Skating 101: Falling is learning
I'm a self-professed falling zealot.
At my rink, you'll know if I'm falling as it's almost always accompanied by a shrill cry as I topple to the floor and slide across the ice. A sudden "WOOOAAAHH!" has everyone's heads snapping round at the outburst and they go "Oh god, Owen's at it again!" I think I give more people heart attacks from my screeches than any damage I do to myself from falling. The thing is though, I've definitely come to believe that falling is learning.
Ice skating is a lot about balance (of course!), understanding where the balance ends and the falling starts really helps guide our body's internal gyros as to what you can and can't get away with when you're trying things on the ice. You can train yourself to push those limits as you get more confident as a skater and you'll become stronger at holding your edges or positions longer. It's pretty much the definition of practice that you do things wrong in order to do things right.
Fear of falling is, in some ways, much worse than actually falling. Fear of falling stops us from trying things with a full level of commitment, really giving a new exercise or element the vigour it deserves. This slows down our progression as skaters. If you throw yourself into something and fall straight over then you've already learned a lot about what doesn't work and you can start adjusting right away, but if you never go too far then how can you ever be confident when your coach tells you to push that edge a little deeper, hold it a little longer? I hear some of the adult skaters at my rink come in and merrily exclaim that they "haven't fallen in X number of weeks!" To which I say "you're not trying hard enough!"
So we've got to embrace the fall. We've got to make it our friend, buy it drinks, show it some loving. But as adult skaters, the risk of injuring ourselves can extend much further than just putting us out of action on the rink - what if it affects how we do our job? What if we have children that we need to look after? There's also the simple reality that the older we are, the longer we take to heal. But, even with all that in mind, we've got to embrace the fall or we're stifling our learning and I for one definitely want to continue improving as a skater!
We need to fall safely. We need to fall like graceful dying swans.
Fun UK fact - learning how to fall safely isn't covered in the Skate UK program and it absolutely should be! So here're some simple tips I've made up from my experiences as a falling aficionado. Hopefully readers at rinks where falling is taught can chip in too!
Firstly: Embrace it. Everybody falls, not only have I watched my coach do it in a lesson but she's also done it at the beginning of her routine in the rink's Winter Show on performance night. It's gonna happen, just accept it and try to minimise the damage as you fall. If I embrace it then I've found I can become bizarrely serene about the whole thing and I fall all the time but rarely do myself any damage I feel for more than a few minutes. When I can feel a fall coming then I know I've got a few seconds to prep my body into a safer falling position before I actually hit the ice and I do make use of that time to do so.
Standard advice for all skaters: Wear gloves and, if you're falling forwards, use your hands to divert your falling momentum across the ice. Try and collapse your legs on the way down to soften the distance you're falling and you can use the lower half of your leg to help distribute out the momentum just like with your hands so you should just slide for a metre or two before stopping. Done correctly, you won't even hurt yourself other than perhaps the shock. People at my rink are impressed not only by how little I actually hurt myself but also how graceful my falls are. Never forget to own this fact! Make your falls beautiful to behold! Revel in their magnificence as you channel the spirit of a diving bird.
Extra advice for regular skaters: As above, however, falling on your hands regularly will damage your wrists in the long run. Casual skaters can get away with it as they won't be on the ice as much. Ideally, regular skaters want to fall on their forearms. It's a similar process to falling on your hands but just slightly more awkward ensuring that you get them in position as you fall. Just like all things ice skating, practise!
Falling over backwards: Sorry, you're doomed. As far as I know, there's little that can be done to prevent the dreaded backward falls and they are typically the most painful. I sometimes twist my lower half so that my hip takes the brunt of the impact but it goes without saying that doing that too much isn't going to be good for anyone in the long term.
Other protection: Various brands of padding are available to mitigate damage. I don't personally feel like I've damaged myself seriously enough yet (and I've fallen a lot) to merit getting something, but if you feel you'd benefit from it then there're several skating blogs out there that do comparison pieces on various brands. If I had to choose one part of me to protect it would absolutely be some hip padding - falling there is always painful. Some kind of head protection is also a popular choice but I've only hit my head once so far (mercifully not that hard, was more of a shock than anything else).
So, in short, get practising those falls because falling is learning!
At my rink, you'll know if I'm falling as it's almost always accompanied by a shrill cry as I topple to the floor and slide across the ice. A sudden "WOOOAAAHH!" has everyone's heads snapping round at the outburst and they go "Oh god, Owen's at it again!" I think I give more people heart attacks from my screeches than any damage I do to myself from falling. The thing is though, I've definitely come to believe that falling is learning.
Ice skating is a lot about balance (of course!), understanding where the balance ends and the falling starts really helps guide our body's internal gyros as to what you can and can't get away with when you're trying things on the ice. You can train yourself to push those limits as you get more confident as a skater and you'll become stronger at holding your edges or positions longer. It's pretty much the definition of practice that you do things wrong in order to do things right.
Fear of falling is, in some ways, much worse than actually falling. Fear of falling stops us from trying things with a full level of commitment, really giving a new exercise or element the vigour it deserves. This slows down our progression as skaters. If you throw yourself into something and fall straight over then you've already learned a lot about what doesn't work and you can start adjusting right away, but if you never go too far then how can you ever be confident when your coach tells you to push that edge a little deeper, hold it a little longer? I hear some of the adult skaters at my rink come in and merrily exclaim that they "haven't fallen in X number of weeks!" To which I say "you're not trying hard enough!"
So we've got to embrace the fall. We've got to make it our friend, buy it drinks, show it some loving. But as adult skaters, the risk of injuring ourselves can extend much further than just putting us out of action on the rink - what if it affects how we do our job? What if we have children that we need to look after? There's also the simple reality that the older we are, the longer we take to heal. But, even with all that in mind, we've got to embrace the fall or we're stifling our learning and I for one definitely want to continue improving as a skater!
We need to fall safely. We need to fall like graceful dying swans.
Falling tips:
Fun UK fact - learning how to fall safely isn't covered in the Skate UK program and it absolutely should be! So here're some simple tips I've made up from my experiences as a falling aficionado. Hopefully readers at rinks where falling is taught can chip in too!
Firstly: Embrace it. Everybody falls, not only have I watched my coach do it in a lesson but she's also done it at the beginning of her routine in the rink's Winter Show on performance night. It's gonna happen, just accept it and try to minimise the damage as you fall. If I embrace it then I've found I can become bizarrely serene about the whole thing and I fall all the time but rarely do myself any damage I feel for more than a few minutes. When I can feel a fall coming then I know I've got a few seconds to prep my body into a safer falling position before I actually hit the ice and I do make use of that time to do so.
Standard advice for all skaters: Wear gloves and, if you're falling forwards, use your hands to divert your falling momentum across the ice. Try and collapse your legs on the way down to soften the distance you're falling and you can use the lower half of your leg to help distribute out the momentum just like with your hands so you should just slide for a metre or two before stopping. Done correctly, you won't even hurt yourself other than perhaps the shock. People at my rink are impressed not only by how little I actually hurt myself but also how graceful my falls are. Never forget to own this fact! Make your falls beautiful to behold! Revel in their magnificence as you channel the spirit of a diving bird.
Extra advice for regular skaters: As above, however, falling on your hands regularly will damage your wrists in the long run. Casual skaters can get away with it as they won't be on the ice as much. Ideally, regular skaters want to fall on their forearms. It's a similar process to falling on your hands but just slightly more awkward ensuring that you get them in position as you fall. Just like all things ice skating, practise!
Falling over backwards: Sorry, you're doomed. As far as I know, there's little that can be done to prevent the dreaded backward falls and they are typically the most painful. I sometimes twist my lower half so that my hip takes the brunt of the impact but it goes without saying that doing that too much isn't going to be good for anyone in the long term.
Other protection: Various brands of padding are available to mitigate damage. I don't personally feel like I've damaged myself seriously enough yet (and I've fallen a lot) to merit getting something, but if you feel you'd benefit from it then there're several skating blogs out there that do comparison pieces on various brands. If I had to choose one part of me to protect it would absolutely be some hip padding - falling there is always painful. Some kind of head protection is also a popular choice but I've only hit my head once so far (mercifully not that hard, was more of a shock than anything else).
So, in short, get practising those falls because falling is learning!
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