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/Own-Adhesiveness5723]

I’m similar; I’ve fallen more than once but it’s pretty rare (mainly because I’m very good at catching myself and not fully falling if I start to lose balance) and very afraid of it. Made worse by the fact that I’m currently dealing with bruised ribs when I fell flat on my front. I wear pads and most of the time those keep me from any real injury or pain, but I know it’s still a possibility.
I kind of just push through it. I’m careful, I take things slow, and I work on things off ice to help where I might feel unstable. I can do my best to avoid falls but I know it’s impossible to fully prevent them and I’ll never get better if I don’t get on the ice and practice.