Cutest Video Tutorial on Falling Down and Getting Up

[Isk8NYC]

This is just so cute....

[Janie]

Sooo cute!!

But is falling straight back on your bottom a good idea? Wouldn't that be bad for the tailbone?
I've never officially learned how to fall, but I always thought it was fall to the side back. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

[hopskipjump]

It's falling for tykes!  They have spongy butts and are falling less than a foot and a half...

[Query]

It's as a partial backwards somersault - i.e., let the roll continue a bit onto your back. I leave my legs mostly straight, so it doesn't have the speed to become a full somersault. It's very easy and gentle. The biggest issue with falling backwards is if you don't tuck your head in, and you fall too fast, you could hit the back of your head hard against the ice. So leave the legs fairly straight, and tuck that head. Another issue is that some people try to stop the roll by sticking out their elbows - which isn't a good idea.

If you are nervous, try falling at home, without skates - on a rug, or on something soft, like your bed, at first.

If you've already injured your lower spine, and have been told not to place weight on your lower vertebrae, maybe you could roll off-diagonal, so you roll a bit onto your hip, another very gentle fall. That's also safer if you must also fall on rugged terrain, where something sharp might hit your spine.

At Fort Dupont Ice Rink, we teach all beginning skaters to fall. (We usually start falling and getting up off-ice for the first couple minutes.) Some of us teach them to fall in all directions - forwards, sideways, backwards. The young students are almost all totally unafraid of falling, and they love it. Some of the older teenagers can be a bit more hesitant.

But I ran into a problem last session. Many of the students in my Snowplow Sam 1 class got bored with repeating the same skills after the first day, which they all pretty much mastered that day. (They were all young and mostly fairly athletic.) So they all deciding to fall down and do snow angels on the ice, and refused to get up.

I tried using stuffed animals (balance and throw games, which kept their attention for exactly one class), games, teaching more advanced skills, etc.

But they loved conspiring to annoy the instructor and staying on the ice. If I pulled one of them up, they promptly chose to fall down again.

I'm curious what real instructors do in situations where all the students conspire to ignore them.

[Janie]

If you've already injured your lower spine, and have been told not to place weight on your lower vertebrae, maybe you could roll off-diagonal, so you roll a bit onto your hip, another very gentle fall. That's also safer if you must also fall on rugged terrain, where something sharp might hit your spine.

No I haven't injured it, and fervently hope that I never will, so I always try to roll off-diagonal or to the side. That's how started getting bruises on my butt and hip bone, but I've bought hip pads now!

[SynchKat]

But they loved conspiring to annoy the instructor and staying on the ice. If I pulled one of them up, they promptly chose to fall down again.

I'm curious what real instructors do in situations where all the students conspire to ignore them.

I used to tell my little kid classes that I'd they stayed on the ice too long the snakes thet live under the ice would snatch them.  If they kicked the ice (I had several who liked to do this) that just made holes for the snakes to come up and get them.  I would even stand there and act all surprised like I had just seen a snake slither by under the ice.  For kids bumping into the boards rather than stopping I told the the boards were electrified.  I would also demo this. 

And as far as falling, kids love to demo this.  My 4.5 year old will show people off the ice, on the ice, anywhere really how to fall down and get up on skates.

[Query]

I love the snakes! What a great idea.

[SynchKat]

The snakes are fun because you can stand there pointing and say things like, "did you see it...that was a close one". And it did serve two purposes, getting the kids up and stopping them from kicking the ice.