Group lessons is a good starting point for anyone. Gives you time & opportunity to scope out the coaches & get a feel for which one(s) you want to approach about private lessons.

Good for you. You won't regret getting lessons sooner rather than later. However....if you don't yet have back crossovers, then you'll be starting in Beta, not Gamma. Usually, I've found that in the introductory levels, a coach will teach a variety of things from neighboring levels, but at the end of the session, they'll test you only on the elements from your level, and see if you pass. I suppose if your skate school is unusually large, they may be more strict about teaching only what's in a single level, but a decent coach won't make you practice back crossovers and nothing else until you pass them. You'll also work on your 3-turns and mohawks, but won't pass Beta until your back crossovers are up to snuff. (These may take a while, too...don't get discouraged. Back crossovers are one of the hardest things to learn to a passing standard for beginners. It took me two full sessions of Beta to pass them properly--everything else in the beginning four levels only took one session for me, and I started about where you're at. (Really, though....you can never improve too much on crossovers....even the elites have areas they can stand to work on with these. It never ends. ) (I will say, though...I never really did get the hockey stop down....I think my coach let me fudge on that just a bit. )

Oh, and group lessons are just fine, starting out. The only way I'd 'recommend' privates for you at the moment is if A) your coach is holding you back to the level of the 'slowest' person in your group, even if you're clearly advancing faster than that, or B) you have plans to compete, and soon, and want to learn at an advanced rate. With B, however, what makes the most out of that is practice time. Or, C)--you feel you aren't getting enough of the coach's time, and you're falling behind in group lessons. The 'usual' order of progression for most skaters is to take group lessons for the 4 basic levels, and then 'graduate' into privates, though one can take privates at any point.

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I wear Graf Galaxies and Gold Seals...I have my Senior Comp Singles

In Beta you will learn the back crossovers both directions, T stop, back stroking. The secret to good back x overs is to face your upper body to the inside of the circle like your holding a hoola hoop. Of course bend your lower body and keep you upper body tall and look over the shoulder of the arm in back of you. If you need anymore tips just ask I learned all this from my coach and I have been teaching for 2 years.

He doesn't think they're a mistake. He thinks they're more than I need, but does not agree with the popular opinion here that they will be bad for me.

Nah, I'll know the difference - I've got my current skates, after all, and I'll be holding on to them for a while too, in case the new ones truly don't work out. I am a stubborn ba***** though, no denying it.

Because I'm an idiot. I meant radius of hollow. I'm thinking of drill bits or something.

Oops, typo! I meant 7/16", sorry.

Wrong term usage. I meant 3 turns, edges, mohawks, stroking, wiggles.... Basic skills, pretty much.

No worries, thanks for the disclaimer though.

I actually got these down today!! I am scraping the toepicks a bit when I do them, but I'm getting better, and can do them pretty well now! Woo hoo!!!

Cshobe, just want to say that you have been a really good sport through all the advice people have given you and I really hope you stick around and let everyone know about your progress. And no matter what I think of it, I'm jealous of your blades cause I'm still waiting to someday get my pair so I want to hear about how perfect they are when you try them on. Good luck with your skating!

I have been learning at an accelerated rate, in my opinion and others who notice. I started skating 6 weeks ago...and after the last couple days of learning hard, the only things I have holding me back from Freestyle 1 are the Hockey Stop (don't know how to learn this one), the bunny hop (haven't seen/tried this yet), the forward arabesque (haven't seen/tried it either), and the 1/2 flip jump (have not attempted, but my waltz jump is quite passable now). Hopefully I get all those with the public lessons I paid for. I can do backwards crossovers now, but I need to clean them up so there's no toe pick dragging, and master them in the opposite direction as well...but this isn't far off. I'm really happy that I can do all the 3 turns and sometimes the backwards 3 turns now!

I also started doing two-foot spins today, got up to 6-7 rotations! My feet are wobbly though...gotta work on it.

Well done about the spin - wish I could do as well.

One thing, though - in skating, never think that just because you can do an element, that means you can forget about it. What happens is, just as you get to where you feel that (say) your 3-turns are rather good, they go and make them harder! The goalposts are always, always, always moving in this sport!

So don't be offended when your coach asks you to work on forward crossovers a year from now - I can absolutely guarantee you that will happen! And the more time you spend working on your basic skating, no matter how good you get, the more it will pay off. You simply can't work too hard on your turns and edges, and you'll see even the elite, star skaters spend lots of time working on them. I'm sure you're longing to jump and spin - and it won't be very long before you do, either - but do bear in mind that the best jumps and spins come from a very strong and solid background. If you get a chance to learn to dance, take it - at the beginner levels the skills are complementary, and it's sensible to learn both at first, and specialise when you have a few tests under your belt in both disciplines! They are overlapping more and more these days, anyway.

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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!

Nice job.

I can tell you how I progressed to a good hockey stop. It helped that I was a downhill skier for many years before learning to skate. Try slaloming down the ice and get the feel for the rhythmic down-up-down while weaving your legs underneath. Continue doing this ever more aggressively until you begin to feel your edges breaking free. Now choose one side or the other (you'll hockey stop better on the same side that you T-stop on better) while agressively slaloming and instead of rising up and swinging your legs to the other side, stay low and let your edges continue to slide. Again, again, again...

Well, last night I was really on...today I could barely manage 3 rotations, and not as fast.

I totally, totally agree! I have learned so many things that at one point I thought would be impossible, but at this point I don't want to learn anything beyond FS1 level for a while. I have a lot of refinement to do, two people now have told me now what I was already aware of - my arms are horribly sloppy and go any which way they need to help my balance, which is bad. I'm also working past the habit of looking down which I'll do from time to time...I want to focus hard on getting my basic skills refined and looking good. One thing nice is that the rink got pretty empty for the last hour last night, so I was able to focus on clockwise stuff. My roomate and another skater both asked me today why I was bothering to do the waltz jump in both directions - that I was wasting my time. My response was simply because I can - I want to skate ambidextrously as much as possible.

By the way, when you say dance, do you mean ice dancing, or ballet or something? I have thought about both...

Learning some skills in the opposite direction is good, it is not a waste of time. So go for it! I think Mrs. Redboots means Ice Dance which is good for skating. Ballet is great also, it'll help your body positions on the ice and make them look nicer! An arabesque, another name for the "Spiral", is where your gliding on one foot and the other leg lifts up 90 degrees or more. A half flip is where you 3 turn on the left foot for counter clockwise then pick your right foot in the ice and jump one half rotation to the left. Bunny hop is a forward jump where you pick your right or left foot in the ice behind you then kick the same foot through land on it then step on the other foot and glide. Hope this isnt too confusing.

Ice dancing. As a beginner skater, you really should learn some ice dance as well as free skating! In my opinion, anyway - and if you want to be well and truly run after by the ladies, you'll focus on dance!

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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!

J English Rocks! Now there is some good advice from a wise man!

And funny, too.

At the end of my fitting I emerged out into the main waiting area where several people were waiting for Jonathan. I thanked him and shook his hand, at which point he slyly winks so that only I could see him Then he tells me in a concerned tone "... be careful doing your doubles with this new toe pick".

I loved it. Here I am switching from hockey skates to my first pair of figure skates, and he has the whole room thinking I can jump and do doubles.

What a hoot.