (i.e. kind of flinging herself around...). I turned away to talk to another student and she fell and broke her leg. (Our "helpers" got bored and quit before the end of the year so I was on my own.)

Interestingly, a referee in my son's hockey game had fallen and broken his leg in two places about three days before in almost the same spot on the ice.

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Well my dd had her first major accident yesterday She has had her number of bloody lips nose ect. But she fell face first yesterday got a huge knot on her forehead and her nose is all swollen and bruised

She doesnt mind it and said it doesnt hurt but now i am nervous. We had plans to skate today but yikes I feel like i should give it a few days.

aww, sorry to hear that. hope she gets better soon!

We need eyes in the backs of our heads! Same thing happened to me, and I only had two students in the class. All you have to do is sneeze or blink, look away for an instant, and you can have one down and out.

Sorry to hear it. The younger brother of one of my students (he was my student in Mommy & Me last year) was on the ice fooling around with their older brother and whacked his forehead really good yesterday. He also has a big goose egg.

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I was helping my sister learn to skate in a public session a few years ago. I skated off to help her son a little, who was 4 and just learning too. My sister decided to try forward crossovers in the "other" direction, only she was going as fast as on her good side. Splat, over backwards, concussion.

The next year, my nephew had the classic toe-pick-face-first busted chin plus fat lip. Stitches required -- he was going too fast at the time, too.

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#3 really? Jeepers, my 7 yo has done far worse and doesn't ball like that.

It's a lot more humiliating when you're 13 than when you're 7!

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I gave a pick-up lesson to a group of 7 twelve year old girls today. When one of them said she was a little scared, I said "GOOD!" with a smile, of course. The ones who scare me are the ones with no fear at all. They get reckless and do crazy things that they're not ready for, end up throwing themselves all over the ice, and are lucky not to get hurt.

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Kid is a dram queen. She wanted attn. She got plenty.

Kay

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Talking about injuries during lessons. I know i am going to give my coach a heart attack one day. I have only had 2 major injuries and both happened during lessons with my coach. I broke my leg working on the flip in a lesson and was working on a spin lost control went backwards and hit the ice hard with my head and ended up with a concussion. I think i push myself harder during lessons sometimes.

I had a 3 year old bust/bite his lip open during a Tot class. He refused to listen and cooperate (as much as a 3 year old can, of course) and the next thing I know he's wailing at the top of his lungs. I thought he lost a tooth or something, but it turned out that he bit his lip when he fell forward.

Thankfully, that's the worst I've had happen in my nine years of coaching.

My kids (9 and 5) regularly get scrapes and bruises - generally dont cry. Have seen daughter quite pale after winding herself once or twice. A few black eyes and lumps on head. Proud of 5 year old who today somehow got long scrape all along shin and didn't say a word to anybody.

Some of daughters worst falls - waiting in line in group class! (She is taught almost exclusively in group classes). SHe tells me its because she practics footwork that she sees on you tube when waiting and then has to crash because of nearly skating into other kids. I think she is scatter-brained!

At present - mostly ordinary falls. Wondering how many more hundreds of times she will land on her bottom trying to do an axel. (She claims that occasionally she lands a 2 footed one on her feet.) Have wanted to get her padded shorts but currently she is refusing.

Have heard of nasty broken bones at her rink but not witnessed them myself.

PS - Get very irritated with drama queens who sob over little falls.

I agree....we have a drama king at my rink...it gets old really quick, but I can never tell if he is really hurt or not, which is bad because in case he really gets hurt, I don't think anyone will pay attention....

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