- crash dynamics

Somehow as kids grow up through the ranks of learning to skate -- as they go from swizzles to stroking to spins -- they gradually gain a sense of rink and positional location awareness.

Skaters seem to crash into and clip the boards more frequently than they run into one another, but that latter possibility is always looming. It seems to weigh more on the minds of the parents though than the skaters.

Of course falling on the ice is as much a part of skating as lacing up your boots. Indeed part of the learning process is also learning how to fall safely, without causing too much damage. Naturally it is best to learn this skill when you are little.

Once you grow into a competitive skater you spend half of your time skating backwards. This makes for a bit of a challenge if you want some ice time in a public session amongst the newbies and the amateurs.

As a parent it seems I spend a good one third of my time telegraphing concern about an impending crash; I haven't a clue if this is actually useful to my daughter, but it is part of the crash dynamics, and it seems to be the general background concern of most of the newbie parents at the rink.