Injuries in Skating - getting worse? | Golden Skate

Injuries in Skating - getting worse?

Nigel

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 21, 2006
Believe it or not, it could be worse. FSU is much worse on the Rachael rag threads.

I think the challenge for Rachael is to find programs that suite her style. She tried the whole cutesy thing, which didn't work in my opinion. Ironically, this year she has two power programs, which is more suitable to her athletic style, but the problem is that she doesn't have much power right now with her injury.

ETA: I asked my husband about this topic -- because he was seeing Rachael from a non-fan (but not an anti-fan either) lens. He felt that Rachael put up a respectable performance. And I asked whether she should withdraw because of her injuries. His response: "No. Unless there was some circumstance where she absolutely could not show up, i.e. can't walk or just was not doing any triples whatsoever, she needed to be there."

He further mentioned it was more a mental thing that she go out there and at least do the triple jumps. If she mentally knows she can do that much, she can build on it from there.

Some interesting food for thought.

Anyway that's just one guy's view -- Mr. P's. :)



In any case I hope he's right --I hope she does better at her Senior B next weekend...and that over the season she has some performances she can be proud of and as fans, we have two great programs we can watch.

Found an interesting journal article on incidence of injury in figure skaters, and this citation is 2003, before COP.
One can only imagine that the stats are higher now.
Wasn't Armin hurt at SA, and there was speculation that Jeremy was as well?
Who knows how many of the skaters there were without injury??

http://ukpmc.ac.uk/abstract/MED/16880878/reload=0;jsessionid=jY4Lat7qRenOSduClW8r.4

"The nature, type and frequency of injuries occurring at a national figure skating competition were examined. Data was compiled from the medical history form of all 208 participants and the on-site evaluations of the 55 skaters who presented for treatment. Twenty-six percent of all the skaters were injured during the competition. Senior skaters accounted for more injuries than their junior counterparts. Pairs skaters appeared to be more susceptible to injury, incurring significantly more injuries than singles or dance skaters. As in other reports, injuries to the lower extremities predominated. Low back injury comprised 14.6% of all injuries. Thirty-five (64%) of the 55 injuries were exacerbations of a pre-existing injury and twenty (36%) were new ones. Most competitive figure skating injuries are of the overuse type, suggesting a need to evaluate predisposing factors and methods of rehabilitation. "
Pain Physician [2003, 6(3):313-318]

This IS food for thought.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Found an interesting journal article on incidence of injury in figure skaters, and this citation is 2003, before COP.
One can only imagine that the stats are higher now.
Wasn't Armin hurt at SA, and there was speculation that Jeremy was as well?
Who knows how many of the skaters there were without injury??

http://ukpmc.ac.uk/abstract/MED/16880878/reload=0;jsessionid=jY4Lat7qRenOSduClW8r.4

"The nature, type and frequency of injuries occurring at a national figure skating competition were examined. Data was compiled from the medical history form of all 208 participants and the on-site evaluations of the 55 skaters who presented for treatment. Twenty-six percent of all the skaters were injured during the competition. Senior skaters accounted for more injuries than their junior counterparts. Pairs skaters appeared to be more susceptible to injury, incurring significantly more injuries than singles or dance skaters. As in other reports, injuries to the lower extremities predominated. Low back injury comprised 14.6% of all injuries. Thirty-five (64%) of the 55 injuries were exacerbations of a pre-existing injury and twenty (36%) were new ones. Most competitive figure skating injuries are of the overuse type, suggesting a need to evaluate predisposing factors and methods of rehabilitation. "
Pain Physician [2003, 6(3):313-318]

This IS food for thought.

That is interesting reading -- thanks for sharing it. . As for this particular competition, besides Rachael, I think it was mentioned that Pang and Tong dealt with an injury and Jeremy revealed that he found out that his poor performance was due
a nerve injury.
 

Nigel

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 21, 2006
Can we get back to skating?
I really do believe that the injury rate has escalated since COP.
Don't know much more about Abbott's post competition disclosed Skate America injury...but it seems that so many more skaters are hurt going into the competitive part of their seasons.
Something is amiss when they are hurt in October.
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
I agree there are more injuries, real injuries. It only makes sense. There is so much more off ice training under CoP as so much is required of skaters now. It is impossible, some of these jumps out of crazy difficult set ups require much more practice. Look at MK. She usually had half the rink to set up her lutz. Today they'd call it horrible and who knows what score she'd get even for a perfect lutz. No wonder everyone falls, pops, leaves out stuff under the pressure. Imagine the repetition need to get any quad up to 80%! and then the combos that are expected. Everyone is injured and skating injured. We don't hear about most injuries. These are tough people at the top who spent their whole life hoping to be a champion at a big event. I wonder if stats are kept anywhere? I haven't read this whole thread so excuse me if that was discuseed. I just did not want to read another bash the Rachael thread, as if she was the only one skating injured. I daresay most are skating with a chronic injury or stress related fracture after a certain age that never really heals. It is a tough sport now. Only gymnastics seems worse on the body.
 
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ForeverFish

Medalist
Joined
Aug 21, 2012
Can we get back to skating?
I really do believe that the injury rate has escalated since COP.
Don't know much more about Abbott's post competition disclosed Skate America injury...but it seems that so many more skaters are hurt going into the competitive part of their seasons.
Something is amiss when they are hurt in October.

This. Was Abbott injured after SA? I must've missed that, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was from the falls he took during his free skate...

I think Flatt's injury has been around for a while and never healed correctly, which is at least part of the reason why she did so poorly at the GP
 

Kitt

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Country
United-States
I agree there are more injuries, real injuries. It only makes sense. There is so much more off ice training under CoP as so much is required of skaters now. It is impossible, some of these jumps out of crazy difficult set ups require much more practice. Look at MK. She usually had half the rink to set up her lutz. Today they'd call it horrible and who knows what score she'd get even for a perfect lutz. No wonder everyone falls, pops, leaves out stuff under the pressure. Imagine the repetition need to get any quad up to 80%! and then the combos that are expected. Everyone is injured and skating injured. We don't hear about most injuries. These are tough people at the top who spent their whole life hoping to be a champion at a big event. I wonder if stats are kept anywhere? I haven't read this whole thread so excuse me if that was discuseed. I just did not want to read another bash the Rachael thread, as if she was the only one skating injured. I daresay most are skating with a chronic injury or stress related fracture after a certain age that never really heals. It is a tough sport now. Only gymnastics seems worse on the body.

I totally agree with this post! 10-15 years of this, and what will they be like when they are 30?
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
could it be due to having to rework technique? when these kids were learning their basic technique for these jumps, underrotation and wrong edge take offs were only something online fans and Dick Button seemed to care about.
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Absolutely true Toni...Slo mo and IJS judges and tech callers are looking for ways to downgrade. I wonder what Hughes would have gotten for her gold skate. Don't get me wrong, she did far more and very beautifully than anyone else...but she flutzed all the time. Still I love her free skate, and her SP was underscored. I honestly would have had Sasha in bronze, MK fourth and Irina in fifth. But no one talked about rotations or edge calls. The one commentator who always called them was Peter Carruthers. He must've said 1000 times in his years as commentator h/she (usually she) "She cheated that jump!" but he seemed the only one to care. It was good if you stood up on the landing even with no speed. I hated Maria Butyskaya. Watching her was horrible. Can you imagine Maria under CoP? And she was a world champion, with her best ever skate. I cannot immagine her ever lasting more than a season if she ever made it to seniors. Horrible jumps and technique generally, made worse by sheer terror of competing. What would Surya Bonaly get for basic skating skills? I couldn't watch her crossovers.

My times have changed and for good it appears in FS.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
I don't think we can "imagine" those situations, because those skaters would have to have played by CoP rules... they may not have even ever been in the situation they were.... and with a CoP scoring system Sarah probably wouldn't have jumped over Kwan, Sluteskaya and Cohen. ;)
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
of course, we will never know but one can "imagine" the SS Surya would get, or Maria. Bad scores for sure. Sasha was more complete. I know she fell, but she became the standard for everything else. Everyone copied her or tried and still do. MK as an artist peaked in 1998 IMO. Competitively she did a lovely Song of the Black Swan. Her last really great skate was Tosca and CoP pushed her to footwork that was wonderful to me but not what CoP would ask her. One thing all top CoP skaters have is faster feet. Look at Chan or Akiko. I wonder if Mk could ever skate as fast and jump 6 triples. She had no transitions really in her best programs. Her set up for toe jumps was by todays standards robotic and simple. It used to annoy me then and I am an MK fan. Who isn't? The most reliable single triple jumper ever to set foot on ice. But not combos. That is why she has no gold Oly medal. Tara was before her time. Sarah just said go with it, flutz or no flutz. Then we have a Shizuka practicing 3x3x3. SHe was amazing and really only two years at the top but great and consistent. MK who? if we compare her technicaly to Yuna Kim. So FS is a work in progress and there are trends as it is art and sport.

Still, they were beautiful programs and she did so many clean, lovely skates for 10 years. She and Plush and Irina were the long timers. The best for results, longevity. Irina forced everyone (except Mk) to do a Biellman. If Plushenko earns a medal even pewter (they should have Pewter at Olys please ISU!) he'll be the greatest skater in history. I can hardly believe he is still skating. I just pray he does not cripple himself totally before Sochi. And I hope he has a great skate, with wonderful music and a dignifed costume. I see him doing a victory lap after his skate regardless of his marks. The stadium is going to go wild regardless of what he can put out. I'd love to be there for that moment when he says goodby to fans who watched him at olympics since Nagano. Nagano, right??? How is that even possible!!!! This will never happen again with CoP bred skaters. It is just too hard..

OT I know, but I guess that is why we don't give up on Johnny, Allisa when we see Carolina make WC at her age after so many years a SC Or see how amazing Suzuki is at 27, with stamnina better than Kanako who is a decade younger. I dream of Goldie or Ashley on the podium at Sochi, but I would cry to see Akiko win gold at 28 or 29. "Imagine"
 
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