Balancing sport and risk in figure skating

[andromache]

That would just make the junior worlds a far more exciting event to watch as well as the event with far stronger performances... Which is probably not how it should be. In my opinion, the best in the world should be in seniors and personally I'd rather lower the age limit than increase it. If you are good you are good, whether you are 12 or 30 years old. And it should be purely up to how good the skater is.

Junior ladies might have stronger jumps, but aside from an occasional artistic prodigy (like Kostornaia), the performances will not be stronger than those of most senior ladies. Performance ability and skating skills are not dependent upon having a teeny tiny prepubescent body, but generally upon years of hard work and training and experience.

If PCS were evaluated more fairly, this wouldn't be an issue, but it's obvious that high TES = high PCS right now, which is why we see Alina Zagitova and Trusova receiving PCS only a tiny bit lower than Medvedeva and Kostornaia, when the gap between them should be larger. Of course, Trusova in particular had more than enough of a technical advantage at Junior Worlds to beat Kostornaia anyway, but Kostornaia should not be additionally disadvantaged by Trusova's generous PCS.

I'm fine with a technical skater winning over an artistic skater, as long as their technical skills are enough to outweigh their opponent's better presentation.

 

[ancientpeas]

When I was 8 I was jumping fences taller than me, racing through cross country courses jumping over stone fences and water jumps on a 500 kg animal. Risk is perceptual. I didn't know enough to be scared yet. This is what happens to people once you get hurt. In my case I went head first into a stone fence and my life was probably saved by my hard hat. After that, I knew and it changes you. I would say that until you get badly hurt you really don't understand that the risk to your body might be and the younger you are the less you assess risk and the long term consequences of that risk.

However, if you want to be a successful Olympic level athlete risk is unavoidable. You are going to get injured. It's just part of the deal. The hope is that nothing happens to you that has far reaching and long term ramifications for your health.

 

[andromache]

I am curious what has been going on in the world of gymnastics around balancing risks because I see a ton of parallels with figure skating - they are struggling with basically the same stuff.

A lot of what you're saying about early specialization sports where you have to start young makes perfect sense, and is a large part of the issues around skating and gymnastics.

It takes longer to get to the elite level in ice dance, pairs, and men, which is why the discussion primarily focuses on the ladies.

Anyway, it's also clear that early specialization sports put kids at risk to be abused by authority figures (both the overt Nassar type of abuse and the more subtle abuse of deprivation and fear like the Karolyi training camp environment (https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...517e912f125_story.html?utm_term=.99de77d2f58f).

To a certain extent, unpleasantness creates results, as it weeds out the "mentally weak."

Based on the results, I'm sure Eteri weeds out the mentally weak, but I hope she doesn't do it by scaring girls into being afraid to ask for soap, or making them go hungry. These are kids! (And I don't think Eteri girls live in dorms under coach supervision like Karolyi girls did, which probably helps.)

 

[Spirals for Miles]

It's interesting to note that sports medicine doctors don't recommend specializing in a sport until high school, but of course, that won't happen with figure skating, or a similar sport like dancing or gymnastics. By specializing, they mean training at a high level for more than eight months out of a year. Children who do sports should take four months off per year to get maximum benefit and to avoid overuse injuries by participating in more than one sport and thus using different muscles. But I don't know how this could happen in figure skating, where intense training everyday is necessary to get to the top...

 

[plushyfan]

I still love to watch Korbut, but i cannot watch modern gymnastic anymore. It might be that it is more difficult but: it doesn't look beautiful anymore; everybody do the same jump, Amanar, and it annoys me to death (back in time vault used to be so creative and interesting). It is just boring for me now.

I totally agree with you. I thought after Rio the women gymnastic became ugly. The girls like terminators.

 

[ancientpeas]

It's interesting to note that sports medicine doctors don't recommend specializing in a sport until high school, but of course, that won't happen with figure skating, or a similar sport like dancing or gymnastics. By specializing, they mean training at a high level for more than eight months out of a year. Children who do sports should take four months off per year to get maximum benefit and to avoid overuse injuries by participating in more than one sport and thus using different muscles. But I don't know how this could happen in figure skating, where intense training everyday is necessary to get to the top...

Ad to that Ballet. If you don't have your pointe shoes by a certain age you aren't going to make it as a professional ballet dancer and you need, if I remember correctly, at least 3 or 4 years of training before you can earn your pointe shoes.

 

[VegMom]

Thank you for bringing this up as a topic for a thread.

It's interesting to note that sports medicine doctors don't recommend specializing in a sport until high school, but of course, that won't happen with figure skating, or a similar sport like dancing or gymnastics. By specializing, they mean training at a high level for more than eight months out of a year. Children who do sports should take four months off per year to get maximum benefit and to avoid overuse injuries by participating in more than one sport and thus using different muscles. But I don't know how this could happen in figure skating, where intense training everyday is necessary to get to the top...

Yes, current recommendations say don't specialize until after puberty. That's mostly because the stats show that most sports don't require early specialization and that specializing too early is risky. But of course that's not really an option for figure skating.

And it's not really an option for a very passionate child. I mean, I could force my kid to do a variety of sports but he wouldn't actually enjoy it. My kid LOVES skating and really pretty much only wants to skate. I suspect that many of the high level skaters are this type of athlete - driven by passion.

So I think the focus on preventing injury needs to be more about...
- protective gear: pads, helmets or head protection, room for more innovation here
- careful training by coaches: teach skaters early on how to fall safely, teach jumps using harnesses to prevent bad falls, coaches need to know about child physiology and intellectual development
- proper medical oversight: there ought to be some sort of special annual physical for young athletes that helps identify problems early and prevent injury
- rink culture: too many rinks don't count the number of skaters on the ice at each session or divide up the time by levels, and there's incredible risk related to CO2 as well

 

[Spirals for Miles]

I totally agree with you, VegMom!
I'd be interested in knowing if any rinks have a sort of rink doctor -- in other sports, sports medicine doctors are often there during games in case of injuries (parallel: competitions) and often come to practices to talk to the kids about injury risk prevention. I know in dance, we've had that happen, too. Mainly for pre-pointe evaluations but similar evaluations might also help in skating (are you physically prepared to learn triples? are you physically prepared for pairs?) as well as nutritional counseling (are you eating right for your sports goals?)