I took a break today and went ice skating at lunch time. Instead of my usual “power laps” the whole time I helped a couple friends work on skating backwards.

Of course, I had to go zooming and jumping around some too and I fell. Hard.
(Yes, I was probably showing off.)

At first I was favoring that hip and walking hurt. Then I realized that I was exacerbating it and decided to relax and walk as naturally as possible. It took some conscious effort since my body was tightening that area. After a few minutes I was no longer hurting, in fact I was walking comfortably.

Lessons learned:

• When you’re learning something new expect to fall.
• When you fall get up and keep skating.
• Minimize the long term impact of those falls by relaxing (you might even find yourself enjoying the ride!).

And for today’s question: if you fall while ice skating should you put ice on it or was the initial application enough?