You have to practice falling. over an dover and over again.

another thing i find, if if you try and avoid it, youll fall and it will hurt even more.

What I do, is if I land from a jump and i can just feel im gonna go down, i try and lean back and get as low to the ice as possible before i fall. if you know you can't hold a landing, just do that instead of trying to hold on to it for that extra second and falling even more painfully. Avoid knees at all costs, and dont try and stop yourself with your hands. let the booty take the heat..i mean ice lol.

Gary - my doctor does advise wrist guards for rollerblading, to protect the skin.

Sue123 - I have you beat on the shoot the duck injury. I broke my wrist doing it (on roller skates). The rink had a shoot the duck war during the evening public sessions. Everyone would go as fast as they could, then shoot the duck and push each other over. The last one still skating was the winner. Some big guy gave me a huge shove from behind right at the beginning, and I went flying forward, whacking the outside of my right wrist. I didn't know it was broken (cracked, really) until I woke in pain at 2 AM. Parents loved taking me to the ER, of course. The same night, another roller dancer broke her tibia flying into the rail during a race.

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Indeed. My first coach was very emphatic that her beginners should wear long sleeves all year round. The more experienced skaters take "ice burn" as part of the package - basically, if you fall with bare arms, you know what you're going to get! Even coach2 did that one year, she was "swapping roles" with her star pupil (who was bored, one summer day), and fell on a double flip attempt, with bare arms... ouch!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Sounds more like Roller Derby! LOL

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Well I do sometimes skate in short sleeves... Usually I wear a short sleeve under a thin sweatshirt, and if I'm really skating hard (which albeit is pretty rare) and get too hot, then the sweatshirt and gloves come off - but only for a few minutes and then I'm too cold again...a vicious cycle.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Actually, when I say I roll as I hit the ice, I don't mean I tuck and roll or that I do a tight roll like you'd do if you were on fire and trying to put it out. I just make sure the side of one butt cheek is the first thing to hit, then on impact, I immediately roll just 1/2 turn so that I roll up onto my hands and knees and can get right back up from that position.

I generally go sleeveless if the ice is freshly resurfaced and smooth, but I bring a long-sleeved warmup shirt and put it on when the ice starts to get rough.