i started this thread on another forum years ago, and just thought it would be fun to bring it here to skatingforums

post the stories of some of your more spectacular falls here! I'll start...

so one day I was stretching at the wall, and went to leave the wall to skate. well, as i pulled away, my blade got stuck. I'm not sure if it got stuck in a crack or something, all i know is i just went down. the noise was incredible. my leg was reluctant to leave the wall, so i was just kinda stuck. it was...definitely one of my more interesting falls.

this next one isn't particularly special, it just amused me.

my coach and i were setting my new program, and there was a part with some pretty violin that will work well for a footwork section. my coach was going over to the tape player, and i think i was doing rocker choctaws. next thing i knew i was sprawled across the ice, and my coach is looking at me going "i don't think we're gonna use that part. its not pretty. no, that part isn't very pretty."

and gotta love catching your heel going into a double loop. its just such an unexpected fall. instead of being in the air, you're on your a**!

My most spectacular fall was just from a toe pick as I was going forward. I landed on both hands and knees and slid about 10 feet. It didn't hurt (I had just bought knee pads) but I was really scared because it was during the first 2-3 minutes of the session, when everyone is doing laps to warm up, and I was afraid I'd be sliding in the path of someone. Luckily, I didn't hit anyone.

The funniest fall I had was when I was standing next to a coach in a lesson, listening to instructions. Doing nothing. Suddenly, I fell over for no reason. That really cracked us up.

Most spectacular fall by someone else that I've seen was by a girl working on Intermediate moves. She was doing the backward power circles and lost her balance and fell backward and slid about 20 feet into the boards. She had used up all of her momentum by the time she hit the boards, so she wasn't hurt, but she slid really far. She's a powerful skater in general.

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Years ago, I kicked the heel of my blade on back crossovers during stroking class, fell and slid all the way to the far end of the rink. Much like the girl doing Intermediate moves that Mikawendy described...

Another time, again during back crossovers in stroking class, the skater right behind me (an older lady) fell. I realised I wouldn't have been able to stop in time, so I did a little hop and jumped over her!

The most recent was the fall on a spiral sequence at our Nationals earlier this year. I have that program up on youtube (the fall is around1:36)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC_2f4YTyaM
A friend said he watched the program over and over, just to hear the screech!

- Chow

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haha that screech was cute. adsfk i HATE spiral falls. i hate toepicks. period. right now i'm in coronation aces, and i know i'll have to move up soon (working double axels), and i'm sooooo scared. a about 4 years ago, i was doing back oustide 3 into a dobule sal. i decided to go at it with a lot of speed, and caught my toepick. i was sprawled across the ice. tore a tendon in my knee and nearly shattered my pelvis. i literally had to crawl off the ice. i haven't had any bad toepick falls since, but good lord, toepicks scare me.

here's the story of a spectacular fall-save.

so my coach was the first woman to do a cantilever (and she still does it when we ask her to). its incredible. she gets so low that she can drag her upper back on the ice
(this is a cantilever, not her tho, obviously http://youtube.com/watch?v=_OWA500CMp0)

well shes going clockwise around the rink, while one of the skaters, nix, is about to go into an axel, she grabs him practically out of the air, and holds on to him as she comes out of the cantilever. could have been SUCH a bad accident.

Fell out of a bielman spin on a public session. Got up as the Incredible Snow(wo)man.

And then there was the... Oh I don't recall what I was practicing, some new version of the backward hydroblades at speed I think. I went up on the back of my blade, tumbled backwards - I didn't hurt myself because I was so low to the ice, but because of the speed the rotational force was pretty large and I did a backward somersault, landing in the position "sitting on my knees" while still sliding down the ice on the rink...

Probably the one I took a few months ago that resulted in a concussion, where I fell backwards, hit my head and actually bounced up - people say they saw air between me and the ice for a second.

My daughter has the best falls. She is notorious for running into the boards. It's really funny when she knocks all the music and water bottles off. Once she fell by the harness and got it stuck to her and she slid dragging it.

j

The absolute WORST fall (that no one saw) was the one that wrecked my knees in the spring of '69. I had BIG jumps as a teen and was working on a jump when something went haywire in the air. I don't know if I caught a blade on my pant cuff, a skate lace, or what but something caught and screwed up my movement. I landed with my ankles crossed under me and laying over backwards. Well I had been going like blazes and I slid knees first into the boards HARD before I could recover! I crawled off the ice and spent the next 6 months on crutches and the next 15 years getting over the knee problems (and 36 years before I went back to skating). There wasn't another soul in the rink (I had a key and used to skate early mornings). Still today, when the rink is deserted and quiet, I sometimes get a creepy feeling - I'd rather not skate alone - better if there is someone around so the corpse doesn't freeze to the ice

No spectacular falls lately, except tripping on a spiral and hitting the ice so hard that people on the other side of the rink said they felt the ice shake! (HEY! Come on, I am not THAT heavy!) Oh yes, that fall cracked a rib.

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I just fell yesterday and broke my wrist! Stupid me for putting my hands down while falling. The distal radius is broken and the bone has shifted so it's not in line anymore. I've got a temporary cast now and once the orthopedics take care of the bone it'll be 4-6 weeks in a cast.

Oh and it was my right hand and I'm right-handed. I'm a beginner really, 6 months of skating. I think I fell going into a forward 3 turn. And I had my 3-turns so beautiful the time before I almost managed a spin entry from one then.

I was going to start a new set of skating lessons next month so I am very disappointed. Everyone's just going to yell at me if I skate before the cast is off I can't believe it's finally time to put vaseline on the blades.

I have had three spectacular falls and one spectacular spike.

The first fall was about a year after I began skating at eight years old. I don't remember too much from this day, but I can remember working on two-foot spins during the last five minutes of my lesson. All of a sudden, I was off the ice sitting on a bench with everyone at the rink crowded around me. I guess sometime during the spin I must have blacked out and fallen. I ended up smacking my chin off the ice and chipping a back molar. I also got a concussion from the impact and had to be taken to the hospital for 7 stiches in my chin. (Still have a nice little scar thirteen years later...) By far, my scariest fall as I couldn't remember a thing that happened or who people were; however, I do remember what I was wearing that day, that my dad and sister were setting up the train platform for underneath our X-mas tree, and that I kept saying it was Tuesday even though I knew it was Saturday.

My second fall was on a loop jump a few years later. I don't know how - I must have leaned too far forward on the take-off - and before I knew it, I had smacked my chin off the ice...again! Thankfully, this fall wasn't anywhere near as bad as the first. I only receieved a little cherry-like scrape dead center on my chin. I think I was more afraid of chipping another tooth than I was of the actual fall. So, yeah...that takes second prize, hahaha!

My third fall happened about 5 years ago. I was just standing on the ice waiting to start my program...wasn't moving or anything! All of a sudden, I fell forward and hit my face. (Anyone seeing a pattern, here? ) Well, no cuts, scrapes, or stitches this time - just a nice big black eye! Who gets a black eye skating?! It took about three weeks to go away, but it did provide me with some great stories...who said figure skating isn't a contact sport?

Finally, I got spiked when I was eight. Apparently, I didn't even know it happened until my coach started yelling at me to stop skating and sit down. Somehow I managed to skate a little bit too close to a girl doing a layback and her blade sliced the outside of my left leg just below and to the side of my kneecap. Don't know how I walked away from that one without any stitches; a couple of band-aids did the trick, but my tights were pretty much blood-soaked for the rest of the session, which I did continue to skate. Now that's dedication, hahaha!

Our most spectacular fall was in competition when he was lifting me, overdid it (and arguably I bounced too hard), and went over backwards with me on top of him.

Maddeningly, I was fine with that lift after it happened, for a whole year - then it came to that same competition again, and since then, I've been incredibly nervous of the lift, to the point that I am not at all sure it is going to work in our competition next Sunday. Sigh....

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I've had a couple falls of the kind where you are parallel with the ice and several feet above it. Usually you are positioned like a sideways Superman. It take a little while to reach the ice, and all the way down you're thinking about how bad it's gonna hurt when you get there.

The most spectacular of these happened two summers ago and the very end of a public session. Only a hockey skater and I remained and I had to do one last FAST lap doing fancy steps. The last step wasn't a forward edge nor a backward edge - yep, a sideways edge at hockey-skater speed.

Those don't work too well.

I ended up with a bloody abrasion on my left elbow courtesy of the fabric weave of my 1/2" thick elbow pad. I hate to think of what would have happened WITHOUT the pad. Shoulder took a bloody hit too. Chewed up ice cuts!

As I walked off the ice pretending that it didn't phase me, people in the lobby parted to let the sweaty and bloody old man pass.

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Bill Schneider

Well, I had a collision with a high level skater once where both of us didn't look behind us on our back crossovers. Got a shiner and some other bruises and I'm now looking behind me when I do do my back crossovers now.

I tripped over a kiddie beginning FS skater who didn't know how to stop. She fell down but I couldn't stop in time and tripped over her... got a huge gash on my right knee and was escorted off the ice. WeirFan06 bandaged me up and kept me from freaking out about needing stitches!

I also had a couple of bad falls on the loop where I would have to get my chiro to put me back into alignment. I unfortunately have problems with my BO edge slipping just before the takeoff and I go down on my butt. So far the actual attempt to land and falls I've had on the loop and flip didn't hurt as much as those falls. (Note to self: Need to go sharpen blades!!! )

My most spectacular fall though was off ice... so I won't bother you with the details...

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Spectacular Fall #1: I was maybe 10 or 11 and it was my very first precision team practice. I got put on the end of a long pivot line, couldn't keep up with other girls, and was hurled into the boards. No lasting damage except to my pride

Spectacular Fall #2: I was showing off for my husband last year, did a lunge, and somehow my dragging leg worked itself around to the side. I heard a horrible popping sound, and saw that my leg was out at some unnatural angle. Ended up with a dislocated knee and a torn ligament. That one kept me off the ice for 6 weeks. And I don't do lunges anymore

Spectacular Fall #3: Last winter I was practicing spirals. I leaned too far foward, went over my toepick, and did a great bellyflop skid across the ice. I slid to a stop right in front of another skater. That was more embarrassing than anything.

Spectacular Fall #4: Last March, I skated out to start my program for my Bronze test. I went to stop, caught my blade in a gouge in the ice, and went down on my behind. The rink was deathly quiet, and I could hear this huge THUD when I fell. I sat there for a second, laughed, and then stood up. Wow - did it hurt. Somehow I skated the program (very shakily) and managed to pass. When I got home and changed, there was a big hole in the rear of my tights where I had fallen (luckily my skirt covered it)!

I wouldn't call it spectacular as such, more stupid! I hadn't been skating that long and I fell over getting OFF the ice! To this day I still can not work out what I done, but I was still unsteady on my feet and skated over the exit and somehow just let my guard down or something and wham, the next thing I knew I had fallen right on my tailbone. I was in agony for about a month and a half, and every time I sat down longer than a few minutes I sort of seized up and when I got up it felt like I was being electrocuted!

The up side is every fall I have had since then has not come close to this one in pain so they just don't feel that bad!

#1) During a particularly high speed backward stroking session, I caught the end of my blade on the ice during a crossover, fell backwards on my tailbone skidded clear across the width of the ice, and then right on through the door to the penalty box. Hurt like crazy, but I'm sure it was pretty funny looking.

#2) When I first learned the axel I had a habit of throwing myself into it and completely breaking at the waist, and then popping open mid air...

Which resulted in me landing forward on my toe picks, and kind of diving across the ice like superman. My coach took to calling it my 'superaxel'.

About 2 years ago, I was practicing my Ina Bauer down the length of the rink trying to lay back on it more. At the same time, 2-time Olympic gold medalist ice dancer Pasha Grishuk was coaching a student and skating backwards without looking behind her. BAM! She backed right into me and I went down. She asked me if I was okay and I said I was fine. She asked me again a little later if I was okay, which I thought was strange. Then she got off the ice. A week later, I saw her at the rink again and she asked me again if I was okay. I thought, my, what an overly polite person. Only then did she mention that I had never asked her if SHE was okay. I told her she hadn't fallen so I had assumed she was fine, and then I sheepishly asked her if she was okay. That's when I found out that my blade had sliced her shin!

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Awww, doubletoe....that's so embarassing...and a little nervey of her to keep pressuring you into asking how she was. What an experience that must have been!

Mine was so ridiculous, it was probably the one where I got on the ice, skated forward, caught a toe pick and also went flying superman style and landed on my knees (causing some damage) and palms. What made it spectacular was the skating guard didn't realize this time I'd actually hurt myself so he skated over and hockey stopped at me, purposely spraying me, haha

(he felt really bad afterwards)

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Yeah, I was a little but I just chalked her communication style down to cultural differences and hoped I hadn't come across as insensitive. She didn't seem to hold the leg wound against me, though, because last year I asked her for some help with my program choreography and she agreed, LOL! She was wonderful to work with, too.

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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

OUCH! So sorry to hear you were really injured. Putting one's hands down is a reflex response and can't always be avoided. I also broke my (dominant hand) wrist in a rather simple fall. I was doing the Pre-Preliminary BI edge pattern and pulled out my skating foot (figure style) to get a better push, but didn't get the other foot down. Instead fell straight down onto my palm. I don't recall any noise, but witnesses say there was a loud report from the radius as it broke. I actually had no desire to skate with that cast, as my wrist really hurt and the cast went most of the way up the arm, making me feel pretty clumsy.

I recently had two bad falls, only one of which qualifies for spectacular, and that not very. I was skating along with a friend, who lost her balance and grabbed me, pulling me straight down. I made a one point landing on my L butt. It hurt so much I sat on an ice pack for twenty minutes and had trouble sitting for at least a week. My other fall was in slow motion. I was coming in to the boards to get my water bottle and slipped off my newly sharpened blades on a hockey stop. Rather than fall down hard on my butt, I grabbed the wall with my L arm and felt it crush against the wall as I let myself down. I was embarrassed, and jumped up right away, but it hurt like H*ll. I had a gorgeous bruise on the inside from mid upper arm to mid lower arm, with what looked like a bite mark at the elbow.

I witnessed a hilarious fall today while watching the kids' hockey camp. They were doing a relay race, with the incoming skater handing off a puck to the next one, who was already holding a stick. The poor tyke who handed off the puck then tripped over the other skater's stick as he took off. I'm pretty sure he wasn't the only one to get tripped like that.

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My most spectacular fall was in Edmonton for Western Regional Adult Challenge about a year and a half ago. I had just landed the BEST loop-jump I have ever done - before or since - and when I went to step forward I did a face-plant followed by a perfect zamboni that went from one blue line to the other. By the time I was able to get up my music had gone on without me and I was on the wrong part of the rink to pick up any part of my solo anyway so I just made something up till the music stopped and I could leave the ice with what little dignity I had left!

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The one that in my memory seemed more spectacular were the ones where I went into a camel and wiped out flat on the ice.

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OMG, thanks for reminding me (or not!). 2-1/2 years ago I was in my official 6-minute warmup for a competition and was anxious about my camel spin, since I had forgotten to warm it up in my practice earlier that day. I went into it with way too much oomph and somehow managed to flip myself over and land on my head. Not only was it reeeeally embarrassing, but I was so stunned and shaken that I skated pretty badly when I took the ice for my program. . . and of course it was the first time any family members had come to watch me skate!

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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

Ouch, I know what you mean... I once fell on the tailbone when I was working on the Axel, and then again just a few days later when some public skater ran into me from behind.

For the next month, I couldn't do any jumps that required kicking through with the free leg (i.e. no Axel & no Salchow).

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Best camel fall I have ever seen was at a Scottish Adults competition a few years ago. The skater in question went to do a flying camel at the very end of her programme, slipped, splatted, and leapt up and continued the spin so quickly that you actually wondered if she'd really fallen. It wasn't until she got off the ice that she realised she'd actually winded herself quite badly and was crowing for breath for several minutes.

Funniest fall we ever had was just in practice - don't know what happened, but his blade just grazed my shin, which proceeded to bleed copiously - it wasn't much, only a scratch, but it scarred and for several years afterwards you could see exactly where his toe-rake had gone across my leg! Oooh, I made the most of it, I can tell you!

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Mrs Redboots
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Ice dancers have lovely big curves!