NNN re-injured

[Spider68]

There was a very small note in the LA Times this morning ( http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-olycol2aug02.column?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dsports ) reporting that Naomi's training session with Carol Heiss Jenkins has been suspended due to recurring pain in her hip. Report continues to say that she is having it checked and evaluated. Let's all hope it turns out well. :(


[i:5f045e8aed]edited to fix link--Spinner[/i:5f045e8aed]

[speedy]

:cry: Awww sorry to hear that. I was really looking forward to seeing her again this year...hope she's able to recover quickly! Good luck Naomi!

[Orable]

oh no! I pray she has a quick (adn full) recovery

[Rachael]

I hope she gets better soon.

[purplecat]

I was very sad to read that this morning. :( I miss Naomi so much! :(

[Dragonlady]

I am deeply saddened by this news. Her return to competitive skating was always a very long shot, at best. I was truly hoping she would beat the odds.

[kwanette]

Add me to the list of disappointed people...Hopefully, she will heal...but it doesn't sound good...Good thoughts for NNN, an extraordinary talent...

[Cruella de Kwan]

Oh I am very sad to hear this! Ireally wanted her to get back into the mix! Arghhhh!!!

[michele]

I'm very sorry as well...such a shame. At this point, just recovering (regardless of her actual skating) would be a sucess I think.

Darn, I really miss NNN too. :(

[ToddFan]

{{{Naomi}}} :(

[Lark]

Let's look at it another way. If she were not able to make a comeback, NNN has still made more of a splash in U.S. skating in one season than a lot of the Senior Ladies have in a decade (some American Ladies have skated for YEARS without even a hint of a chance for a National Medal.) That is a big deal.

[Dragonlady]

[[b:b46ee22091]quote="Lark"]Let's look at it another way. If she were not able to make a comeback, NNN has still made more of a splash in U.S. skating in one season than a lot of the Senior Ladies have in a decade (some American Ladies have skated for YEARS without even a hint of a chance for a National Medal.) That is a big deal.[/quote][/b:b46ee22091]

Let's look at it another way. Another incredibly talented and hardworking kid has destroyed her body with possible life-long repercussions at a very young age in the rush to get to senior levels before she hits puberty and years before she is age-eligible to go to senior worlds.

I hope and pray that NNN is the last skater we can ever say this about and that people have gotten a whole smarter about training practices for little girls. John Nicks says he's learned from his mistakes with both Sasha and NNN. Let's hope with all of our hearts that other coaches have too.

[Aravis]

[quote:b31f298ee1]Let's look at it another way. Another incredibly talented and hardworking kid has destroyed her body with possible life-long repercussions at a very young age in the rush to get to senior levels before she hits puberty and years before she is age-eligible to go to senior worlds.[/quote:b31f298ee1]

Dragonlady, ITA.

Over training at an early age is an across the board problem with young athletes. My experience with female runners and tennis players is not unlike what is going on in skating. Many talented kids fall by the wayside because their bodies cannot handle the cumulative effects of training that can begin as young as five or six. Whether it is the bone density issues that can develop in prepubescent female runners (stress fractures) or the repetitive motion/joint problems that tennis players, gymnasts and skaters can develop, I suspect that there are many more kids being treated for sport related/overuse injuries than five years ago.

At even the local level of athletic competition the bar has been raised amazingly high and parents with driven kids are hard pressed to hold them back (or they do not want to). Once an athlete reaches the higher levels of their chosen sport, almost everyone is on the verge of an injury or just recovering from one. The coaches and parents are used to this and constantly modify training routines to compensate, but an injury often has to become chronic before an athlete is told that they must take time off. I know that in skating there is a rush to get the jumps before the onset of puberty but it seems that there are numerous talented bodies that cannot survive the training.

Do you blame the coaches and parents who get caught up in all of the hype of their child's early success and don't smell the coffee? Do you blame driven kids (ie., Tara Lipinski) who don't always follow their coaches instructions and don't listen to their bodies? I don't know. Perhaps all of the above. I wish NNN a quick and long term recovery.

-Aravis
PS. The above is not a Tara Lipinski bash. She is representative of a type of driven young female athlete who, it is documented, would practice her jumps much more than her coach instructed her to.

[sk8rzmom]

Let's look at it another way. Another incredibly talented and hardworking kid has destroyed her body with possible life-long repercussions at a very young age in the rush to get to senior levels before she hits puberty and years before she is age-eligible to go to senior worlds.

I hope and pray that NNN is the last skater we can ever say this about and that people have gotten a whole smarter about training practices for little girls. John Nicks says he's learned from his mistakes with both Sasha and NNN. Let's hope with all of our hearts that other coaches have too.[/quote]

Amen to that, DL! The attitude of moving up to senior ASAP before young bodies are fully developed has cost may young skaters their potential. NNN and Sasha are just the most visible and current. There's lots more where they came from, the novice and junior ranks, who never make it to the national spotlight. Now if parents only wised up that it's just a sport and not worth your child's health, that would be wonderful.

[sk8rzmom]

Sorry the quote thing got turned off.

[SandraD]

I am so sorry to hear about this. :cry: She is such a lovely skater.

Sandra

[Dragonlady]

In 1999 I was posting and questioning the wisdom of John Nicks decision to move 13 year-old Naomi Nari Nam into senior skating when she couldn't compete at an international level. What was the rush? Boy did I need a flame retardent suit after that one! I was a "child-hater" and "What did I have against talented little girls?". My response then was that I wanted this child to be around long enough to make it to senior international competition.

The American Pediatric Society has become so concerned about over-training injuries in young athletes in all sports that it published a paper on this phenomenom a couple of years ago. In that paper, they said that these types of injuries, which were unheard of ten years ago, had become an so commonplace that they were moved to issue some cautions for parents and coaches.

Part of the reason for this increase is that kids don't just go out to play anymore. It's not safe to let your kid go to the park with his/her friends and just be a kid. There are so many incidents of random child abductions or other attacks that parents are putting their kids in structured competitive programs just to keep them safe.

What I find distressing is that in some quarters, the response tends to be "Oh well. It's a sport and there's always going to be injuries". While that's true, a lot of these injuries could be prevented if coaches and parents were given more information about the physical growth of children and the impact on that growth of senior elite level training regimens.

Yes the responsibility lies with the parents ultimately, but the USFSA and its clubs should help to make the necessary resources available to the parents and coaches, if for no other reason than enlightened self-interest. The USFSA has lost a young star. It didn't have to be this way.

[Hannahclear]

National medal or not, there's no justification for a career ending injury at the ripe old age of what, sixteen? I know that she won a silver medal at Nats, but I would rather have a daughter who skated and never made it out of intermediate regionals, but stayed healthy, than a permanently injured Nats silver medalist. Coaches have a responsibility, and I'd like to see a system with some accountability introduced.
Dragonlady, ITA with your post. Very well put.

[sk8rzmom]

I have this theory that the smaller younger skaters, because of their size and lack of experience, have less to fear, and can learn the harder jumps more easily. Once they've mastered a 3-lutz, the coaches move them along fast so that they become a "Star" before they grow and lose it all. Very few of them have really made it through puberty, but for one year, the coach has a hot commodity, and mom & dad are so hooked on the sport, they'll keep paying those bills forever. .

[sk8rzmom]

I hope that doesn't sound cynical, but there are those coaches out there who will do anything to keep the income flowing in. I'm not saying that's what John Nicks did, because I have the utmost respect for the man, but there are more than a few out there who think of themselves and their career first.

[adrianchew]

[quote:ef674040de="Dragonlady"]Let's look at it another way. Another incredibly talented and hardworking kid has destroyed her body with possible life-long repercussions at a very young age in the rush to get to senior levels before she hits puberty and years before she is age-eligible to go to senior worlds.[/quote:ef674040de]

Let's look at it this way - luck, training habits, etc could have factored into what happened. Remember that both Sarah Hughes and Michelle Kwan went to seniors at age 13 too - and neither have so far suffered any serious injuries.

Training habits play a greater factor that age - and that's where skaters need to be careful. And Sasha was 15 when she turned senior.

[Dragonlady]

Sasha was not age eligible to go to Worlds when she won her silver medal at Nationals. That's why she was sent to Jr. Worlds because the Jr. World's loophole was still open then. It was expected that Sasha would pick up the hardware at Jr. Worlds and join the rest of the team in Nice. It didn't happen.

There are always exceptions to prove the rule. Sarah also didn't have the delayed puberty so common in young figure skaters which tells me her training regimen was not such that it kept her body fat level artificially low.

Michelle did have the stress fracture in her toe in the 1997/1998 season, but she managed to come through relatively unscathed.

I remember the fluff piece from 2000 Nationals which showed Sasha and Naomi's training and I thought it very excessive for kids that young. That both of them had such serious injuries was in no way surprising to me. But it saddens me greatly that so many of these young girls have had to go through so much before people started smartening up, because the information was always available. I was able to find it but then, I made of point of learning all I could on the topic and not just trusting what the coach was telling me.

[trixie]

Many skaters, long before today, went into seniors at age 13. For example, Janet Lynn, Karen Magnussen and Dorothy Hamill all did. of course, they were not doing the triple-triple combinations then.I am not advocating this, I am just saying it is not new.

[Dragonlady]

[quote:981ea1b224="trixie"]Many skaters, long before today, went into seniors at age 13. For example, Janet Lynn, Karen Magnussen and Dorothy Hamill all did. of course, they were not doing the triple-triple combinations then.I am not advocating this, I am just saying it is not new.[/quote:981ea1b224]

These skaters weren't doing triples at all and large parts of their ice time were spent doing figures, which are not as aerobically challenging as freeskating, so the onset of puberty wasn't being affected either.

You can't compare what was happening in the figures era to what's happening today, with the emphasis not just on triple jumps, but on 3/3's. The torque affecting the bones on the landings of these jumps is incredible and for bones with open growth plates, this is not a good thing.

It's no accident that both Naomi and Deanna Stellato were both working on 3Loop/3Loop combinations when they suffered these injuries, the same combination that made Tara famous, and put her in the hospital.

[Patty]

I think it's a combination of the skaters' age, skaters trying to take on elements they may not be ready for yet, and overtraining. Growing bodies seem to be more affected by abuse and overuse, and, thus more prone to injuries, than fully grown ones.

It's not only true of athletes, but of singers as well. Younger voices seem to be more affected by vocal overuse or abuse and, thus, seem to be more prone to laryngitis, nodules, and other vocal problems than adult voices.

Voice teachers seem to be more aware of this than skating coaches. Even though it can make their students mad and even cause some to drop them, voice teachers usually try to keep their younger students from singing songs or auditioning for roles they think their voices aren't ready for or may never be right for.

[speedy]

From what I've heard Naomi's injury is not that serious. I am not making any judgments or trying to downplay anything, but I've heard she's not seriously injured and should be fine.

[Dragonlady]

[quote:50c99da939="speedy"]From what I've heard Naomi's injury is not that serious. I am not making any judgments or trying to downplay anything, but I've heard she's not seriously injured and should be fine.[/quote:50c99da939]

The newspapers reported that she is getting a MRI and John Nicks was quoted as saying she was re-evaluating her future. That sounds pretty serious to me.

[adrianchew]

[quote:c59e41e9a2="Dragonlady"]The newspapers reported that she is getting a MRI and John Nicks was quoted as saying she was re-evaluating her future. That sounds pretty serious to me.[/quote:c59e41e9a2]

That's a dangerous misread of this...

[quote:c59e41e9a2]Her coach, John Nicks, said Nam had to halt a planned two-week training session in Cleveland with Carol Heiss Jenkins to undergo tests on recurring hip problems, and her future remains unclear.[/quote:c59e41e9a2]

[i:c59e41e9a2]It seems to me this topic is headed off topic at this point enough from the main subject - and headed into much speculation. Since we are not there to fully comprehend what is happening, I'm locking up the topic to prevent further possible mistruths from being spread. I will note there are valid concerns, but it is disconcerting to see how people are harping on one skater's injuries to further a general point (that's not necessary). ~adrianchew~[/i:c59e41e9a2]