I'm a 14 years old (young) girl from germany.
I always wanted to do figure skating, but the doctor told me not to, because i had serious heart problems. Now he told me that i could start doing figure skating. I'm flexible and did ballett for 6 years, but probably i can't start doing figure skating serious, can i?
(excuse my english, i told you i'm from germany)

It's definitly not to late to start. There are plenty of people older than you. I'm 20, and I started a few months ago. Some people even start well into adulthood. There is no reason you shouldn't start if you have your doctor's OK. And don't worry about being a serious competitor at first, just go out there and have fun.

You are too old to become an Olympic free-skating champion.

However, you are young enough to:

- take your skating to the level where you can skate professionally in ice shows; or
- become a competitive ice dancer at the top level; or
- learn to spin, jump and edge work as an enjoyable hobby, testing and competing at a lower level

The limiting factors are physical build, dedication, time, money and rink location, rather than age.

I started skating when I was 13 and by the time I quit at 18, was able to land an axel and could almost land a double loop!

I missed skating so much that I started back up again at 22 and am still having a blast!

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I've got mad salchow disease!

If you live in southern Germany, you could have gone to Oberstdorf last week and watched women and men in their 60s skating wonderful programmes - and winning their classes. It's never too old to learn to skate.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

One of our British Champions Robin Cousins started at 13.

That's inspiration and a half.
There was one skater who was world class or something (Really good, anyway!) and he started at 16 I think, but I have no idea who it could be.

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Johnny Weir started at 12 and he's a 2 time national champion, not bad at all if I may say so.

But didn't JOhnny Weir have a heckuvalot of "natural talent"

Anyways. I'm 14 as well, and started last Sept. I obviously have about 0 chance of being competitive in freeskate... I mean, people are out winning the olympics at my age It's a bit unfortunate, but that's how it is. However, I'm having a complete blast skating. I'm on a synchro team, as well as doing dance.

My partner and I are hoping to be somewhat competitive in ice dancing... we'll hopefully be going to regionals next year, and we dont' really know where we'll go from there, but I *think* it's a bit easier with ice dancing to start a little older... (thank you to whoever said that a bi tearlier in this thread, as you've given me hope! )

I was more than twice your age when I started skating. While I will never compete in the Olympics, I do have fun.

I'm soooooo glad to hear that! I rather thougt that everbody will be like "you should have start at the age of 5! you are waaaaaaaaaaay to old!"
so, thanks! i will start this winter, i think. But how much training will be in beginnig time? because i'm on a private school, wich means i have a lot of lessons!

Well I would start off by doing a little bit of skating each week because you will probably be busy with school! I go to a private school too...and I was only able to skate twice a week, but I also had a lot of other activities. I would start off with a bit each week and then if you see that you can handle more, you can skate more

I can only manage to skate once a week, it's always been this way since I started, I'd love to go more often, but I don't think I'll ever get anything more than Saturdays.

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Well, if you've never skated before, you might want to check whether your rink offers group lessons to start

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I've got mad salchow disease!

I have always found it strange when people say, 'Oh, you're too old to start [typical little girl sport] because all the Olympic champions are fourteen.'

I'm always tempted to respond, 'Well, you're probably not going to make it to the Olympics even if you started at five, so why not just enjoy the sport?'

There's this crazy perception that the only reason to participate in figure skating (and gymnastics) is if you have a shot at Olympic gold. Most people don't have that shot, reasonably, anyway -- only three girls make the Olympic squad. This perception I think is what leads the crazy skating moms to become crazy. They started their child at seven! Their child OWES THEM AN OLYMPIC MEDAL!

Many of the young women I skate with had enjoyable, competitive skating careers; and they weren't landing triples, just clean doubles. They weren't at Senior Nationals, but that doesn't mean they didn't compete. And there are fun USFSA competitive options for a fourteen year old with doubles and spins; and you're young enough to get those!

Seriously. No one would tell someone in their 30s not to start training for a marathon because they haven't a hope of beating Catherine Ndreba. No one would tell a 25 year old that he's wasting his time learning to play golf because Tiger Woods started at age two. No one would tell a retiree that his tennis lesson is a waste because he's not going to beat Marat Safin.

You shouldn't base your skating decision on whether you have a chance of being the next Michelle Kwan. So just sign up for some lessons and see if you like the sport!

Bravo! Encore! You said it beautifully.

Skate because you love to skate. Learn, grow, and discover the joys of sportsmanship, determination, and practice! If you want to compete, you can and should. Maybe it won't be olympic track, but who cares? An achievement is an achievement and everyone has to start somewhere or we'll all just sit around watching skating on TV. If they actually air more than the top 3 skaters. (Boring!)

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It's impossible to say how fast you will progress - everyone is different! But more time on the ice helps, getting a coach helps, loving what you are doing helps! It's a very challenging sport, and you'll never reach a point where there's absolutely no room for improvement, so how far you want to take it is entirely up to you. If I were you, I'd find an ice rink, and start going now, even if it's not very often, because you'll start getting balance and some of the basic skills pretty easily, and that will help when/if you hire a coach, plus it will allow you to "test the waters" (not sure if that translates well into German, but I mean to just try it out and see what you actually think once you do it).

Good luck, have fun, and tell us how it goes! You'll find an amazing amount of help and support here!

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

There is no such thing as too old if you really want to do something. I was told at 17 that I was too old to begin, but I began anyway and skated for 5 years and enjoyed every minute of it!!! For reasons I won't go into, I ended up away from skating for 25 years and had to begin again, almost from scratch - excuse the pun - two years ago. I just got back home from both Villard and Oberstdorf, had a fantastic time, made many new friends and I plan on being back to both next year. I am certainly glad I did not let anyone tell me that I was 'too old'. Think of all the fun I would have missed... you go girl!!!

Welcome Raye

I'm so glad you went and that you had fun in O'Dorf!

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

I started at 15 and am 20 now.... I still have fun skating even though I'll never get to Olympic level. I never have skated excessively (at most I've done it 2-3 times per week) and took time off for about a year or two. Besides age, it depends on your talent, practice and dedication, and finances!
As some other people have said, there are other opportunities in figure skating besides the Olympics. You can still have fun skating even if you decide you don't want to compete.

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Andrea

Guten Tag, Moana Wie geht es dir heute ? -

'Age, and often Health'-status: matter _not_. Bin eine frohe liebliche Mutti und eislaufe mit meiner lieben Tochter in Vergnügen

Like other skaters here have shared, you at any age can learn any wholesome activity you enjoy.

Glaube es ist Spaß und einfach zu lernen, und du wirst es tun in großer Freude !

Wünsch ich dir Fröhlichkeit, Gesundheit und Glück,

Annie

Hi, Raye - welcome to the board! We did have fun, didn't we.....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

well, i think it's not too late, i started skating 8 years ago, and i was 11 years old, and if you're flexible and if you have done ballet i think it's a great help

If you want to compete in the Olympics, it may be late to start, but if you want to skate a beautiful program in 2 or 3 years, with double jumps and beautiful spins, you can do it! If you have been doing ballet, you have a great foundation for figure skating and you will be beautiful on the ice. Life is short. You must do the things you want to do! Skate for yourself and enjoy it!

What people forget re: age/Olympics is that a) most people who start when they are five still won't get good enough to go to the OLYS, and that some people who start younger may get injuries that sideline them for 6 months to a year at a time which essentially makes all that time they were ahead by nul and void. If a ten year old starts and then gets 3 sidelining injuries, and is a slow learner, and then a 14 year old starts, but gets no injuries and is a fast learner with natural talent, they'll be about equal by the time they both reach 18. For that matter, the 14 year old will probably have outdone the injury prone, slow learning 10 year old. There's a ton of factors in deciding who will progress to the highest of levels. Age really isn't one when you're 14. Now, if the person posting this was 44....maybe. But she is not. I seriously question the stigma that makes a 14 year old as if she is too OLD to start something. That's sad, IMO. And no, you're not too old. The real question is...are you good enough to catch up. Only you will know the answer to that, and the only way to find out is to go for it.