“Oh no! Look at Dante! He fell hard! He might have hit his head!” The parents in the viewing area exclaimed as we watched our children do their figure skating lessons.
I saw that Dante had slipped on his heel and landed hard on his tailbone before laying face up on the ice. His coach reached over to pull him up as I saw him wiping tears away from his face.
“Aren’t you going to go downstairs to see if he is ok?” One parent asked.
“I am not allowed.” I said. I really wanted to go but I know I could not. This is because the coaches don’t want parents to interfere with the lessons. I waited to see if the coach would take him off the ice because that would mean that he was hurt enough to warrant an intervention from me. The coach did not take him off the ice but I could see that this was no ordinary fall. To make matters worse, he still had off ice training afterwards.
As the on-ice session ended, I went downstairs to help Dante out of his skates.
“I fell really hard on my tailbone today.” Dante said.
“I know! I saw that. Did you hit you head?” I asked. It was very important for me to assess this.
“No, I curled my neck and lifted my head up just before my head could hit the ice.” Dante said.
“That was good reflexes!” I said.
“But I don’t think I am well enough to go to off-ice training. It is Monday today and I don’t like the off-ice teacher.” Dante said.
“Well, your coaches have said that in order to skate on the ice, you must also do the off-ice training.” I said, reminding him of the very strict club rules. I also sensed that he was in some pain but not seriously injured. Figure skating is a sport where hard falls on the ice are unavoidable. If he was unable to sustain falls and continue to train, I think it would be best for him to quit figure skating altogether.
“Well, ok, I’ll go.” He still loves skating, just not the off-ice teacher.
The incident above happened last week and I didn’t think much of it but something interesting happened yesterday. Dante went for an on-ice training session at noon because he had a day off school. While practicing his program on the ice, I saw he had tripped and fell on his knees. He must have been crying again because a coached skated over and took him to the side of the rink. I watched as he sat there on the bench. He looked up at me and knew I was watching him and waiting to see if my assistance was needed. But after a few minutes, he got up and went back on the ice. For the rest of the practice, he shuffled around the ice and didn’t practice his jumps again.
As he was leaving the ice rink after the practice, he burst into tears as he left the rink, “I hurt my knee today and it really hurts!”
“I have fallen on the ice before too and I know it really hurts!” I empathized with him, but I could clearly see that he was still walking.
“I don’t think my knee is well enough to go to the afternoon training session today.” Dante said.
“Do you feel like you are skating too much? Would you like to stop skating?” I asked.
“No no! I just can’t go to the afternoon session today, I’ll be well enough to go to a practice tomorrow afternoon. Besides, the teacher I don’t like is teaching the off-ice today…” Dante said.
Something seemed interesting, my intuition told me that something important was surfacing…
“Why don’t you like the off-ice teacher?” I asked.
“She shoots bad energy at me.” He said.
“Ah Ha!” I said, “I get it now!”
“What? What are you getting?” Dante is a very curious boy.
“Didn’t you also have a bad fall last week on Monday? Same day you were supposed to get the same off-ice teacher you don’t like?” I said.
“Oh yeah! That was last Monday!” Dante also realized that this was quite a coincidence.
“Do you think it would be possible that your body is trying to get injured enough to try to avoid this teacher?” I asked.
“Maybe…” Dante said.
“Do you want to skate at another club?” I asked.
“NO!” Dante said. Why leave most his friends?
“Well, the teacher you don’t like is a teacher at this club. If you want to stay, you need to learn how to deal with her shooting bad energy at you. You can imagine that you are surrounded by a huge bubble of white light. You can also try talking less and paying more attention in class so she doesn’t have to shoot bad energy at you.” I suggested.
“Ok, I’ll go to the afternoon training session today.” Dante said.
When he showed up to training, he had a good lesson with his on-ice coach and he found out that the off-ice coach he doesn’t like was taking a day off and they had a very nice substitute teacher for the class!
The next day he woke up and I loosely asked him, “So, how is your knee today?”
“Good!” Dante replied.
This inspirational story illustrated how Dante went from being too hurt to go on the ice to feeling completely fine. But it was very interesting to see how his body would unconsciously create injuries so that he could avoid a coach he didn’t like.
I cannot help to wonder if a lot of sports related injuries may be caused by unresolved emotional blocks. If you would know someone with sports injuries who would like to find out the emotional causes of their injuries, please feel free to contact me.
Here is a picture of Dante when he was happily skating:
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