Hi everyone, I just started skating lessons 5 weeks ago and am very pleased with myself because I just passed all levels up to Beta on Saturday and will be starting Gamma this week!

My instructor told me we are focusing on 3-turns and mowhawks, etc and this stuff is all new to me! Before I start learning, is there anything I should know about edges, balance, etc? Is it ok to try to teach myself the more advanced edges on my own or should I wait for proper instruction before attempting them?

Thanks in advance! Please feel free to share any skate advice you might have to a new adult skater. (BTW, I'm 21)

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Sasha Fan
Supporter of Alissa and Amber Czisny

Congrats on your great progress! My #1 advice to you is to bend your knees!

Quite often, beginners (and especially adult beginners) tend to skate with knees that are too stiff. If your knees are too stiff, you can't get into turns and edges easily. Therefore, the basic edges and turns become that much harder.

So, bend your knees until you think they are bent enough....then bend them some more. Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress.

(PS - I am an adult working on double jumps. Guess what my coach told me at the beginning of my lesson last week? Yup. He told me I was getting lazy and needed to get down in my knees more. So it just goes to show you that it never ends!! )

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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

My congrats on your progress too! I have coached self-learners a few times, and since you are already taking lessons, my opinion is that you should wait to be taught new moves. Very often, when a skater picks things up just from watching, they get it wrong and then have to deal with bad habits later on.

There is so much involved in even relatively simple moves that coaches break them down into small elements and add on as the student progresses. For example, I might show a student an edge pattern and then ask them to put their free foot down and skate two footed at a certain point so they can focus on their shoulder position and the necessary rotation. After the rotation is correct, they can begin working on keeping the free leg in place properly and doing the move on one foot. Learning by yourself, you would not know to do that and would likely miss an important part of the move, such as shoulder position, rotation, or free leg position.

Keep us posted on your progress

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Thanks so much, sk8er1964 and dbny! I will remember the advice. And I will bend my knees! Funny you said that because for awhile when I was learning back crossovers, I couldn't get them. Guess what the problem was? No knee bending!

I will let you know how the lessons go!

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Sasha Fan
Supporter of Alissa and Amber Czisny

Maybe we can save you from "the click of death" On B crossovers, if you happen to rise up during the crossover part, your crossing foot can easily knock your other foot right out from under you, and down you go! It's a club most of us belong to.

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Hee! Yep. The killer thing about these (and why they're so spectacularly named) is that time seems to slow wayyy down when this happens--but not enough to save yourself! It's 'click'..time lag..'oh crap!'..time lag..THUD and sliide.

I've also been a self-taught skater (out of necessity), and I would totally agree that at this basic level, you really need to have a coach teach you. Edges are the foundation of skating, and you don't want to get them wrong if you can help it.

As a member of the "click of death" hall of fame....

I think my coach reminds me at least once every lesson to "stay down in your knees".

The knees are first, then pay attention to the arms and shoulders. For edges on a circle, the general rules are "opposite arm for inside edges" and "Same arm for outside edges." Really lift your arms -- even if you screw up the feet, your posture will impress (and maybe save) you! Coaches refer to these as "checks" that help keep your body aligned to perform the maneuver.

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Thanks again everyone for all of the great advice!

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Sasha Fan
Supporter of Alissa and Amber Czisny