October 23rd, 2005

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Sports
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The New Hinged Figure Skate

It’s figure skating season again, so there’s more yelling at the television than usual. I was watching some of Skate America today, and they mentioned that the graceful Alissa Czisny was wearing an innovative new hinged skate.

At first, I thought they were referring to some variation of the clap skate used in speed skating. In fact, the blade isn’t hinged–the boot is. Apparently it profoundly reduces the wear and tear on your hips, knees and spines that results from jumping. This makes sense, as joint injuries are chronic among figure skaters. Coincidentally, top American skaters Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen both missed Skate America with hip injuries. Ms. Czisny discusses her decision to adopt the boot in her online journal.

Sports equipment innovations tend to run like wildfire through a sport. The adoption of the clap skate and the graphite hockey stick seemed to take a single season. I wonder if everybody will be using a hinged boot next year?

Bonus fact: Alissa Czisny has a twin sister, Amber, who’s also a national level skater. Their parents must be broke.

Comments: 3 Responses so far

jen
October 23rd, 2005
5:11 pm

Most skaters don’t use them for various reasons including the fact that your ankles are in more danger than just a regular boot. They also look like crap. The last point is that the mechanisms in the boot itelf could wear down. Imagine doing a triple jump and the hinge pops off.

The maker of those boots actually have had A LOT of problems with manufacturing and crappy boots over the last couple of years. Most skaters won’t even touch that brand because there have been so many issues

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Heather
October 24th, 2005
1:45 pm

Still, it’s a positive development. Seems like so many of the athletes in these high impact sports are young - kids, really - and anything that can help prevent chronic and lifelong injuries is good.

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jen
October 24th, 2005
8:17 pm

It’s not the equipment thats doing the damage (have you seen skates form the 60’s?) its the POOR training that is taking place.

I know of one senior level skater right here in Vancouver that trains on ice 6-8 hours. Let’s just see how long her hips last. In Russia and other Eastern Eurpoean countries they only do maybe 1 or 2 hours on ice and the rest of the time its off ice doing plyometrics.

In N.A skaters skate around do a jump, consult with coach, go back do anotehr jump stand around, etc. When you watch the Russians (and now Japanese since they follow the Eastern European tradition) train its so different, hence why most skaters are getting injured.

Another reason is the push to do triples at a young age. Hence, Tara Lipinski needing a double hip replacement in her early 20’s. The injuries sustained from doing triples at a young age made the ISU cap the age of going to Worlds.

Coaches also are culprits. In most countries, anyone can become a coach. In Canada, to become a high level coach or even a low level coach, you must be NCCP certified. To get your level 1 coaching it takes 2-3 years. To be able to coach a nationals you need to have a level 3 coaching certificate. In the US anyone, including some dingbat could coach. Coaches need to take a step back and stop pushing.

This is one of the reasons why we dont have a lot of really young phenoms in skating in Canada (especially the ladies).

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