Most of the posts made here are about off-ice practice to help skating, but over the weekend, I found the inverse to be also true.
We had an ice storm over the weekend, and I went outside to put out some food for the local wildlife. There are two concrete stairs leading down to a deck, and I slipped on the first step. Just as in ice skating, my feet went up, my body went down, and instinctively I tucked my head deeply into my chest.
I'm convinced that this reflex learned (the hard way) on ice saved me from a serious injury. My back and arms (just below the elbow) hit the edge of the stairs, but my head didn't hit at all. It could have been very, very bad for me.
My back is sore, and so is my right arm with a 4" long abrasion below the elbow, but nothing more serious happened.
Thank goodness for ice skating training and reflexes!