Lace up and learn

Aubrey Prince has felt the burn.

And the freezing cold.

And, on Thursday, the Whitworth College athletic-training student felt some of what skaters will be experiencing during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane.

Prince spent the afternoon with more than a dozen students learning to be athletic trainers at Eagles Ice-A-Rena. They laced up skates and headed out on the ice – some for the very first time – to get an appreciation of the stress skating puts on an athlete’s body.

When competition begins next week, these students will be rink-side, working with teams of doctors and physical therapists.

“It’s a great experience to work with world-class athletes,” said Prince, a 21-year-old senior who plans on attending medical school.

Prince has a vague memory of donning ice skates once as a kid, and it showed on the ice.

“How do you walk in these? I can barely stand,” he said, tightening his laces. “It’s hard even on land.”

He grabbed the hands of two classmates, who gingerly escorted him around the rink.

And then:

“Oh, oh, oh, God,” Prince said, arms flailing, as he crashed to the ice.

While the students had fun learning to maneuver on the ice, they knew they were there for more than fun.

“The ice is a fairly unforgiving surface,” said Russ Richardson, associate professor and director of athletic training at Whitworth. “We want to go through feeling and experiencing what a skater experiences and feels.”

While the students watched, experienced skater Heidi Nelson, an eighth-grader at St. Matthews Lutheran School in Spokane, whipped around the ice, showing off jumps and spins so the class could see an athlete in action.

“It gives you more of an appreciation,” said Whitworth sophomore Lauren Grimes, 20, who had never been ice skating before. “When you see it on TV, it looks so easy.”

Near the end of the class, the students put their tennis shoes back on and returned to the ice. They practiced stabilizing a patient on the ice, strapping on a cervical collar and lifting the “injured athlete” (actually another student) onto a backboard.

“Just for your peace of mind, you won’t be going onto the ice to provide patient care in skates,” Richardson told the group.

Students will also learn the biomechanical and psychological issues faced by figure skaters. During the competition, the students will help assess injuries, provide first aid and encourage preventative measures such as stretching and massage.

Prince has no plans to ditch medical school for a career in figure skating. But his time on the ice did boost his empathy for those athletes, he said.

“You get to see the stresses that go on in the body,” he said. “I’m feeling it right now – hips, knees, shins, ankles.”