The other day i was doing that thing where you lift you foot up behind you and grab it behind your head ( i don't know what its called. lol) anyway, i caught my toepick and fell flat on the ice. Luckily it was at the very end of my session so i had to get off the ice anyway, but when i sat down i got that feeling like i was about to pass out. My ears started ringing and everything around me seemed to tune out however, it went away after about 5 minutes. Has this ever happened to any of you guys?

You mean something like happened to me in this video at time index 00:51 roughly? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XhagP9zKkg


Two things are possible:
- You hit your middle rif (ehh... that's probably not the correct English translation... I mean the thing that pushes upward to compress your lungs to get the air out, and lowers itself to pull air in) somewhere around the solar plexus, the breath was knocked out of you, you couldn't breathe, lack of oxygen caused you to nearly pass out
- You have a concussion. This is especially likely if you hit your head (even if it was your chin).

If the latter is the case, you need to stay away from skating for at least two weeks because one of the side effects of concussions is that you can suddenly go dizzy. If this happens on ice and you hit your head again while it hasn't recovered from the last concussion, you could end up in hospital or a morgue. Also, if you have a concussion you need to see a doctor no matter if you think you're okay now. People with concussions commonly under-estimate the seriousness of their injury.
A few sings of a concussion are a headache, dizzyness, loss of consciousness for a (very) brief moment following the fall, sudden nausea or dilated iris in 1 of the eyes (if the latter is the case, you need to seek medical help immediately because that indicates brain hemorraging).

There might be some third possibility I'm not aware of however!!! I'm not medical staff you know.

If you didn't hit your head and you don't feel nauseous or dizzy or have a headache at all, and you're fine in the next couple of days, you're probably fine - but again, I'm no medic. I'm a bit worried about the ear ringing thing because that's never happened to me on the falls where I hit my solar plexus, but then that's not happened to me on any of my concussions either...

Next time, when you're feeling seriously ill, ask your coach about it (they have experience with skating related injuries) and practice the bielman going backwards - less risk of toepick falls that way.

Whenever you do a forwards spiral, focus on your toes and it will keep you from catching your toepick:

Toes on the ice: LIFT THEM UP in your boot!

Toes in the air: POINT THEM

Okay, pointing the toes that are in the air won't keep you from falling, but it will make your coach and all the judges happy. But lifting the toes of your skating foot during forward spirals will absolutely keep you from ever having a fall like that again. On backward spirals, you won't catch your toepick even if you don't lift the toes of your skating foot.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I have heard from a reliable source (can't remember if it was a physio or osteopath) that you can actually get concussion from landing on your butt, because it can jar up into your skull. So it isn't just banging your head that can give you concussion, apparently.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am