I have had 3 hard falls over the last few months since i started skating again and they are always on my right hand/wrist. My last one was quite bad and I was still healing from the previous one. Every time I fall I always land on my right hand first. It is just reflexes to extend my right hand when I'm about to fall. I can't skate for another week until this heals and at my age (in my mid 40's) it takes awhile to heal. I really had no chance to even think this last time... I was doing a drop in like I have been able to do fine besides the first time I feel off in a similar way and this time I was just dropping in on a small 3 foot 1/4 and I was not concentrating and forgot to lean forward enough and I just went backwards on to my hand and ass. This really set's me back as I can't skate when I'm injured, I'm worried if I fall on my hand/wrist again it might finally break next time after all the stress and I use pads and protec wrist guards but I still get injured.... Any ideas on how to avoid this would be great.... :(

whenever you fall try to keep your hands up?

hmm...there isnt really anything you can do, i guess once you get better you wont fall as much.
so the two things i suggest is stop skating all together, or skate a whole heap more

fall on your face to soften the blow

use a small half pipe for this but take some pads and just practice jumping in (with out board) and sliding. thats what my friend wants me to do

How would jumping into the halfpipe with no board help? Haha. I would say when you know your going to fall try and flop over so you land in a different position or if you for some reason have to use the right arm tighten it up a bunch so there is a lot of support and maybe youll just catch yourself. Good luck.

I was watching some motocross riders today and one fell from a huge hight over a jump ramp and went straight forward and said afterward he was trying to land on his stomac as he wanted to avoid landing on his wrists as well.

I need to roll but there is not much time to think of that.

I always land head-first.. try that sometime.. it keeps your hands good!



But seriously.. try to roll to reduce impact :)

Get some knee pads and learn to knee slide. Best way to avoid falling on yer hands.

My friend had the same problem with his hand, always landing on it. So much that even just touching it hurt, the snow season cured it. Which is just time off, if you must, take some time off get something done like tons of school work, work on a vehicle, ramp, something to make the time go by faster.

When i KNOW im going to fall i pull my head up and also my arms sounds stupid but i never break anything...

same here, except my left wrist always gets screwed up from holding out my left hand.

You can drop to your knees and slide out of it. or maybe try rolling. THe last month or two i have had the same problem. I keep falling on my right wrist pretty hard where it hurts to move it but it doesnt last but a couple hours but i just cant stop skating and let it heal its too hard so i just deal with it

Skating in your mid 40's is already a risk. There's little you can do to keep yourself from falling on your hands. I'd recomend wrist guards for you. You might look like a rollerblader out there, but your wrist won't break. That's pretty much your only option, I'd rather see you fall on your hands then your head, you know?

Learn to fall correctly. My missus is a Snowboard instructor and teaches all her clients how to fall properly and if you practice falling enough it becomes instinct. Find someone who knows how and practice with them.

you have to put your mind to fall correctly. as they've said above try rolling or falling on your knees, and just mentalize yourself to fall like that

once you get use to it you'll do it without thinking

Get your wrists stronger is another option?
do some wrist workouts?
Im not sure just try to not land on your hand but another way.

haha i fall on my side/elbow :p better than wrists, ya know?

Just learn to not throw your hands out to break the fall. Break the fall using your sholder and the side of your arm then just roll with it.

If you fall backwards the general idea is to pull your arms in and twist to one side, landing on your hip and rolling, if you fall forwards then try and land on your elbows. Of course you should be wearing pads so this wont matter :D

Ahh I have been doing the exact same thing lately. Only it is both my wrists... Its probabaly one of the more annoying things... I am skating alot more street now and tend to fall more during that though... Hehe, actually a few days ago on a skate trip with a few friends I was skating the mini-ramp and going for a nice long FS 50-50 and as I carved 'n' pumped toward the coping my left front wheel came off... I had to borrow some hardware and apparently the wheel nut was stripped... The wheel came off and I slammed hard, I wasn't expecting it at all. One of my friends started laughing before I even hit the ramp because of how stupid it must have looked... Now I have a sore rear end. I don't know why it affected me so much... Maybe tailbone... That probably saved my wrists though... Breaking a wrist... Ouch...

Yea. My opinion would be to just lay off for awhile or maybe work on some flat stuff. (Not that it is always safe) I was seriously contemplating the rollerblader look inorder to keep my wrists safe for awhile.

i hear your head makes a good cushion :P

But for serious just fall on your side, makes falls a lot more bearable

I landed on my wrist jumping a gap ive jumped many times befor and got a compound fracture to my growth plate and chiped a piece of it off, now my wrist has a little dent.

learn how to fall, it took me years. I broke my wrists all the time. you have to know when your going to fall, and know when to not put your self in the position to fall. If you think you might fall before you pop the ollie or whatever, just bail on the trick.

i have the same problem except i put my left hand in front i injured myself really badly today while skateing bowl. if your hands hurt really badly switch to halfpipe unless you already are skateing halfpipe you tend to roll more and also were wrist guards.

Wear Knee pads and re-learn to bail. Prodesigned wrist guards (I have tried lots of wrist guards and in my opinion they are the best).

Take time to heal otherwise you will find yourself of the board longer than you anticipated.

Good luck. Getting older sucks, from a physical point of view.

Hi everyone, hey this is the first time I have been back, read all of the great messages and it gives me some inspiration and excellent ideas on how to avoid this again. I'm going to use all of the ideas thrown around here when I get back on my board plus I'm working now on strengthening my wrist with exercises as some members here recommended. Unfortunately I have not skated since as my hand is still healing. I'm wondering if I did break something as I still feel a small pain if I bend my hand in certain places but it is healing? At least I have been catching up on lots of work so when I do skate again I can not worry about working so much and can skate most days. I had been feeling maybe I should just give it up as it takes a long time to heal at my age even though I'm in top physical shape as I work out etc. I don't want to damage my hand as I use it to work on my PC and of course for everything in my life. But since I read this thread I have felt better and the advice & ideas gives me some hope I can still continue to skate, I really look forward to getting back on my board. I'm also going to practice rolling and falling in my time off as some members here recommended...

I'm working now on strengthening my wrist with exercises

Kinky.

Kinky.

hahahaha true

land on your butt, t has more fat on it so it would hurt less, or just land on your butt and slide.

When I first started skating, I went out into the front yard where the grass is really thick and practiced rolling.....again and again and again...on my shoulder and side. The neighbors think I'm pretty crazy anyway. Also, I used these, but most of the time didn't need them.

http://socalskateshop.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=5591

Now I don't even wear the wrist guards, because I don't ever fall on my hands. Hopefully I never will.....but it does happen....occasionally...just don't catch myself with my hands.

I used to bail loads, so what I did was I purposely messed up on kickturns, so that I'd bail. I'd try fall on my knees, and eventually I made it.

If I'm skating low transition, I jump off, since if I try to kneeslide, I just fall to flat ground.

Hope that helped.

Fall over on your shoulders. Just tuck and roll. Seriously, just practice doing that instead. That way you can use your momentum to somersault instead of it going all into your wrist and you risking breaking it.

Lemipie had a good idea and in theory it works. You got to train your brain to fall differently. Putting our your hands is a natural reflex, with me bailing face forward is a no go with a bazzilion dollars in implants after a severe accident. I even trained myself, took me a while of just thinking about falling before I went to bed. That way I don't fall forward, I sorta roll sideways. Hurts my aged knees but I don't road rash my hands when hauling ass. Most times I run out a bail but there is always that lone rock waiting around the corner in the dark with a gun in it's hand.... :)

You just got to train yourself, I'd even suggest doing some balance work, like at the park where they have the wooden rails for joggers to work out on before a run. I walk those all the time and if I slip the falls a foot away and that is how I retrained myself to eat poo and survive.

As well wear a wrist guard, or two.

Wear pads and use them! If you fall backwards then use your elbows and roll a bit. If your falling forwards then pull a stylish power slide on your knees. Air guitaring as you go!
One of the worst types of bail is to try and stop yourself from falling with your hands! wrists snap like twigs. You could even learn to roll out of bails.