I just read another post in which a skater said she will not wear knee pads because she does not want to get used to having a security blanket. It really rubbed me the wrong way. There is an implied put down in the term "security blanket". Give it some thought, where does the term come from?

Wearing knee pads has nothing to do with security blankets. It has everything to do with preventing serious damage to my knees. For anyone who has had previous damage, or is of an age at which damage is more easily done, knee pads are just common sense. Would you rather wear knee pads or a cast?

If you are not in that category, then maybe you would feel that you were using knee pads as a security blanket, but please do not generalize to the rest of us. No need to rush to the defense here, I just wanted to get it off my chest once and for all. I'm not singling anyone out, as I know from previous discussions that many of you feel that way.

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For the longest time, I wouldn't take off my kneepad until the secondary coach told me that I am no longer allowed to wear knee pads to my lesson. (Her train of thought is that knee pads gets in the way of your knee bend, which actually encourage a fall on the knee by tripping on your toe picks...)

Haven't worn them since and I'm doing everything possible to keep those knees bent when needed. So far so good! My falls have been mostly on my butt...lots of "internal security blanket" there!

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I have no problem if people want to wear knee pads, to each his own. But not all knee injuries can be prevented from knee pads. A lot of ligament injuries occur from twisting the knee the wrong way and a knee pad won't be able to prevent that. That said, I don't wear knee pads because it never occured to me to. I've had my fair share of bruises on my knees (have a couple right now) but then again, I'm 20 years old, and I think I'm still in the phase of thinking I'm invincible. Even though rationally I know it's not true, and I have dislocated my knee while on the ice, I still tend to think serious injuries won't really happen to me.

Then again, we have some older skaters at our rink and beginners who wear knee pads. Whatever you need to get you moving seems to be fine by me. Considering most people are just couch potatos, if it takes knee pads to get exercise and enjoying it, what's the problem?

Too true. I've never had a twisting injury, but I've whacked my knees so much that I have intermittant pain on and off the ice. I missed a year of skating as a kid because of bursitis in my knee. That was my parents' decision, though! The older I get, the more people I know who have serious knee problems, several requiring joint replacements.

I think it's hard to skate or do any sport with some degree of risk without holding on to that feeling. DH and I used to downhill ski, and never thought about the risk of injury, at least not on the slopes - I hated the chairlifts and once barely missed being in an accident on one.

I've always worn knee pads (at least since the first time I caught my toepick ), and my coach has never commented on them at all, nor have they ever affected my knee bend. It's easy to test/demo knee bend, so I know there is no problem. If there were, I might be motivated to spring for the $70 to get the skating safe gel pads. I would really rather not wear any knee pads, but with my knee history and age, can't take the chance.

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dbny, I'm curious if you compete, and if so, do you wear your kneepads to compete?

I think there are two valid sides to this discussion, and both depend on what purpose the kneepads are serving. I think it's totally rational to wear kneepads to prevent injury and/or serious long-term damage. Most of my spills are taken on my knees, and they leave nasty buises for a long time. In your case, I don't think it is a "security blanket" issue.

However, some people wear kneepads/gelpads/padded shorts, etc., with the intention of only using them learn a certain move, and then stop using them, eg., a difficult jump. I think those are the cases where some people are reluctant to use padding because they think they will become mentally dependent on it. The same thing can happen with using the harness to learn a jump. You get it in the harness, then have a difficult time trying to do it without.

I don't know the origin of the discussion that prompted this thread, but I suspect the poster who made the security blanket comment may have been thinking of it more in terms of my latter example.

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I always wear my knee pads for practice and I don't feel them at all. I have no problem skating without them for competition either. It's just that I know so many people who have fractured a knee cap, that after my first toe pick trip as a beginner (and man did my knee swell up - could barely walk for a week), I don't even want to go there. Knees take forever to heal once you are an adult. Getting injured during practice is a total waste, so go ahead and wrap up whatever part of your body is a weak link.

I think that if you can take your kneepads off when you need to - for tests or competitions, for example - then that's fine. It's when you skate badly without them that a problem arises (and some skaters find that wearing or not wearing gloves, or even nail polish, can put them off!).

It's less likely to arise for free skaters now, since the rule change that says women can compete in trousers, so I expect they could wear their kneepads under their trousers. But it's still an issue for dancers, who must wear a dress.

I do know one adult skater, about the same age as DBNY, who always wears kneepads for practice, but she is happy to leave them off when competing. In which case, that's very sensible!

I don't think I could, and anyway, I don't bend my knees enough even without kneepads! Sometimes my knees get very sore and I have to wear a support bandage, and that's quite bad enough (thankfully, less so now I've lost weight).

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At 50+, I wear gel knee pads and roller blade hard plastic wrist guards except when I compete. Actually, I don't notice them gone when I compete, so there is no difference in my skating. I always wear them otherwise because I want to enjoy my skating and not be afraid of hurting my knees or breaking my arm and wrist. It's right for me. That DOES NOT mean it's right for anyone else, this is something that is personal to every skater.

I don't have a problem with people wearing whatever protection they want. I never wore them for skating though did wear them for 'street jazz' as we did lots of 'falls' and things which were very painful if you got them wrong

It's one of the strange things about skating, anyone wearing protection whether it be a helmet, knee pads or whatever is seen as 'weird' or a 'wuss'. What about pairs skaters? Why is it acceptable to risk serious injury but unacceptable to wear protection to your head?

There's a similar argument going on in 'showing' (horses) in this country at the moment. The die hard traditionalists don't want have to wear safety helmets as they don't like the 'look' of the helmets that stop their heads from cracking like an egg when they hit the ground from on top of a horse. they DO wear a helmet but it doesn't have a chin strap and has very little protection to their skulls in the event of a fall.

I will fully admit that I subscribed to the 'vanity' of skating and didn't wear protection ... and still wouldn't (dumb eh? must be that crack on the skull ) even though I fractured my skull skating and my wrist.

I think, personally, the 'problem' comes because skating is an art form as well as a sport. I do like to see the outfits, I do like to wear the outfits, I like the beauty and the grace. Maybe it will change in time. In the meantime wear whatever gets you out there and wear what you feel comfortable with.

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The best whisper is a click

i think that its all mental.
like what a skater thinks helps them they wouldnt want to take away, expecially at a competition.
some people could get glued to their kneepads, some it is a necklace, or for me, i have to always do my nails the day before a competition. always.
those people (with the kneepads) just need to realize that they dont NEED them to skate well.

i do however think you should wear kneepads to protect your knees, but i find that i also dont get as much bend and then i can do some moves as well. (ex: sit spins)

but i think it should be more up to personall preference.

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I don't compete, but I do wear them for testing. I cut an old pair of tights to make sleeves to cover them with, and that made them pretty invisible. I did not wear them on two occasions. Once, when I was skating (with a lot of other skaters) in a TV commercial (never made it to the air), and once when I was costumed for a show. All I did on the ice that time was skate out to take my place in a line at the end, with a nice T stop. DH, who also wears knee pads, did not wear his when assisting with a show one time. Of course, some little kid darted right in front of him and he whacked both knees good in avoiding clobbering the little brat (I say "brat" because that kid was out of place!).

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dbny, I also wear knee pads when I practice (the older, non-gel version of the SkatingSafe pads). I started after I had one really nasty toepick fall that kept me off the ice for 1 month because of the pain and range of motion limitation that the fall caused me (and then the knee was still tender for another month after that). Since then, my pads have saved me from other injuries like this. I don't fall directly on my knees often, but my knees are already so "crunchy" that bruising them and the like from a direct fall onto them would take me out of commission for longer than I'm willing to chance, as the amount of time I can put into practicing is already limited. I find a fall onto a knee is more painful for me and harder to recover from than a fall on the butt or even the hipbone. One time, I fell forward onto both knees and was not hurt because of my knee pads. I'm not expecting them to save me from twisting injuries.

I have not competed or tested with the pads on, but when I was with a former coach, the coach was willing to let me take a moves test with them on. I decided on my own that I wasn't going to wear them for the test. When it comes time for a test or competition, I find I don't even notice that the pads aren't there--I'm so busy concentrating on my elements or patterns and dealing with nerves that I'm not even thinking about the pads. So, for me, I don't regard the pads as a crutch, and no coach has never asked me to take them off during practice. I know other posters as well as other skaters and coaches may have differing opinions about knee pads, but that's not going to change what I decide about them.

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I wear my kneepads for routine practice and lessons, but I don't wear them when I compete and sometimes I don't wear them for competition practices. My thinking is that they protect me from everyday stupid stuff and when learning new things. When I am at a competition or test I am always comfortable with what I'm doing, so I don't think as much about needing kneepads. It's a matter of the most reasonable protection for me, IMO. My coaches have never told me not to wear them, and in fact they seem to think it's a good idea and like the kneepads i have (the skatingsafe gel kneepads).

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August 22, back on the ice!

When I was little and learning my axel, I wore a butt pad. I did start using it as a security blanket (to a child, skating is less of a mental thing -- I was only 6, so I needed to feel the pain from falling), and as soon as I ditched the butt pad (by then, hough, I was fully capable of landing the jump, so I wasn't going to take any truly bad falls except freak accidents), I started landing the jump.

These days, I only wear one knee pad when I'm normally practicing, a incredibly thin (it's similar to the material used for mouse pads) donut shaped one right below my right knee. I permanantly dmaanged the tissue there on brackets (when the hard ones used to be on intermediate), so it hurts about 50X more to fall there. Even that, though, I don't always wear. If I'm working on triple sals and having an off-day (meaning I'm falling on the top of my knee), I'll wear a gel pad just for then. It's mainly just laziness, though, because if you're practicing hard and skating a lot, knee pads slip around, and constantly having to adjust them is incredibly annoying (and doesn't really work in the middle of a program).

I don't wear knee pads because I never have, but I'm sure as I get older I will get some bunga-style ones.

The reason is that the year before I started skating, 14 years ago now, I had surgery for a tumor in my knee (benign). It caused damage to my knee, messed up the cartilage, and all sorts of nasty stuff had to be cut out. Luckily, the tumor was on the inside of my left knee, and when I fall I tend to fall on the outside of my left knee or the inside of my right knee, so I that does make a difference in that I am not falling on it.

I am not sure of the overall security of my knee. Most of the time it is fine, now and then it aches. I am not sure if a knee pad would help much right now, but as the cartilage is not as good as it should be, I will probably invest in a stabilising silicone knee pad at some point.

I don't see knee pads as being any different from other kinds of protective gear - plenty of elite skaters wear knee braces, and many have the bunga ankle protectors. The only difference of course is that knee pads are a bit more visible than ankle guards

I reckon that people should do whatever works for them. If somebody wants to wear knee pads, helmets etc, then it's fantastic. I think it's stupid how somebody coins them as security blankets or says it puts the physics a little bit out......because people are adaptable. If somebody gets used to skating with knee pads etc during practice and then removes them for competition, then it just becomes a normal thing. For those that have trouble using knee pads, then don't use them. For those that don't have trouble, then use them. And for those people that think that just because they can't handle using knee pads, then don't think that everybody else has the same thinking and limitation as you. Because....people are adaptable.

I didn't read the post you are commenting about, but...if someone *else* is saying they won't wear pads because they feel it'd be a security blanket, I assume they mean it would be FOR THEM, not for everyone.

I personally never wore pads. All of my friends layered 3 hip crash pads (waxel pads) when learning double axels, and I never did. I never wore a single pad, ever. I DO feel it's a security blanket. This is figure skating, you're gonna get hurt, you accept this before you even start. You're learning a double axel, you're gonna get hurt, you accept this before you even start. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't altering anything...to me if I wore pads for months (which turned out to be years..) while landing this thing, I would then have to deal with landing it after having removed all the pads. That'd be twice as much work to me, because your mind DOES become attached to the feeling of security of "well it doesn't matter cause I won't hurt myself", a lot like the harness. I've seen it happen. People land GREAT jumps with pads/harness, can't land them without. Didn't want it to be me, thankfully it wasn't. I was one of the last ones to get the jump, but I was one of the first to KEEP it consistent, while everyone struggled to ween themselves off pads and harnesses.

Does that mean I think badly upon the people who wear padding? No. I think it's mostly useless to them (and I'm not talking about older people, I guess I can understand that older people might be more prone to damage, although I still don't really get the concept of why a 40 year old is more brittle than a 16 year old for example, but I guess I will understand when I get there), but people can do whatever they want.

I think padding IS a security blanket, and it will only play with your mind later on. If others don't think that's true, or if they don't mind having a couple of knee pads control their skating, then that's their choice. But I don't see the harm in being against them for yourself, and how that could insult anybody. I'm against harnesses, too. I don't use them. Never have. People in the past generations had *gorgeous* jumps and never used them. So I don't see the need now. I liked learning everything the traditional way. I think the harness is a cop out. Cause you won't dare to try the jump on your own unless you have a cord stopping you from falling. It shows you don't believe in yourself. When I launch myself into a jump, I'm not thinking about minimizing the damage when I fall, I'm thinking I'm gonna land it. Even if I don't, trying to go and do all this preparation for a fall pretty much guarantees you will fall- it's in your head that way. Still doesn't mean I sit and think bad things about people who use all that stuff, though.

Anyways, just a bunch of (long) thoughts.

Different people feel different ways, while some people have no problems skating with knee pads, some people might feel uncomfortable or lazy to use knee pads, some might feel they are a "security blanket" or whatever, some might think they are too expensive. Its just their own opinion about knee pads on themselves... as long as we know what we are doing within reason I dont see a problem with wearing or not wearing knee pads.

I personally wear them pretty much after a fall, I could order the more expensive slim knee pads online and try them out but I'm not too concerned and I bought these bulky ones to use when I'm desperate like I bruised my knee and dont want to fall directly on that knee for a while.

I have never really thought about them as a psychological issue for me, so I assume that theres no issue, apart from the hassle of putting them on and rearranging them through out practise.

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Knee pads and protective gear are not 'mental'. They can and do limit or prevent injury if your knee smacks onto the ice. If you got knee pads on and it smacks the ice, you just get up again as if nothing happened. Without knee pads and the knee smacks the ice, you might not be getting up again in a hurry.

Harnesses are used for safety, and they are an excellent aid for helping jumpers figure out roughly how their body should feel before going on their first solo flight.

Practising without harness or protective gear is old-school. New school is using sensible and smart techniques not only to learn, but to improve a lot over old-school.

Actually, I refuse to use the harness. To me, I learn to do a jump one way on the harness, and then have to completely relearn it off the harness (this, of course, might because we don't really have any harness experts at our rink, but part of it really is that the ropes and the belt to throw of our center of mass, etc. when you'r on it, which makes a big difference one triples). The harness helped on my doubles, but I haven't used it since double toe.

I have both the soft foam cycling pads and the skatingsafe ones, as my right knee is carrying a partially torn ACL and meniscus.

I use the foam ones pretty much only when synchro training, as I fall pretty regularly then - and generally forward (or on the hip - owie! ). Once I "customised" them by opening the elastic tube and replacing it with a velcro closure, it became much less of an issue when I put my skates on, having forgotten to put the pads on first!! I found they do affect knee bend as the elastic tube grabs behind the knee, but better that than the alternative

I pretty much use the skatingsafe ones only if my knees are sore or already bruised, as I find they're harder to put on properly, but much more successful when they're on. FWIW, I've found the skatingsafe ones to be much better at "disappearing" both visually and in relation to my skating than the others, but the downside is that (despite the claim on the packet), I *cannot* make them stay up with just 2 pairs of tights... My solution was to place the pads so the top edge of the pads are just above the top of the patella, then use papertape around the bottom edges only (sort of like a semicircle of tape) to secure the pads to my skin. If you use tan tape rather than white and wear double tights, I guarantee the pads will disappear. Making sure that the tape doesn't extend high enough around the sides to interefere with the knee joint also means that you get full knee bend with no irritation, and you can't even feel the pads. Bliss. But this is a lot of fiddling around, so (lazy me), I tend not to bother unless something prods me to do it (like a dirty green bruise...)

Which is one reason Audrey Weisiger uses a harness for students working on quads. She did a presentation at one of the PSA conferences, and pointed out how the harness could prevent injury while learning quad jumps. Don't know if she advocates the harness for lesser jumps, but I wouldn't be surprised. Injuries keep skaters off the ice.

I can guarantee that if you get there, you will most certainly get it, even if you never understand the science behind it. You'll be more likely to get there, BTW, if you exercise a little caution where it is due.

It's even more fun passing 50. I was just asked by a friend how long I think I can keep skating - into my 60's or 70's? I said I'm not sure, but will continue as long as possible. At some point I will probably switch over to cross country skiing, although you can break a leg doing that too! Swimming is probably the safest bet, but sooo boring, IMO.

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That's the idea of a harness. It's to start off jumpers to get some rough feel of a jump without having to end up in hospital or end up dead.

The harness that was used in the demos in Audrey Weisiger's presentation was the "fishing pole" type. She made a point that it takes considerable skill and expertise to manage it properly, and that was clearly apparent in the demos. We could see that the skater was not influenced by it at all, and it did save him from the full impact of falling from height at high speeds.

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I really debated starting this thread, but I'm glad I did, because so much good info has been posted about the various types of knee pads and adjustments and fittings that one might need.

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