How much lesson time/skating time per week?

[kar5162]

I was just wondering how much lesson time everyone takes. I try to take two 30 minute lessons a week and skate about four 50 minute sessions and one 80 minute session/week. My skating is partly limited by time and partly by money.

Lately I feel as though I have been making pretty good progress, but I sometimes get frustrated. I skate with quite a few kids who skate more like 8-12 hours (or more) a week and have a 30-50 minute lesson every day. I feel as though they can work on many things at once, but since my time is more limited, when I want to really get ready to test or begin to put a program together, that takes up almost all of my weekly lesson time for a few weeks, limiting my ability to improve in other areas. Example - my doubles have been pretty much put on hold since I was working on testing Juvenile moves late May and will most likely be trying to take Pre-Juvenile free late June.

Just wondering...

Kim

[garyc254]

Hi Kim,

I'm a little older than you are and have to work during the day, so that limits my time also. I do take one 30 minute and one 45 minute lesson each week. I also skate another 4-1/2 hours during less busy public sessions each week.

I agree that it does seem restrictive as many of the other skaters my age don't have to work, so get a lot of prime ice time during the day.

The problem with your progress is pretty easy to handle. Tell your coach that you'll work 20 minutes of each lesson on the elements that you need for upcoming tests, but that you want 10 minutes of each lesson to learn new things. One of my coaches does this for me and it helps keep it interesting. I never know what she will try to show me next, but it's usually something I can't do. :lol: It gives me something to work on during public ice time.

Good luck,
Gary

[Michigansk8er]

I can relate. I don't seem to have time for anything new because I get so focused on my program (which definitely needs the attention). I'm taking a little down time right now (I went right from AN to preparing for my Silver FS test) to work on new things, as well as get a new program and break in new skates. I skate 6 days a week, and 7 before a competition. I generally skate 1 1/2 sessions a day. I take 3/30 minute lessons a week. Sometimes it's a tad less, depending on my coaches schedule. I'm lucky that I can get on the ice more that lots of adults, but I have an empty next and a job that is somewhat flexible. I'm also able to skate for 25 minutes at noon several days a week. Boy, I must be a slow learner, all considered.

LeslieM

[db]

I have one 15 minute lesson per week, sometimes more if my coach has the time available. I generally skate two 1.5 hr freestyle sessions and two or three really empty public sessions for about 1.5 hours each. After 1.5 hours, I start to get tired and don't want to risk serious consequences. I'm not working right now, and when I do have to work again, I don't expect to be able to skate so much. I hope to have my own outdoor rink next winter to remedy time lost to work, at least during the cold weather.

[Dustin]

I have 1.5 hours of total lessons a week (I don't really like them) and skate anywhere from 7-12 hours a week.

[Mrs Redboots]

I have 30 minutes' private lesson and 30 minutes' couples lesson with my husband, practice for about 5 hours a week either solo or with him, and then social dancing for anything between zero and 3 hours/week, depending on the week!

But I'm still the world's most appallingly awful dancer.....

[icenut84]

I have a 30 minute group lesson and a 30 minute private lesson (15m freestyle, 15m dance) per week. If you take away that time though, I only have about 1hr15m practice time (during a usually-pretty-busy public session) a week, not including the 15m dance interval. It's so little because I only skate once a week, because the rink is an hours drive each way from my house, I don't have my driving licence yet (or a car), and I'm at college during the day. Plus the way the sessions works out means that Saturday morning (when I practice/have my lessons) is the only time I can really get to the rink without it being one of those ridiculously busy disco sessions.
I feel I am quite a fast learner (My coach once said to me "You learn everything too fast!" :mrgreen: ) but it is sometimes very frustrating in that I want to practice more often but I can't, I don't even have the option like most people do, to go to the rink more often or make the time for extra practice. I haven't competed yet or had a program, so I don't know how it would work out if I did, I would find it very difficult to get extra practice in. I have to say though, the most frustrating thing is that when I practice on Saturday mornings, I find myself constantly waiting for a space and I probably end up wasting quite a lot of time because of this. I have to have a space to practice my jumps (waltz, toe, salchow, combinations, and working on loop) and the run up to them, setting up and getting speed etc, and it doesn't help at all that I am paranoid of crashing into people and I go CW - against the traffic. Also when I try to practice dances I have to dodge people and often stop or end the dance early. Even when I'm having a lesson with my coach, if I'm trying to set up for a jump with back crossovers or something, sometimes it takes me ages to jump because even though I'm in the middle of the ice, I'm going against the traffic and need a big enough space to jump confidently and land and hold the landing without being afraid of kicking someone.
Rant over... lol

[BringontheRain]

I practice about 14 hours a week. On Mondays I have a 30 minutes freestyle, on Wednesdays I have a 15-30 minute freestyle and on Fridays I have a 15 minute free and a 15 minutes moves. However we adjust my schedule when I am about to compete or test, I usually get more lessons.

[CanAmSk8ter]

Right now since I'm out of school and getting ready for competitions and tests (I'm competing two different dances this summer, one of which I should be testing as well after I test my last dance on my current test, and I have a MITF to take as well) I'm skating about fifteen hours a week. M,T, and F I skate for an hour or so three times a day; W and Th I skate for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon; and sometimes I skate for an hour or two on Saturday. After next week I'm going to be doing 5:30 to 6:30am, probably an hour in the late morning or early afternoon, and an hour in the evening M-F, with an hour of ballet MWF and ballroom dancing on Sunday. Rest assured I only do this from May through August! During school, I try to skate two hours a day M-F and I take off-ice dance Saturday and Sunday.

[singerskates]

During the fall/winter I was one the ice 4 times a week with my old club (Windsor FSC) but I have no idea what the schedule will be for me when I move up from the junior session to the intermediate session joining my new club (Riverside FSC). During spring skating I moved up to the intermediate session. I was doing three 1 hour and 1/2 sessions a week and getting three 15 minute lessons a week except the week before my last competition where I took in a few 1/2 lessons to no avail because I was overtired for the comp and only came in 4th. I'm not doing summer skating at all because I'm heading out on a two week family vacation to Florida. Anyone know of some rinks in the Orlando area and St. Pertersburg area where I can sneak in a few laps? Last summer when I did do summer skating school, I was doing 6 junior sessions a week with two 15 minute lessons a week. This time around, I'm saving my Achilles tendons for the fall where I don't have to skate that many days a week. By the way, I'm a 39 yr old adult competitive skater.

[jazzpants]

Kim,

I don't skate as much as I would like. :( I skate anywhere from 4-9 hours depend on how busy my week is at work and at home. I skate 2-30 minutes FS lessons and one 15 minute moves lessons (I wanted to make it 30 minutes, but both of us has time conflicts.)

My obstacles is (in order): work/time, money, and whether I feel physically well enough to skate.

Cheers,
jazzpants

[Chico]

One 1/2 hour private lesson a week.
1/2 hour group edge class most weeks.

I skate anywhere from 3 to five sessions a week. This does include my lessons. As a mom I fit my ice time around my family schedule. There has been a few weeks here and there that I haven't skated at all due to family issues. (sick kids, school vacation, etc.)

Chico

[CanAmSk8ter]

Oh yeah, I forgot my lessons. Usually I have two forty-five minute dance lessons and a half-hour MITF lesson each week. When my friends' choreographer comes down from Canada I work with her for an hour every day b/c she's usually only here for a week at a time, tops. I was having forty-minute group dance lessons with an international dance coach once a week but she had teams in the Grand Prix, GPF, Europeans, Olympics, and Worlds and last I knew was taking some time off, although I think I'll probably start again with her over the summer, either in group or private.

[jenlyon60]

4-5 days a week, 1 1/2 hours per day practice.

2-3 1/2 hour lessons per week.

Mostly dance, also stroking and MITF.

[Elsy2]

I usually have two half hour private lessons a week, and skate about 5-7 hours a week. However, this summer it sounds like there is no lesson time available for me, sigh.....and I'm struggling to even find time to get on the ice at all. I haven't skated in 12 days and am going a little nuts.......My daughter has 1/2 hour private lesson 5 days a week, and skates 16 hours a week.

[Chico]

Elsy,

Hugs on the lack of skating. Skating is needed for mental therapy. I will be skating EARLY this summer to get ice maybe you can do the same? How's your back scratch going by the way? I have something that is helping me with this big time. I started working on the back sit, which is easier I think, and viola my back scratch has shown up. It's not good or anything but it is a back scratch. My skating angel on the back scratch was the back sit! Maybe she has a friend for you!

Chico

[KJD]

I skate 1 1/2 - 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. I have a half hour lesson each day which we split between jumps, program, spins (need oh so much work here) and MIF. We also have a russian dance coach who is working on MIF with most of my coachs' students and I have just started with this for 1/2 hour once a week. I am a mom with 4 little kids and a full time job so I skate really early. We have lot of ice time so I'm luck that its not usually a problem.

[AnnM]

I usually have just one 30 minute private lesson per week. If I'm preparing for a test or competition, I'll sometimes up the lesson time to 60 minutes in the two weeks prior. My constraints are money, my time, and my coach's time.

As far as practices, I aim to skate three hour long freestyle sessions per week, but usually end up making it to only two. When I have the extra energy I drop in on a power skating class once a week. Occasionally I'll head out to a public session with friends for just some social skating.

Now that I see it in writing, I guess I really only spend 4 to 4-1/2 hours per week on the ice. For that amount of time, I think I'm progressing pretty well (working on Silver moves and FS). I guess it's a matter of quality practice time vs. quantity of time. I try to plan out my practices before I head to the rink, so that I have some focus and am not skating around trying to do everything at once. Also, there has been a huge change in my skating since I abandoned practicing on public sessions.

[Yazmeen]

Half hour lesson per week, 3 to 6 hours on ice in the "season" and 2-4 hours in the summer. I'd love to do more, but I have a full time medical practice along with being the continuing medical education "goddess" for my hospital and the state medical society. I'm glad I can get in the ice time I can--a lot of my adult skater friends are lucky if they can fit in lessons and one to two hours on ice per week.

Beth

[Elsy2]

Thanks Chico for the support...I finally got on the ice today after 13 days absence! It felt great, and the one element that appeared was the backspin of all things. Trying the back sit sounds like a great idea. I even lucked out and had a lesson that I wasn't expecting. Made my day!

[blue111moon]

I have a 40 minute free skating and a 20 minute moves lesson once a week. During the winter I skate 6 hours a week spread over three days, becasue that's all the ice that fits around my work/family schedule. Spring and summer is worse. I have lessons on Thursdays and two hours of practice on Tuesdays. Two hours is my maximum in any one day. After that I poop out and it's counterproductive.

[emyh]

Usually I have a 30 minute private and (if I can afford it) 30 minute group lesson. I usually get around 5-6 hours on-ice (including lesson). It seems to be adequate because in my first year of freestyle, I've gone waltz to on/off again axel.

[spicyicey]

When I get out of school I will be doing about 8 hours per week, and I think 2 30 min free lessons and one 30 min moves lesson. I do about the same amount during school, and it seems to serve me pretty well. I feel that if I skate every day I tend to not want to go, but if there's a couple of free days I do better. Hopefully this summer I will take up Pilates again as well.

[Chico]

Elsy,

13 days! Your mental state must have been horrible, skating withdrawels. It sound like your back scratch is already doing well, congrads. Try the back sit, I think this is fun. Happy days on the lesson.

Chico

[HoC]

lol this is hilarious but i get one or two fifteen minute lessons a week AND i'm a competitive skater haha... in the winter i skate at my home club, 3 25 minute sessions a week and then once or twice a week i go to another club and skate one or two 45 minute sessions and get a lesson or two :D

[RoaringSkates]

I work full time during the day, I teach two nights a week at a college here in NY, and I also have violin lessons and practice, so I have very little time to skate. I think I'm making up for all the things I missed as a kid!

I have one 30 minute lesson per week, and I skate for about 45 minutes before or after my lesson. I also joined an adult skating class for exercise and fun, which I take on the same day as my lesson.

While I do see the kids around me progressing faster than I do, I realize that they devote more time per week to practice than I do. I also focus just on my own performance, and improving my own skating, so I don't really worry about the progress of those around me.

[Terri C]

If all ( work, coaches' schedules ) falls right into place, I get 2 20 minute lessons per week. I also practice at least on 3-5 one hour freestyle sessions per week.
My main obstacle: my work schedule vs. coaches' availability.
Next month, between the July 4th holiday, Liberty Open, ( my coaches are taking a group of kids to that one), and my trip to NC for Adult Week, I'll only get two lessons with my coaches the entire month of July!

[SusanaO]

:( Now I feel really bad for not practicing enough!!! I take two 1 hour lessons and if I'm lucky I practice 1 hour a week. Work schedule is my main problem. Rinks here don't open until around 11am and they close before 8pm most days, since I usually don't get off work until 7:30pm it is almost impossible for me to practice during the week.

[jenlyon60]

Don't feel bad about it. Finding practice time is difficult for most of us adults.

I'm lucky in that my organization allows us 3 hours a week for physical training aka working out. I choose to use my PT time for skating, and my boss (who finishes work early 3 days a week to run) lets me leave early 3 days a week to go to the rink. This has allowed me to skate on the late afternoon freestyle sessions.

Now with the summer schedule, I've switched things around so that I skate early in the day before work, then stay later.

[tidesong]

My skating schedule has been varying greatly... but term hasn't started yet so I'm skating every weekday about 3 to 4 hours each time... which works out to 15 to 20 hours a week... with a half hour lesson each week.
But I don't skate the whole 3 hours. I do "proper" jumps and spins and edges etcf for about 2 hours. And then the last hour is for trying out crazy stuff like spirals in strange positions, spins in strange positions... sliding on the ice with a leg and a hand and stuff like that :P

Once term starts... I have no idea how often I can skate