Ask the Ice Moms: How Much Figure Skating Spinning Practice is Too Much?

Reader Canadian Ice Mom sent this e-mail:

I have a 13-year-old daughter who skates in Canada.This November, my daughter screwed up her sit spin at the competitions, and her two coaches weren’t very happy about it. Then after the competition, one of her coaches gave her a spin lesson more than 40 minutes non-stop. My daughter got so dizzy and sick after her lesson.

Recently, after an hour-long individual spinning lesson, this coach gave her 30-minute group spin lesson on top of it.

My husband’s and my concern is that my daughter often gets ear infections. We are afraid that these intensive spinning lessons might cause her ear damage or even brain damage… but if we say that to the coach, things will become worse for my daughter.Her coaches often do the opposite of what we ask. Let’s say I tell the coach that my daughter’s ears are hurting today, then coach will give her a much harder lesson than usual.

Anyhow, how much is too much spinning in a lesson? Are my daughter’s intense spin lessons are normal?

Pairs Mom, mom to 1/2 of this year’s Midwestern Sectionals first place Novice Pair.

The thing that bothers me the most about this email is the sentence that states “Her coaches often do the opposite of what we ask.”  If you are alerting the coach of a recent illness or health problem before a lesson, the coach should be responsive to the parent’s request.  For instance, when my son was younger and I knew he was having asthma problems because of seasonal allergies or the weather change, then the coach would have my son’s inhaler in his coat pocket rink side during practices and competitions.  Of course, now that he is older he will sometimes tell the coach that he is not feeling well, etc.

There were two recent incidents with skaters that had problems because of too much spinning.  I think one of them was Lucinda Ruh the famous spinner and she had a brain injury.  Not to frighten you, but you have to listen to your daughter and perhaps the doctor or sports therapist could help advice you in this situation.

In my opinion, and I am not a coach, but I would think that a 30-minute spin lesson is average and that is about all a body can take!  Also, if you feel like the coaches often do the opposite of what you ask then the next question you need to ask yourself is “Who is paying the bills?” and remember that the coach is an employee of the parent, hired by the parent to coach the skater, and this is how it is stated by PSA, Professional Skater’s Association.

Sk8rmom p, personal trainer and mom to an intermediate-level male figure skater and a Junior Nationals competitor

Dear Canadian Ice Mom,

I see two separate issues here.  The first one is that you are worried about permanent damage to your DD.  The fact that she has ear infections may have a lot to do with how well she can spin on a given day.  As an aside: the vestibular system in the inner ear makes adaptations in skaters to allow them to spin as fast as they do.  When they stop spinning competitively, the adaptations go away (they can’t spin as long w/o getting dizzy or sick).  Of course, they can always adapt again by spinning more consistently.

When a child has chronic ear infections, their balance is often impaired.  Witness when you get a head cold and negative ear pressure or an infection, and try to balance on one foot, your balance is not as good as when your head and ears are clear.  Your DD will probably spin better when she doesn’t have an ear infection.  Maybe the coaches are seeing the inconsistency and are puzzled by it (though that is no excuse, see below).

The good news is that your child will not get brain damage or ear damage from spinning.  I hope that helps to ease your mind.  I encourage you to visit your medical doctor to make sure that everything that can be done for her ears is being done.  Have you checked out allergies?  Often chronic ear infections have a lot to do with food or environmental allergies.  I would encourage you to also see an allergist to see if dairy or eggs or wheat could be causing this condition.  It’s a hassle to avoid foods that you love, but eventually the child and parents get used to it.

To address what I see as the second part of your issue: your skater’s coaches.  I would highly recommend that you find another coach.  The coach’s behavior in punishing poor spins by making the skater sick smacks of an out-of-control anger issue.  There is no quicker way of turning a kid off skating than punishing something that they can’t control.

Further concerning is that you know your child and her health.  You are the expert.  If you say that her ears are hurting, the coach should use the information to tailor the lesson so that the child is comfortable, working on other things until the condition resolves itself.  “Our” IceCoach frequently does this as my IceBoy has had a chronic injury.

If you said that your daughter’s knee was hurting that day, I would expect that the coach would review the situation and probably not make her jump the whole session and aggravate her pain.  So why is he/she making her spin when she obviously will have trouble if she has negative ear pressure or even an infection???!!!

By showing disregard and disrespect for your daughter and yourself, I think that the coaches have shown that they really have no interest in your daughter besides her placement in a competition.  Or they just don’t have very good coaching skills.  In any case, they are lacking qualities of good human beings.  You have the right to chose who works with your DD.  Winning and placing is great, but at what cost to our children?  I hope that you can resolve this issue with them, but it doesn’t seem promising given what you have said.

In my opinion, one-hour spin lessons that make the skater sick could be considered child abuse and have no place in a child’s sport.  The days of athletic training in the “pushing till you puke” are old school and hopefully are changing for the better (slowly but surely).

The usual spin lesson at our rink is 15 minutes at a time.  I don’t know of any coach at our rink that does more than 15 at one sitting.  My IceBoy said that he could tolerate a 1/2-hour spin lesson, but probably not a 45-minute spin lesson.  He feels it’s not necessary to do a 45-minute spin lesson (he’s 14).  I told him your DD’s situation and he said point blank, “She should find another coach.”

The child comes first.  To win isn’t everything and a coach who doesn’t understand this is a coach that I would keep my own child far far away from.

Good luck to you and your DD.

SeasonedSk8rmom, adult skater and mom to a novice-level singles skater and synchronized skater who just passed five dance tests!

This is my personal opinion. I’m not sure how figure skating coaching works in Canada, but I feel that a figure skating coach is hired by me to teach my daughter how to skate. Yes I want my daughter to be successful and I hire a coach that I know will help her to be a successful skater. We all measure success in this sport differently based on our personal family situations.

If I tell my daughter’s coach that she has a medical condition that will affect her skating, then the coach needs to respect her doctor’s medical opinion and modify their coaching to accommodate for my daughter’s medical condition. If any coach feels that they need to push my daughter and make her do a skating skill that will aggravate her medical problem and will not listen to me, or her doctor, when I tell that coach to stop doing this to my child, then I would be looking for a new coach ASAP. I refuse to pay someone good money that refuses to listen to me and respect my wishes as a parent. I realize I’m not a skating professional and I respect their expertise, but my daughter’s health and well being physically and psychologically comes first.

I don’t like recommending parents to find new coaches for their skaters, especially if they have been working with a coach for a long period of time because their is an adjustment period that needs to happen when you change coaches, and this can delay progress for a skater. Consistency is best when it comes to learning skating skills. But it aggravates me to no end when a skating coach puts their ego as a skating professional above the needs of their skater and the advice of medical professionals or parents.

One of the things I love about my daughter’s coach is that if my daughter is injured or complaining about any aches and pains, she will reschedule her lesson or she will work on skating skills that will not aggravate her injury. She truly cares about her skaters. She knows that aggravating a medical condition only encourages more time off the ice due to not allowing the medical condition to heal.

Listen all parents who are complaining about a coach that is not listening to you, especially when it comes to the health and well being of your skater, YOU ARE THE PARENT AND YOU HAVE HIRED THE COACH!!!!! If the coach does not listen to you then you need to FIRE the coach!!!! If you hired anyone to work in a business that you owned, you would not hesitate to fire an employee that would not listen to you, it would not matter if they had 5 Ph.D.’s and knew more about your product than you. I WOULD NEVER allow a coach to make my daughter sick learning a new skating skill. That is not what is in the best interest of any skater. They could be the best coach in the world, my child’s health is way more important to me than any sport, or any coach in that sport working with my child. Coaches should not be bullies, or abusive in any way shape or form to your child. If someone was abusing your child wouldn’t you keep your child away from that person. If you child was being bullied, wouldn’t you keep your child away from that bully. Please parents think about what this type of coaching is doing to your skater. Is it helping or hurting?

I’m sorry for getting so direct but this makes me very angry. Coaches should know that this is not appropriate, professional behavior. Thank you for listening, Season

Ice Mom, mom to Ice Girl, a high school student and preliminary figure skater.

I’m with the other moms on this one: I have no desire to pay for a coach to abuse my kid. I’m all for keeping the coach-skater relationship intact. After all, that personal connection between the coach and the skater is what drives the relationship and helps the skater succeed.

But here, I’m not convinced that personal connection is happening. In fact, I think the coach might be building resentment between herself and her skater. I know I’d resent a one-hour vindictive spinning lesson.

It’s tough to switch coaches, though. Sometimes you think that the coach you have is the best one to be had at the rink. Switching to a different coach might mean your skater progresses more slowly or has weaker skills. If you’re unhappy with the local choices, you should consider driving to another rink, maybe another town. Otherwise, find someone locally who is nice. Let’s face it: if the coach keeps your daughter spinning for hours on end, your daughter’s going to want to quit. It’s pretty much a choice between no coach, no ice and some coach and ice.

I think that the coaching relationship is broader than just coach-skater. The parent is part of the equation, too. This coach isn’t listening to you and doesn’t care about your daughter’s condition. Toss. Toss. Toss.

What do you think? What should Canadian Ice Mom do? Do you think that excessive spinning is justified? Please let us know in the comments!

Sick little boy: MorgueFile

Dizzy boy: Morgue File