r/AdultFigureSkating

Ok so basically, I'm in a pretty good position, when it comes to rinks around me. I'm moving in a few weeks, but I'll still only be 15 mins away by train, from the city with a rink. And there's more rinks under an hour.

The issue is finding a club, I spent the last season learning by myself, but I really want to improve. Almost 4 years ago, I first started, skated in a club for 2 seasons, but had to leave because of life circumstances.

Now I live in another place and it's incredibly difficult to find a club. I'm from Germany, 23, a student btw, if that matters.

I wrote a desperate email to the local club, how far I'm on their waitlist blabla kinda pointing out I really want to join haha.

But I can't count on it at all, it's a club focused very on high level skating, maybe training future olympians, but it's the closest lol and they do have adult lessons.

Anyways, I have to expand my search, I'm looking for other clubs now, but the one's I'm looking at are at least 1 hr 30 mins by train and then u have to add the route from rink to train station blabla. Really tedious to get there.

I don't expect someone explicitly telling me to do this or that, but I just maybe want to hear thoughts, maybe would like to hear about ur training situations/anything similar maybe?

How far would u personally travel to practice?

Some options are even 2 hrs away. I'll try to find a private coach who does lessons during public skates, if I can't find anything.

It is extremely frustrating since I started ~4 years ago and I still can't do more than Waltz jump/Salchow/not even proper one foot spin. I practice by myself, I know practice also takes time, but I'm ambitious to learn and want to develop, but I'm feeling very held back right now, which also makes me lose my motivation.

I want to buy my first pair of skates because I've just been using rentals (I think the rentals at my rink are a little higher quality than the ones everyone talks about, but ik actual skates will be infinitely better), but skates are EXPENSIVE and I nor my parents have that kind of money right now, especially because i dont't even know if i'm gonna stick with this.

But like can I buy used skates off of Facebook marketplace or something? And what size will I need if I wear a size 6-7 in regular shoes??

Thanks!

I 22F never taken proper skating lessons. However, I really want to get into it for along time. Now that I finally finished university in a very demanding program. I finally have more free time.

I Will say (as a canadian) although I never took skating lessons , I was dumped on the ice and figured it out. I can skate well maintain my balance, manage my speed ect. I can break okay, not as confident as I would like. I'm just wondering following the learn to skate lessons available in my area. It Says that the intermediate is where you learn how to break, and the beginner is just learning how to balance.

I'm not sure if I should go with the beginner classes?

It's a group adult beginner's course, and I'm wondering if everyone learns the same thing or if they separate based on level or if an instructor would see that I'm capable of balancing with decent form and teach me beyond the basic curriculum, the website states?

My goal is to learn to figure skating (long Journey, I know, but I would like to try)

edit: There are a limited number of spots in each course, and the beginner level is currently being offered at my closest rink, whereas the intermediate is a bit farther so it would not be easy for me to transfer to a level up or a level down. I'm kind of locked in in whatever I choose.

edit 2: I Did try to contact but they weren't too helpful with the information they said that I could switch to a higher level.If it was easy , but my local community center doesn't offer the higher level. but if its all filled I might have a problem. I also asked if they split up the beginners in groups or if everybody kind of just does the same thing?And the person said , everyone just does the same thing. But I wasn't talking to a coach, I was talking to someone in reception.

On August 2nd, I was at a public session at a rink that generally has really good ice and I drive about an hour out of my way to go to it. This day, however, was not the case. I was just finishing drilling edges and about to go get water when my toe pick got stuck in a huge ridge in the ice and my leg twisted as I fell sideways down along with a loud snap. They called 911 and I was off to the emergency room where I learned I had a tibia/fibula spiral fracture and would need surgery.

2 days later, I have a rod placed in my leg with screws (no plates or anything), and I am… devastated.

The positive out of this is because I can be full weight bearing as comfortable, with PT, I’ll be back on the ice sooner than if I had not had surgery or was healing with only a cast.

I just know that it’s going to be difficult getting back on the ice with this. I had already worked through my hang ups psychologically about falling and dealing with falling and then this happens for literally no reason. I wasn’t even spinning or jumping or anything cool - it’s literally the ice and my toe pick.

Anyways… I’m feeling a bit down about everything. I miss skating so much. It was the one thing I had just for me and now I’m stuck in bed for an indefinite amount of time.

I could use some comeback stories from people who have had sustained similar injuries and how it was for them getting back on the ice after as well as how long it took them to get back to where they were before the injury. It would be nice to have some hope or at least kindred souls who get it. I don’t have any skating or athletic friends who have ever dealt with something like this and can’t really understand the distress.

Thank you in advance ❤️❤️

Hi! I’m 23F and I’ve been skating for about 6 months. I’m testing Adult Pre-Bronze in 2 weeks, and my coach is pretty confident I’ll pass!
I’m looking for advice on how to improve the quality of my skating.

I skate 3-4x a week for about 3-4 hours total. I feel like I’ve been a little stagnant lately, so I’m trying to figure out what I can work on outside of just skating more.

Some specific things I struggle with:
- I can’t consistently cross my leg in a scratch spin.
- I don’t understand the rocker for a backspin.
- My edges aren’t as strong or consistent as I want them to be.
- I’m not sure how much knee bend I should actually be using.
- I struggle with keeping my core and arms controlled. I’m constantly opening my arms when I’m supposed to be checked

I’m also starting ballet next week because I’m hoping it will help with things like posture and body control.

For those of you who have improved a lot in these areas, what helped you the most?

What’s the biggest tip, drill, or change in your training that helped you become a noticeably better skater?

Are there any off-ice drills, exercises, or things I can practice at home? I’m genuinely willing to practice every day if it will help.

I completely understand that skating takes time and that I’m still very new. I’m not expecting to become an amazing skater overnight. I’m just really eager to improve and would love to know what I can focus on rather than just waiting for things to click.

I’ve been skating since March and am feeling very confident in my skating, but I’m a former ballet dancer used to spotting, so I get REALLY dizzy with spinning, and sometimes get bloody noses from the centrifugal force.

I know it’s time to incorporate spinning in my off ice training to get used it faster, especially because I only skate 4-6 hrs a week.

I live in a big city so there’s not a lot of space in my apartment, but we do have a very nice gym in my building with plenty of space and it has a vinyl/wood floor, so I’m looking for a spinner that wouldn’t damage the flooring.

Can you please recommend your favorite spinner that feels the most realistic for the price, any advice on how to protect the flooring, and I am practicing both 1 and 2 foot spins do I need to buy 2?

Not sure how to fix this issue. No matter how tight I tie my boots and laces. My heels are still lifting. I was professionally fitted to be a size 6.5 with Jacksons. During forward strokes, my heels start lifting after 30 min of skating. Is this typical?

Hi! I currently skate with the Jackson excels, I am five foot one but I am a bit on the heavier side around 150 pounds. My current skates are so broken down so I recently went to my local fitter to get new ones. After trying on a ton of skates me and the fitter settled on the edea chorus since they fit my heels and foot width the best with the MK professional blade and he ordered the boot for me. I told another skater at my rink that he ordered me the chorus boot and they said I was no where near the level of the chorus boot and they were shocked I would get them. I have my two and one foot spin and working on my scratch spin and I can do a waltz toe loop and salchow. I was so excited but now I am regretting getting these skates and I am so worried about how I will feel with them and scared to be judged for getting them. Does anyone have any advice? :,)

In need of some advice from folks that started skating as older adults. I’m 40, 5’8”, fat, strong, and have been skating for about 4 months with no previous experience. I’m in LTS and occasionally do private lessons for a total of 2-3 hours of skating per week. In those 4 months I have fallen exactly one time. The one time I fell I managed to fracture a bone in my hand that kept me off the ice for a couple of weeks but was otherwise not a big deal.

The problem is that I think the lack of falling is becoming a mental issue that is making my skating worse. When I first started skating, I would have some anxiety about falling once or twice in a session but I just kept skating and the thought passed. Now those thoughts like to come up much more frequently. So now I’m skating more afraid, and it’s making it even more difficult to build skills.

Things I have tried to work through this:
-Protective gear: I’ve slowly added a helmet, knee pads, crash shorts. No change, even though a fall would be painless at this point.
-Therapy: I’ve talked through it with my therapist but anxiety isn’t typically an issue I have so we are still trying to figure out why it’s such a problem here.
-“Just fall”: The standard advice. Believe me I’ve tried but I don’t know how to turn off my self preservation instincts 😂
-Time machine: pretty sure if I had started skating 10+ years ago I would be unbothered, but sadly the technology for time travel doesn’t exist yet.

At this point my skating is getting noticeably worse and I’m starting to lose the joy I found in it. I don’t want to quit but this situation, paired with ongoing boot issues, is making it harder every day. I would love to hear what helped others get over this hump. Otherwise, I need someone to come to my rink and just push me over a few times as exposure therapy.

I am blessed to live in a hockey town with so many ice rinks, but it's extremely time consuming to track all of their open skate schedules. Does anyone have any tips or tricks on how you organize tracking the public skates in your area?

For example, I go to each rink's schedule on their website once a month and i enter them into my google calendar.

I'm in minneapolis if you're local and want to collab on this project! honestly I want to share this calendar with others if i'm going to put more effort into it being accurate.

thank you!

Recently I went to the skate shop in my rink which has always had a pretty bad reputation with the skaters that consistently skate there. I needed a skate sharpening so I decided to take the risk to get them done there. Now I have half a rocker on each of my blades and I can’t spin properly anymore. Has this happened to anyone else because I don’t know what to do. I’m considering buying new blades off vinted since I don’t have money for brand new ones.

Hey everyone! I’m a newer adult skater that started in March (but skated for a few years when I was very young) and my goal is to re-teach myself through Adult Basic 6. I’m currently working on LTS Adult Basic 5!

I did ballet for a decade so I notice that I tend to linger on a specific skill longer than a lot of people that I skate with in open freestyle/public skate. Ballet taught me that perfecting the fundamentals is more rewarding in the long run because you have a better foundation and are building strength for more difficult and demanding movements you’ll learn later on. I’ve carried a lot of that practice into my skating. For example: I spent 2.5 months really working on my forward crossovers and depending my knee bend/confidence in my edges. I’m such a perfectionist, I put all my pads on and I fall over and over to try to push myself until I find I’m happy with my control and how a movement looks/feels. I break it down very slow and gain comfortability going fast, and won’t move onto another new skill until I feel like I have great control and a solid base to continue on.

Now to my question: Do other skaters do this? Do you prefer to follow a ballet mindset of practicing what you know and refining 1-2 new skills at a time and strengthening, or do you try to refine a bunch of different skills over a set period of time (I.e. comp program skills)? Of course, as skaters, we’re always refining, but at what point do you allow yourself the win to move onto the next new skill?

Edit: I appreciate a lot of the comments mentioning productive vs unproductive repetition. I’m definitely only continuing to refine skills in a single session if it feels productive and I am able to try/make meaningful adjustments. I’ll also do different drills if I realize my posture or edges are off to switch it up (i.e. forward undercut spirals really helped me get better control/deeper edges on forward crossovers. I see a lot of videos of adult skaters that have been skating for a few years and it seems like still struggle with clean execution but they know a high level of skills, and I guess I’d rather have clean execution and progress slowly. Also because my current boots aren’t rated for jumping and I’d like to get another few months out of them.

Edit 2: I skate for 2-3 hrs in a session and I definitely don’t spend more than 30 minutes on a single skill unless it’s spinning (because I just started spinning). I have a lot of endurance and strength from dance, climbing, and beach volleyball so it takes a lot to tire me out.

But from the comments, it sounds like the overwhelming advice is that figure skaters don’t spend as much time in a session on single skills as beginners unless it’s spin-related. That’s super helpful to know and I’ll try to find a better middle ground!

I recently got the Jackson Evo with mark IV blades as a beginner, and I am worried seeing people online say this is a very soft boot and is for children.

I am 119 lbs and LTS level three but hoping to work towards higher levels, is this the wrong boot?