If you’ve been skateboarding for any amount of time, chances are you’ve taken at least a few slams.
It’s essentially impossible to get any better at skateboarding without falling occasionally, but there are some things you can do to stop getting hurt so much.
Today we’re going to be going over a few tips on how to stop skate injuries. Or at least some of them.
Learn How To Fall
The first tip for stopping skate injuries is to learn how to fall properly.
Now I realize this might not make sense at first, but there are ways you can fall that will prevent you from getting hurt as badly.
For people who don’t skate, they don’t realize that every time you fall, it doesn’t have to be some gnarly slam.
If you fall the right way, a lot of time it doesn’t even hurt at all and you can just get right back up. On the other hand, if you don’t know how to fall properly, you can easily get broke off skating something super small just because you aren’t used to bailing.
This is especially important for anyone who’s still learning, because a lot of beginners just ragdoll whenever they fall.
It’s kind of hard to explain how to fall properly, but in general there’s a few simple things to keep in mind.
The main thing you need to know Always try to break your fall smoothly instead of just slamming onto the ground. It helps a lot if you can manage to slide a bit or roll, because it disperses your weight so you fall a bit more smoothly.
A lot of times when you fall skateboarding you aren’t expecting it so it can be hard to prepare, but if you get into the habit of falling properly it’ll become second nature and you won’t even have to think about it.
Learn From Your Mistakes
Another tip for preventing skateboarding injuries is to learn from your mistakes.
Now I don’t mean analyzing your past relationships to figure out why you’ve become such an emotionally distant person, I’m more so talking about learning from previous falls.
There’s a famous quote out there that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”, and that definitely applies to skateboarding.
A lot of skateboarders will get broken off trying the same thing for hours and hours because they aren’t stopping to think about what they’re doing wrong.
It’s easy to get in a weird loop of just going for something without thinking about it, especially when you really want to land it, so it’s good to take a second to stop and think about what you’re doing wrong.
Now sometimes it does just take a little while to figure a trick out, but you shouldn’t be going for something repeatedly on autopilot.
If you keep falling over and over, then take a second to try to figure out why. Maybe you’re going too slow or maybe you’re leaning the wrong way, whatever it is, try to figure it out so you aren’t falling over and over for no reason.
It helps if you have someone to film you or at least tell you what you might be doing wrong, but if you don’t have someone to help you out, you can always set your phone up and film yourself so you can see.
A lot of the fun in skateboarding does come from learning new tricks and figuring out how to do them right, but that doesn’t mean you always have to get broken off in the process.
Work Your Way Up
The next tip to stop getting hurt skateboarding is just to work your way up.
This might sound like common sense, but it’s easy to get hyped up and get a little ahead of yourself when you’re skating. There’s a fine line between pushing yourself to get better, and trying something that you probably shouldn’t be trying.
Some tricks are easier to take to bigger things once you learn them, but for the most part it’s best to practice getting things consistent on something smaller before moving up to something bigger.
A lot of skateboarding progression is pretty linear, so it’s easy to work your way up as you go.
For example, after you learn a trick on flat, it’s not that much harder to take it down a small stair set. Then from there you can take it down a slightly bigger stair set, and eventually, you’ll be consistent enough to do it on whatever you want to.
The goal is to work your way up gradually, that way you don’t slam more than you need to.
Also, if you have a certain trick in mind for a spot, sometimes it helps to spend some time practicing it at a park before you take it to street.
So if you want to try a certain trick down a handrail, it can be good to practice getting it consistent on a smaller rail at a skatepark first. That way when you finally go to the spot, you can get it a lot faster and don’t have to worry about falling a couple of dozen times before landing it, or even worse, falling a couple dozen times and getting kicked out because you took so long, and not even getting it.
Invest In Some Pads / Braces
As much as skateboarders like to avoid them, wearing a helmet, pads, and braces is definitely one of the best ways to keep yourself from getting hurt while skating.
This doesn’t mean you have to skate around in a bubble, but throwing on some pads has to be one of the easiest ways to prevent injuries.
It seems like the only place any type of pads are acceptable is in vert skating, but even when it comes to that, people got pretty heated when the olympics announced people skating park had to wear helmets.
There are a ton of reasons why skateboarders don’t like pads. First and foremost, they’re not cool, second, they’re not very comfortable, and third, skateboarders are just lazy and they don’t want to deal with them.
Most skateboarders know that pads are the best way to prevent getting hurt, but at the same time the risk of getting hurt is part of what makes landing a trick so cool.
Now if you don’t want to wear any protective gear that’s totally up to you, but if you choose not to, you shouldn’t do it because you don’t want other people thinking you’re lame.
I’ve heard of people with jammed wrists or tweaked ankles not skating with a brace just because they didn’t think it looked cool, which has to be one of the dumbest reasons.
I’m not going to pretend like I skate with protective gear because I don’t, but if my wrist is hurt and I needed a brace, or if I actually wanted to wear a helmet, I wouldn’t choose not to so I looked cooler. You’re basically risking getting hurt even more and not being able to skate at all just for the sake of someone else’s opinion.
Even if you don’t wear pads and braces every time you skate, you should at least throw some on if you’re still healing up from something. It’s either that or you can be the guy who has a hurt wrist for like 9 months.
Take Time Off Between Injuries
One of the most common reasons why skateboarders get hurt is because they don’t let themselves fully heal from previous injuries.
This tip kind of plays off of the previous one. If you know that you’re hurt, sometimes it’s better to just take it easy, read a book, do some yoga, and just keep things chill until you know for sure that you’re better.
This is definitely a tough one to balance because sometimes you don’t think you’re that hurt and you keep skating and then you find out that you actually were that hurt, and just make things worse.
Sometimes injuries can be minor and something as simple as tossing on an ankle brace solves the problem altogether, but other times skating while you’re hurt can end up making things get worse and take way longer to heal.
Unless you go to a doctor, you basically have to decide for yourself whether it’s a good idea to take a few weeks off, but if you know that you’re hurt, sometimes it is better to just play it safe.
No skateboarder likes to hear this, but a lot of injuries will heal much faster if you stay off of your board altogether. Obviously, this isn’t ideal because skateboarders enjoy skateboarding, which is why they skateboard, but avoiding skating almost always helps you heal up quicker.
Aside from staying off your board, there are some home remedies that a lot of skateboarders use to heal up faster. Things like a warm Epsom salt bath, ice baths, saunas, or even cleaning up your diet can help you heal up a lot sooner.
Know What Tricks You Can’t Do
Knowing what tricks you can’t do, or better yet shouldn’t do, is a great way to stop yourself from falling when skating.
Everyone has a few tricks that just don’t work, and every time they try it they get broke off. There are also tricks that maybe you can do, but it just takes a really long time and you end up slamming a lot in the process.
If you’re still learning a trick that’s fine, but if you’ve been trying a trick for years and it just hasn’t gotten any better, at some point, it’s better to just move on.
Progressing is one of the funnest parts about skateboarding, but over time you’ll realize that some tricks just aren’t worth learning, and sometimes you’re better off learning something else.
Everyone has tricks that come easy and tricks that just don’t work at all, so it’s all about figuring out what’s worth going for.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t do a trick just because you fell a few times, it’s more about picking your battles and realizing which tricks are worth it and which tricks aren’t.
Warm Up Before You Skate
Another great tip to stop getting hurt skating is to always warm up before you skate.
Not only will warming up prevent a lot of injuries, but it’ll also help you skate better in general.
There are a few things that you should always try to do when warming up to skate.
Obviously just moving around a bit helps, especially if it’s early in the day or if you’ve been sitting around. It’s also good to do dynamic stretches, which are just stretches that involve movement.
Aside from helping with flexibility, it’ll also increase the blood flow to your muscles and tendons, so it’ll help you feel warmed up a lot faster.
Another good thing for warming up is massagers. They’ve gotten pretty popular in skateboarding over the past few years. They’re great for warming up your muscles before you skate, and they also help prevent you from getting sore if you use one after you skate. Now you can always get your homie to massage your muscles the old-fashioned way instead, but for most people, it’s just easier to get a massager.
You might not think doing simple things like this to warm up makes big a difference, but I promise you if you take a few minutes before skating to stretch and loosen up you’ll end up skating much better in the long run.
How To Stop Getting Hurt Skateboarding
Getting hurt skating is basically unavoidable. At some point or another, it’s going to happen, but these are just some things you can do to somewhat prevent it.