Yeah. The little kid collision was on a virtually deserted rink. When I set by back biellmann up, I was gonna do it on a straight line along the boarding on the right side of the rink, and the kid was skating forwards on a line on the left side of the rink, both going ccw. I checked over my shoulder before grabbing the blade. He would've had at the very most 5 seconds to make it across the ice to the point of collision, and he could barely stand up. I didn't think it was possible. I guess the magical attraction of camel spins works for biellmann spirals too.
I basically just knocked him over with the full length of my leg against the full length of his body, and I managed not to fall on him. Kid had a nasty bump on his head though, from smashing with his head into a sharp edge of the iron chair construction he was dragging along the ice (they give those to beginners to learn but I think they're plain hazardous - at the end of the session the kid bumped into his little sister and she ended up smashing her head into one of those racks and earning herself a bump on her head too).

And the kid was like 4 and his mom wasn't even on the ice rink so nobody was watching the kid so I think I'm not the only one to blame, but I still feel really sorry. I mean really.

I've probably said this before, but why do I almost run into my daughter more than anyone else on the rink?

I had a curious near-miss the other day, when some kid just skated straight forwards into me as I was starting to spin. I was doing my program so had right of way, and was in lesson to boot. I start spinning and next thing I see in the blur is the kid coming straight towards me. If i'd not pulled my leg in rather quickly we'd both have been down. Strange thing was, she did it straight in front of my coach. This kid has been a nusiance for the last few months and no one has said anything to her or her parents about it, and has caused numerous near misses and also many accidents. Thankfully my coach moaned at the head coach about it, so the kid has at least been clocked. But they still haven't said anything to her about it, as she was getting off the ice having just nearly killed me.
Personally some of the near misses are scarier than the accidents as I start panicking about what might have happened and that sets my nerves on edge.
I do still feel really guilty for colliding with a beginner adult as we were both going backwards at different angles. I was checking over my shoulder and she approached from the blindspot. She was the one to hit the ice as her balance was the weaker, but I felt terribly guilty and would hate for her nerves to have been shattered so much that she didn't come back. I don't think she understood why I was apologising so much.

That reminds me of a test session I was at a few years ago where a mother and daughter were both testing on a double panel. They didn't actually collide, but did wing each other. Must be some sort of magnetic attraction!

For the record...both passed.

I had a bad collision with a young one too, don't want to go into details but I was glad there was no serious damage done. My heart could have stopped when it happened...

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Tidesong

I haven't had too many collisions, but they are usually from the hockey wannabes in public sessions. Near misses are just all the time on our 1/4 size rink with up to 20 skaters in busy freestyle sessions, especially now while everyone is engrossed in their own program leading up to a competition.

However I had to laugh last night because for a few minutes there were only a couple of us out there, and we kept getting in each others' way.

As I always joke; "How many figure skaters on the rink at the same time are too many? Answer: 2."

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Once when I was at a public session, before I seriously took up skating again, a little kid fell right in front of me, and I had to fall to avoid stepping on him. I didn't fall well, as I had no time and I had to worry about my skates and the kid's face. I barely could walk after that fall, and didn't get back on the ice for about two years, I was so shaken up.

Now that I have more control back, I don't think that would happen exactly that way. I've collided with several little kids on freestyle sessions, and mostly been able to grab them so they don't fall. What I worry about is the dancers, especially high level dancers. I had a near collision with my daughter's dance coach and another student recently. My coach saved me from that one. I hate it when there are more than one high level dance lessons on the ice at the same time - doing different dances. No area of the ice is safe. Spinning is nearly impossible. By the time you are into a few revolutions, some dance couple is bearing down on you.

I also cannot count how many times I had collisions or near-collisions with other skaters... here are just a few

worst:
I was doing a back spiral in my program during competition ice time. I didn't know there was another skater standing right in my path. My skate was right at her neck level - good thing it wasn't serious, just a graze...

funniest:
In the ISI couples 6 program, we had to do a footwork sequence mirrored. At the top of the sequence we cross paths just after a FI bracket... So, doing this program in an exhibition one time, we collided, back-to-back, right after the bracket! It was hilarious!

scary:
During my program, I was going for the double toe, which I would precede by a split jump. There were two little kids sitting on the ice exactly where I would land. I yelled "excuse me" before I started the split jump, and I nearly got a heart attack to see they were still there when I stepped forward for the FI3 toe loop entry! I aborted, nobody was hurt, but I was pretty miffed that I couldn't complete my program. (this was not public time, and my music was on)

close shave:
Many years ago, during stroking class, we were doing backward crossovers in a circle, when an older lady who was immediately behind me fell. We were going so fast I couldn't stop in time, I made a quick decision to jump over her!

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These are the ones I remember:

At a crowded public session, skating with my young daughter, a kid - maybe aged 10 - who couldn't skate and yet was moving very quickly and not looking where he was going darted directly in front of me. In order not to crush him or plough him down, I picked him up by the shoulders of his jacket, lifted him and took him with me until I slowed, stopped, and placed him back on the ice.

Another kid, a boy maybe age 15 or 16, skating with his friends and not knowing what he was doing, crashed into the back of me somehow, and held on for dear life. Of course, because he was holding me so tightly, his... ahem was positioned directly in my... yup, and we both burst out laughing, as did all his friends.

Another time, on an ice dance session with elite skaters, one elite team was going backwards, as was I with my coach. At the time, my coach and I had right of way, due to the music. Must have been in each other's blind spots, because the woman on the other team and I hit backs at full speed. The only reason I didn't go down was because my coach held me up, but I did lose my breath there for a moment. Lots of "sorry," "sorry," after that one.

I also remember banging into a free skater on freestyle ice at one point. We saw each other coming, both swerved in the same direction, and boom.

Heh, something similiar happened with me a long time ago. I was standing by the boards talking to somebody. Unbeknownst to me a girl skated up behind me and was just standing there. While I was talking I made a sweeping arm gesture. One guess where the arm went

I've only had a couple collisions. I have pretty good awareness when I'm on the ice. The more interesting collision was when I was spinning. I was in the spin for several seconds when I saw this dark blur moving towards me. I figured whoever it was couldn't possibly not see me so I let the spin go. When she ran into me a few seconds later she bounced off like a top and it barely slowed me down. I'm usually the one left standing in a collision. It turned out to be a teenage girl in a herd of girls who didn't know how to stop.

One thing I've noticed is that if two skaters get in a near collision and they are both having a lesson, then the two coaches give each other the stank eye. I find that sort of amusing.

Kevin

Years ago, I was practicing something or other in the center during a public session. Had some out of control kid come flying up behind me and fall, planting his blade on the back of my knee. Miraculously, I did not get cut but I had one heck of a nasty bruise and it hurt like crazy.

Very recently, I had my kids skating at a public session (I was watching from the sidelines...had not gotten my new skates yet). There were tons of hockey guys there that day. One guy was flying around the rink like a wild man...so fast. He rounded the corner right where my 6 year old was. She moved to get around someone who had fallen in front of her and we saw this guy coming at her at full tilt. He ran into her at full speed and they both went down. We thought she was a goner, but the guy managed to scoop her up as he hit her and protected her as they fell. Not a scrape on her, and he was quite apologetic. She's not so jazzed on public sessions any more. Go figure.

Well, i have been fairly lucky so far, but the most shocking one was when i was going backward (looking over my shoulder) and an 8-year old was going backward (looking also) but we were looking over the shoulder where we didn't see each other! We were in each other's blind spot, and she's shorter so that made it even more of a blind spot, and WHAM! I was like "what in the world was that?"

Well, guess what! It was MY own student! I was mortified b/c i teach my kids to look where they were going and it STILL happened. We each thought we'd hit a wall!

Fortunately, only our pride was hurt!

I ditto the small children collisions. My boyfriend works as a hockey instructor and sometimes I'll go dittle around the rink while he teaches. I am a strict beginner so I am literally doing nothing but forward and backward skating, crossovers, etc. There is always this one 6 year old boy taking lessons every time I have been there. After his lesson, he is like "hell on blades", practicing his hockey stops in center ice, weaving wildly in and out of people, and of course falling and sliding on his stomach. Not only does this severely anger all of the figure skaters because the ice is ruined, but the kid naturally doesn't look before he slides. I am usually pretty good about watching him when I am on the ice, but once, I was watching him like a hawk and turned to cut through the middle to avoid him, but just as I reach the other side, the little rascal comes sliding into me from behind, sending us both for a tumble. How does this happen? I think kids are designed with supernatural appearing and dissappearing abilities!

I saw an experienced adult skater forward stroke *at speed* across the rink and plow into a coach just standing on the ice talking to her student. I was at the other end of the rink and heard this terrible sound as the coach's head hit the ice. I thought we were going to have to get the EMT, but the coach struggled to her feet and continued the lesson. That coach deserves the "Beauty knows no pain" award, after she got up she fluffed her hair and kept smiling. That was true class. She was a peach of an instructor too.

The rest of us regulars all hated the offending skater--she was self absorbed and a whole host of other bad personality traits--and we could never even bring ourselves to ask "How could you do that? Didn't you see her?", so to this day I don't know what the excuse was.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

I've had group students come flying up to give me a bear hug. I had to make them stop because if I went down, they were going to cushion my fall... lol

AgnesNitt, I love your signature line!

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I was working at the rink last Friday, and that happened to a little kid during a public session. To put it mildly, neck and skate blade don't belong in the same sentence... Come Monday he was back at the rink for his skating lesson, go figure.

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Check my progress at www.freewebs.com/sk8tegirl06

That is exactly what happened to a friend of mine (from out of state). Her older daughter was taking lessons, so a group of us met to skate and have dinner later. Her younger daughter skated up behind her and threw both arms around her, which took my friend down onto her daugher's belly hard. The mom was really scared she had done serious damage to internal organs or ribs, etc. Fortunately she hadn't. Dinner was a little sober, but by the time we were done, it was pretty clear the girl was OK.

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kind of similar story. My coach went through an unlucky spell where people kept crashing in to her. I was there for one of the accidents, and it was terrifying. This wasn't a crash, but still terrible. She was standing near the door, when a girl stepped on the ice with her guards still on. As she went down, she pulled my coach down with her. My coach ended up cracking her tailbone. It was scary seeing to see the coach crying, because she has a very high threshold for pain. She had to be helped off the ice and into the coaches room.

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I almost had a really bad collision today. I was warming up by doing my preliminary moves. I definitely skate the moves at a level above preliminary, so by the last loop of my forward crossovers, I had a lot of speed. A girl was in her lesson, and she was originally out of my path, standing, talking to her coach. All of a sudden she stepped forward, me not too far. I went to stop, but my blades ended up skidding. I managed to stop really close to her. It could have been really ugly. We both apologized, I started the pattern over again, and she was much more aware of where i was...

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