skatingforums
On the Ice => Sitting on the Boards Rink Side => Topic started by: fsk8r on January 09, 2012, 06:47:13 AM
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I've discovered I'm becoming more of a nervous skater after hard falls than I used to be. The latest fall I managed to avoid hitting my head, but did end up going in shock as it was so severe. That put pay to that session and the lesson as I couldn't calm myself down I was so tense. However, it's carried over to the next time skating (to be fair I can still feel the bruises/muscle strains).
Little falls when there's no damage done except the odd bruise, I'm fine and can get back to skating (possibly slightly anxious about whatever just called the fall). But big ones and it becomes a matter of regaining confidence again as my comfort zone for close encounters with other skaters has grown to close to the size of the rink. Once the confidence is back, I'm flying around the rink like nothing's happened and not too worried about the kids cutting it a little fine.
Any suggestions on how to put the nasty falls to the back of the mind quicker?
But if anyone is wanting a reason to do something like pilates. I did save myself from a concussion as the core was able to stop the body carrying on swinging backwards and bumping the head.
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After falling, I "get back on the horse" so to speak. Whatever caused me to fall (jump, move, etc) I do the same thing, although at a slower pace and repeat it while doing each successive one at a faster pace until I'm at my normal pace. Otherwise I'll end up a basket case. It was worse after my concussion (I fell forward and whacked my chin) and I had a morbid fear of forward skating for a long time because I was off the ice for several weeks.
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I rarely fall. I don't let myself.
As such, when I do fall, it rattles me terribly. I'd say about 75% of my falls put me off the ice for the rest of the session. Even if I get up, go get a drink, and do a lap around the rink, my legs shake terribly (sewing machine leg- visible twitching, not just shakey feeling) to the extent that I don't feel safe skating. However, a drink, a lap, a few spins to regain my confidence (I like to spin) is the only way I can stay on the ice. I can't just get right back to what I was doing. In fact, most sessions I don't return to what caused me to fall if it was a jump. The one time I fell off a horse, the horse was injured (he fell too, that's what caused me to fall) so the stable gave me a new horse to work with- I don't believe in getting back on the horse. I take my time, and then I get on a different horse.
These are not after bad falls, just any fall. Not counting in the harness (as it doesn't count, since coach pads the fall) I think I fell fewer than 10 times last year.
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I think you have to figure out what works for you. I always get right back up and try the same thing again so I won't be afraid the next time but this might not work for everyone (I had a student who works on her family farm tell me once, "I don't get back on the horse. The horse wants to kill me." !!). It might help to have someone to spot you the next time you do whatever you fell on, or to wear protective gear--one of my students who fell and got a concussion started wearing a helmet afterwards and it helped her self-confidence a lot. Several of my friends wear pants with pads built in and other protective gear.
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I don't really worry about falls. I don't fall all that often, but I guess I expect to fall from time to time, so it doesn't really bother me when I do. Granted, I haven't had any potentially serious falls - no hitting my head or spraining my wrists or anything like that. I did take a hard one last week with my dance training partner - our timing got a little off, and down we went. It was actually kind of funny - I did sort of a tuck and roll, and he sort of took a dive over me. No blood was shed, nobody got hurt. It was a hard fall, though, and my hip is still feeling it. But we weren't hurt, so we just got right back up and continued with what we were doing. No sense wasting the ice time. Perhaps it's because my mother raised me in the old "if it's not bleeding, you're fine" school of child rearing, I don't know. I think fear of falling is a real obstacle for a lot of skaters, especially adults, but it's really difficult to make progress if you can't get past that.
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I'm not really afraid of falling while skating, it's that first step on the ice that freaks me out lately. I've actually begun testing the ice before I step on it, to judge the ice height, it seems. The rink has built up the ice near the doors, so I have to step up to get on the ice. If my blades are warm, they melt right in and get stuck, so I put one foot on and swish it a little to cool the blade.
I've had a couple of bad falls, but they're not really from skating, they're from stepping on the ice in guards, catching a hole/rut while just gliding, or getting out of the way.
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I've had a couple of bad falls, but they're not really from skating, they're from stepping on the ice in guards, catching a hole/rut while just gliding, or getting out of the way.
That's really my problem. I don't fall often. If I fall doing something (more likely steps and turns), then I get up and do it again (once I'm breathing!) but at my pace. The nasty falls are always the unexpected ones when not really skating. This one my blade got stuck in a rut when stopping backwards and I just carried on past the blade. I've done the click of death falls and they vary between being comical to very painful. Comical and I don't notice I've fallen, painful and the nerves kick in.
And I'm not really worried about me trying to kill myself, my nerves are that one of the kids is not going to notice and hit me (there's a lot of blind mice - I've decided eyes don't develop until they turn 16). It's that my comfort zone has grown from being reasonable compact and normal to being about half the rink, which isn't conducive to doing much on a busy freestyle session.
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My second worse fall was yesterday. I was in the middle of doing a waltz jump and as I whipped my head around midair to see if anyone was behind me, BLIP, little kid right there. I ended up falling half forward hitting my side and arm then splaying and sliding. Got the whole nine yards with the snot as well. ick. I got back up slowly first and tried to skate it off but my side hurt too much and I couldn't catch my breath. Plus I was getting a headache from all the coccyx falls. So, I ended up leaving early. I felt I just coldn't bring myself to do another one with all those kids zipping through the middle and some older guy doing some fancy jump all over the place.
My worst fall was 2010 and I was learning BXOs. Click of death and I jammed the heel of the blade into the back of my thigh. sat there for a minute then got up. It hurt but I stayed on the ice.
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I fall...A LOT! I fell once a few months ago so bad on a 2loop that I had a knot and huge bruise on my knee cap for weeks. I wouldn't work on that jump anymore. I do notice that when I am working on 2S and fall and fall and fall. I just stop working on it because I am getting no where. I do have occasional fall that scares the holy poo out of me and that is when I realize I need to work on something else. I know a lot of top level skaters that have the same issue. We're all normal!
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I do notice that when I am working on 2S and fall and fall and fall.
I remember that's how it was for me as a kid.... all I'd do is fall, and occasionally land one, but it was pretty much just a sure-fire way to fall for me. When I worked on them on the harness a few weeks ago, when I fell it was usually an "I can't hold the edge" after successfully landing the jump, then I'd step out and sit down kind of fall - easy, not the hard fall on the hip I remember from "losing" the landing edge.
Curiously I've noticed that some skaters don't tend to fall on jump attempts... there was someone working on 3sals at my rink recently and he didn't land any, but he never fell either, all of them were 2 footed - it almost made me consider that possible they've trained themselves to 2-foot those landings and not only is that why they don't have hard falls, but it's why they're not landing any either. So it's sort of a catch-22.
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If I'm by myself (no coach) and I fall, I'm loath to repeat the element again. But if coach is there, I don't think anything about it, and just repeat the element again right away.
I don't know why this is. Except maybe when I'm alone, a fall reminds me of how vulnerable I am.
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I think Skate@Delaware had good advice. Just slow down the step or element you were doing when you fell and work it back up to speed. I think it also helps to just put it out of your mind. I had a major fear of flying and went to see someone for help with it (eventually it helped more getting involved with my husband's family who are all pilots) but the therapist taught me to just "turn" around the negative thoughts. So when you fall just get up, catch your breath, maybe stroke around a bit and tell yourself that you've done it many times without falling, that was a fluke so just go out and try it agaibreak it down, figure out what happened as best you can and move on.
When I came back to skating after a hiatus I fell on the mohawk in the 14-step, a dance I had long passed, partnered for tests and taught. I broke my arm and when I came back it took a few years before I'd do that dance again.
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If I'm by myself (no coach) and I fall, I'm loath to repeat the element again. But if coach is there, I don't think anything about it, and just repeat the element again right away.
I don't know why this is. Except maybe when I'm alone, a fall reminds me of how vulnerable I am.
Exactly! I was ALONE on the ice when I fell and had a concussion....if something serious would have happened, who knows WHAT the outcome would have been. I'm the "head injury" girl now. I do bring it up to their attention if no one else is around, to check on the skater just to be safe.
Our sport can be dangerous but if we are mindful of what we are doing we can reduce the risk.
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Tomorrow will be my first time back on the ice since I fell (in the Christmas show) and broke my wrist. I'm still in my cast, but have my orthopod's ok. I promised to keep at least one foot on the ice and take it easy. I'm a bit leery, but excited--it has been nearly a month...
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Tomorrow will be my first time back on the ice since I fell (in the Christmas show) and broke my wrist. I'm still in my cast, but have my orthopod's ok. I promised to keep at least one foot on the ice and take it easy. I'm a bit leery, but excited--it has been nearly a month...
Do be careful please. The cast throws off your balance a bit.
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I had a spectacular fall today on a back scratch spin. My coach has been harping on me to really present myself coming out of spins, so on this first spin of the day I lifted my free leg high, readying myself to check out. Inexplicably the heel of my blade on my free leg got caught in my leggings, and I couldn't remove it, and BAM. I was caught so off guard! (and now I have to sew the hole in my skating pants)
I did the spin again immediately, but you can bet I did my normal checkout! It might be a while before I try that again...
The hardest falls of my life where when I was much younger, and fortunately I was young enough for it not to affect me too much. When I was 9 or 10 I fell sideways on the ice right on my head, resulting in a severe concussion. I puked for days, wasn't allowed to sleep for more than an hour at a time for a multiple nights, and was kept off the ice for a while. However, I was anxious to get back to practice and excited when I could do so. If that happened to me now, I don't know if I'd ever be able to skate confidently again!
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I rarely fall when I'm actually doing something. It's when I am doing nothing that I take the bad falls. My coach has me get up and take a couple laps to settle my nerves. That really seems to help me.
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And I'm not really worried about me trying to kill myself, my nerves are that one of the kids is not going to notice and hit me (there's a lot of blind mice - I've decided eyes don't develop until they turn 16).
I could easily have written that sentence. I mean, I'm pretty keen not to do anything stupid myself that will cause me to fall, but I've never injured myself badly when falling (even the numerous times I've stuck my toe pick into the ice doing cross behinds), so I'm usually okay about that. But with the way the kids fly around, and in particular the small kids who can't see anything over five foot in height and three times their size, I'm far more worried about an injury causing collision than a fall on my own.
A lthough my comfort zone is better than it used to be, I still prefer to know there's a lot of space around me when I want to practice something because I know I can't stop quickly, and certainly can't react quickly enough to bail out in the middle of even simple moves.
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I personally wear vollyball pads on my knees just in case, although they are rarely needed. When I was less experienced I also wore wrist guards. I find that even if the padding isn't actually needed, it acts as a security blanket to help build confidence.
I've never had a fall where I was seriously injured so it's difficult for me to say how I'd react in that situation. The worst I've had is a sprained ankle that kept me off the ice for a few weeks.
The best I can suggest at this point is to trick your mind via whatever means you have at your disposal into believing that getting hurt is an impossibility for you on the ice, and in my experience, you'll end up falling less and recover more quickly when you do.
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I wonder if a lot of my nerves are to do with having a weak back. I've spent just over 3 years recovering from whiplash. My back is currently very good normally. But any serious type of fall results in the back entering spasm. So while I want to just shake it off and carry on skating, I can feel my back spasming, and I can't drug myself fast enough to stop it (I also don't really want to drug myself unless I need to).
I'm wondering reading everyone else's comments about trying to shake it off, and struggling when there's an injury involved, if my problems stem from the fact that I can feel what's wrong. If it's a minor fall and the back's OK, then it's easy to shake off. If it's a major one and the back hurts, I get anxious. And my comfort zone shrinks because I've an association of collisions on the ice with collisions in cars (they are the same in a lot of ways). Blind skaters are much like idiots driving (I do worry about how these kids are going to be when they get their licenses).
So is there a good technique to mentally put the pain and the anxiety to the back of your mind?
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Speaking as someone with back problems I would totally believe a lot of the anxiety comes from your back issues. Whenever I fall it's just so jarring and painful in that area. And isn't it amazing how falls we would have jut brushed off as a kid affect us so much more now. Heck my brother once fell on my head and I got up and finished out the session. Today I'd have been in the hospital. :)
The only way I can well with anxiety is to jut put it out of my mind. I will just tell myself it is an irrational fear so get on with it. I think it is more of a confidence thing. Your confidence get shaken so if you the. Go and do something you are super proficient at that helps. So I would say make the negative thoughts positive and do something to boost your confidence again.
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I have foot /ankle problems in one foot and my boot not feeling right somehow can really throw me off kilter sometimes and make me feel really nervous. It would not surprise me if it is you being ultra aware of your back when you fall that adds to the anxiety after falling.
After things scare me while skating I skate around just paying attention to my breathing, the feel of the ice (bumps etc), the feeling of gloves on my hands, the feeling of the wind in my face, the sound my blades make or whatever and just skate around paying attention to them and other things I never normally pay any attention to and take for granted.
It is called mindful meditation. It may not be your kind of thing but I find it really useful in anxious situations. It can be done while sitting or moving gently.
You don't concentrate on not thinking about the fall... just sort of notice and acknowledge it is there if your mind wanders back to it, then just bring your mind back to focusing on your breathing (or whatever works for you).
Mindfulness is really just paying attention to all the things you just take for granted or don't notice most of the time... and whatever is making you anxious sort of becomes less all consuming in your mind. It helps me anyway! :laugh:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/22/how-to-meditate-mark-vernon
Once I feel a bit calmer I tend to a few things I know I can do well / easily. After I feel comfortable with them then I try whatever it was I fell on, slowly / gently / at the barrier / holding on to someone or whatever a few times. I then do it little and often, in between working on other things until I feel my confidence is back up again.
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The only way I can well with anxiety is to jut put it out of my mind. I will just tell myself it is an irrational fear so get on with it. I think it is more of a confidence thing. Your confidence get shaken so if you the. Go and do something you are super proficient at that helps. So I would say make the negative thoughts positive and do something to boost your confidence again.
ITA!!! Although falls affect confidence, I think that skaters who really believe in their abilities have developed strategies to deal with ordinary AND bad falls. It's really a shame how much adult skaters beat up on themselves. There's alot to be said for simply plugging away despite setbacks. You should be proud of yourself for falling--it's a sign you're working, not failing.
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You should be proud of yourself for falling--it's a sign you're working, not failing.
I can't speak for others, but I am not ashamed of falling. I don't take a fall to mean I have failed.
However, I have life experience that has made me scared of falling, and scared of the consequences of injury. I've broken my neck before, and I know what it feels like to lay paralyzed in an emergency room. Although I know it is highly unlikely a fall will cause such an injury, I think it is a rational fear. After all, I've had a labral tear, a broken rib, and a broken tail bone skating. Plus all the knee problems... I don't fall the way a kid does. It's not a "just get back up and get back into it thing". It's a lot of wear and tear for me. (I am just as scared of falling while walking outside in the winter. It isn't just ice skating.)
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Wow Skittl I can see why you might not want to fall. How scary that must have been. Good for you for getting out there and still trying.
I agree with not being ashamed or embarrassed about falling. I believe skating is a work in progress and even the most proficient of skaters are still improving and learning.
But as far as falling goes you've just got to keep trying, you don't want whatever move you were doing to get the better of you and scare you senseless. :) Don't let it win! :D
(and ps sorry my last post was a bit garbled. I was posting from my iPad)
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(I am just as scared of falling while walking outside in the winter. It isn't just ice skating.)
I'm more terrified of falling outside in winter. At least at the rink I've got blades on! Having managed to fall without even realising it while deicing the car one winter, they're equally frightening (although thankfully it was one of the minor falls).
And while we should all just shake off the falls and see them as positives. It's often quite difficult to do. I know I can overcome falls and succeed doing things, but it's a slow process as an adult and requires a lot of determination (and support from coaches). It would be very easy sometimes to give up and avoid those things which scare us (generally from learned experience), but we're all still plugging away. It's just not always as easy to conquer the mind.
I'm actually grateful that there are others here saying they're equally freaked by these things and that they can affect them days/weeks/months after the original fall. Sometimes I think I'm a complete nutcase. My coaches know me and know when to push and when to hold back. They also know that a long tiring week of work can make me less able to cope with the little things that skating throws at me, including falls.
Taka - thanks for the link to the meditation. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to meditate on a busy freestyle session but perhaps being more aware of the little things might help stop the focus on what's already happened.
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I tend not to worry about falls either. Hey it's part of skating. Avoid them if you can, but sometimes they do happen. Sometimes if their silly falls on something easy or due to clumsiness, I usually take a lap around the rink(if I'm not hurt too bad). But when they happen on harder things, I usually shake it off and go right back to working on whatever element it was. I've seen an elite skater take some massive falls on double lutzes, yet she also gets right back up and tries it again. It's all part of skating:) Although I tend to trip and fall more off ice, than I do on. I was once walking through Walmart and for some reason I tripped and fell..to the floor..in the middle of Walmart. That was pretty embarressing, yet funny at the same time.
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But as far as falling goes you've just got to keep trying, you don't want whatever move you were doing to get the better of you and scare you senseless. :) Don't let it win! :D
Oddly enough, the moves I'm scared of falling on are not the ones I've ever actually fallen on. Eight step mohawk comes to mind. Absolutely terrified.
But things I've actually fallen on, I usually can do just fine.
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Do be careful please. The cast throws off your balance a bit.
I kept at least one skate on the ice at all times, and declined back inside edges. (I saw the leading arm with a cast and visualized falling on it) I did two foot instead. And I did not jump. :( Even when the kids did. One thing I can't do is press my hands down--no flex in my left wrist.
I will say that it felt really good! And the other adults from the Christmas show were all there and signed my cast.
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I am so klutzy off of skates. I walked into a pole today and almost knocked my son over while walking along the sidewalk. Now that's embarrassing!!!
I think the answer to nervousness after falling is that there isn't an answer really. Like everything with skating it just takes time. :)
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Total four pounds of safety gear takes care of most of my nerves.
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I wear hip and tailbone pads. And I don't jump. Nor spin. And I skate slow.
Unfortunately for me, my spine is just not able to tolerate falls anymore. So I just take it easy.
I find it sad that the figure skating sport looks down on protective gear. Rinks have hard barriers, and wearing pads during competitions is looked down upon. Helmets are taboo. I hope that the ISU will take notice, but then a lot of elite skaters, some even World Champions, have had extremely bad falls and no one seems to care.
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I wear hip and tailbone pads. And I don't jump. Nor spin. And I skate slow.
Unfortunately for me, my spine is just not able to tolerate falls anymore. So I just take it easy.
I find it sad that the figure skating sport looks down on protective gear. Rinks have hard barriers, and wearing pads during competitions is looked down upon. Helmets are taboo. I hope that the ISU will take notice, but then a lot of elite skaters, some even World Champions, have had extremely bad falls and no one seems to care.
The competitive side of figure skating may look down on it, but I can assure you that here in the US skating protection is alive and well in recreational skating.
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All of my worst falls have been either outside on our slippery deck, in our frozen driveway, or on our stairs. I never expect it (although by now I should) so I flail around wildly and then wallop some unfortunate body part when I go down!
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A few months ago, I fell down the stairs...hard! I was really lucky that I grabbed the hand rail in time, otherwise I wouldn't be here to complain about anything (lol!)...I landed hard on my bottom and bounced down 8 steps. I was sore & bruised for weeks, and it took about 4 visits before my chiropractor could straighten me all out. I hurt from my head all the way down to my thighs. I'm sure I also had more brain trauma :o
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Many people here know from my web page (http://mgrunes.com/falling.html) on falling that my own approach to a broken leg was to spend a few thousand hours learning how to fall, until it doesn't scare me any more. (Not good - it meant I started trying stupid things like roller blading, and spinning and skating backwards on skis, which did cause some injury, though nothing as serious.)
But my response was extreme. After the cast came off, it took me another year before I returned to the ice.
The more balanced approach some of the people have here makes more sense to the serious skater. One of the ladies on this board wants to wrap skaters up in bubble wrap, which should make a very light and airy fashion statement. Roller blading, hockey and football outfits (which are lighter than hockey outfits) have also been suggested. If it gives you the confidence to keep skating, that's an incredible boon.
That said, it doesn't hurt to spend a few hours on falling, and to review it once in a while to keep the reflex speeds up - once you have healed. Not all coaches have much fall training, but a lot do, so if you trust your coach, start with them. Master falls in all possible directions, out of all possible moves. Start low, sitting on the floor, and work your way up.
I also believe it probably helps to try other traditional injury reduction strategies, such as strength training (so your body can take more stress, giving you a larger margin for error) and flexibility training (if your muscles aren't long enough to give you an adequate safety margin - all my injuries are related to this issue), if they seem appropriate to you.
&) But your very FIRST step should be to move to a planet with less gravity! &)
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&) But your very FIRST step should be to move to a planet with less gravity! &)
Skating on the moon. It's obviously the way to go!
I think where your fall training comes into help, is that it takes out the fear. I know the coaches all complain now when they fall as it hurts way more than it did when they were kids. Their conclusion is that they're out of practice. They just don't do it that often.
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I can tell you one good thing that came out of falling while skating for me was learning how to fall. I fell down the stairs carrying my son and was able to keep my wits about me and protected him practically laying him down on the ground. I on the other hand had to have my eyebrow glued together. :).
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In my pre-skating days, I slipped and fell down some carpeted stairs. I remember seeing my feet and the ceiling in the same instant. Being thrown off of horses helped. I didn't panic and rolled to the bottom of the stairs. I still hurt, but I crawled away from it.
The funny thing? My dog came downstairs to see what all the fuss was about. She licked me in the face and went back upstairs. I called after her, "Timmy's in the well. Go get help."
When I got upstairs, she was napping on the forbidden couch.
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Synchcat: Wow! You have super-spidey falling skills.
Agnes Nitt: ba haw haw haw!
Hmmmm, lots of this off-ice falling sounds like my life. Are figure skaters more klutzy outside the rink?
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Well, I don't know about the others, but I am equally klutzy on or off the ice..
The nice thing about ice is,
it gives me an excuse.
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The nice thing about ice is, it gives me an excuse.
+1 :laugh:
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Skating has helped my balance enormously! I used to fall ~3 times a month (tripping over my feet walking along the pavement mostly). :blush: Since I started skating ~19 months ago I've fallen 8 times in total, on or off the ice - twice off ice and 6 times on the ice! ???
It is not the falls that freak me out... it is the almost falls! I could do with falling more, particularly while jumping. I think I'd feel more confident that if the jump went wrong it would still be ok if I fell and was ok! Might help my being too scared to go for it most of the time! :-\ For some reason dance doesn't scare me so far!
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It is not the falls that freak me out... it is the almost falls! I could do with falling more, particularly while jumping. I think I'd feel more confident that if the jump went wrong it would still be ok if I fell and was ok! Might help my being too scared to go for it most of the time! :-\ For some reason dance doesn't scare me so far!
Dance and moves in the field cause the worst possible falls. Spinning and jumping don't tend to lead to too many falls. There's the odd sit down on a sit spin and single jumps just don't give rise to enough opportunity to fall, although I will two foot a landing if I'm not confident / secure.
But the really really bad falls are the ones which come out of nowhere when you're not doing anything.
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But the really really bad falls are the ones which come out of nowhere when you're not doing anything.
Amen! My first bad fall (resulting in a concussion) was from standing in the goal crease. One second I was standing, the next I was looking at the shiny silver ceiling and seeing stars. I got off for a bit then got back on for LTS. I shouldn't have, but if I hadn't gotten right back on, I never would have.
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I knew a national champion (not US) who was standing instructing, abruptly fell and cracked her elbow. They were hauling her to the emergency room as I walked in the lobby.
Amusingly, when I started skating I walked into the lobby of the same rink, and saw two women using a fireman carry to get a girl out of the building and presumably to the same emergency room. One of the women was a coach and knew me, "This is rare!" She desperately cried, "Really, really rare!"
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Dance and moves in the field cause the worst possible falls.
I agree, but I think it's mostly because they rattle me much more. I don't expect to fall doing moves, so I'm not as mentally prepared for it. I know how to fall out of a spin or a jump without getting hurt - I've had lots of practice with that - but a fall doing moves isn't something I expect, so it always seems a lot worse.
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Dance and moves in the field cause the worst possible falls.
+1,000,000
I was pretty fearless before my infamous 8 step mohawk-induced broken wrist. Even though I fell occasionally on various jumps, it never bothered me.
Good wrist protection has been the one thing that has allowed me to get back on the ice and still not be too bothered by falling. When I first started back on the ice post-injury I wore wrist guards on both sides, ALL the time. As I felt more comfortable over the first few months I got rid of the one on my uninjured wrist first, and then gradually on the one I broke. Even now, 2 1/2 years later, it can still hurt to fall on the bad wrist, so I usually bring the one wrist guard out with me and leave it with my water bottle. If I find myself falling a lot, or feeling wobbly, on it goes. Other than that I usually only wear it for axel attempts because I do tend to fall on those frequently.
Now, I still have yet to attempt the 8 step again. I can finally say the phrase "8 step mohawk" without feeling nauseated, but just seeing a kid working on it is enough to scare me. I will probably need both wrist guards, knee pads, a motorcycle helmet, a suit of armor, and bubble wrap just to be convinced to try it again.
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Now, I still have yet to attempt the 8 step again. I can finally say the phrase "8 step mohawk" without feeling nauseated, but just seeing a kid working on it is enough to scare me. I will probably need both wrist guards, knee pads, a motorcycle helmet, a suit of armor, and bubble wrap just to be convinced to try it again.
Have you tried the actual mohawk since (ie the turn not the pattern)? I've yet to break anything (touch wood) but I used to have pretty bad falls on back inside double 3s. It was normally only on the one foot and it did become a big complex. My coaches were just praying that they'd keep me upright long enough for me to get through the test. I fell two weeks before and they were having kittens because they weren't convinced I could keep the nerves in check. I did and I passed the test. The next test level has the same turns, but a different pattern. They thought this was going to be a challenge with nerves, but I've had one fall and I don't have anywhere near the mental issues. Just a thought. If you're happy with the mohawk on another pattern, it might make the 8-step easier.
On another note. After a week of freaking at my shadow since my latest fear inducing minor fall I've finally started to find a little confidence. It took to having a quiet session with the older adults. They tend to keep out of my way (I'm faster than a lot of them) and it was just what I needed to get myself going. Let's just hope I can get it to continue. Poor coach needs to keep me confident as there's another test looming.
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Have you tried the actual mohawk since (ie the turn not the pattern)?
A couple of times, my coach had me trying it as an alternative loop entry. It didn't go all that well.
I am sure part of my problem was that I was grandfathered through pre-bronze and bronze moves because I passed bronze FS prior to the implementation of adult moves. I had plenty of time to think about this while I was off the ice - lol. I was trying to dive right into silver moves without the benefit of the building blocks of any of the lower skills. I've been spending my time learning standard track moves (since I think the progression of skills is more logical and the judging standards seem to be much more consistent than the adult track), passed pre-pre and have been plugging away at prelim. So I've managed to make the outside mohawk irrelevant for the time being. :) Maybe by the time I get back to "needing" to work on it, I won't be as afraid of it.
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Dance and moves in the field cause the worst possible falls.
Try synchro. The other day I had a teammate fall right behind me. Somehow I managed to straddle her but it is scary to fall in synchro. :). Too many feet.
However the falls that have hurt me the most have been while dancing so I guess I agree with your statement. of course I usually just do dance.
I am curious about this Mohawk you all are talking about. What is it that makes it so dangerous. We do t have anything of the sort here in Canada as fas as I know.
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It's the outside open mohawk--on the circle crossover, mohawk, backward slide chasse, backward slide chasse, cross foot over over (as opposed to a cross over), step forward, repeat. it's supposed to be a march cadence and done fairly quickly.
Yes, I have taken bad falls on this mohawk!
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Try synchro. The other day I had a teammate fall right behind me. Somehow I managed to straddle her but it is scary to fall in synchro. :). Too many feet.
Multi-skater pile ups are the most fun (as long as you're not bottom of the heap). I've had some pretty nasty falls from synchro. Blade in the back of the neck - thankfully it was just a scratch but it was quite interesting showing it to people as they couldn't work out how I managed to do it (wasn't my blade).
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It's the outside open mohawk--on the circle crossover, mohawk, backward slide chasse, backward slide chasse, cross foot over over (as opposed to a cross over), step forward, repeat. it's supposed to be a march cadence and done fairly quickly.
On paper the pattern looks very similar to ISI FS3 dance step sequence, maybe slide chasses replaced with steps. I trust the requirement is much higher than FS3 if this is on juvenile moves...
I have very fast mohawks that step VERY wide, almost as wide as spread eagle. Can't bring feet together to step, it's skary.
Try synchro. The other day I had a teammate fall right behind me. Somehow I managed to straddle her but it is scary to fall in synchro. :). Too many feet.
Our past ice show group number had spirals where skaters were fairly close to each other, luckily no crashes with fluke falls here and there.
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I wonder if a lot of my nerves are to do with having a weak back. I've spent just over 3 years recovering from whiplash. My back is currently very good normally. But any serious type of fall results in the back entering spasm. So while I want to just shake it off and carry on skating, I can feel my back spasming, and I can't drug myself fast enough to stop it (I also don't really want to drug myself unless I need to).
I'm wondering reading everyone else's comments about trying to shake it off, and struggling when there's an injury involved, if my problems stem from the fact that I can feel what's wrong. If it's a minor fall and the back's OK, then it's easy to shake off. If it's a major one and the back hurts, I get anxious. And my comfort zone shrinks because I've an association of collisions on the ice with collisions in cars (they are the same in a lot of ways). Blind skaters are much like idiots driving (I do worry about how these kids are going to be when they get their licenses).
So is there a good technique to mentally put the pain and the anxiety to the back of your mind?
Sometimes fear serves a very useful purpose, so I wouldn't automatically discount it and try to ignore it. I think it all depends on why you fell and how bad the fall was. If you fell doing particular element and it was a scary fall, then the last thing you should do is just force yourself to do that element again. You need to figure out what you did wrong on that element that caused you to fall, then do some exercises that build up to that element and remind of you the correct technique. Once you have confirmed that your body knows what to do to do it correctly this time (and provided your back isn't feeling weak), then try it again. If your back is feeling weak or, God forbid, threatening to spasm, don't risk it! Do something else.
It's the outside open mohawk--on the circle crossover, mohawk, backward slide chasse, backward slide chasse, cross foot over over (as opposed to a cross over), step forward, repeat. it's supposed to be a march cadence and done fairly quickly.
Yes, I have taken bad falls on this mohawk!
Me, too!! My particular mistake was forgetting to point my toes as I was bringing my foot down backwards on the second half of the forward outside mohawk. As a result, the heel of my blade went into the ice as the rest of me kept going. The first thing to hit the ice was my hip, with nothing to break the fall! Even worse, I was so stupid I made the same mistake just a week later and fell right on the same bruised hip. . . .
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Coach is pushing me for more power. My upper body is not quite coordinated with that so I had a number of near falls today in dance hold. They don't bother me, but I'm sure it puts coach's back out.
I also think I've reached the max of my power for this weight. I don't think there's any technique or muscle development that I can do.
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I find it sad that the figure skating sport looks down on protective gear. Rinks have hard barriers, and wearing pads during competitions is looked down upon. Helmets are taboo. I hope that the ISU will take notice, but then a lot of elite skaters, some even World Champions, have had extremely bad falls and no one seems to care.
I was just searching for threads about protection during competitions. There's just no way I will get out on the ice without protecting my head. My wrist guards are important, too, because when I fall I have a terrible habit of reaching for the ice to block myself. Ugh.
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My worst falls have been on 3-turns. 3-turn going into a flip jump...caught an edge, hit my head, 17 stitches. Then a few weeks ago, I was working on backward 3-turns going around a circle and caught an edge on some very scratchy ice. I badly bruised my knee, scraped up my elbow and bruised it, and injured my shoulder. My doctor diagnosed it as bursitis. I'm still icing that stupid shoulder every night.
Spinning falls, with the exception of sit spins, are pretty brutal too. I've gotten some nasty bruises on those.
But I mostly got over my fears of falling learning loop jumps and flip jumps. Those falls never hurt until the next morning when I'd roll over onto my right side, so I could get right back up and try again. I really wanted to land those jumps.
To this day, though, when I do a flip I remember the 3-turn fall, and I definitely have a lot of nerves connected with that jump.
My coach and I worked on axels for the first time a couple of months ago, and she commented that I didn't seem afraid to fall and that was good. Then she recommended I get hip pads. I'm still thinking about it. We haven't had time for axels since then, and I'm not allowed to work on them on my own so it's not an issue right now.
My only falls lately have been the painful moves ones. I'll be glad when I can begin focusing on lutzes and axels more, so I can have some less painful falls and get used to them again.
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Are falls worse when you travel at high speed or at low speed?
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Are falls worse when you travel at high speed or at low speed?
Anecdotally people seem to think low speed. But I think it all just depends on what you hit on the way down.
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Are falls worse when you travel at high speed or at low speed?
I think they all hurt, however slow speed falls tend to catch me off guard and rattle me much more than when I fall when I expect to (like doing jumps).
Physically they may be no different.. mentally they are very different.
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Are falls worse when you travel at high speed or at low speed?
I think low speed. I never got hurt during a synchro fall, and fell a lot during synchro (the coach often said I took other peoples falls- they would use me to steady themselves, which would cause me to go down. No biggie I guess, it was always just during practice), and we always traveled a lot faster than I do on my own.
Conversely, I seem to get hurt a lot when I fall on my own, and that is always slow speed. (Of course, I was skating fast for me when I sprained my wrist, and that was probably my worst fall, even compared to the broken rib and broken tailbone.)
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For me, the worst falls are the ones that go straight down. The more the fall has a sideways dynamic to it, the less bad it is (in general). Which makes sense, as if the fall makes you slide along the ice, it means that some of your pre-fall momentum went into your slide, rather than your body (and the ice) taking all of your pre-fall momentum and absorbing it (wham!) while bringing you to a dead stop.
I am more likely to have a straight down fall when going slow. I can still remember the awful feeling of a totally straight down fall as a child (age 5?) where I knocked the wind out of my lungs and felt like I couldn't breathe for a few seconds afterward.
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high speed + straight down + hit knee cap directly
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high speed + straight down + hit knee cap directly
They're pretty yucky, but add music playing and audience into that mix...
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(Of course, I was skating fast for me when I sprained my wrist, and that was probably my worst fall, even compared to the broken rib and broken tailbone.)
How did you sprain your wrist? I was about to say that sounds like something I'd do, and then I remembered I did sprain my hand right after I first began taking lessons. Caught a toepick just doing laps at a public.
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No idea how the fall happened. I THINK I fell on the mohawk turning a corner from forward stroking to back, but it makes no sense I would have caught my wrist and bent it back the way I did.
Didn't hurt anything else though...so I didn't hit my knee or hip, and I didn't have my arms out trying to catch myself, so it was really that my ARM got caught in the tumble.. I slide a long way though.
Lol...my phone capitalized ARM. It must think I am talking about a mortgage.
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But I mostly got over my fears of falling learning loop jumps and flip jumps. Those falls never hurt until the next morning when I'd roll over onto my right side, so I could get right back up and try again. I really wanted to land those jumps.
I completely agree with you on this!! When I was trying to get my flip jump back, it took me ages!! I couldn't get the timing down, but my biggest hurdle was the fear of falling. I knew I could do it and eventually I just said the heck with it, I'm landing it!! With that being said, it definitely helped my fear of falling, in fact I got my lutz pretty quickly after that.
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Stepping on own blade tail at speed doing foxtrot mohawk wasn't pretty and hurt a lot; was trying to comply with coach's shouted instruction from the boards about "neat feet"! But that hurt nowhere near as bad as airborne onto one kneecap. Failed to break kneecap into a million pieces on that one, but it sure felt like it!!
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We had a horrible "in air" collision at our rink this week. Senior skater running her program had just taken off for 3Lo collided with a girl in a lesson who's coach must not have been paying attention to skating patterns and didn't call out a warning of any sort (he also coaches the senior lady). Senior lady ended up with a bump on the head and a gash on her elbow. The other skater ended up with a skull fracture (slammed head first to the ice, bleeding from her ear !!!)
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Oh my goodness! Is the lesson skater OK? (Yes I know "skull fracture" means "no", but I hope you get what I mean!)
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Discharged today.
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was either skater watching where they're going?
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Being in the private lesson gives one false perception that s/he is safer. And looking back is throwing off the check out/landing position. So if the coach says it's clear, I would hold the landing position without looking back.
I'm sorry to hear it happened. Could have ended far worse though.
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Being in the private lesson gives one false perception that s/he is safer. And looking back is throwing off the check out/landing position. So if the coach says it's clear, I would hold the landing position without looking back.
I'm sorry to hear it happened. Could have ended far worse though.
Yes, once in the landing position one is pretty blind, BUT you can look just before take off and make sure you've sufficient space around you. There are odd occasions where people come out of your blind spot, but far too many skaters jump with complete disregard to who is around them. While you want your coach to shout out for you, get into the habit of taking responsibility for your own safety. Would you cross the road in front of a speed car because the Walk sign was showing?
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was either skater watching where they're going?
Senior Lady had just left the ice on a jump take off. The other skater apparently was not and her coach wasn't paying attention either
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We had an mid-air collision on Thursday, too. A girl in a lesson went up for 2Lo and was hit mid-air by a low FS girl. I was in a lesson with my coach off to the side and my coach saw it out of the corner of her eye. Neither girl was hurt, but the girl in the jump was just so stunned by what happened that we thought maybe she was hurt.
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Senior Lady had just left the ice on a jump take off. The other skater apparently was not and her coach wasn't paying attention either
Hopefully the other skater will learn now that she shouldn't rely on the coach watching but should take responsibility for her own and other people's safety.
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That's a hard way to learn that lesson (head injury, hospital visit, 8 weeks off the ice...)
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That's a hard way to learn that lesson (head injury, hospital visit, 8 weeks off the ice...)
It is, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, and I'd hope most people learn the lesson from less serious incidents.
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a) worst injuries due to falls my kids have had was when they were trying not to hurt other skaters who were crossing right of way or jumping carelessly. Sadly, the other kids now get out of the way and watch for my kid who is the biggest, strongest and most powerful jumper on the ice: they're scared of getting hit, so they watch out. thus, their fear is making them more cautious and careful.
b) if you are really nervous about falling, try some martial art or gymastic training. In martial arts in particular, you are taught how to fall so as not to injure yourself, and how to use your own momentum to "roll up" back on to your feet without a jarring stop. Years of martial arts training has paid off in terms of minimizing injuries on falls, and in removing the "fear of falling". I would suggest aikido, something like that where you are throwing or being thrown.