I do agree that not every single fall leads to bruises, just majority of falls do lead to some kind of injuries (from bruises to most serious ones). I do not agree with other sentences you wrote. I will try to explain.
1) Here is video of Canadian skaters (Kaetlyn Osmond, Gabrielle Daleman, Maegan Duhamel & Erik Radford)
https://youtu.be/lNZKY3WjsrU?si=rodMxyjvDMh-9T56
Listening to what they say - even for them falling is not "safe" thing. It is painful and leads to bruises and haematomas (if you even can't sit in the car on the seat being from softer material, then you definitely don't have bruises only.)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2012/12/08/two-falls-second-place-for-wagner-in-grand-prix-final-2/
- Ashley Wagner - “When I fall, I fall hard.”
2) Looking at
science studies:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6204632/
- review from 2018 comparing acute and overuse injuries.
- "Ankle sprains are among the most common injuries in figure skaters, with a prevalence of greater than 50%."
Falls which results in ankle sprain cannot be described as safe, no?
- "Head injury in figure skating is a growing area of research interest. Head injuries occur most frequently in pairs skaters followed by ice dancers and singles skaters."
3) https://journals.lww.com/cjsportsmed/fulltext/2021/05000/pediatric_and_adolescent_figure_skating_injuries_.12.aspx
- Pediatric and Adolescent Figure Skating Injuries: A 15-Year Retrospective Review in 2019
- 271 female and 23 male). Age rage: 9 to 19 years
- Approximately 68.9% were overuse and 31.1% were acute injuries (the most frequently injured body areas were foot/ankle, knee, back, hip
Over 31 percent of acute injuries from falls - is not a description of "safe" falling in my opinion.
4) I started skating at the age of 13, after passing skating exam in front of all local coaches I was accepted to the club. Thanks to it I saw practises of competive skaters of all age range (training double, few of them triple jumps).
I saw all different kind of falls on different parts of body. Some falls were "soft" like landing on feet and then slowly going down. But many were pretty harsh and painful mine including. I was never taught how to fall.
Those times one skating mom complained that doctor - paediatrician was suspicious about domestic abuse because of bruises and haematoma on her daughter's body. Both daughter and mom were explaining to the doctor that it is normal in figure skating...
5) Right now there is one patient at our Inpatient Rehabilitation - former competive skater in 70s and 80s. Her grandfather was coach and international judge, her father was in ice dancer and uncle a pair skaters. Yes, she was taught how to fall safely. But no, falls on the ice were not soft. She mentioned that ice is tough but elastic, so sometimes the falls look worse then they actually are. Many falls were painful, falling on knees was frequent, all kids had many bruises, soft tissues injuries, sprains. She never broke a bone.
She thinks all skaters have higher pain tolerance thanks to multiple falls.
One of her last quotes: "Fall is never safe. Brain gives you signals that you are not in a good position in the air or take off was not good, but you never know for sure how will you land. You may only predict."
6) Golden Skate Thread in 2018:
https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/threads/bruise-on-knees.77882/
- skating mom complaining that her daughter has many bruises on the knees
- more people confirms this is happening
- our elite skater
@Ic3Rabbit :"Bruises and this sport go hand in hand."
7) There are more skaters with shoulder dislocation from falls. After first dislocation redislocations are more easy to happen. Todd Eldredge (stumble and fall), Miki Ando (at competition it happened during spin, but it couldn't be the first dislocation), Adam Rippon (fall in jump), Daniel Samohin (fall in jump), Aleksandr Selevko (fall, in 2021 and 2022), Mark Hanretty (twice - stumble and fall, during lift).
8) There are multiple examples of bad falls from competitions. I always admired skaters for their bravery to get up and continue skating after bad fall. So if I see that the skater gets up really slowly I know that it must pain terribly. No pads. Just glitters and tears, but they keep going.
I don't want to use falls from pair cathegory, I believe you didn't mean safe fall talking abou this cathegory.
Anna Pogorilaya or Jeremy Abbott were known for harsh falls. Kimmie Repond falls terribly. There are many skaters who had bad falls at competitions (I would say that every skater had some bad falls during her / his career...such bad that she / he had big trouble to get up). There more videos on YouTube Channel. When you say that falls (especially in jumps) are safe, how is it possible that they fall that badly
@adhara ?
9) Skaters will hopefully forgive me to give them as an example of falls, but I would never be able to describe perfectly what is seen on the video. I am not using the worst falls. Instead I chose kind of falls which I saw many times both at practise and competitions, both at local and international events.
Miki Ando 2005 Marshalls LP -
https://youtu.be/GklM1M5KnBQ?t=194
Patrick Chan 2012 World Championships LP -
https://youtu.be/O32eNjbWH78?t=280
Irina Slutskaya 2006 Olympic Games LP -
https://youtu.be/VZewQrj_ssk?t=264
I definitely didn't get the idea that skaters were in any way "preparing" and executing "safe" fall. Please, your opinion
@adhara . Are those falls really safe in eyes of some skaters?
www.youtube.com
) but I can see why it's more dangerous than the star lift, for instance. Yes, the man's hand has to be at the central balance point in any one-handed lift, but in the Detroiter he's holding the inner side of her thigh. No matter how toned her leg muscles are, that's still a wobbly part of her. In a star, his hand is gripping her hip bone and pelvis, and bone is more stable than movable soft tissue.
), but even at this stage it's obvious his right hand is gripping bone, not any wiggly part:
) There are also a lot of pictures of skaters just posing gracefully. This is OK, too. Spinning and gliding are good; spinning and gliding graceully – now we are on to something!
