r/iceskating

Hey I'm late 20s learning to skate for the first time. I know skates are not comfortable. I know I'm a bigger gal and that probably doesnt help. But is it normal to need to stop every 15-20 minutes because I can't handle the pain of the skates?

Hi everyone! My daughter is 11 and new to skating. She absolutely loves it and gives it her everything. She is in LTS basic 2 and having trouble with skating backwards. She just had her eval and they want her to take basic 2 again, which she’s fine with. My questions are this:

1. do people put in-soles in skates? She has a pair of skates but says they’re uncomfortable. I told her I get a pair insoles, but I’m not sure if that’s something that would change the way they fit or not.

2. Recommendations for off-ice skill and strength building? Our rink has extremely limited ice time for public skate.

Appreciate the insight! This seems like a supportive community, I just wanna make my girl as successful as she can be in her goals 😊

Took the day off today so I was able to go to a public session with my daughter and there were only a few other people there. It was empty enough that I felt comfortable for the first time ever asking her to record a couple videos for me so I could see myself skate. Good lord. After 5.5 months of lessons (currently in LTS level 3), I look like I have never stepped foot on ice before. I have 0 confidence, my forward stroking is hilarious, I lift my foot for a millisecond when doing one foot glides (I swear it feels longer…) and I immediately almost fell over doing some simple backward swizzles. When will I ever see improvement in this dang sport?! I do one 30 minute group lesson (with a few minutes of warm up), one 30 minute private lesson (with about 15 minutes of warm up), and I try to attend a public skate for about an hour once a week. I do a bunch of off ice exercises like balancing and foot strengthening. I feel like I’m sinking a lot of time and energy into something and seeing ZERO progress. How on earth can I actually get better?

(I’m mostly just venting here, but if anyone has ever gone through this and has any advice, I’d love to hear it.)

I'm an adult buying my first pair of skates (currently in learn to skate 4) and I'd love to own black skates. My fitter sized me for the women's Jackson Freestyles in the Regular width. Unfortunately the women's version only comes in white, so my fitter is ordering the men's version for me to try on. He warned that they are a bit wider than the women's. He said I should just pick which ever width feels best if my foot feels snug in both. How can you tell whether a skate it too wide when you try it on? I'm worried that the men's will be too wide without me realizing. Thanks!

I am in LTS adult 3 and can do half swizzle pumps around the circle, then glide and then do a two foot turn but after the turn I come to an stop and cannot glide backward. Was hoping to get some tips on how to manage this skill as my evaluation session is coming up in a week. Thank you!

I'm currently in LTS 4 for the third time mainly because of crossovers. In my classes, we usually did all the things on a curve around the big hockey circles in the corners of the rink.

In my last class, my teacher had us to outside and inside edges each on our own little 6' diameter circles she would draw for us. This was really helpful and I was able to do them when I couldn't before.

I have been struggling with crossovers, just unable to like commit to crossing my foot over, or it goes in front instead of over, and then my back foot just slides back instead of staying still. The other day I thought, oh doing edges on small circle was easier so I'll try crossovers on small circle. So I tried it and something clicked and I was suddenly able to do crossovers. But I can only do them in a tight curve and going kind of fast.

When I try to do crossovers in class when we go slow around the big hockey circle, I just have the same problems I always had before. I'm not sure why I can't to it like this. I watch my other classmates and can see them going slowly wit their bodies upright but still able to maintain their outside edge and cross their feet over. If I try as hard as possible to do them like that, I find myself still curving inward ln a tighter curve and unable to stay along the hockey circle line

Why can I only do crossovers if I'm going fast and leaning a lot? What am I doing wrong? Maybe it's cause I can't maintain my outside edge when going slowly and without a lot of lean, but why and how to fix?

hellooo, i cannot for the life of me do crossovers on my good leg for some reason (leaning right). doing them on my bad leg (leaning left) seems to be just fine, but there’s no flow and it’s somehow scarier on my good leg :(. any tips??

Slightly inspired by another post. Does anyone know what the actual etiquette is on circles in group lessons if you're faster than someone else? Should you be going round them /making a wider circle? We have a range of speeds and confidence levels in my class and for some exercises I do need to go faster, eg edges. I find this hard to ask in the class as I don't want to call anyone out for their speed/hesitancy level.

Is it also ok to overtake someone / cut across the circle to get more space?

Thanks

Edit: Thanks all, really helpful responses and sounds like the common practice is to go wide - but also to quietly check with my instructor if I'm still unsure. Appreciate the advice :)

What do you think the cutoff is? Is it years of experience, LTS level, getting tested, doing competitions, acquiring some combination of skills? I'm curious if there is any kind of consensus.

Where are you at in your own journey, do you think of yourself as a beginner, and when would you think of someone else as no longer a beginner?

I'm about 4 years in as an adult learner, LTS FS5 (though they passed me / moved me along without having all my spins), Dance 6+ (learning bronze level dance patterns but not to bronze level quality standards). Haven't tested yet.

Still a beginner in my own mind but definitely not in the minds of recreational skaters (I'm a big fish in the small pond of public sessions LOL)

I feel like testing is an objective measure of when someone is no longer a beginner. But then there are people who have tested and forgotten or lost their skills, and people who have never tested but have those same skills. 🤷‍♂️

Hi guys I have a question.

I’m pretty new to ice skating (about 2 months) and have never used the aux to play music at the rink. Today was my first time doing so since no one else was playing their music. I think maybe 3 of my songs played and then one of the more experienced skaters disconnected my phone and connected hers, played her program music once and practiced to it, then continued to play regular practice music on her phone.

Can someone explain what the rules are? I know people who are practicing their program have first dibs but she only played it once then continued on with her own music. Idk how it works but just so I’m aware for next time or if I wanna take turns with others. Thanks everyone

Edit: this was during a freestyle session

Hi, I started ice skating in March and started going regularly in April. I’ve been inactive most of my life, and started skating 5-7 hours a week rather suddenly. I also started going to workout classes 1-2 times a week. Last week of April, I hurt my adductor while stretching. It’s healed by now, but after that happened my knees started hurting badly. After skating on Friday, I literally was limping later that evening. My knees are in so much pain.

Google says it’s from overuse or something, lack of muscle etc. Has this happened to anyone else? How can I fix this? I haven’t gone skating since Friday because now I’m scared. I’m not limping anymore, but my knees still hurt regularly, especially when I go from sitting to standing or bending them like any type of squat. I’ve been icing them on and off and bought these sleeve braces off of amazon to see if they’d help. Please give any advice you have.

Hey everyone! I’ve been in LTS since March and I’m in adult 5-6. I’ve enjoyed it so far mostly for the social aspect and getting to know different coaches / tips.

This one coach who I worked with before I’ve been working with more and she’s made things really click for me so I decided to do biweekly privates with her. I’d say my complaints around LTS is they don’t take testing seriously IMO and we don’t exactly drill skills, it’s different each time and coaches rotate monthly. I have really liked the group / social dynamic and getting to know other people at the rink and coaches too. Sometimes I get anxiety bc there’s a lot of people and not a ton of 1:1 attention (it really depends on the day). So I looked at the finances and it seems to be the same in cost if I get my rinks membership pass + weekly private coaching vs my LTS package (6 class/publics) + biweekly privates.

I’ve been going back-and-forth on it, but just wondering if there’s any advice or common experiences for when you switched over? Thank you!

Exactly the title. I use my lunch break to practice basic skills at quieter times (I don’t jump yet, I can do a two foot spin, I practice one foot glides, boring stuff!) and every single week day there are the extremely high level girls there running entire programs at 700mph. This isn’t freestyle or club ice just to be clear. It’s my local rink’s Noon Skate or Public Skate. I tried talking to the rink manager about it because I almost broke an ankle dodging one girl at high speed. The rink manager basically told me go F myself and the high level girls can do whatever they want.

What do you make of this? I don’t want to be known as Ice Karen but I’m not a good enough skater yet for freestyle ice, that’s why I practice gliding and LTS skills on public sessions during work/school hours (I WFH).

Sorry if this whole post made me the Ice Karen I definitely don’t want to be.

hi! to cut a long story short, i have started skating as an adult (i’m 23) and only ever recreationally skated as a child/teenager. i’m doing LTS at my rink (it’s been one month so far) and i’m currently in jackson mystiques as that is what was recommended to me at my local skate store.

however i have been experiencing some issues and pain with these, my coach has also said that i might want to consider upgrading my skates by next term when we are moving to level 4-6.

i’m just wondering if anyone else is in a similar situation as me and would have recommendations or suggestions of what to look into for boots and blades? obviously i will go to my skate store and see a fitter etc but just wanted suggestions. someone did recommend edea overture! thanks :)

Hello!

Firstly, thank you to everyone in this community, as a lot of your advice/posts helped me improve.

Onto my dilemma…

I passed adult LTS 6 and now I’m not sure what to do. My rink has adult FS, but the skate shop I went to when I initially started put me in Jackson Mystiques. I later learned that that might not have been the best option considering I’m 5’8” and 180lbs. I also learned they are not good blades for turns and spins, which explains my struggles. Obviously there will be a lot more of that in FS.

The issue is that I was laid off last year (🥲) and can’t really afford to upgrade right now, so does it make sense to sign up for FS, or should I wait until I can find a job and just keep practicing what I know?

Thanks in advance!