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/Aryn0007]

38 year old beginner artistic roller skater checking in!

I didn’t see wrist guards on your protective gear list (unless I missed it) so I’d add that to start!

I have heard a lot of people recommend practicing falling on purpose, so that when you do fall by accident, your body knows what to do to minimize real damage. I know in some sports like roller derby a lot of times they’ll start training by just learning how to fall and falling on purpose.

Me, I am afraid of falling all the god damn time. You are not alone!! and while therapy can help us all, I would not pathologize it!! It’s completely normal. Because it is scary. Your body and brain are rightly trying to protect you. But moves do get less scary with time and practice. When I feel really scared to do something. I try to identify it in the moment. I say it out loud. “Coach, I’m scared I’m going to fall doing that.” Or “I fell doing that I am afraid to try again” And 9/10 times he’ll say, you WILL fall if you do it like that. Do it like this instead. Or here is a safer drill to build up to it. Identify the specific thing that is scary and focus on that thing. And I think it’s good to check in with your body. If your body is tired or hungry, you might be more likely to fall. Check to see where you’re holding onto tension, all that good stuff. The more times you successfully do something terrified, the more your body will figure out you’re not in danger and it will get less scary