Figure skating is a beautiful, graceful, and challenging practice. However, when you’re getting started, the practice can be difficult, and even dangerous. If you consider all of the pieces involved in figure skating, such as skates, blades, hard ice, and cold muscles— it is easy to see how you might incur some figure skating injuries along the way…
Figure Skating Injuries: Ice Issues
When you begin a serious, competitive practice…
For anyone who begins figure skating, you know it can be pretty addicting. Many people hit the ice for the first time and never want to leave. For this reason, overuse injuries are quite common— and come in many different forms. From stress fractures, muscle pain, shin splints, lower back pain, and even simple blisters and irritation. While these are only a few common overuse injuries, there are plenty more that even the most seasoned figure skater can fall victim to.
You’ll likely be spending between 2-4 hours on the ice, plus 1-3 hours off the ice, to increase strength, flexibility, aerobics, choreography, and so forth. In short, you’re putting your body under a lot of stress in a new environment.
Your skates
When you start figure skating, you’ll likely get a new pair of skates. As anyone knows, breaking in new shoes can cause blisters, discomfort, and other issues. This problem is not just limited to your every day shoes. In fact, the discomfort you feel when breaking in new skates is practically tenfold. Furthermore, a poor fit can actually be dangerous.
New skates look nice, bright, and shiny. However, breaking them in can cause friction, rubbing, and pressure that makes skating successfully… difficult. Furthermore, an ill fit can affect alignment, your ability to jump and land properly, and to skate comfortably.
Smaller injuries
These types of figure skating injuries are common to all skaters. However, there are plenty of smaller injuries that are going to be more common to beginners. Take, for example, slips and falls on the ice. Ideally, you will be wearing some sort of padding in a training setting. However, even if you are, a nasty fall can be pretty painful. Furthermore, your body is cold, your muscles are likely tight, and taking a tumble could lead to concussion, sprains, soreness, bruises, or even catching another skate to the fingers.
Figure skating is a beautiful, yet dangerous sport…
However, there are plenty of ways to avoid injury. Figure skating can be a ton of fun, especially when you begin to see your hard work pay off. Therefore, follow these tips, find ways to decrease injury, and skate safe. Having a good instructor can make all the difference…