I have followed figure skating since the days of Elaine Zayak and have always wanted to learn. In my teens, I roller skated and passed my bronze dance tests. I have NEVER ice skated and at 38 years old, decided that it is time for me to learn! Because I have previous skating experience, I knew that I needed a fairly good pair of skates. I bought Jackson Freestyle, they are heat moldable and I love them!

My first time on the ice was absolutely terrifying to say the least! While the skates were great at holding my up, I never anticipated the ice being so slippery! I had a pretty brutal fall (this is when I discovered the true dangers of the toe pick!). Nevertheless, I have since enrolled in an adult learn to skate class. The first class was great, it gave me the confidence to continue. However, after attending a public skating session, I am once again apprehensive about returning to the ice. I am turning to this forum because everyone here seems so nice and supportive.

My question is: Can adults learn to skate if they've never done it before?

Absolutely yes! I started a few months before turning 43. I only skated on ponds and around in circles on a few public sessions as a kid and teen. My goal was to skate backwards someday......

After a year I was competing in pre-bronze, doing a few jumps and attempting spins (which took forever to get....) I never thought I'd come that far.

I also had a fear of the ice to overcome, and I have to say that it took several years to get over it. I still have apprehension with my first step on the ice every time. But in general, that gripping fear is gone finally.

Most of all I just love to skate. It's a great and challenging sport, and I've made so many friends at home and traveling to competitions.

There is a new adult at our rink with a roller background. She seems to really have an advantage with her roller experience. I think you have great potential too!

Make sure those blades are sharpened. New blades often need it, even when the manufacturer says they are fine right out of the box.

RileyRuby, you're a young pup. I first strapped on skates at age 47, two years ago. As a teen, I skated once or twice, but not seriously.

I did, against my will , pass tests through Delta.

I have never competed and only skated in a show once (minimal group performance).

I skate three sessions each week for fun. I challenge myself with new techniques that my group lesson coach throws at me, but I'm not too concerned if I never really get them.

If you can afford it, you might try a few private lessons. I know it helped me get stable quicker.

Good luck and stick with it!!!!

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

I think so.
I learned a lutz and a parallel spin as an adult.
I've been learning backspins for ages.....it might come one day.

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Kim Sailer, a regular competitor at Adult Nationals, started skating at age 27. She now competes Novice level and has all her jumps through double flip. She's passed all her MIF.

She may be an exception to the rule of how far an adult can go (because she's gone farther than most!), but it is possible to make considerable progress as an adult.

I started at 27, having never skated before in my life. Now I'm 36, and working on my pre-gold dances, which I will have passed before the year is out (**did I say that out loud???**). Go for it!

I started skating as an adult. However, I roller skated recreationally as a child. No lessons, just for fun. That roller experience really helped me b/c I already knew some basics. It should give you an advantage also.

Kay

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Thanks so much to all you for responding to my question! I have been "lurking" on this board for quite some time and have always been impressed by the kindness and support shown to absolute strangers!

I will be attending my second learn to skate class tonight and will be taking your positive thoughts with me!

Just remember.....

STAY VERTICAL!!!!!!

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

As an ex-gymnast (13 yrs) taking up skating at 26 I don't think it's fair for me to say learning to skate is easy but it's definitely attainable for adults, some to a higher degree than others. The point is that as adults, no matter how good we are they don't have adult olympics so the idea is to do it to have fun no matter what you can do and be happy with achievements such as staying vertical for one lap or landing a double axel one time 4 years ago. I wish more adults skated, specifically more skating kid parents (haha).

Congratulations to you on your new found sport!

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Careygram

January: Sure I'll compete, quick, send the application
April: I signed up to do WHAT??

If you've lurked around this board a while you will have noticed that there are quite a lot of adults on here and I would reckon that quite a lot of them if not the majority of them, learnt as adults. Have a look at the lessons/practices thread and you will see how we are all getting on which should hopefully be encouraging. As an adult you will not be learning with the aim of getting to the Olympics but to have fun/exercise/meet great people etc. and there are competitions for adults too. Age is no barrier to all those great things you will get from skating.

I started at age 38 like you and did not have your advantage of having been a roller skater. I'd been on ice only 3 times in my life before I took my first classes. I started doing ice dance and this year won a medal at the British Championships for my (low!)level. I'm also now doing Freeskating and learning all the jumps and spins which is great fun. I've been skating for 4.5 years and intend to continue for ever.

So don't let anything put you off - get out there and enjoy!

Oh and don't forget the first rule of ice skating - Bend your knees!

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

YES most definitely

and as everyone has said, your roller skating will be a great help (once you learn how to stay up on an ice cube in a pair of concrete blocks with kitchen knives attached ).

I started as an adult and could do a Lutz and was working on Axel and Doubles (haven't got those yet). My present coach seems to think that I'll be doing Flying Camel in the future too!!!! I also passed my UK Bronze (old) Dance test and was working on Inter-Silver (Silver used to be the test standard required before you could coach until they messed all the coaching system up and you don't need to be able to skate to a pre-determined level to take the coaching exams ......).

Just a though .... yes, the ice DOES seem awfully slippery (I've just come back after 18 months) but did you have your blades sharpened or are you using the factory grind? You may find it better just to get someone to put an edge on them for you

Welcome and good luck


L x

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The best whisper is a click

I add a definitely to the list as well! I like Gary's suggestion of taking a few private lessons.

My situation was that I took a learn to skate class, learned a lot of the basics, and planned on taking the basic skating classes at the rink. The first one I took went really well--it was just 2 of us in the class, and our instructor was really good. So, since it was a small group she had time to really work with us, and had us consistently building up at our level.

I am feeling pretty convinced that had I started taking private lessons with her I would have probably learned a lot more and still be skating today.

But what happened was that some of the instructors were on break at the end of the summer, so when it came time to sign up for classes again it ended up being a bad time and I didn't. Once I went back to a class I had a different instructor who had no flow in her teaching at all, just basically having us try a variety of things for about 2 minutes each, and may I add there were things that she was teaching way too early with too high of expectations for us.

So, at that point I was frustrated, and just decided not to take lessons anymore and not pursue it. I don't know that I regret that so much, but I do think I would have really liked it with a good instructor. And as good as some of the basic skating classes can be, it can get frustrating to have all of the changes in teaching styles throughout the way.

Good luck and have fun! And as a side note, if your public sessions are anywhere as busy as some of the ones I have been to, I can share your fear--the busy sessions always make me a bit tense.

After reading these posts, I am very impressed with the high degree of difficulty achieved by adult skaters! I started doing this with the simple intention of learning to skate without falling down. At my first group lesson, they taught us to skate backwards, which oddly enough, seems easier than forwards (I think it has something to do with those toe picks!). At last night's session, we were taught to glide on one foot, I was terrified, but found that I could do it. Such a simple thing, but it is these small victories that will eventually lead me to my goal. At this point, I just want to skate vertically without looking like a "tin man"!

I did have my skates sharpened prior to using them; I even had them rechecked to make sure they were sharpened correctly. I think the problem is that I really don't know too much about using the edges yet. In roller skating, we had used edges, but I never really thought about it because of the four wheels (as opposed to a single, thin blade). The one foot glide seemed to help because I could actually feel the changes in edge depending on the direction of my lean.

I had a lot of fun last night. I know I will be scared the next time I step onto the ice, but hopefully, as I continue these sessions, the length of "scared" time will be less and less each time!

You accomplished the most important thing in adult skating: You had fun!!!!

The "scared" time. I like your description. Every time I step on the ice I have scared time for a few minutes. I finally figured out that it is caused by walking. Our bodies have no trouble balancing when we walk around (which is most of our mobile life). When we step on the ice, our bodies say "Uh oh!!! This isn't walking anymore" and start to make the adjustment to skating. It takes a few minutes to adjust and get in balance.

And, for us Moody Blues fans, it's "A Question of Balance".

My Saturday morning group lesson used to be 1/2 hour long. All five of us adults in the class begged the rink to make it an hour long. We all agreed that it took us 10 to 15 minutes to warmup and get semi-balanced and by that time, class was half over. Now, with the hour lesson we warm up for 15 minutes and have another 45 to learn and practice. It's wonderful!!!!

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

If I can learn to skate in my 40s, anybody can. Okay, progress has been very slow, but I love it, and have made friends from all round the world - including all of you. I love to compete against people of my own age and standard, although we are usually at the bottom of the heap, but we work hard and hope to come up one day.

There is a mother at our rink - probably a little younger than me - who is learning to skate and still at the stage where she clutches either her coach's arm or the barrier. But she will let go one day, and relax and enjoy it, and I am sure will get good enough to join the dance club and enjoy social dancing, probably within the coming year.

I still have awful issues with fear, which holds me back rather more than I should like. Coach says it's partly because I was a couch potato for 25 years, and am not very body-aware. Husband, who was an athlete, is much better than me because he knows what his body is doing. But one perseveres....

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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!

So many adults start with just exactly this goal. Then they get bitten by the bug. Those skating viruses...gotta watch out for them!

You sound like you're doing pretty well--overcoming tenseness and fear and jumping right in. The slipperyness can be somewhat overcome by remembering to bend your knees and NOT bend at the waist at the same time. That's how you create stability. Also, ask your coach to go over edges with you. (It's ok if you're not up to that level yet--all you really want right now is a demonstration of how each edge 'works'--true 'edges' (like you do on a line) will come later, but I think you'll be interested to give your edges a 'spin', so to speak!)


Yay, guys....we snagged another one! Yippee!!

Another definite "yes" from me! I started taking adult group lessons nearly a year ago, at age 42, and I love skating and wouldn't give it up for anything.

Thanks to my work schedule, I have very little time to practice between lessons, so I'm not progressing very fast (if anyone has any tips on mastering backwards crossovers, would I ever love to hear them!), but even so, I feel so much more secure on the ice than I ever did before. I really enjoy what I'm learning, and being in a group is fun -- you can share each others' frustrations and small victories and encourage each other. As you can tell from this board, skaters and skating fans are some of the nicest people in the world.

Good luck, and enjoy yourself!

What kinds of problems are you having, junkety? One of the biggest things with these is to sit, sit, sit...farther than you ever think you need to. When you think you've gone far enough...sit some more.
Make sure you're 'hugging your circle' (don't let that back shoulder come forward). Another interesting tip if you're having problems with scratching your toepicks, is to lift your toes up in your boots. It really does work! The last thing that really helped me when I was having problems with these, was not to think of them as cross'overs', but 'pull-unders'. Step far into the inside of the circle with that inside skate, and 'pull' the ice under you, and 'throw' it off to the outside (this is where you get your good extension on the second half of the stroke). Don't worry about 'stepping' your outside foot over--just leave it on the ice and let the inside leg do most of the work. There is a slight weight shift from foot to foot during all of that, but it's not necessary to actually lift the outside foot and cross 'over'.

Good luck!

Thanks so much, flippet. I think I'll print that out and take it to the rink on Tuesday.

Yes, really getting down in the knees and being able to stay there is one challenge, and keeping the inside skate on the outside edge is another. Some of it must be leg & knee strength/stamina, too. Right now I'm concentrating on the arms, the deep knees, and the edges. So far, no trouble with the picks.

The thing is, the way you describe them, the pull-unders, that sounds just right and sounds like what I see skaters actually do -- it looks as though that inside leg actually does most of the work, gives you movement and speed. Yet we're being taught to pick up the crossing foot and punch it down, then bring the free leg parallel and set it down, and do it again, round the circle. Coach says it isn't the real way to do it, but they're supposed to teach it that way first (to pass tests - huh?!), and then ironically you've got to unlearn that choppy way of doing them and learn them properly. I can't seem to get a pattern or rhythm doing it this way, and my inside leg keeps wandering off the circle.

So, basically, I'm a mess! I'm determined, though, and tips from those who have done the miraculous (to me) and gotten past Beta level are really appreciated. Often if I can get the concept of the movement clear in my head, I have much better luck with my legs and feet.

You're welcome.

Well, if you do the 'pull-under' thing, what you do is put the inside skate down on the inside edge, and as you pull it under, it 'rolls' onto the outside edge, and you give that outside edge a good shove on the last bit of the stroke. Good knee bend will also help on keeping your edges where you want them. (Be sure to just bend the knees, though, and don't break at the waist.)

Yeah, it's bery frustrating to have to learn it the choppy way first. We discussed this on the boards a year or two ago, and I think the conclusion we came to is that they teach the choppy way to be sure that you understand the weight shift. But in my mind, that's something that just comes naturally with practice...you might as well learn them the non-scary way, especially since that's the advanced way to do them anyway!

Beta can be difficult. Other than spinning, I think back crossovers are some of the hardest things to learn to do, because you have so little experience when you learn them. I totally understand the 'concept' thing--I'm the same way! I just have fun trying to see what kind of concept will match best with individual skaters--often I could explain a move to my classmates better than the coach, even if I couldn't always demonstrate it!

Hi,

I too passed my roller bronze dances before really taking to the ice (I did pond skate as a kid though). I do think it helped, even though a lot of things are different (such as mohawks.....almost killed myself trying a roller mohawk on ice skates since I was taught heel to heel on wheels). First major crash. The one GREAT thing about falling on ice is that you slide. Ice is much more forgiving than a wooden floor!!!!

Good luck, and enjoy!!!! Glad you have joined us. You'll be competing before you know it.

Not to change the subject of the thread, but just wanted to say thanks again, flippet -- I see I was even mixing up my definitions of "inside" and "outside" foot. But I see what you mean, and thanks for the encouragement -- I'm eager to get back out there and try them with these tips in mind.

Happy skating, everyone!

Yes - started as an adult and still skating and competing.
Enjoy learning the basics - it's really a lot of fun. Remember to have a sense of humor and when you don't know what to do - bend your knees! I teach the little ones at my club, and I tell them when they begin to fall (look like they are doing the dog paddle)or get unsteady - bend your knees. Also when you put on your skates - bend your knees. Get on the ice - bend your knees. Blow your nose.....

Have fun

With the really young, new skaters, I've found that telling them to "grab" their knees makes more sense to them. It usually accomplishes the same thing.

We had one adult beginner that was REALLY struggling to stay vertical even when standing on the ice. His feet just didn't want to stay still and on their own would start flapping in the ice wind. I finally told him to "grab your knees". That's how he learned to be steadier on the ice.

Hey, whatever it takes.

Thanks to a recent local newspaper article about adult skating in St. Louis there have been lots of new adult skaters joing the beginner lesson groups. Some are new to the ice, while others are returning to the ice. One lovely lady told me she used to ice dance 35 years ago, but hadn't been on the ice since.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau