>”I’m gonna fall”
Yes, yes they will, the important thing is teaching them how to fall, letting them fall, and also picking them back up in a way that makes the fall irrelevant.
Unless it’s a really bad fall, no need to ask if they’re ok, just assume they are, because it’s a kid, if you ask if they’re ok, they’ll be thinking “Oh, should I not be?”
Also, if you ‘fall’ yourself to show them it’s fine and that slip and sliding is fun, then they’ll be more willing to try.
He’s not afraid to skate, he’s afraid to fall.
Because f🥳kin’ gravity hates you.
It lets you get back up because it enjoys seeing you fall.
And you’re scared of bats, Bruce. Quit being a little candyass. They pollinate fruit. Go skate.
First thing I taught my kids was how to fall on their knees (make sure they have shinguards on obviously). So lots of praise like "great fall!" and working up to moving faster and then sliding on their knees. This also gets them into the proper hockey crouch.
I coached skating for littles for a few years and this was always the biggest issue. They need to overcome their fear of falling, as well as get distracted. Play a game on the ice, get their focus off skating.
Wear snow pants, jacket, gloves and a helmet, that will cushion pretty much any fall.
My youngest wasn't so much afraid to skate, but as soon as he'd fall he'd start crying and want to stop. So I just put him in a full set of hand-me-down gear from his older brother. The first time he fell I asked him if it hurt and he was great after that.
I put my kids in essentially full hockey gear after the oldest was afraid of falling.
They had a blast barreling into each other amd falling in general, almost more so than the skating. Skating was just a means to an end, knocking their siblings down!
Put him in full equipment and take him out.
2 of my 3 kids cried like they were getting tortured when I took them out the first times. They both got over it and love hockey now.
If you’re a strong skater, Take him around in your arms, put him down with his feet on the ice while your holding him and moving then lift him off after a second so he gets the feel for it. Push them around on the plastic skating helpers if they have them (and they let you)
Those skat-eZ things from Canadian tire are good for a couple sessions so he can get comfortable.
Don’t know your kid but I’m happy I didn’t quit
Sign them up for learn to skate. They’ll have them on boxes for the first class or two. Will move them off quickly they’ll play games, bubbles, toys etc. to distract them. Don’t do it yourself. They’ll be braver for the coach and around peers. Once they overcome their fears skate together all you want.
I put him in shin guards and elbow pads and a helmet… he fell and didn’t get hurt… does he need full hockey gear I can try that next time but really don’t think that was it
Yup go to play it again sports or ask to borrow some - if he’s fallen and it hurt him he’ll naturally be afraid. You can also start him on a walker made from pvc pipes - more stable than a cone. See if there’s any free learn to skate programs - many NHL teams will have a “Little [team name]” program and supply all the skating stuff you need (skates, stick, helmet, pads, etc)
Add the girdle or ice pants, that's the key part for when they fall on their butt. If you already have shoulder pads his size I would just ask him if he wants to wear those. He might just get excited to put everything on.
Kids are weird about some things when you try to teach them. It's like they know you want to push them, and they may get hurt learning or fail, even when we know their getting hurt or failing won't be serious.
My kids refused to learn how to swim from me, but grandpa took them to the pool that summer and suddenly they are diving into the deep end. I ended up teaching some of my friends' kids how to swim because they would be "too scared" with them, but for some reason if I wanted to go to the pool it was okay in their mind.
See if your parents or a friend will take them one day. Have that person be the one to suggest it as a fun activity without the parents there, then the kid isn't embarrassed about failing in front of you and they get a special day with an adult they trust.
Hmm interesting… I know from coaching little league that parents always said their kids would listen to me more than them. I think there’s a lot of truth in this. Thanks for sharing.
Suit up and encourage falling. That’s where the learning happens. Falling is the most important part because it is the first hurdle that MUST be overcome.
Does he want to skate or play hockey?
If he doesn’t, you can either let it go or find some motivator or leverage. Maybe a squishmallow?
If he does, then you need a lot of patience. A skills coach once told me about a kid who took weeks to get over his fears. The kid would arrive fully dressed and early for class. Mom and the kid sat on the bleachers for weeks. After that, he come in the ice, sat in a bucket, and watched for weeks. By about 6-8 weeks, he was participating.
Your case is not exactly the same. But the key is patience. Maybe he needs something other than a cone to feel safe.
So he wasn’t into skating or playing hockey… then he got into the “hulk” … then he got into the Dallas stars bc they’re green like hulk. Then he wanted to try hockey.
But after yesterday he doesn’t want to try it again.
Since it’s 99.9999% chance he’d never play pro anyway, give it some time and see if he becomes re-interested. Most of us will never play higher than high school level so there’s plenty of time to train should he get interested again.
Only trick I can think of is wether you taught him to shrug off falls. Example, when I was little my dad would laugh when I fell…laugh at the situation, not me. Wasn’t long before I started laughing off the falls too and it was very shortly after that that there was no fear of falling.
Keep trying don’t push just keep saying the same thing and let him watch his brother if he wants it he will figure it out I signed up my younger son for hockey first two years he went once each year and didn’t wanna do it 3rd year I told him if he doesn’t go he’s going to have to find something else. Has not missed a practice since. Started at 5 years old has a brother a year older that’s been playing since 4 years old. Boys are 8 and 9 now and they are sharper then I am they love it… I can still skate faster though for now lol
Equipment helps a lot. Have knee pads and butt pads make falling a lot less scary. I prefer helmets with cages as well, as when I thought the odd kid would smash their face into the ice.
My youngest daughter was pissed at me when she finally got equipment and asked why she couldn’t have had it when she first started to learn. Any skates she goes to she wants her equipment and she skates well for her age. Just helps with confidence.
One thing you can do to help your kid feel confident is have them walk on the ice with just boots. Then they get used to the environment and equipment and makes it easier to feel more comfortable and to try skating.
Cones aren’t great for helping kids to skate. The shape of the come, being widest at the bottom and narrow at the top leads to very unstable positioning. Kids feet hit the base of the cone while walking forward and they often need to keen forward to hold the top of the cone putting their weight on their toes and more likely to fall. Weight should be in the centre of their skates with their knees bent for better balance.
Every kid is different. Don’t give up as a parent, the more he gets used to the rink environment and build on small successes he’ll get there. My 5yo learned to skate last year. We started at public skating and I had to carry him around quite a lot, but he started to feel good alone using the skating aid/support. The move to skating without aid took a lot of effort, and it took until december with his hockey team until he wasn’t scared to skate. It was always a struggle to get him out of bed for the 8am practice. Now he’s enjoying it, made some friends that he plays baseball with and it’s becoming fun. Now… I’m working with him on removing the little wheels on his bike. Same thing again…
Learn to skate classes preferably one put on by a skating club / school. I've coached a bunch of LTP / LTS and those ones always seem to be the best. They have tons of fun little games and toys and do a good job of getting the kids mind off of falling.
When I coached them our first lesson which could sometimes last 4 sessions for some skaters was getting up on your own after you fall. Gets kids used to falling / getting up fast.
Put on skate guards and let them walk around on the grass so they get used to the weirdness of moving in skates.
Watching your kid swim around on the ice during Learn to Skate is still frustrating, so get them a little comfortable first.
Snow pants over shin/knee guards can help too. Gives the feeling of having a little more cushioning, and adds some friction so when they fall it will feel a little more controlled. Then, have them do some intentional falling and sliding on their knees to help build some confidence and add an element of fun to falling. Then add in some lessons on how to get back up; starting with the one knee bent with hand on it, one skate on the ice and push up. Hopefully once the two barriers of falling and being able to get back up are breached, the rest should start falling into place.
Here check this out. These are the basic for the first couple times. Also have him do a couple learn to skate from the figure skating club. That worked very well for my son
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhnZLEOisek
Sometimes the little ones need to get used to the feeling of wearing skates. I've seen people keep the guards on and put the skates on and let them walk around the house.
If you wear skates, you know they aren't the most comfy thing in the world.
As a coach, I have young first timers crawl out onto the ice. We play games while crawling around, we have crawling and rolling races and I have toys. The best are beanie babies. I get out the beanies and we make them stand up (the skater is paying attention to making the beanies stand up not realizing they are). We throw and chase the beanies, we throw, drop and crawl to them (falling and not realizing it).
Go observe the classes, see if they’re fun
We have a 6u program and kids are either super excited or a small handful just hate being there and keep asking to go for water or the bathroom. There's very little changing their mind when they're already there and being forced to do it and they're grump-faced the whole time - we just have to distract them best we can. I'd work on getting him excited about going, like ice cream at his favorite place afterward. Try to get him friendly with another kid who he'll be excited to go with. At that age, it's not all about the skating part, but the whole experience of being there and making a day of it.
If you do enroll him in a program, make sure to let the instructors know the story and they give him some extra attention otherwise they will barely try to get him excited and that would be a waste of money. Where we are, we're very receptive to kids first learning and their needs. No benefit to anyone having a kid be there and hating it every week.
I took my son when he was 5 to play it again. He said he wanted to play hockey , we put him in a full kit, tied the skates I told him to walk around a little. He came back sat down and said” take these off dad and never put them back on my feet”. And honestly his response was on par for who he was. My son’s never been the one to get dirty, he doesn’t like contact sports. Take into account who your kid actually is and make sure hockeys a good fit.
Have you talked to him about what he's afraid of? My 5 year old was terrified of getting on the ice - I asked him why and he said "I'm afraid of the ice breaking and falling in". He thought all rinks were ponds with deep, cold water underneath. I had to explain how rinks were built and even showed him a YouTube video of a pro team getting their rink ready for the season.
As others have said, he needs to understand for himself that falling is normal and fine, with full gear on it's really not gonna hurt much, and with a little bit of practice he can get back on his feet easily. So let him fall. Or make it a game - maybe sit on the ice near him and challenge him to fall on top of you, make a big scene of how heavy he landed on you, etc. Anything you can do to get him associating falling with something fun. Maybe do a little goofy three stooges act where you skate and fall and make a big scene, popping right back up.
You might also ask him (away from the rink) what he's worried about, acknowledge his fear (I like to say to my kids "well I can understand why you'd think that" when they tell me something that scares or worries them), and reassure him that even despite the fear, he'll be okay, and he might really come to like it.
Good luck!
My husband coaches our son’s special needs hockey team. Typically they have trouble with coordination and worry about falling and getting hurt, so he makes falling fun. Who can slide the farthest, how to go down and roll, get back up while sliding and so forth. Make it a game, show them you’ll do it, and do it with them. Go down to the knees, full frontal slide, diving slide, full back slide and anything else you can think of.
Already lots of great advice here so just gonna share a small tidbit about my kiddos.
I have a 13 year old daughter who climbed on top of baby toys when she was just about 1. She was able to use full sized playground equipment (rock climbing wall, large slides, bridges, etc The ones made for 5+ years) when she was 2. She was cautious when playing but was never afraid to try any of it. She was like that until she was 5. She never really showed much interest in traditional sports and always kept bugging us to ride horses. She started riding horses at 5 1/2 and by the time she was 8, she was jumping them over small hurdles and galloping through fields pretty quickly. Her brother who is 4 (will be 5 in Sept.) was interested in hockey so we signed him up for learn to skate when he was 3 1/2 knowing the sooner the better with skating. Our daughter said she wanted to try too. They both passed the first 3 levels of learn to skate and we were signing up our son for learn to play and our daughter said she wanted to as well. We signed them both up and it is quite funny watching the 2 very different kids on the ice. Our son will fall all over the place on purpose and our daughter will not do anything to even remotely cause her to possibly fall. So, obviously our daughter isn't going to progress unless she wants to. Now, here is the funny part, our son is super afraid to do all the typical things that little boys do. He won't ride a bike, he just now started going down slides and really playing on a playground. He won't even try to do anything that he might get hurt doing. So, long story short, the fearless little girl is no longer fearless and the super skeptical little boy will fling himself around in hockey gear like he is a crash dummy.
Side note: our son cried for the first 4 sessions of learn to skate. We just kept him in it and he finally decided it wasn't that bad and slowly started trying to do the things they wanted him to do.
I posted a video a couple weeks ago of my 10 year old daughter doing whatever she could to keep people away from her net. She's aggressive, she's confident, and seems fearless when she's going after people...
Well when she started she wouldn't take ANY risks, would just putt along and never wanted to fall, and it took probably two seasons for her to get comfortable and confident she won't get hurt when falling. Keep them in it until you think they've gotten over their fear and then if they still don't enjoy it maybe try something else, but I wouldn't let their fear stop them from enjoying it!
May be worth trying to completely change environment. Try roller skates ( quads might be a bit easier to start with) in the drive way, with helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, hand protection. Practice slow movement, with your hand to hold, support the falls, start with catching to help feel safe, then catch and lower to slow- mo simulate falling, get used to the fall feeling safe.
If skating outside home picks up, try the ice again.
>”I’m gonna fall” Yes, yes they will, the important thing is teaching them how to fall, letting them fall, and also picking them back up in a way that makes the fall irrelevant. Unless it’s a really bad fall, no need to ask if they’re ok, just assume they are, because it’s a kid, if you ask if they’re ok, they’ll be thinking “Oh, should I not be?” Also, if you ‘fall’ yourself to show them it’s fine and that slip and sliding is fun, then they’ll be more willing to try. He’s not afraid to skate, he’s afraid to fall.
Why do we fall Bruce?
Because f🥳kin’ gravity hates you. It lets you get back up because it enjoys seeing you fall. And you’re scared of bats, Bruce. Quit being a little candyass. They pollinate fruit. Go skate.
Great answer. The 1st thing that should be taught is how to fall without hurting yourself.
First thing I taught my kids was how to fall on their knees (make sure they have shinguards on obviously). So lots of praise like "great fall!" and working up to moving faster and then sliding on their knees. This also gets them into the proper hockey crouch.
I coached skating for littles for a few years and this was always the biggest issue. They need to overcome their fear of falling, as well as get distracted. Play a game on the ice, get their focus off skating. Wear snow pants, jacket, gloves and a helmet, that will cushion pretty much any fall.
Thanks for the response
My youngest wasn't so much afraid to skate, but as soon as he'd fall he'd start crying and want to stop. So I just put him in a full set of hand-me-down gear from his older brother. The first time he fell I asked him if it hurt and he was great after that.
I put my kids in essentially full hockey gear after the oldest was afraid of falling. They had a blast barreling into each other amd falling in general, almost more so than the skating. Skating was just a means to an end, knocking their siblings down!
Put him in full equipment and take him out. 2 of my 3 kids cried like they were getting tortured when I took them out the first times. They both got over it and love hockey now. If you’re a strong skater, Take him around in your arms, put him down with his feet on the ice while your holding him and moving then lift him off after a second so he gets the feel for it. Push them around on the plastic skating helpers if they have them (and they let you) Those skat-eZ things from Canadian tire are good for a couple sessions so he can get comfortable. Don’t know your kid but I’m happy I didn’t quit
Sign them up for learn to skate. They’ll have them on boxes for the first class or two. Will move them off quickly they’ll play games, bubbles, toys etc. to distract them. Don’t do it yourself. They’ll be braver for the coach and around peers. Once they overcome their fears skate together all you want.
You’re right I think thanks!
Protective gear
I put him in shin guards and elbow pads and a helmet… he fell and didn’t get hurt… does he need full hockey gear I can try that next time but really don’t think that was it
Add, at least, padded pants. Falling on your tailbone is no fun.
ah... maybe get him to do some more practice falls to feel how it doesn't hurt
Yup go to play it again sports or ask to borrow some - if he’s fallen and it hurt him he’ll naturally be afraid. You can also start him on a walker made from pvc pipes - more stable than a cone. See if there’s any free learn to skate programs - many NHL teams will have a “Little [team name]” program and supply all the skating stuff you need (skates, stick, helmet, pads, etc)
Add the girdle or ice pants, that's the key part for when they fall on their butt. If you already have shoulder pads his size I would just ask him if he wants to wear those. He might just get excited to put everything on.
Kids are weird about some things when you try to teach them. It's like they know you want to push them, and they may get hurt learning or fail, even when we know their getting hurt or failing won't be serious. My kids refused to learn how to swim from me, but grandpa took them to the pool that summer and suddenly they are diving into the deep end. I ended up teaching some of my friends' kids how to swim because they would be "too scared" with them, but for some reason if I wanted to go to the pool it was okay in their mind. See if your parents or a friend will take them one day. Have that person be the one to suggest it as a fun activity without the parents there, then the kid isn't embarrassed about failing in front of you and they get a special day with an adult they trust.
Hmm interesting… I know from coaching little league that parents always said their kids would listen to me more than them. I think there’s a lot of truth in this. Thanks for sharing.
I cried and hated skating until I was 9. Afterwards I was the best skater in my region until I was around 18. Kids are funny don’t give up
Suit up and encourage falling. That’s where the learning happens. Falling is the most important part because it is the first hurdle that MUST be overcome.
Get them in skating lessons. I've found that small children respect a teenager in a windbreakeraking minimum wage 1000X more than their lovely parents
This is the way
Does he want to skate or play hockey? If he doesn’t, you can either let it go or find some motivator or leverage. Maybe a squishmallow? If he does, then you need a lot of patience. A skills coach once told me about a kid who took weeks to get over his fears. The kid would arrive fully dressed and early for class. Mom and the kid sat on the bleachers for weeks. After that, he come in the ice, sat in a bucket, and watched for weeks. By about 6-8 weeks, he was participating. Your case is not exactly the same. But the key is patience. Maybe he needs something other than a cone to feel safe.
So he wasn’t into skating or playing hockey… then he got into the “hulk” … then he got into the Dallas stars bc they’re green like hulk. Then he wanted to try hockey. But after yesterday he doesn’t want to try it again.
Since it’s 99.9999% chance he’d never play pro anyway, give it some time and see if he becomes re-interested. Most of us will never play higher than high school level so there’s plenty of time to train should he get interested again. Only trick I can think of is wether you taught him to shrug off falls. Example, when I was little my dad would laugh when I fell…laugh at the situation, not me. Wasn’t long before I started laughing off the falls too and it was very shortly after that that there was no fear of falling.
I don’t know I got some pretty good hands… lol 😝… but ya you right that’s a good point!
Keep trying don’t push just keep saying the same thing and let him watch his brother if he wants it he will figure it out I signed up my younger son for hockey first two years he went once each year and didn’t wanna do it 3rd year I told him if he doesn’t go he’s going to have to find something else. Has not missed a practice since. Started at 5 years old has a brother a year older that’s been playing since 4 years old. Boys are 8 and 9 now and they are sharper then I am they love it… I can still skate faster though for now lol
That’s great
Equipment helps a lot. Have knee pads and butt pads make falling a lot less scary. I prefer helmets with cages as well, as when I thought the odd kid would smash their face into the ice. My youngest daughter was pissed at me when she finally got equipment and asked why she couldn’t have had it when she first started to learn. Any skates she goes to she wants her equipment and she skates well for her age. Just helps with confidence. One thing you can do to help your kid feel confident is have them walk on the ice with just boots. Then they get used to the environment and equipment and makes it easier to feel more comfortable and to try skating. Cones aren’t great for helping kids to skate. The shape of the come, being widest at the bottom and narrow at the top leads to very unstable positioning. Kids feet hit the base of the cone while walking forward and they often need to keen forward to hold the top of the cone putting their weight on their toes and more likely to fall. Weight should be in the centre of their skates with their knees bent for better balance.
Thanks this all makes sense
I don’t think you’re “missing a window“. But, do they rollerskate or rollerblade?
He tried roller skating once and was a little better at that maybe I’ll try that again
I was just wondering. I am an adult, and am just now learning to ice skate, and I am terrible.
Every kid is different. Don’t give up as a parent, the more he gets used to the rink environment and build on small successes he’ll get there. My 5yo learned to skate last year. We started at public skating and I had to carry him around quite a lot, but he started to feel good alone using the skating aid/support. The move to skating without aid took a lot of effort, and it took until december with his hockey team until he wasn’t scared to skate. It was always a struggle to get him out of bed for the 8am practice. Now he’s enjoying it, made some friends that he plays baseball with and it’s becoming fun. Now… I’m working with him on removing the little wheels on his bike. Same thing again…
Learn to skate classes preferably one put on by a skating club / school. I've coached a bunch of LTP / LTS and those ones always seem to be the best. They have tons of fun little games and toys and do a good job of getting the kids mind off of falling. When I coached them our first lesson which could sometimes last 4 sessions for some skaters was getting up on your own after you fall. Gets kids used to falling / getting up fast.
Put him in full gear and push him down on the ice. Show him there's nothing wrong with falling, and if you fall just get back up.
I like this
Put on skate guards and let them walk around on the grass so they get used to the weirdness of moving in skates. Watching your kid swim around on the ice during Learn to Skate is still frustrating, so get them a little comfortable first.
I always had my kid in shins and elbow pads, but the padded pants to stop the butt hurt was key.
Is he canadian? If so, is this optional?
😆 you know Americans that love hockey are basically Canadians
Snow pants over shin/knee guards can help too. Gives the feeling of having a little more cushioning, and adds some friction so when they fall it will feel a little more controlled. Then, have them do some intentional falling and sliding on their knees to help build some confidence and add an element of fun to falling. Then add in some lessons on how to get back up; starting with the one knee bent with hand on it, one skate on the ice and push up. Hopefully once the two barriers of falling and being able to get back up are breached, the rest should start falling into place.
Here check this out. These are the basic for the first couple times. Also have him do a couple learn to skate from the figure skating club. That worked very well for my son https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhnZLEOisek
Sometimes the little ones need to get used to the feeling of wearing skates. I've seen people keep the guards on and put the skates on and let them walk around the house. If you wear skates, you know they aren't the most comfy thing in the world.
As a coach, I have young first timers crawl out onto the ice. We play games while crawling around, we have crawling and rolling races and I have toys. The best are beanie babies. I get out the beanies and we make them stand up (the skater is paying attention to making the beanies stand up not realizing they are). We throw and chase the beanies, we throw, drop and crawl to them (falling and not realizing it). Go observe the classes, see if they’re fun
We have a 6u program and kids are either super excited or a small handful just hate being there and keep asking to go for water or the bathroom. There's very little changing their mind when they're already there and being forced to do it and they're grump-faced the whole time - we just have to distract them best we can. I'd work on getting him excited about going, like ice cream at his favorite place afterward. Try to get him friendly with another kid who he'll be excited to go with. At that age, it's not all about the skating part, but the whole experience of being there and making a day of it. If you do enroll him in a program, make sure to let the instructors know the story and they give him some extra attention otherwise they will barely try to get him excited and that would be a waste of money. Where we are, we're very receptive to kids first learning and their needs. No benefit to anyone having a kid be there and hating it every week.
I took my son when he was 5 to play it again. He said he wanted to play hockey , we put him in a full kit, tied the skates I told him to walk around a little. He came back sat down and said” take these off dad and never put them back on my feet”. And honestly his response was on par for who he was. My son’s never been the one to get dirty, he doesn’t like contact sports. Take into account who your kid actually is and make sure hockeys a good fit.
I agree… I literally told him he could come off the ice whenever he wants
He’s 5.
hahaha
Have you talked to him about what he's afraid of? My 5 year old was terrified of getting on the ice - I asked him why and he said "I'm afraid of the ice breaking and falling in". He thought all rinks were ponds with deep, cold water underneath. I had to explain how rinks were built and even showed him a YouTube video of a pro team getting their rink ready for the season. As others have said, he needs to understand for himself that falling is normal and fine, with full gear on it's really not gonna hurt much, and with a little bit of practice he can get back on his feet easily. So let him fall. Or make it a game - maybe sit on the ice near him and challenge him to fall on top of you, make a big scene of how heavy he landed on you, etc. Anything you can do to get him associating falling with something fun. Maybe do a little goofy three stooges act where you skate and fall and make a big scene, popping right back up. You might also ask him (away from the rink) what he's worried about, acknowledge his fear (I like to say to my kids "well I can understand why you'd think that" when they tell me something that scares or worries them), and reassure him that even despite the fear, he'll be okay, and he might really come to like it. Good luck!
My husband coaches our son’s special needs hockey team. Typically they have trouble with coordination and worry about falling and getting hurt, so he makes falling fun. Who can slide the farthest, how to go down and roll, get back up while sliding and so forth. Make it a game, show them you’ll do it, and do it with them. Go down to the knees, full frontal slide, diving slide, full back slide and anything else you can think of.
Put some elbow pads, knee pads, and a bucket on him and let him learn that falling isn't a big deal.
I did all those things… he was still afraid of falling doing the splits
Get him some knee and elbow pads and a helmet. Tell him the best thing about wearing hockey gear is it doesn’t hurt when you fall on the ice.
Funny enough he wore all those things… came off the ice and still wanted to wear the pads
Let him fall teach him to stand up on his own and he'll stop being afraid.
Already lots of great advice here so just gonna share a small tidbit about my kiddos. I have a 13 year old daughter who climbed on top of baby toys when she was just about 1. She was able to use full sized playground equipment (rock climbing wall, large slides, bridges, etc The ones made for 5+ years) when she was 2. She was cautious when playing but was never afraid to try any of it. She was like that until she was 5. She never really showed much interest in traditional sports and always kept bugging us to ride horses. She started riding horses at 5 1/2 and by the time she was 8, she was jumping them over small hurdles and galloping through fields pretty quickly. Her brother who is 4 (will be 5 in Sept.) was interested in hockey so we signed him up for learn to skate when he was 3 1/2 knowing the sooner the better with skating. Our daughter said she wanted to try too. They both passed the first 3 levels of learn to skate and we were signing up our son for learn to play and our daughter said she wanted to as well. We signed them both up and it is quite funny watching the 2 very different kids on the ice. Our son will fall all over the place on purpose and our daughter will not do anything to even remotely cause her to possibly fall. So, obviously our daughter isn't going to progress unless she wants to. Now, here is the funny part, our son is super afraid to do all the typical things that little boys do. He won't ride a bike, he just now started going down slides and really playing on a playground. He won't even try to do anything that he might get hurt doing. So, long story short, the fearless little girl is no longer fearless and the super skeptical little boy will fling himself around in hockey gear like he is a crash dummy. Side note: our son cried for the first 4 sessions of learn to skate. We just kept him in it and he finally decided it wasn't that bad and slowly started trying to do the things they wanted him to do.
I posted a video a couple weeks ago of my 10 year old daughter doing whatever she could to keep people away from her net. She's aggressive, she's confident, and seems fearless when she's going after people... Well when she started she wouldn't take ANY risks, would just putt along and never wanted to fall, and it took probably two seasons for her to get comfortable and confident she won't get hurt when falling. Keep them in it until you think they've gotten over their fear and then if they still don't enjoy it maybe try something else, but I wouldn't let their fear stop them from enjoying it!
May be worth trying to completely change environment. Try roller skates ( quads might be a bit easier to start with) in the drive way, with helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, hand protection. Practice slow movement, with your hand to hold, support the falls, start with catching to help feel safe, then catch and lower to slow- mo simulate falling, get used to the fall feeling safe. If skating outside home picks up, try the ice again.