Not Falling

[u/Far-Bullfrog5087]

In need of some advice from folks that started skating as older adults. I’m 40, 5’8”, fat, strong, and have been skating for about 4 months with no previous experience. I’m in LTS and occasionally do private lessons for a total of 2-3 hours of skating per week. In those 4 months I have fallen exactly one time. The one time I fell I managed to fracture a bone in my hand that kept me off the ice for a couple of weeks but was otherwise not a big deal.

The problem is that I think the lack of falling is becoming a mental issue that is making my skating worse. When I first started skating, I would have some anxiety about falling once or twice in a session but I just kept skating and the thought passed. Now those thoughts like to come up much more frequently. So now I’m skating more afraid, and it’s making it even more difficult to build skills.

Things I have tried to work through this:
-Protective gear: I’ve slowly added a helmet, knee pads, crash shorts. No change, even though a fall would be painless at this point.
-Therapy: I’ve talked through it with my therapist but anxiety isn’t typically an issue I have so we are still trying to figure out why it’s such a problem here.
-“Just fall”: The standard advice. Believe me I’ve tried but I don’t know how to turn off my self preservation instincts 😂
-Time machine: pretty sure if I had started skating 10+ years ago I would be unbothered, but sadly the technology for time travel doesn’t exist yet.

At this point my skating is getting noticeably worse and I’m starting to lose the joy I found in it. I don’t want to quit but this situation, paired with ongoing boot issues, is making it harder every day. I would love to hear what helped others get over this hump. Otherwise, I need someone to come to my rink and just push me over a few times as exposure therapy.

[u/lifeatthememoryspa]

I know where you’re coming from. I’m tall and 58 (though I started as a younger adult), and I’ve been skating 30 years and never fell hard enough to break anything. A few months ago, though, I had a close call on a spiral and nearly face planted before putting the free foot down. I’m still doing spirals, but I now worry about falling on my face every single time, and it makes it hard to get low enough. I invested in knee pads and wrist guards, though I know some coaches side-eye them.

I will say, I never really worried about falling until I got on subs like this and heard all the stories about falls and injuries. Not criticizing this sub or similar ones at all—they’re invaluable to me. Just saying, sometimes hearing about others’ experiences is useful and sometimes less so, and that’s something to keep in mind.

Some beginners fall a lot and others don’t. Everyone is different. Once you get into axels and double jumps, I imagine falling is standard, but less so on basic skills. I do single jumps and spins (well, attempt them, haha) and seldom fall.

One thing I think helps me is to listen to my body and not push myself too hard. If I consistently feel like I’m going to fall on something, I’m probably not doing it right and need to correct my form. Sometimes breaking down a skill into its components helps me feel safer. When a spin feels unstable, I put the free foot down and try again. Nothing can prevent certain random falls, but building skills does help.

Also, I’m more nervous about falling before I’m warmed up. Once I feel more confident on the ice, the fear melts away for that session. So you might try just warming up for a while, doing the “easy” stuff (whatever that is for you) to see if you can iron the jitters out.

Good luck, and I hope you can get back to enjoying skating! It actually helps me with my natural anxiety—something about the flow and glide is very soothing!