Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Dangers of Skating Clockwise
I could not help but "titter" (can I say "titter"?) when I read this daft Nannyism a while ago. It seems that Stirling Council has a thing about ice skaters who skate clockwise.
The council deems it to be a health and safety hazard, and as such have banned clockwise skating during public skating sessions at the £27M sports complex (The Peak) which is meant to be used for training for the 2012 Olympics.
Also banned during "skate for all sessions" are; speed skating, figure skating, jumping, spinning and chains.
Not much scope for practising for the Olympics there then!
Precisely why this complex, allegedly built to help people train, needed quite so much money spent on it is therefore is a bit of a mystery.
Needless to say, the skaters are going elsewhere to train (where the rules aren't so daft).
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As an ex-skater (bronze and silver medal holder) I can kind of understand banning some of these at 'public' sessions as with unsteady amateur skaters on the ice there is a greater chance of someone being quite badly injured if folks are jumping and spinning. Many, many years ago for a while I shared a practice session with Robin Cousins and even with just the two of us on the ice there was one occasion where contact was made and I, being a fair few years his junior came off a lot worse so know what being flattened by someone mid jump is like. Believe me, the blades on the kind of boots competition skaters use are sharp. I still have the scars.
ReplyDeleteThe not skating clockwise rule has been around for years, it was in force at all the rinks I skated at throughout the 70s and early 80s and was certainly in force in 1971 when I started skating.
All rinks have private practice sessions where those skaters who intend to enter competitions can practice their jumps, spins, figure skating and free programmes without the risk of causing injury to those skaters who just want to skate for fun. Ditto for speed skating. Not often I agree with Nanny but in this case I think that the ban (apart from maybe the 'chains' bit) is sensible at public sessions.
This is nothing new Ken, similar "bans" were in place during the 1960s and 1970s at Richmond ice rink....Except half way through the open public sessions, the direction of travel was reversed; First hour anti-clockwise, second hour, clockwise.
ReplyDeleteThe stewards used to skate in to chains to break them up, which usually led to the poor unfortunate soul on the end of the chain crashing into the barrier at very high speed....Oh those were the days!!
Admittedly, I am a 'non-skater', but I agree with what Kaptain Von says about this, Ken. Ordinary blades would probably make a mess of a hand, if one was run over by them, never mind the sort competitors use! Therefore, if it is a public session, then it makes sense to have these rules. However, if it is a session for sksaters to train for the Olympics, then it is just plain daft!
ReplyDeleteChains: am I missing something here? I assume we are we still talking about ice skating?
Seriously, those who have introduced this ban will probably be the first to 'wring their hands in disbelief' if we do badly in skating in the 2012 Olympics, not to mention wonder why the competitive skaters are training elsewhere than at Stirling!
Sounds like an ideal opportunity for Nanny to regulate skating, with all novices having to fit mandatory stabilisers to prevent falling over. That and speed limiting devices..
ReplyDelete