hours a week

[sk8rxforxlife]

How many hours would an average skater skate? How about if your goal is to pass an intermediate test?

[Mrs Redboots]

It depends on the skater. And, to a large extent, how hard you work while you're on the ice; you can get as much done in 45 minutes as you can in 2 hours, but you have to concentrate and keep moving!

Most fairly serious skaters I know skate about 6-10 hours a week, some more, some less. But they do work while they're not in their lessons.

[doubletoe]

It depends on how close you are to passing that Intermediate test now.
But most skaters I know who are competitive at that level seem to be practicing about 10 hours a week.

[peanutskates]

I skate 3 and 1/2 hours a week. After April, it'll be 5 hours a week :D

[stardust skies]

How many hours would an average skater skate? How about if your goal is to pass an intermediate test?

Intermediate test means the minimum you must do is a flying camel, double salchow, and double toe loop, if I recall correctly. As well as a 3 minute program or so. In which case, I'd say, to have your endurance levels high enough to run that program, and to ensure your jumps remain clean, a minimum of 2 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. You could probably "get by" on less, but when testing, you really shouldn't be trying to get by at all. In fact, judges love if you can do more than what's actually on the test, and are likely to give you higher marks/remember you, which is always good.

So yeah, an Intermediate level skater, I'd say at least 2hrs a day 5-6 days a week sounds fair. Once you go for Novice - Junior, 3 hours a day 6 days a week becomes important as the Novice and Junior moves are difficult and will take up a lot of your practice time.

ETA: I disagree that you can get as much done in 45 minutes as you can in 2 hours because skating is all about endurance and muscle memory, two things directly related to how long you spend on the ice practicing. If you practice hard for 45 minutes, that's fine, but you will still not get as much benefit as you would from practicing at a normal level for 2+ hours. There's sort of no point into trying to rush everything...muscle memory takes time to develop and trying to cram it into 45 minutes won't benefit you in the slightest. You should also be able to skate 2 back to back sessions without getting tired, which takes making a habit out of doing so...45 minutes of skating means you will not be able to handle 2 hours in a row, and you should be able to, at that level.

[*JennaD*]

It also really depends on how much you want to improve in how much time...

In the summer, I skated 8-10 hours a week and went from not landing my axel to landing it, learning and landing a double salchow, learning double loop and double toe.

During the school year, I only have time for about 4-5 hours a week, and I don't improve nearly as quickly as I did in the summer....