My daughter is 7 and currently skating 4 times a week, she is at grade 1 competition level. She has asked for a stretching exerciser to help with flexibility when attempting spirals. My concern is her age, I used to be under the impression that stretching muscles could cause more damage in children rather than enhance. Is this true or is it safe for her to stretch to improve her spirals ?

I am certainly no expert, but my former coach's sister was a physical therapist and i remember her saying that you don't want to "bounce" muscles to stretch or do anything to extremely force them. I know from my own experience, and i'm pretty old compared to your daughter, is working on them off ice and just turning that leg/toe outward, and stretching it without other human or machine assistance will give a huge amount of strengthening and stretching. Reach for the ceiling with those toes and legs.

Also on a "ballet workout" video i have they have an exercise where you sit straddled-like with feet out to ea side on the floor, and try to rotate the legs outward on your own. That helps strengthen the muscles on the innter thigh which helps give a great pointed toe and strong leg.

I also try to balance myself off-ice as if doing an on-ice spiral. My highest score on my recent MIF test was for my spirals, so i must have been doing something right.

Of course, a coach who really has good advice and has concerns about injury possibilities is who i would talk with!

Hope this isn't too much info. Just trying to help!

Stretching and flexibility is good for everyone. Children are naturally more flexible than adults. Just be sure that she doesn't over stretch tell her if it hurts to ease up. Hold a stretch for a few seconds release and then stretch again. She should be able to go deeper into the second stretch. Also make sure she warms the muscles up a little before she stretches with a litttle running or jumping in place. My daughter loves to do my Yoga tape with me it helps her with her strength and her flexibilty.

__________________
Luckey

There's at least one 5-year-old at our rink who joins in the stretching and fitness classes run by one of the skating mothers. However, said mother is a qualified gymnastics teacher and does know what she is doing with the kids.
I think that is the most important thing!

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

Any chlid of any age who is skating should be stretching or he/she will risk injury. A small amount of stretching should be done before skating but after a warm up of jump rope, running in place, etc., and then additional stretching should be done after skating to increase flexibility after the muscles are completely warmed up. But remember, the spiral won't improve unless the skater also has strength in the lower back and glutes. Kat Arbour has excellent materials on stretching and stregthening for figure skaters available here http://www.icedynamics.net/. There is also an excelleng book called Conditioning for Figure Skating, available on amazon.com.

Hi thank you all for the comments, I have read them out to my daughter and we have drawn up a daily routine. She is going to show her coach and the off-ice ballet teacher for confirmation. thanks

Please make sure someone (coach or ballet instructor) shows her how to stretch and that you supervise it for a while to make sure she's doing it correctly, since she's still fairly young. This should include making sure she avoids "ballistic" stretching -- the kind where you bounce -- and making sure she knows how high to count while holding each stretch.

I assume by a "stretching exerciser" you mean the rope-and-pulley thing that they sell in catalogs. It's a cool gadget, but it's really not necessary. It's more important to build up the muscles needed to raise and hold the free leg up than to stretch (and endanger) her hip/thigh muscles.

She should practice with a chair or barre, just getting into the spiral position, then gently stretching to raise or lower the free leg. Maybe the exerciser would be useful when she's looking for those last few inches towards a Cohen-style stretch. In the On Ice section of this board, there's some threads related to improving spirals and flexibility. Probably a better idea than the gadget.

Just MHO.

__________________

Stretching is only good if your muscles are ready for it. Never stretch "cold". Get your muscles warm with jumping rope or at least jogging in place.

Not to discourage any of you, but I could do a split from age 4 and can still do one into my forties. My father could do one at 50. My niece is a year old and can do a straddle split reaching for a toy--What I'm saying is, sometimes it's genetics. You're either flexible or you aren't. I think you can improve on your flexibility, but if you aren't predisposed to being flexible, it's an up hill battle.

I can hold my leg up to my face "cold"---our whole family is just flexible. On the flip side, we're horrible tennis players!! You can't have it all!

On the other side of the fence-I have a hip abnormality that has prevented me from ever getting the splits, and has restricted movement, however, with a diligent and rigorous stretching program, I have been able to gain 4" of stretch in each direction. This has taken me 5 years. If I had seen a different doctor (more positive towards stretching and less enthusiastic towards surgery) and consulted a physical therapist earlier than I had, my gain would have been even more. Stretching has to be done every day. Consistently. I use static and PNF stretching techniques and never stretch cold. My stretching routine takes only 30 minutes. I also take mini-stretch breaks throughout the day (I have a desk job and it's necessary).

It's good to be starting young! You should see tremendous gains, just be sure she keeps it up, be cautious through the growth spurts, and if there are problems, see a physical therapist for a consult. They can spot problems and give you great stretches! Definitly worth the money!

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

...And have the coach or instructor check to make sure that her body alignment is proper during the stretching so as not to place any undue stress on her knees or other joints.

__________________
Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

I(as a competitive NON FLEXIBLE skater) think that as long as someone is helping and showing them what to do, stretching is a necessity! I'm stuck now, looking for a novice pairs partner, and can not /will not be able to do a decent spiral for a while because i left it too long and now all my ligiments are so tight ... you should definitely continue stretching

peace out! take care

__________________
Life's a dance you learn as you go