Michelle's injury/surgery?

[antmanb]

Thanks for the link. It doesn't seem like it was effective for her, oh well. That now brings 2 questions to mind.

Were these Harnesses effective? They seem to me like they would give a false sense of security and lift.

Do skaters still use them?

It depends on the type of harness used and how much helpt he spotter gives. I know that alot of the coaches who use harnesses for their students tend to try to not give them any hel pin the jump but rather "catch" them when they fall on it. I have heard of skaters getting used the harness as a safety blanket and they can do the jumps perfectly well in the harness with no help from a spotter but as soon as they try it on their own they have a mental block.

There's also stories of Alexei Yagudin landing clean quad axel's in a harness during his elligible days without too much help from the spotter.

Ant

[Clarice]

My daughter has used a couple of different harnesses along the way - one is suspended from a track on the ceiling, and the other is a hand-held "fishing pole" type. Neither was used to give "lift". With the ceiling one, her coach would pull when she reached the top of a jump to give her just that split-second more time she needed to complete the rotations, and could, of course, help reduce the impact of a fall. The point was to let her get a feeling for the rotation so that she would be able to do it on her own. She preferred the fishing pole harness, because it allows for greater freedom of motion on the jump pattern. That one pretty much only helps with the falls, though - the coach can't really assist the jump much unless the skater is very small. They would begin on the ceiling one, then progress to the fishing pole as she gained confidence. The goal is to get off any kind of harness as quickly as possible.