getting over someone else's injury............

A snowHead

So my son is 8 and is in a race club. Really they hardly do any racing or gates and its about focusing on their skiing skills and getting skiing experience.

On Saturday a 7yr old in his group had a nastly crash, into a tree. He broke both femurs, and his tib/fib and after surgery has two rods and one plate.

This has seriously shaken me up and I feel quite sick with it all. With the idea that we have encouraged our son
to do a sport that can be so brutal. Non-skiing friends have an underlying, well what do you expect attitude.

I am now quite paranoid about my son's skiing.

So, how do you get past a bad accident , when its not even yours?

How do you balance in your mind the risk of not doing sport (eg diabetes , unhealthy lifestyle etc) against the risk of doing the sport when a child is involved?

A snowHead

Please excuse an opinion that's unfortunately baseless in terms of experience of a similar situation, However my advice FWIW would be to find out more about how and why it happened, and to mitigate those risks in future. If the child was gung ho and never listened but yours is sensible and follows advice, then one would imagine the risks as far lower for your son. Similarly, if he had mechanical problems with his skis/boots/bindings, then that's a very sharP lesson in proper maintenance.

If it was just an accident, a random fluke, then I realise that that's a lot more difficult to rationalise. Maybe what's important at the end of the day is what he wants? How much does he enjoy it? If he gave up now, would he regret it when older? Maybe you simply cannot cope with whatever level of risk?

Sounds like an incredibly difficult decision, and I wish you the best of luck in making the right one, for both of you.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

gryphea, try to rationalise it. Look up stats for car accidents. Do you let your son get in a car every day?

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gryphea, yes it is shocking when it happens in front of you but it is a fact of everyday life that accidents happens and is as sure as death and taxes! The injuries are nasty but the same kid could have ended up the same way in a car accident, riding his bike or falling down the stairs at home, the world would be a very boring place without risks!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Thanks guys

DaKid, Its really tricky cos we don't know much about the accident, will probably find out more on saturday. It was at the end of the day in a path through the trees. My son is generally less gung-ho than others and is quite measured. They all pretty much do as they are told in his group. I have no idea whther the kids bindings were set right, I would assume so, but its a possibility they weren't due to the tib/fib fracture.

Of course my son loves it, can't get enough, doesn't seem unduly affected by the accident. Wants to ski slalom at the olympics etc (he knows his limits here as he is not a natural risk taker for the speed events. But he is 8 and 8 yr olds cannot make rational choices- we have to make them for him.

beanie1, I agree. Whislt we were at Whitefish at Christmas a 5 yr old died being ploughed into by a boarder elsewher in the US and I read an article about US death rates. 9 people died from ski accident in US last year (I assume this doesn't cover avalanches), 9000 from cycling accidents and 36,000 from car accidents. I am not sure about injury rates though- the articale didn't cover it. I had rationlised a bone breakage, knee injury but femoral damage is an extreme injury and has potential to affect growth, which is a bit different. Here in Canada I think there are a few toboganning deaths each year and there are a few kid deaths each year due to electric garage doors. Still it brings it home when it happens to someone you know, well a child you know.

I have been amazed by people's reactions here. I told my boss, who has kids in the Bow Valley Kids program- they ski in trees the whole time and his reaction was 'well that's why I won't let my kids in a race club'. i told him he was kidding himself if he thought skiing through the trees in a non-race program was any different. As I said they hardly race and when they do its so tame and its only ever slalom.

A tricky week.
Will chat to coach this weekend and club director as they should be able to give me some more thoughts on liklihood of injuries etc

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If someone is a ski racer they will get injured, sometimes very seriously. How does your son feel about the incident?. Both of mine are into a sport where injury is likely, but both love it and would not give up. I have my worries, but ultimately the choice has to be theirs. Your boy is a fair bit younger than mine though.

After all it is free

Frosty the Snowman,

I think the difference is that 8 year olds (in fact really up to 10 year olds) in a race club aren't really ski racers. OK my son wants to be one, but he also wants to play soccer in the world cup. In fact chances are my son will stop at 10 because we wouldn't be happy about the time off school after that.

A lot of kids here do race club in early years; it gives them really good skiing skills and is way cheaper than a lesson programme, with the same coaches/groups all season and good quality coaching. So being in a race club is not really the same as being a racer at this age.

There is a high drop out rate as you go up in age. My 6 year old has 120 kids in NGI programme, 8 year old 66 kids in NGD. There are 42 9 and 10 year olds (KD). But I think only 15 or so 11 and 12 year olds (K1). K1 is when I would begin to call them racers, eg fast, multiple skis, suits etc

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gryphea, ah I see. It is a tricky one but it sounds like your boy is learning skills that will help prevent injury in the future.... or giving him skills that will make him want to do barmy stuff.

Its all about fun and if the kid is happy then I am happy. Let him decide and you will just have to man up and deal with his wishes.

A horrible injury for the young lad and all involved. My best wishes for a healthy and speedy recovery

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Frosty the Snowman, well said (as usual). Toofy Grin

gryphea, you've just got to try to rationalize what sounds to be a freakish accident and not worry. SO much easier said than done...

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I am beginning to calm down. And its been good to have some rational skier's view point as all the non-skiers here are of the what do you expect type.

gryphea, you can only bubble wrap and cotton wool them so much but as frosty says the skills learned will probably prevent more incidents in alot more than just skiing than if he was left on the couch playing video games.

chill out.... and although this probably doesnt make it any easier the old saying its "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" works in both yours and sons cases, you love him but as a potato doing nothing? and him having time of life or just surviving?

You know it makes sense.

OK, so managed to ski all weekend and am now feeling mentally better.

Turns out it was a fairly freak accident. Also felt better after reading the ski injury stats on that ski injury website.

All the boys in the group seem very blase about it all; its just us mums who found it all very harrowing! Boy is recovering very well apaprently, the lesser injured leg will start to bear weight in 4 weeks.

Thanks for all your support.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I know it's a while after the last post but thought I'd add to the comments anyway.

I Feel you need to be able to guide them through recognition of when the danger is elevating so that they can make a more valid assessment themselves as you can't always be with them. I think doing things like this is a major part of the process and is reasonably controlled to help them through.

I've also seen kids with no exposure to any real physical risk and they often seem to have no regard for their own or others safety, really scary!!

My son is currently 7 yrs /daughter 5yrs and ski with us but we don't live in a ski area so it's only holidays, I think it's one of the best things they have experienced and certainly less dangerous than cycling around our home.

Hope you had a good season.

A snowHead

gryphea, realise it's been a while, I must have missed this post first time around, firstly accidents do occur and lets be honest here skiing is not the safest of sports to take part in, that said I started skiing at 3 years old, in almost 40 years of going to the slopes I've only manage to sprain an ankle twice, get frost bitten once and bruised a few times, I've seen a few nasty accidents occur though, the best thing you can do is ensure your son has the best training possible, this means he is less likely to have an accident and should that unlikely event occur his increased fitness from all the training will mean he bounces back far more rapidly than might otherwise be the case.

A snowHead

Hi Guys

Have just seen extra posts back here, so thought I would update you.

Said boy spent most of the ski season in a wheel chair, which he was about to come out of in mid-April. Turns out he did a star jump in the trees and crashed in to a tree branch. I still shudder when I think of him lying there in agony without his parents with him. His parents seem fine, siblings skied all winter and the boy may or may not ski next year.

Anyway, I looked up injury stats (skiing now has less injuries than tennis) and my son isn't a natural risk taker. So all that comforted me.

We had a fab rest of season. All mums in the club felt a bit like me but we managed to soldier on.

Of the 4 races I watched or volunteered for with over 200 kids in each race, not one needed patrol attention. I have come to realise the races at this age aren't really a risk, they have B fencing, no one else skiing at same time and the gates are very tight slalom type gates so its about control not like downhill racing. The riskier activites seem to be the free skiing. and I think they are taught some fairly good things which makes them more controlled. Clearly the boy was extremely unlucky (and he was more of a risk taker)

Unfortunately my son did rather well towards the end of the season, podiumed and got gold in one race and then did a mogul comp and did really well. He has got the bug, so we have agreed on 2 more years in the race club, beyond which it gets too serious.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

gryphea, that's all good to hear Smile

Congratulations to your son on a great season, that's fantastic snowHead

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gryphea, result all around. Well done to the little snotminer Very Happy

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getting over someone else's injury............

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