how often do you skate & for how long? How do you balance that with school or work, and how difficult is it to do so? How many lessons do you take per week? How much is too much?

(haha I used the word "how" way too many times, but I am quite curious to know the answers!)

Ok, I'm old (58) and not a very good skater (yet), so I am not going to the Olympics but I skate 3 times a week, 1-1/2 to 2 hours each time so that's 4.5 to 6 hours a week. About 1-1/2 hour each week is with my coach and I skate 11 months of the year - for 2-1/2 weeks in June and 1 week in August, there is no ice. I should be doing an equal amount of off-ice work but that never seems to happen.

Fortunately I work for a company that is a big supporter of amateur sports and I have flexible hours. I take the time off that I need for skating and I work extra hours any day I am not skating. Any hours that I am short at the end of the pay period comes off my vacation time.

A lot of the serious (young) competitors do more ice time than I do and a LOT more off-ice but I simply don't have any more time - I am either working, skating, or doing things I need to do to keep the household together. Which means no social life and no other entertainment.

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Like the previous poster, the Olympics are not on my horizon.
As an adult (middle-aged) skater, I have a full-time job, a husband and a 10yo daughter, plus one other hobby and lots of bills to pay.

I skate 3 times a week, x 2 hour sessions, though I usually don't push myself beyond 1.5 hours as I work myself pretty hard and have run out of steam by then.

I currently get one 15 minute lesson per week, but am hopefully upping that to 2 x 15 minute lessons shortly. 15 minutes is not enough for me!

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

On average it is three times a week for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Some weeks it is twice and some weeks it is four times. However I am going to be taking up Dance in the next few months so I think it is going to be four times a week consistently soon. As for lessons, at the moment I have one 30 minute and one 15, but when Dance comes into the equasion too it will, hopefully, be another 30 minute.

As for doing it around work, I am lucky that I have a very reasonable employer. The days I skate before work I get in five minutes late which allows me to get a later bus, and days that I skate in the evenings I leave about ten minutes early to get an earlier bus! One Friday recently I had to be at the rink very early evening, and one of the managers lent me her car parking space!

Luckily for me it isn't too complicated, although sometimes I do wish I didn't have to get up at 4:30am, or get to bed at 11pm because of going skating!

I do around 5 or 6 sessions of 1 and a half to 2 hours in session. I average around 10 hours of ice time per week.

I also currently attend the gym on a daily basis and alternate what I do. Usually a mixture of core work in the stretch room, swimming and some cardio.

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If you want the best seat in the house, you'll have to move the cat!

It's been a pretty good summer for skating time. Son and I have usually been skating together for 2-3 days of 1 1/2 hour freestyle. He gets two 1 1/2 hour days without me, and I usually get a day with a single session and a lesson without him. Sometimes we'll pick up a convenient Saturday public session just to keep moving. So, I'm usually skating about 4-5 days a week to his 5-6. I've usually got an hour's worth of lessons in an irregular distribution, and he's got 80 minutes. School starts again on Monday, though, so we'll probably be down a day per week (or more, if his academic program is really as tough as the school has been claiming.)

Rob

We skate four times a week, for between 1 and 2 hours (it does vary!) per time. And occasionally more. We have an hour's lessons each per week - 45 minutes as a couple, and 15 minutes each separately.

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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 skate 5 days a week 2 hours a day, but sometimes it varies. like on wednesdays i usually skate around 3hrs, and on saturdays i only do one but usually for the rest of the week its 2hrs. i have 2 lessons, and once our ice dance coach gets back i want to take a lesson from him a week.

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I try to skate 3 times a week - we are in between club ice and I don't like public ice, nor is it easy for me to get away in the middle of the day so I'm not on schedule. If I could afford more, I would.

This fall I've contracted for 6-6:30 am power class and then 6:30 -7:30 am practice ice on Mondays...and a group adult class - 1/2 hour instruction and half hour practice on Sunday afternoons. I've never done that before, but I'm trying to save money and get extra instruction so we'll see.

That's all I can afford of club ice since I'm buying 4 hours a week for my daughter. But there is public freestyle Wednesdays from 5:45-6:45am so I'm going to do that and there may be more offered on friday and I may do that.

Lessons - I take a half hour dance and moves with a less experienced but the only dance coach. She's getting better. I grab a lesson with my daughter's more experienced (and more expensive) freestyle coach whenever I can. 15 minutes with her goes a long way.

j

Not enough - I'm an adult skater but still need to train more. When I'm not preparing for a test I skate twice a week. I simply can't afford more right now, not with private lessons too. Aggravating - I could be SO MUCH further along than I am if I could skate more. If we had more evening public sessions near me I probably would skate more, those are cheaper (I won't go to the Fri-Sat evening ones - not helpful for figure skating)

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

When we have ice, I usually manage about 8-12 hours per week depending upon my work schedule.

It's about 7 sessions on ice (everyday except for Tuesdays and Thursdays). I have two 1/2 hour lessons per week.

I manage to add an additional 2 hours at the roller rink on Thursdays using my PIC skates just for fun.

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Bill Schneider

Not very much
This summe I taught LTS on Tuesdays from 5:15-6:15, took a group lesson from 6:15-6:45, and then skated for 30-40 minutes and had a private lesson for 30 minutes. That was all on Tuesdays Occasionally I would fit 30-60 minutes in on Sunday, but not very often. My work schedule is not very conducive to getting to the rink during public sessions.

However, this fall, I'm going to try a bit of a change.
I will skate
Tuesday: (LTS teaching 5:15-6:45), private lesson 7:00-7:30, practice 7:30-8:00.
Wednesday: Synchro- 1 hour on ice (I think)
Saturday: 9:15-9:45 power class, 9:45-10:15 group class, (and then possibly teach LTS for another hour).
I will also try to get that 30-60 minutes in on Sunday.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

I try to skate at least 3-4 times a week, and usually end up skating about 5 or 6. Each for about an hour.

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I take a 30-minute group lesson once per week, and practice three days a week, for an hour or two at a time. I go more often if possible

As for work, i am a nurse and usually work 12-hour shifts. That means three or four days off work each week to skate. It's hard trying to get up and skate when working night shifts, but I feel worse if I don't skate!

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Living out my childhood dream

I aim for 4-5 days a week.

In the recent good ol' days, when I was in law school, I could do that easily by going to the empty public sessions in the middle of the day.

Now, my skating schedule is going to be something like: 1-2 public sessions on the weekend, 2 club sessions at the crack of dawn during the week, a short synchro session one evening and my lesson on my lunch break.

Currently, I'm taking 1 1-hour lesson a week. Soon, that will only be 1 half-hour lesson a week due to looming student loan repayments. I hope hope hope that when I'm finally an attorney (IF I'm finally an attorney), I can afford to get my extra half-hour back.

I try to skate at least 3-4 days a week, anywhere between an hour to two hours each day. Tuesdays and Thursdays I get about two and a half hours on ice because of synchro, dance, and freestyle.

I skate singles and on my university's synchronized skating team, coach, go to college and have lots of homework, and intern at a magazine, so I'm pretty much the queen of time management, hahaha!

For me, I skate usually only skate in the mornings before school, which means that I have to get up at 4:30 a.m. (which doesn't bother me at all!) to be at the rink ready to go on the ice for 6:00 a.m. for synchro practice. I usually skate or have lessons until somewhere between 8:30-9:00 a.m. depending on the day. After practice, I go home and get some homework done before class, which doesn't start until 11:00 a.m. M, W, F and 2:00 on T, TH. As for coaching, that's done in the afternoons after class, and typically I go straight from school to the rink. I coach Tuesdays (when needed), Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays usually until 5:50 p.m. at the latest. After that there's dinner, homework, downtime, and shower/primping time, and the routine starts all over again the next day!

I take two lessons a week (one freestyle, one dance) for about a half an hour - 45 minutes each lesson. That seems to work out pretty well for me, as I practice a lot and work really hard during my lessons. (I've passed 5 dances, my Silvers - Pre-Golds in 10 weeks, so it can be done!)

As for when its too much...for me, that would be when I run out of money. But considering that I'm teaching so many private lessons a week, I've been doing all right. I just make sure that I don't spend money on non-necessities. I think that each inidividual needs to base their skating around their own personal work, family, and extracirricular activities, financial capabilities, and skating goals.

You're a dedicated lot!
I normally do only about 2 or 3 hours once a week, but (as being self-employed and working outdoors) if the weather is bad, I do an extra 1 to 3 hour session in such an event.
Going by the weather in June / July this year, you can imagine that I got quite a few hours in each week! This month (which has seen summer finally arrive ), I'm back to normal, though I'm also reaping the rewards of those 'wet' sessions.

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I skate five mornings a week, with some afternoons if I have time on top of that. Usually between 10-15 hours a week. This includes a 30 min. lesson with my dance coach and a 30 minute lesson with my freestyle/MITF coach.

Outside of skating, I'm going to law school and have a 20-hour-a-week job in a law firm. I balance it all by not going out during the week, going to bed around 8-8:30, and using my weekends as errand-running/recouperation time! I also manage my time extremely carefully, making sure I know which hours are reserved for homework, school, work, skating, off-ice, etc.

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"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass

I used to do 5 days a week at 2-3 hours a day. And i took lessons 4 times a week at 20-30 minute sessions. That was prior to breaking my leg. My leg is still broken (able to skate due to a rod in leg) and right now i am doing 4 days a week at about an hour a day and taking 3 20 to 30 minute lessons a week. When leg fully heals i will return to the first times.

I skate 4 times a week

Monday - 1 hr practice
Tuesday - 30mins practice, 30mins FS lesson
Thursday - 30mins practice, 30mins FS lesson
Sunday - 1hr 30mins practice, 30mins dance lesson, 30mins stroking class

I also have another 30mins dance lesson a week whenever dance teacher can fit me in but it isn't regular.

So that is 2hrs lessons, 30mins group lesson, 3hr 30mins practice
TOTAL - 6 hrs

You are all quite determined! I'm inspired - now I hope I can be as disciplined as you all are! :-)

For me it's not an issue of discipline - I only need discipline to do things I don't particularly want to do. It's a matter of money, time and available ice. If I had all that, I'd skate everyday.

j

I skate every waking minute (I wish). I skate 3days a week for 2.5hrs and sometimes more, but I wish I could skate even more. I used to skate during gym classes, lunch time, and recess because they were all lined up together so I could for 1.5hrs everyday. But now I can't and I changed schools and this one isn't just a couple of minutes from the rink. I have 2-3lessons everyday I skate so that would be 6-9lessons a week. I usually do my homework on the school bus to and from school and on the weekends. I don't have time after school because 3nights skating and 2nights other sports.

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2014 and 2018 Olympics here I come!

Skating, skating all day long, skating, skating all night long! May seem tiring to some people but not me, it's my life!!

Goals: Triple Loop, Novice Competitive, Sr.Silver Dances, Gold Artistic, and top 3 at Sectionals

I guess that's true for me too... but homework is one of those things I don't want to do! Lol. This past year was already so overwhelming with work & extracurriculars that I already did mediocre work to get by with B's and nearly failed Foundations of Financial Markets... I'm hoping skating will help me focus?

I skate 4 times a week... and it's still not enough!!!

Sun - 1.5 hr
Mon - 1-1.5 hr (depends on how tired I am and whether DH, who walks me to my car for my safety, wants to go home right then and there.)
Wed - 1 hr (well, a little less than actually... more like 50 minutes.)
Thurs - 1 hr
I need to add in a day somewhere but the problem is... with this plus work and my gym workouts 3 days a week... I'm BEAT!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!