How did you learn to skate?

[FSWer]

Say,I saw Ice Princess and it gave me the idea for this thread, So the question I have for you skaters today is.....how did you learn to skate?

[Skittl1321]

Trial and error at public sessions is how I learned to skate :) We would just go to the mall as a family and my Dad would hold my hands and we'd skate forward and backward, and I'd try to do spins and spirals. (This was when I was 6 or so).

Then when I was about 8 I took Basic 1.

Then I would just copy the "center skaters" when I'd go to skate when I was 8-12. Then I stopped skating because the mall was too far away, and I did other things.

When I was 24 (spring 2007) I decided to start again- and took Basic 3,4, then Adult 2, then Delta, then I moved to private lessons. This summer I've started taking freestyle group lessons as well- since there is only one other person in the class.

So most of my basic skills were through group lessons- though I skipped Basic 2 based on my "trial and error" teaching myself.

I wanted to add: reading this forum has helped me know what the right questions to ask my coaches and instructors were. I try not to take internet advice as is though- too many weird things out there (though not so much on this forum, because I know who the "coaches" are.)

[Isk8NYC]

I went to a grammar school that had half-days every Wednesday.
One year, the Mother's Guild organized a car pool to take students to the ice rink for the afternoon, then bring them back to the school. That was for about 4 months and I was able to skate forward and turn, but that's all I figured out - there were no lessons.

When I was in High School, I dated a hockey player. Going skating was a cheap date so we went the rink a lot. I loved it so much - even managed to skate backwards a bit. It was a seasonal rink, so I skated November - March. Again, no lessons.

When I was a Senior with a car and a part-time job, I signed up for semi-private lessons with my niece. Lessons made all the difference in the world. We both learned all of the basics together, and a few of the higher-level things.

Once I graduated college and started working full-time, most of my disposable income went towards skating and competing. I skated year-round and took 2-3 private lessons each week. Most importantly, I made some really good friends and learned a lot about true sportsmanship and competition.


FSWer: Great poll - very complete!

[SynchroSk8r114]

I began skating at 8 years old when my mom's friend called asking if I wanted to begin taking skating lessons with her son, who was learning to skate so that he could play hockey. I used to horseback ride and my parents were looking for a cheaper sport; they thought skating might be the answer. (Hahahaha! Yeah, right! :lol:)

I remember being really excited about skating and began taking group lessons through USFSA's Basic Skills program. About a year after starting group lessons, I took up private lessons and began competing around age 9. I spent the next four years skating competitively at both local and regional competitions, where I placed both 1st and 3rd at the South Atlantics Regional Championships (but at the non-qualifying level). Eventually, the pressures/cost/committment of competiting got to be too much, so I decided to focus solely on USFSA testing.

Since beginning skating 13 years ago, I have tested through my Intermediate freestyle, Pre-Gold dances, and passed my Senior MIF in 2005, one of my best skating memories. :D In the next year, I hope to finish all of my dances, pass up through my Novice freestyle, and maybe begin testing some of my International dances and free dances.

Now in a senior in college, I skate competitively (yes, competing again...;)) on my university's intercollegiate synchronized skating team, as well as compete singles at the intercollegiate competitions in freestyle, dance, as well as my school's manuever team.

I've also managed to continue coaching, which I began doing at 14 when I started coaching under PSA Master-rated coaches and assisting with group lessons. At 16, I was finally able to begin teaching privately, which has always been my ultimate skating goal. I love teaching and making an impact on my skaters like my coaches did for me. Skating's a wonderful sport with a lot to offer and it's great to finally be able to give that to some of the younger skaters. :D

[Bill_S]

I started as a kid on frozen ponds in winter, and watched the other skaters to learn new things.

In the 60's, I also watched ABC's Wide World of Sports whenever there was a skating competition on and immediately went outside to try to do what had just been televised.

I managed to get a waltz jump and a decent two foot spin as a teenager before I started lessons much later in life. I also managed to learn CCW back crossovers the (VERY) wrong way, and that took a while to correct.

[TreSk8sAZ]

When I first started skating (age 7), I took some group lessons (Pre-Alpha-Gamma) then my mother started coaching me. She hurt her back and couldn't skate anymore, so I started getting interested in other sports I'd been playing and did that in middle school and high school instead of skating.

Came back at age 19, started with LTS and semi-privates, then did privates where my coaches taught me more than the sessions of LTS I did.

[jcookie1982]

My dad taught me to skate when I was 3 or 4. He used to take me to the skating rink on the mall in DC every weekend in the winter. I took some group lessons when I was around 12, but that didn't last long, and didn't really get back into it until I was 23.

[GordonSk8erBoi]

I had never stepped on the ice until my first group lesson at age 39. Took group lessons for 8 months, then private lessons the last 3 years or so.

[CanAmSk8ter]

My mom loves to tell the story of how, at age six, I went skating with her for the first time. She held out her hand for me to get on the ice and I looked at her like she was crazy, said, "I can do it myself"- and did. I was halfway across the pond before she caught up to me.

[emkayy]

I was 7 when I went to my first public skate session with my mom. I think I held onto the boards maybe once around and then after that I could skate forwards easily. We only went maybe a few times a year though. Then when I was 15 I took Pre-Alpha and while being totally bored, my mom taught me crossovers and how to skate backwards during public. Then I switched rinks, took Adult 1 and got a private coach halfway through. :P Of course, I also have taught myself random easy things and other skaters have taught me things like shoot-the-ducks, half jumps and one girl taught me the salchow!

[sue123]

My dad took me on hte ice for the first time when I was 5. He and my mom decided I was the last kid, so he never had any sons. His big dream for me was to get me to be the first girl in the NHL. unfortunatly, my mom found out about his plans and said no daughter of hers is going to play hockey, she wanted me to keep all my teeth. So I never played hockey, but my dad took me to the rink every now nad then, and every weekend once I turned 10. He taught me to "hockey skate", a lot of fast starts from a standstill, quick turns, etc. When I was a junior in college, I got my own car and decided I would figure skate. So I started with privates, and it took a long time to get rid of the habits I had from hockey style skating. And an even longer time to remember the toe pick was there.

[Ice Dancer]

I started group lessons at the age of 24, previous to this I had been on artificial ice at about the age of 6 and then went to a birthday party at about 14 but couldn't do anything!

After three months in group lessons I decided to do a few weeks of private lessons to get me up to speed a bit because I was a bit behind the group having had the disadvantage of being a real beginner hardly able to move whereas the rest of the group were able to go forwards and glide already. I ran private and group lessons along side each other for about another three months and then I got the worlds scariest coach and that alongside personal problems made me never go back to group lessons again! I now do two private ones a week and have definately learnt more in these than I ever did in group lessons, and now when I watch the group lessons I am so glad that I don't do them anymore.

[sk8_4fun]

I'd been skating a few times in my 20's before having a family. I turned up at the rink one day, 18 months ago, (aged 38 8O ) and was hooked in a matter of minutes. A few weeks later I hired a coach for a 30 minute lesson and took the skate uk grades 1-7 mainly to see where I was up to. Grades 8-10 took a while longer as I was unable to do any of the scheduled courses so I did them during a 15 minute lesson per week, sometimes 30 minutes when I could afford it. I think that done properly the skate UK courses are a brilliant foundation for skating skills.

[bruingrl]

I took my first skating lessons around the age of 5. I remember being totally intimidated by all the older, better skaters around me, which meant that I never wanted to practice. So I'd just skate in circles around the rink (not very well) and pretend to do a spiral or a one foot glide (my mind remembers spirals, but my head tells me it was probably one foot glides). Finally, my mom got fed up because I was "wasting her money" so she made me quit.

When I got to seventh grade a friend had her bday party at an ice rink. After that party I begged my mom to let me take skating lessons again. I even did all the work to find out where and when and how much everything would be.

By this time I could skate forwards pretty decently because I'd had a few years of self-taught roller skating experience, but that was about it. So they stuck me in either Alpha or Beta (I can't remember which) with a bunch of kids that were five or six years younger than me - and then started with two foot spins. That was scary.

After that I went straight through the group lessons (with the adults even though I was in high school) until I hit FS 4. It took about three or four years, then I went private sometime around age 17. Although, I will stress that I went all the way through my half flip while in group lessons. I think group lessons are awesome if taught by a good coach and not overcrowded.

Once I hit college I stopped skating regularly and just took random private lessons or clinics until I screwed up my knee while snowboarding one day. Then I wasn't allowed to do any form of physical activity, supposedly forever. I think I was about 22 at the time.

One day, about three years later, I said screw it and decided to skate again. That was about two years ago. I'm still not anywhere near the shape I was in before, but I think my technique has gotten better on the basics just due to age... and lots of time spent re-learning things SLOWLY so my knee could adjust! But I'm not allowed to quit forever (though that will probably never happen) until I land a perfect axel!

[Morgail]

I picked both Learn to Skate and coached by a parent. My mom started taking my sister and me to the rink when we were tiny, so I'm pretty sure that she taught me the basics although she wasn't a coach. At some point, she enrolled us in skating school classes so we could learn more.

[Derek]

Took my daughter and son to a nearby indoor ski facility for her 26th birthday (real snow). They had a great time, and something clicked in my brain. A couple of weeks later I had enrolled at a local rink on at learn to skate programme, at the tender age of 50 ! Never looked back ...