Figure Skating Jump Harnesses: Amusing to Watch

You all know that I’m not a figure skating coach or a figure skater. My involvement is purely that of a parent in the stands. I gotta tell you: watching a lesson with Ice Girl in the ceiling or pole harness is pretty darn amusing. In fact it’s so amusing that Ice Dad will often get out of bed to watch a 6 a.m. harness lesson.

The Ceiling Harness

What it is: The ceiling jump harness is a giant pulley system mounted to the rink’s ceiling at one end of the ice. The cable spans the rink end and a pulley wheel slides along it. Over the pulley wheel is a rope with knots on one end for the coach to hang onto and the other end has a harness that wraps around the figure skater’s torso. Skater and coach skate in a straight line and the coach tugs on the rope to assist the figure skater with the jump.

Today is Rinkformation’s joint posting day. Check out our other posts about jumps

Ice Coach: the jump harness

Ice Girl: swinging like bait from the jump harness

Synchro Mom: do synchronized skaters jump?

Why it’s fun to watch: Ice Coach pulls on Ice Girl, but it’s a lot of work for a short coach to haul my kid up in the air. Ice Girl is also in the habit of not falling, which sounds weird to normal people’s ears, but as parents, we know that skaters have to fall to learn a jump. So, Ice Coach sometimes assists Ice Girl with the jump, but not the landing. The landing/fall isn’t as hard as a totally unassisted landing/fall, so it’s pretty safe to laugh at Ice Girl’s comic expression. I can’t imagine why she’s surprised that Ice Coach lets her fall, but it stuns Ice Girl every time.

It’s also pretty funny to watch Ice Girl on the harness when she thinks Ice Coach is assisting her, but Ice Coach isn’t. What I mean is that the rope is in Ice Coach’s hands, but it’s slack. Ice Girl will skate into her double Salchow, land a big one on one foot, and grin at Ice Coach. Ice Coach shows Ice Girl the loose rope and they laugh. Ice Girl thinks it was a joint effort, but it wasn’t, which is fun. The problem is that she can’t replicate that stupid jump with consistency off the harness. I swear, I’m going to sew, bedazzle, and market my own line of fake harnesses for figure skaters to wear when practicing off the harness. Those would sell big, I tell you.

The Pole Harness

What it is: It’s a giant fishing pole with a foam-wrapped handle for the coach and a harness on the end where you’d normally see a hook. The figure skater and the coach skate around the rink together and the coach supports the skater somewhat when the skater jumps. It’s not the same at all as the coach pulling on the ceiling harness. It’s more like the coach is preventing the skater from taking a hard fall than giving the skater a lot of lift. The skater is hauling herself up in the air, not the coach. The problem is that Ice Coach’s arms really hurt after a pole harness session. She’s going to have buff arms, though.

This week’s Ask the Expert: World-level Coach and Pole Harness expert Nick Perna. This Wednesday, April 21 on IceMom.net.

Why it’s fun to watch: Ice Girl is just a tiny bit taller than Ice Coach, so that makes Ice Coach’s job kind of tough. She has to skate next to Ice Girl and leverage the pole to keep a taller person from splatting on the ice. It’s kind of comical to see this little gal struggle to land my figure skater/fish.

It’s a giant fishing pole. Truly, it’s comical. My kid skates around like a fast fish on a hook and line. Tiny Ice Coach chases after her like some crazy fisherman trying to land a lunker. You know, it’s not that funny when I type it, but it’s a good time when I’m watching.

Again, when Ice Girl falls, it’s pretty safe to laugh because the falls aren’t too painful. The kid now wears butt pads (wonderful!) so, it’s more like Ice Coach is setting Ice Girl down on the ice.

You know, it sounds like Ice Dad and I are the worst parents when we sit in the stands drinking coffee and laughing as our kid takes some very awkward falls. In our defense, we do clap when she lands one or shout over the hockey glass encouragement if the rink’s not very full. I just asked Ice Girl if we’re bad parents for laughing and she says she won’t agree or deny. Now she says kinda. Hmm.

Well, sorry, Ice Girl, but I wouldn’t miss your harness lessons for a Monty Python marathon. It’s just funny to watch. Poor baby.

So, parents, what do you think of the harnesses? Do you think they help your skater? Do you prefer one to the other? Do you find the jump harnesses as amusing as I do or am I just warped? It’s O.K. you can be honest.

Have you entered our April contest yet? Submit your embarrassing rink story to: info@rinkformation.net Deadline: 4/30/10

Photo credits:
Bait shop: Ricky Montalvo on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Fishing for crocodiles: Happy Little Nomad on Flickr.com Creative Commons

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509166020 Falyn Goreham-Smith

My daugther is going to be going into the ceiling harness this Wednesday at her Spring School club. I CAN'T WAIT to watch her now, she's only 7 and the highest jump she can do is a loop (not gracefully mind you) so I'm excited and she's excited to attempt it in the harness. I will let you know how I, I mean she makes out. lol
http://twitter.com/icemom icemom

I'm telling you, Falyn: it's a good time. I video taped the first time Ice Girl was in the jump harness…for the coach. No, really. I taped it because I had to show Ice Dad how very, very amusing it was.

Ice Girl said this morning there's something wrong with me.
Sk8nln

It is a hoot to watch skaters on the harness and the little they are the more they look like the catch of the day. I am only a parent (no clue about coaching), but the confidence I see in may daughter is much higher when she works with a harness.
http://twitter.com/icemom icemom

Yep, Sk8nln, I agree that the confidence factor with a jump harness is huge. I think that Ice Girl liked getting the feel of how the rotation was supposed to be, even though the feel wasn't as weighty as jumping all by herself.

On Wednesday, my guest expert will be Nick Perna, the pole harness expert. I can't wait for the questions you guys ask him!
http://twitter.com/caseywms Casey Williams

We have a ceiling harness at our rink – I've never seen a pole harness!!! I may have to search You Tube for a video – I can't even picture it!!!
http://twitter.com/icemom icemom

It's a giant fishing rod, Casey. http://www.pro-motionharness.com/news.html

In that link, you can see Wednesday's Guest Expert Nick Perna using the Pro Motion Pole Harness to teach Olympic Gold Medalist Sarah Hughes some kind of jump.

I can't wait to see what kind of questions you guys have for Coach Perna!
sk8rmomp

When DS finished his last day of group lessons (we knew by then that IceCoach was going to continue with private lessons for IceBoy) he put him on the harness for fun. DS was so excited. He was 9 years old. I took a picture of it, his little bow legs were dangling and he had no “form” at all. We have a good laugh when we look at it now. It was a year or so until his next ride in the harness, this time for real. IceCoach doesn't use the harness much (sometimes I wish he would use it more as IB doesn't like pads “it makes my butt look like Sponge Bob Square pants” LOL). Ouch!

One coach at our rink used to own a Dartfish program with a pole, but ended up selling it because of the height discrepancy problem (short coach, tall students), so the only time we see it is if a visiting coach brings it. I always worry that the skater might fall and take out their coach when I see it. Never happened so far.

It really shows how much psychology is involved in skating, seeing countless kids able to land beautiful jumps with the harness around their bodies but not attached to the rig. Then not able to land at all once the harness piece comes off. I like your idea of sewing fake harnesses. I know a few girls at the rink that would buy them LOL

Looking forward to the wed post!
http://twitter.com/icemom icemom

Yeah, Ice Girl was pretty excited to be in the ceiling harness, too, when she first tried it.

I hadn't thought of the skater and coach both falling when the skater takes a dive. That could be bad, but we have three coaches now with fishing poles and I've never seen that happen. Might be a good question for Coach Perna on Wednesday!

I really do think there's a TON of psychology involved with jumping. Most of the time, Ice Coach doesn't support Ice Girl at all in either harness and Ice Girl lands the jumps just fine. The minute she's off of it, though, she has herself convinced that she can't land it.

I'm telling you: fake harnesses would totally sell. They'd be a great gag gift, if nothing else.

As far as the pads go, Ice Girl now wears them. It took a while to convince her because one coach at our rink forbids her skaters to use them. She believes that skaters will become dependent on the pads like a security blanket and never jump without the pads.

When Ice Girl found out that the girls would like to wear pads, but can't, well, she started wearing hers.

Again: it's psychology.
Anonymous

I find watching the ceiling harness amusing, at the least. Seen other skaters on fishing pole. My skater is a full grown sized adult — putting her on the pole would be like wrestling a marlin from the depths — entertaining for me, but I’m guessing no fun for the fish or fisher-coach!
pghicemom

I find watching the ceiling harness amusing, at the least. Seen other skaters on fishing pole. My skater is a full grown sized adult — putting her on the pole would be like wrestling a marlin from the depths — entertaining for me, but I'm guessing no fun for the fish or fisher-coach!
http://twitter.com/icemom icemom

Yeah. Ice Girl doesn’t dominate Ice Coach. In fact, there’s maybe two inches between them. However, it’s enough that poor Ice Coach looks like she’s about to land a dolphin.

Glad to hear you think the harnesses are funny, too. Ice Girl is trying to convince me I’m a terrible mom for snickering when she’s dangling from the ceiling/fishing pole.
http://twitter.com/icemom icemom

Yeah. Ice Girl doesn't dominate Ice Coach. In fact, there's maybe two inches between them. However, it's enough that poor Ice Coach looks like she's about to land a dolphin.

Glad to hear you think the harnesses are funny, too. Ice Girl is trying to convince me I'm a terrible mom for snickering when she's dangling from the ceiling/fishing pole.