Nerves after Falls

[SynchKat]

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.

[drskater]

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!

[fsk8r]

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).

[jjane45]

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.

[Doubletoe]

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. . . . 

[AgnesNitt]

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.

[slcbelle]

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.

[VAsk8r]

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. 

[sampaguita]

Are falls worse when you travel at high speed or at low speed?

[fsk8r]

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.

[sarahspins]

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.

[Skittl1321]

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.)

[platyhiker]

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.

[jjane45]

high speed + straight down + hit knee cap directly

[fsk8r]

high speed + straight down + hit knee cap directly

They're pretty yucky, but add music playing and audience into that mix...

[VAsk8r]

(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.

[Skittl1321]

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.

[Rachelsk8s]

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. 

[aussieskater]

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!!

[techskater]

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 !!!)

[aussieskater]

Oh my goodness!  Is the lesson skater OK?  (Yes I know "skull fracture" means "no", but I hope you get what I mean!)

[techskater]

Discharged today.

[fsk8r]

was either skater watching where they're going?

[jjane45]

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.

[fsk8r]

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?