pat

Now that I know I have fallen on the greater trochanter of the femur, I feel
a desire to protect said g-t-o-t-f. I do not fear looking goofy, but there
might be limits to that. I was thinking of wearing some kind of compression
shorts and putting a football pad alongside each thigh....is this feasible?
I looked for ice hockey pads today and could only find "junior size" ones.
There is always the bubble wrap and duct tape route, but I would want to
wear some baggy shorts and put the bubble wrap under them. Please don't
tell me that you wear the bubble wrap on the outside! Evidently, my
soccer goalie shorts do not have the pads anywhere near where said pads were
needed....

Pat in TX

fastsk8r

Pat,

Instead of padding your butt with hockey and football pads, why not try
something more natural? Injuries usually occur to beginners due to a
lack of muscular strength and coordination. If you you fell on your butt
(this is just an example, I am not sure exactly how or what you injured)
and injured it that way, you need to begin strengthening that area
after it heals to prevent yourself from re-injuring it again. There are
a number of excercises you can do to strengthen the area you injured
specicifcally. It will make you a better skater and reduce injury
possibilities somewhat.

To give you an example, I blew out my MCL snow skiing. I switched trails
as I was coming down a mountain and didn't realize it at the time, but
the trail I left was groomed and the trail I was going to was ungroomed.
Hitting the ungroomed trail was like slamming on the brakes. My skis
stopped, but my forward momentum continued. Due to insufficient strength
in my quads, I snapped forward until I maxed the flex on the ski tips,
then they snapped me backwards and the left cheek of my butt hit my left
heel, wiping out my MCL. I spent the two years after that while off skis
concentrating on quad and calf strength to reduce the possibility of
that ever happening again. Now I am a much better skier and can make the
transition from groomed to ungroomed without any trouble at all.

Basically what I am trying to say is muscle is the best pad of all. It
is good to make use of it. Concentrate on that as opposed to how much
and where you can put pads. The more pads you have on, the more likely
you will overheat while skating. Putting muscle on is a lot better than
recovering from heat stroke.

Fastsk8r

pat

What I fell on is the top bulging edge of the femur. When I looked up this
type of bruise/hematoma, I found it is second only to hip pointers (top edge
of the pelvis). I don't know how I could improve that. I am a cyclist and
rode 2 Centuries and 6 Metric Centuries this past year (among other long
rides). I swim a mile every other day, too. I have been power walking in the
pool trying to improve all leg muscles, but I think this is a balance
problem, not a muscle or lack of muscle problem. Of my 4 falls, 3 hit this
area, although one was on the left leg and 2 were on the right leg. If you
have an exercise in mind, I would be open to trying it.

Pat

motorblade

Pat,

A good source and reasonably cheap source for the hockey pants i stock in my
truck (i put them on kids before they try to drop in on a quarter pipe ramp)
are the used sports stores like "Play It Again Sports" or "Recycled Sports" if
yo have any in your area you might look there or at the pro shops at a ice
skating rink .


"fritz"
http://www.londonskaters.com/interview_fritz_blaw.htm
http://www.motorblade.com
Birdy(Parker), Brazil(Gilliam),and Brewster McCloud(Altman)

phil earnhardt

Rather than concentrating on equipment, I would pay more attention to
learning how to fall.

If you're just standing on your skates and fall, the amount of energy
you'll hit the ground with is directly proportional to your height:

Fall from half the height and you'll have half the energy when you
hit.

Untrained beginning skaters who get in awkward positions will raise
their center of mass higher -- trying to "avoid the ground." Skaters
who are trained quickly learn to drop into a "ready" position -- bend
in ankles, bend in knees, hands toward the ground. The image I give
people is that they're reaching to grab tiny pistols that are strapped
to the outside of their skates.

All these actions will lower the center of gravity. The simple act of
getting in a "ready" position will often keep you from falling in the
first place. And, if you do fall, you'll have far less distance to
fall.

I strongly recommend taking some lessons to learn and practice
beginning skills like the "ready" position.


--phil

pat

I am planning on taking some lessons as soon as I am cleared by the doc.
What I do to remind myself to keep a ready position is to think of pressing
on the tongues of the skate boots with my shins. That served me well in
snow skiing. I have gone over those two falls in my mind, and both happened
when one skate hit the grass while the other skate was on the pavement. A
previous poster said I shouldn't learn to skate on narrow concrete paths. I
see a lot of logic in that---now.

Pat

fastsk8r

You actually can strengthen that and that is a primary muscle for
skating if I am picturing your injury correctly. But before I say
anything regarding excercise, was the injury on the front of the lower
half of your leg? Since I didn't have anatomy (it wasn't needed for what
I do for a living), I am thinking that it is the front of the lower leg
below the knee. If this is correct, I can make that bugger rock solid if
you want it to. But bicycling will not affect that muscle at all.
Bicycling affects the quads and calves. It won't guarantee against a
future injury, but it sure will help prevent one.

Fastsk8r

johns

That is fairly easy to do. Sew some pockets directly
over that joint on both sides of your jeans. Make them
big enough to hold 1/2 of a cut down mouse pad.
Works fine. I actually found some jean "baggies"
called Carpenter Jeans that already had the pockets.
Amazing how strong mouse pads are. I thought about
making a mouse pad belt once. It would have been
a waist belt with 4 well located mouse pads and 4
down straps to the thighs and 2 more belts there.
Easy to do with velcro. Baggies worked fine. I was
taking lots of falls like that trying to land tloops, flips
salchows .. even axels .. and my baggies really were
great.

johns

pat

no, that isn't the right area. The greater trochanter of the femur area is
right below the buttocks and my hematoma is on the side and towards the
rear. Imagine someone pushing you down to the right and to the rear. It's
not quite the hamstrings and certainly not the quads. it's kinda where the
leg joins the buttocks but not directly in the back.

Pat

pat

Mouse pads like computer mouse pads? Wouldn't I have to use about 12 of them
to make a worthwhile pad? Hmmm. Just the same, I am going to see if I can
find some cheap ones---maybe at Fry's---and see how many I'd need to get to
make a good thickness.

Pat