i want to know how to teach myself to skate properly, i have lessons, but i wan't to continue when that is over, if anyone has any tips or tricks for to try, please let me know!! i will be grateful for any response

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Tino14 at your service

I don't know what level you are at, but I used a book called 'Ice Skating, Steps to Success' by Kunzle Watson and DeArmond during my learn to skate lessons. It has great instructions, diagrams, tips for success, drills, check points, and describes common errors & corrections very well. Best way to improve is to go to the ice rink and practice frequently. I've heard some say that 30 min three times a week is better than spending 2 hrs once a week. Beyond the basic skills, it may be better to take lessons with a coach, although there are instruction manuals that can supplement advanced moves too.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

Get your teachers to show you exercises to practice after your course is finished - and do see if you can go on taking courses, or perhaps an occasional private lesson (even one lesson a month is better than nothing) so that you can go on making progress.

There are plenty of "learn to skate" books on the market - you don't say which country you're in, so I can't recommend anything specific, but try your local Amazon for recommendations.

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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!

I second altsk8er's recommendation of "Ice Skating: Steps To Success." Another one I like a lot is "The Fun Of Figure Skating" by Maribel Vinson Owens. It's an oldie (1961) but a goodie; long out of print but usually available through used book stores. Try looking for it at www.alibris.com.

Another suggestion is to google the archived posts of the newsgroup rssir (rec.sport.skating.ice.recreational) and look for specific topics that you're interested in working on. Lots of helpful advice there -- especially anything written by Janet Swan Hill, a legendary rssir poster who is both a figure skater and a judge as well as an incredibly gifted writer about the art/science of figure skating

Ellen

I agree with the above as I have a couple of those books as well.

What I have found out, however, is that if I go too long without a private lesson, I start to develop some bad habits that my coach has to break me of.

Today was a perfect example. I hadn't had a lesson in a month but have been practicing quite often on my own. Well we were running through the edges and when it came to my back outsides, she asked me where I picked up this little quirk. So we had to spend time to get rid of that.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

If you are tring to enhance your lessons, I HIGHLY recommend the Sports Illustrated Figure Skating book written by John Petkevich (sp?). It has a picture of Brian Boitano doing his "Tano" lutz on the front. It helped me tremendously, especially when I couldn't afford lessons.

1. Watch video tapes of a skater known for excellent technique and be prepare to do a lot of slow-mo/freeze-frame actions. Beware that it'll ruin your tape/vcr though

2. Here are two books that I really like and have helped me:
(a) Nancy Kerrigan's book (I don't remember the name) - great pictures and sound advice on techniques.
(b) the Sport Illustrated book with Boitano on the cover. Also very good pictures and description.

3. If you see a good skater practicing during your skating session, ask him/her for some advice.

Keep the lessons going! You always need a pair of eyes to look at exactly what you are doing! Even when I feel things are good my coach can always make a point about how to make it BETTER!!!

At least the once a month deal would be better than none. I am in the depths of the madening world of adult skating so I am completely obsessed and would never imagine going on with out a coach....especially one who is not as demanding as mine...he's the best!

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Why are you skating so slowly? Get out of my way!

If you skate faster, it makes everything look better!

But you don't see a coach being not demanding as a problem? For example, when I took lessons several years ago and saw videotape of myself skating, I saw that I was bobbing up and down during cross overs. I couldn't understand why my coach never said anything about it. It definitely made me asked myself "What was I paying him for?"

Anyway, if you're comfortable already on the ice then you'll be fine going a few months without a coach.

I totally agree with this--It winds up taking forever to correct the bad habits I learn if I go unsupervised too long. My primary coach is off ice for a couple of weeks and no group lesson for the next two Saturdays, so I conned my group (secondary) coach into a lesson this morning. My primary coach is ok with this since they team coach me. It takes two of them to handle me!

I'm skating over the summer without lessons or a coach. I've got a list of basic things I work on at each skating session, just to keep from getting rusty:

swizzles-1-2 laps as a warm-up
slaloms-half-lap
basic stroking-front and back, usually 1-2 laps
crossovers-front and back; clockwise, counterclockwise on the circle 4 time each
edges-front and back; inside and outside, usually 2 times across rink
3-turns-inside and outside; left and right, a gazillion times!
power pulls-forwards & backwards (if I feel like it!)

Then, I'll work on:
2-foot spins-found out I'll need to test on these (I'm rusty) 10 times
scratch spin-however many it takes
waltz jump-again, however many it takes
then, spirals on left and right legs, inside and outside edges

If I tire earlier, or am colder, I cut things out. But I usually try to get most of this.

You could go over things you learned in lessons.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Hah, I've taught myself stuff for the past 4 years, and I don't think I've picked up that many horrendous habits...My first private lesson last week fixed a lot of them so if you have the capability, you should definitely take a private lesson. Most of your improvement will be through practice though. Even if you have the best coach in the world, you won't get very far without practice.

If you are lacking in time and money (like I was), forums like this and the RSSIR will tell you a lot about skating technique and how to do things. Watching others skate and work on things at the rink or on TV was also really helpful. I also had a friend I skated with and sometime we would look at each other's moves.

So yeah, I basically taught myself everything beyond a one-foot spin and a toe loop. I can do forward scratch, sit spin, backspins, camel not-really, salchow, loop, and flip. So it CAN be done - obviously I would have progressed much faster if I had had a coach, but it's not like you can't skate at all without one.

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"The ice is finer when the zombie goes over it!" - said by an excited 5-year-old at the rink

"The life you've led is in fact not the totality of what is possible for you." - John Partridge of Wheaton College (and a Matrix philosopher )

Well anyone who knows me will see *my* advice coming from a mile away. The only tip I can really give you is NOT to do it on your own. Since you say your lessons end soon, I'm assuming you're in group lessons, and probably at the basic skills/learn to skate level. That's just not making you proficient enough to teach yourself anything, IMO. If you had your singles, I'd still think it was a bad idea....but at least you could upkeep and maybe work on combos. But learn to skate level? Just a bad idea. Correct me if I have assumed wrong though.

I guess I would just advise for you to take one lesson here and there and write down everything your coach has you work on, as well as corrections- and work on it until you can see him/her again, and then work on stuff that's easier too, so you maintain it and become even better at those moves. Eventually though, you need to have a plan as far as coaching. You're not going to ever teach yourself to be a GOOD TECHNIQUE skater without having a coach at least some of the time. Sometimes doing something badly is worse than not doing it at all, and in the case of skating even more so, because you could REALLY injure yourself.

Just my thoughts. Good luck!

I agree. I have the Sports Illustrated Figure Skating book by John Misha Petkevich and it is quite helpful. It's not enough all by itself, but if you watch videos of good skaters and watch the elements frame by frame, that will help fill in some of the gaps. I also recommend the ISU instructional videos on jumps and spins, which I believe you can order online.

I think it's a good idea to have a coach, but not to make him/her your only source of learning. Also, understand that coaches often teach slightly different techniques using their own words. I don't teach loops from the inside 3turn, but others do. In the end, we're all teaching an outside edge entry, so no one is WRONG.

There's no harm in learning from books or videos. I've found that books with pictures often help explain things in a different way, which is important since we are all different. My idea of "lift your free leg" may be different from yours. Studying a picture in the book will help. Same thing with videos, btw, the PSA and ISU videos are very good.

I learned many things from my skating friends. We had a great circle of diverse skaters who watched, demonstrated, and critiqued each other. It kept all of us involved and increased sportsmanship. There's no harm in saying, "Watch this camel and tell me if I'm dropping my shoulders,please?" Just make sure you give back so you don't become a pest. Oh, and did I tell you? It's FUN to work with friends! I have a male friend who used to do side-by-side laybacks with me as a joke. It always cracked everyone up! (Still brings a smile to my face!)

Best of luck.

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My 2 cents: Talented people can learn a lot just watching and reading, but you can always spot them because of the technical aspects they haven't noticed or haven't become aware of due to not having someone else's critique. Eventually, those missing technical elements will hold you back, so do get as many lessons as you can afford, and also, as Isk8NYC said, find some skater friends to work with informally.

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What are your goals for skating long-term? Do you want to compete? Take tests beyond the learn-to-skate curriculum? Just skate and have fun? If all you want to do is skate and enjoy yourself, I reccommend the same books others have mentioned, as well as watching every skating event on TV, and taping them for future reference. I'm a very visual learner, and I tape compulsory dance every time it's on TV- not nearly often enough, in my opinion- so I can go back and watch them when I'm struggling. I just got a copy of the ISU video, which has been an absolute godsend.

If you want to test and/or compete, I would focus on improving the things you have learned, but I wouldn't attempt to teach yourself anything new, the reason being that it's really easy to teach yourself something that's wrong or even just a bit off. It's usually a lot harder to fix something once it's into your muscle memory that it is to learn it in the first place. Also, while most skating books have good information in them, occasionally I find that the older ones will have things described or explained in an old-fashioned way, not the way they're taught now.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

i taught myself how to skate. I just watched people do their moves and i learned myself. If you have any friends to skate. Ask them to explain their moves. good luck!