Guess I totally was not ready to take the intermediate MITF on Monday yet then - and the judges were wrong to pass me by .3, .4 and .5 over

After whacking my knee in a suprise/"was that a rut?" fall some 5 or 6 years ago, and still not being able to kneel on it due to the damaged nerve, I've since skated without kneepads probably less than 5 times. Wore the kneepads for all my MITF tests, and am very glad I did - as I did have a very bad fall during the last 30 seconds or so of the warmup on one of them, and I was the first skater to skate. Even with the kneepads, it nearly brought me to tears; without them, I'd probably not been able to test that day.

... think of me what you may ...

__________________
--renatele

Would someone please explain this to my secondary coach??? She WANTS me to be like that (she calls it "taking risks!!!")... and believe that protective pads are a crutch and she never EVER wants to see me wearing them. And she wonders why I'm still scared STIFF during her lessons...

__________________
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!!!

I feel for you jazzpants.

I'm lucky in my coaches, in that it's never come to that. However, if push came to shove on the issue, I would have no hesitation in telling them that

(a) I'm an adult and make my own decisions regarding my own health and safety, and the wellbeing of those who depend on me (the coach is of course at liberty to make sure I'm not endangering others!)

(b) the coach doesn't tell me what protection I'm not allowed to wear until s/he agrees to pay my bills if I fall and injure myself. Quite apart from any resulting medical issues, someone needs to cover the mortgage, the groceries etc etc...

What's the coach's reply when you say something like that to her? (I really can't see she'd have a leg to stand on?)

(just my opinion, of course) If I wanted to wear padding, and the coach said no- the coach would be gone. I'm an adult, injuries affect me a lot more than they do a child (both in terms of recovery and the effect of lost income. I had a super severe injury as a teen, and just bounced back, and the missed school was a non-issue, that would NOT be the case now).

Additionally- if you're too scared to skate in your lessons, how are they effective?

__________________
-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

That was my argument when my coach wanted me to use some big rubber band thing with handles on both ends wrapped around my waist on my jr move power pulls (to help me get my hands pressed down and to get the proper feel of the shoulder-opposite hip connection on the set before the turns) 2 weeks ago. I tried for about five minutes, but it scared the living crap out of me and made me feel very unsafe, especially when I was just getting over my fear of that pattern after a fall/concussion doing it a few months ago (yeah just got the first hospital bill for that in the mail...). Sure, that strategy might work with the kids. Sure, it *might* help me get the feel he wants me to get on that move quicker. But if it makes me feel uncomfortable and serves as more of a distraction, it's not worth it. The first thing to go when something else distracts me is knee bend, and you can't do that pattern without knee bend. That's how you fall backward and smack your head on the ice.

Turns out the stupid thing has served its purpose without me having to use it--that pattern has improved by leaps and bounds the past 2 weeks because I don't want him to get it out again and try to make me use it. Today he brought it on the ice and hung it on the boards during my lesson just to taunt me and p!ss me off so I'd do the pattern well without it. (My coach and I have that kind of relationship, he's like a 40-going-on-15 dorky big brother.)


Back to the original topic, something like these knee gaskets may also work:

http://www.xsportsprotective.com/ska...e-gaskets.html

A lot of girls in my roller derby league who have knee problems wear them under their actual derby knee pads (which are very thick and made to be fallen on repeatedly), or if we're at a PR event, open recruitment skate, or something else where we're just skating around (passing out promo info, talking to recruits, and not knocking the crap out of each other), we'll just wear these without the big pads over top. They're comfortable, stay in place if they fit properly, and you can still bend and move in them just fine.

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Ditto!

I wish I had been wearing knee pads a few weeks ago when I was tripped up...I wear pads on my hips & tailbone, but not knees. I fell hard onto my right knee (and slid into the boards, jamming my finger which I believe was broken in the impact).

I bought a stretchy slightly padded knee brace to wear exercising (the pain/soreness/clicking noise prompted me to baby my knee).

When I get back on the ice in August (re-opening) I will slip in a skating safe knee pad under my brace. And probably pop another one on the other side. I have good knees, (or did LOL) and have to make them last the rest of my skating career (however long that ends up being).

I wear my pad during lessons, not during my test (didn't miss them) or during shows. Sometimes I don't wear them at all (moves) and slip them on for jumping. Especially learning new jumps. My 2 cents worth.

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

Don't forget the rest of your life! You don't want to be hobbling around if you don't have to, and knee replacement surgery is a really tough one.

__________________

If someone is wearing kneepads, they should wear them for everything though. My worst falls where I've banged up my knees have actually not come from jumping. They've come from moves and dance, or doing footwork. Or just being so tired at the end of a session that, in skating over to the boards to get my stuff, I tripped over my own toepicks. When you're jumping, you're not normally going to fall directly on your knees, you're going to go down on your hips/tailbone. I've also had my worst tailbone falls from dance and moves, too, or just standing there and leaning too far back in dance blades.

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

I need mine for when I'm not skating too!

__________________

Ooh yeah, I know what you mean. My worst falls have definitely come from footwork, or standing around talking. Worst falls for knees that I've had come from forward spirals, pushing for that bit more height, overbalancing forwards. Hate those !

__________________
Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !