Life has inherent risks. Anybody can take measures to limit them, but there still are risks. Wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle makes sense to me--I've witnessed too many bike accidents here in California to think otherwise. Wearing helmets for some skaters may also make sense to limit the number of head injuries that occur.

As a skating coach, however, I can tell you that the majority of injuries I witness--especially severe--do not involve the head. The majority involve the legs, arms, or tailbone. I'm not sure how many forms of helmets or padding we could take to avoid each and every one of these inuries. I certainly teach my students the proper way to fall, and have had few injuries as a result. I also acknowledge to my students that skating is risky and that injuries sometimes occur. They know that when they join, I will do everything in my power to teach them how they can avoid severe injuries.

On a different note, life in general is risky. I've managed to fracture my baby toe once by hitting it on my bedpost when walking to the bathroom at night. I've never had a fracture caused by skating. I got a severe cut by hitting a loose wire on my bicycle. Never had a severe cut from skating. These injuries wouldn't have been protected by a helmet--and truthfully, no amount of padding could have prevented them, either.

I was talking about a beginner on a tricycle and a beginner on a bicycle. Both on flat ground, and no obstacles on the ground to make them fall off their rides.

To cut down on the irrelevant comments and plays on words etc, it'd be just better to ask for a show of hands with this following question....

'Would anyone recommend or suggest to new skaters/beginner skaters to *NOT* wear helmets?' (note....recommend, or suggest....not enforce).

I wouldn't recommend someone learning to figure skate to wear a helmet unless they plan to be a hockey skater.

Our rink has a few helmets available for children, which can be hired along with skates. But apart from the occasional very new, very young child, I've never seen them being worn by people who are in lessons or courses.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

We do have one lady at our rink who refuses to skate without one now. Last year she took a tumble (hit a rut) and ended up with a concussion. She went from being a fairly secure skater to insecure and scared and now skates very tentatively. It's a shame. But, she shows up with her helmet on, for her lessons.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Yep...it is definitely sad. I guess that if she had a helmet on, she probably would have been ok and wouldn't have had that trauma experience.

Today, two beginners fell over and hit the back of their heads on the ice - separate incidences. The first one had to be helped off the ice and was in a lot of pain, and the rink supervisor told me that he just fell when I asked him what happened. The supervisor himself said exactly this.... 'if he was wearing a helmet he would have been ok.....like the one you're wearing'. I said ...'yeah....that's why I wear a helmet...in case somebody runs into me'.

The second person wasn't so bad. Had a grimace on the face for quite a while but was basically ok. Beginners that wear helmets are sensible.

I think we all agreed pages ago that it's a good recommendation for some beginners. The debate centered around novice (small n) skaters in lessons. I do think, however, that's it's far more important to learn to fall properly.

In my books, a novice is a beginner that has been taught or self-taught some very basic stuff...like going forwards with simple stroking, and maybe doing a snow plough stop, which is basically still a beginner. I just wanted to clear that up, to try cut down on plays on words.

If one catches an edge or something happens, and the fall becomes fast and out of control, then the art of learning to fall properly becomes next to useless. Which is similar to when you get caught unawares, or caught out by black ice on a road. You take a step onto it...and there's nothing you can do about it...no technique will be useful since it happens so fast, there's no time to do anything.

I see....so if the beginner/novice figure skater falls down and hurts their head real bad, or gets concussion or something....even when they've been taught and are familiar with learn-to-fall techniques, you just say tough-luck to them, right?

I have something I'd like too add. A little over a year ago, I got a concussion while I was doing crossovers, and apparently blacked out too. I knew how to fall properly, but I wasn't expecting the fall, and my feet went out from under me somehow and I landed on the back of my head. Would the concussion have happened if I was wearing a helmet? Maybe, maybe not. Hockey players wear helmets and they still get concussions, so no padding is 100% foolproof.

For a once a year type public skater, maybe a helmet wouldn't be such a bad idea. They're not doing anything besides going around a circle anyhow. And at several rinks I go to, a helmet is required for anyone under 5 or 6 years of age, and they have them available for rent there. BUT, if someone wants to figure skate, they should learn to skate without a helmet. Personally, I can't imagine spinning with a helmet, and losing the peripheral vision, especially on a crowded freestyle session can be IMO, much more dangerous.

The first time back after I had my 2 weeks of concussion free symptoms, I was nervous. But I knew that accidents do happen, and it is an accepted risk of skating. So after starting off slow to get my confidence back, I went back at it full steam ahead. And I believe it's important to not let an injury control you.

Every sport has its risks. Soccer players don't wear much padding besides shin guards, but it seems like they would have a bunch of head injuries as well. If you trip, someone coming up behind you could kick you in the head. Participating in a sport also means that you're accepting teh risks that go along with it. Hockey players accept that they might lose some teeth. Basketball players accept that they might sprain their knees and ankles.

If wearing a helmet makes you feel better, fine, wear a helmet. That's a personal choice. But it's also a personal choice to not wear a helmet.

Sure...a helmet might not completely prevent concussions, but it's going to stop the head from being split open or cracked....ie serious injury. You were lucky that you didn't get a serious injury from that incident. The head/brain is nothing to take for granted....if the skull or brain gets rattled badly enough....it could mean very serious trouble.

I reckon that if someone is practising new and tricky skills, they should wear a helmet at first. And once they're ok with it and have their skill honed up well, they can remove the helmet and then refine.

Some people are saying that once you wear a helmet, you get too scared to take it off etc. Well, that's just something that they're imposing in their own minds. If people adopt the mentality to use the helmet as a safety aid for learning a new tricky skill and then remove once they've got it, then that would simply be routine. It's not going to mess up a skater at all. And if anybody thinks it will mess up a skater's techniques, then they're just weak in the mind, or not flexible or adaptable enough.

Personally, I believe that wearing any kind of protection makes you feel like you have a crutch. A lot of skaters have the same problem with the harness when learning jumps. THey can do some amazing jumps in the harness, even without the coach pulling at all, but take away the harness and they feel lost.

It's a fact of life. I have a hard time skating without my gloves because when I wear them, and fall, I know I won't get ice burn. But take them off, and practicing is much harder. Call me not flexible or adaptable, or weak in the mind, but that's just human nature. You get used to having something there, but take it away, and it just doesn't feel right and you wind up having a hard itme skating.

I don't believe I've ever known anybody get a serious injury from banging their head on the ice, with the possible exception of Tatiana whatsername (the pairs skater). That was a pairs accident, though, not singles skating. And I don't see her wearing a helmet at the Olympic Games, do you?

Sure, I've banged my head on the ice, who hasn't? Once, in eleven years of skating. Once. I reckon I skate probably an average of four times a week, so that would be, say, 208 times a year, so call that 2,000 sessions, allowing for fewer at the beginning. And on precisely one of those sessions did I bang my head. Not even very hard - I seem to remember that after icing it for a bit and taking some arnica, I went and had my lesson as usual.

British skaters who are following Dancing on Ice will confirm that Bonnie Langford, one of the celebrity skaters, has bashed her head at least twice, but still goes out there and performs.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Just like Mrs. Redboots, I don't know of any serious head injuries caused by figure skating.

That being said, to each his own. EastonSkater, nobody is criticizing your choice to wear a helmet. Skating is risky, and each person must decide for him/her self what is the best way to limit risks. If a helmet helps you feel more comfortable on the ice, then by all means, go for it. You need to do what works for you.

I learned to ski without a helmet but more recently began wearing one. Much like your wearing a helmet on the ice, my wearing a helmet on the slopes helps me feel more comfortable with my decision to partake in what I perceive to be a risky sport. Many of my friends, however, do not wear helmets on the slopes.

My choice to wear a helmet when skiing and not when skating is a personal choice due to my perceived risk in both sports. If others choose to or not to wear helmets, I won't second guess their decisions. Taking actions to limit your personal risk--and I use the word personal in order to distinguish from taking actions to also limit your risk to other skaters, such as skating in control--is a personal decision.

There aren't any laws right now dictating that beginning/novice/intermediate/advanced skaters should wear helmets. As such, I know my responsibility as a basic skills coach is to teach my students ways to limit on-ice risk, whether to themselves or others. That's why the fundamentals of a beginner class usually focus on falling properly and skating in control, and why I focus so much on teaching kids to skate in control. I can recommend a helmet until I'm blue in the face, but that doesn't mean that the perceived risk of the parent or student is the same as mine. As such, I have the responsibility to ensure that I give my students the tools they need to be able to skate in control, and hopefully limit risks to themselves and others, at all times.

That would be the rink I had in mind. As I understand it, there was nothing wrong except the ice was slippery (duh!), and the skater was inexperienced. Same kind of thing at the rink at Notre Dame...now no one not affiliated with the University can skate. And apparently it was alumni that sued. Nice.

I would strongly disagree with this. That's exactly when learning HOW to fall comes into play. Let's take the click-of-death falls. (Clicking blades on crossovers.) When I was just a rec skater, self-taught, if I clicked my blades together on crossovers and went down, I went down hard, usually smacked up my knees, scuffed up my hands, and often threw a few other body parts onto the ice for good measure. I still see these kinds of falls regularly with the once-a-year skaters. But once I started lessons, and learned how to fall (and had opportunity to practice it), if I happen to click blades and go down, I've trained myself to instantly tuck and turn to land on the side of my butt--the most padded spot on the body, and the least likely to be seriously injured. And guess what? That's where I land. As a result, I've been injured much less since I've learned HOW to fall, while skating at faster and faster speeds.


I would ask--how much skating experience do you have?

I also think that the falls from faster speeds are safer than the falls from standing still or going very slow. Those tend to be straight down and there's not much you can do in that case.

I too would like to know EastonSkater's experience and level of figure skating skill.

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I have a lot of skating experience. And everybody knows that it is not always possible to control the fall, especially for beginners....it depends on circumstances. It's no good to just pick out a couple of circumstances and say 'yep...that covers it'. There may be times when some speed demon collides with you from behind, and you will have absolutely no time to react because it takes you by surprise.

Anyway, my comments aren't about enforcing helmets. My question was about whether or not anybody here recommends or suggests to absolute beginners/brand new skaters to not wear helmets.....for as long as they're getting used to their basic skate skills.

Let's just put it this way dbny .... my speed, stability, control, and agility would be either equal to or exceed yours on the ice.

I would also not recommend putting beginner skaters in helmets. MAYBE if the helmets were specifically designed for skaters, but not the ones I see on the children at the rink I work at. Most of them are ill fitting and slipping around their heads. I see the helmets throw balance off more than anything. I think it is all in teaching the beginners proper ways to fall and not trying to teach anything more advanced until the balance is there. I have to say that as a skater for 18 years (and this is starting at 3 with no helmet), I hit my head twice, one time I was skating backwards doing pairs and tripped and went sprawling on my back and hit my head into the wall. We were not doing anything but backward crossovers to warm up, even if I had elected to wear a helmet for difficult moves, I would not have been wearing it at that time. The other time I feel on a double lutz too close to the wall and slammed my head on the ice. I was not hurt either of the times. In all of my times teaching and skating I have never personally seen someone hit their heads and hurt themselves. I have seen plenty of split chins, broken arms, ankles, etc but no head injuries. As a person who teaches young children (I have two 5 year old and two 6 year old private students) I would not promote my students wearing helmets. Their heads weigh enough as is, and I would not want to make them any heavier.

Well, my experience only, but... it really depends on how you fall! If you can fall and slide, then probably it would hurt less if you don't slide. (The impact/stopping is what hurts the most.) Of course, the exception is if you go sliding into another person and that person falls on TOP of you, it will HURT REAL BAD, trust me!!! (Guess how *I* know that!!!)

My two coaches does NOT believe in having helmets for skating b/c it obstructs your view and that would keep you from dodging the injury that the helmet is used for. One of my coaches specifically trains her skaters to work on looking around your surroundings and she does her best to make sure her skaters heads are ALWAYS looking STRAIGHT behind them when they do back crossovers. Heck, I do enough head turning/neck flexibility exercises that, in about 10 years, I'll probably take over Linda Blair's movie role in The Exorcise.)

I think it would be better if beginning skaters are taught how to fall and slide on the first day, so the skaters over time wouldn't be so scared, b/c they know how to fall!!!

And while we're on the topic, same with knee pads. Both coaches don't believe in them. Both think that having knee pads is "coddling the skater." One coach also mentioned that knee pads actually restricts your knee bend movement. Only allows me wear them when I'm practicing something where it requires me to drop to my knees (in my case, an ending pose.)

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

It's so nice when everyone agrees. Rarely happens, though.

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Just to clear things up about helmets obstructing view. It depends what kind of helmet it is.

There are cyclist helmets out there (stack-hats), and these do not obstruct view...not even a little bit of obstruction. The foam in these helmets is very light. These would be ideal for beginners. Naturally, the good helmets pass national standards tests and things like that. It would be simply up to who-ever to choose the styling they want.

I think this was the original question from Samantha. I'm sure the Risports will be fine once you've broken them in a bit. Take a few minutes and search the forums where you'll find numerous threads on breaking in skates, adjusting skates, and improving skates! Congrats on your new skates - I'm sure they'll be fine in short order.

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Actually, cycling helmets are among the worst for ice skating. They fail to cover the entire back of the head--the area where ice skating students are most likely to suffer injuries--and the foam used is fairly bulky in back. I have had beginning students injure their heads despite wearing cycling helmets at the time.

Hockey helmets are better in terms of coverage, but they limit visibility more. Still, if I were going to use a helmet for a beginning skater, I'd certainly pick a hockey helmet over a cycling helmet.