I mentioned to another skater in my group that it usually takes me at least an hour before I get into doing my best skating. She agreed, but also made the observation that as time goes on, for any particular element, it takes less and less time for her to 'warm it up'.

I never skated as a child, so I don't know if this feeling of needing an hour of ice time is new to being in my 30s or not. Certainly doesn't happen to me to the same degree with other sports I've tried. I skate at least three times a week too, so it's not as if I need to recover from a long layoff.

Sun: I think everyone is different, but I agree that adults tend to take longer to get their skate legs back. I have reduced my warm up time by a lot but still require at least 10 minutes of stroking to just work my feet out then I do a specific warm up of edges, cross overs, strokes, 3 turns and spins ..usually by then I am better to go on with what ever I need to practice. I think putting structure to my warm up helped as it sort of conditioned my mindset of being ready.

If I arrive too early to get on the ice..I will usually put my skates on. I think that helps with my feet being familiar again with expectations or something.lol. I center faster when I have had a few minutes in the boots before ever hitting the ice. Not sure if that is just in my head..but it works for me!

Good luck!

Sunjoy: Your observation is similar to mine. I probably peak in my abilities at the one hour mark.

I can do fairly well after 1/2 hour though, but an hour is better to get the knees where they should be and have most of the basic moves warmed up.

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Bill Schneider

Yep, it takes me at least 45 minutes before I'm ready to skate my program.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I'm 57 and have been skating for a year, usually 4 2 hour session each week. It used to take me a good 30 minutes to be anywhere near warmed up and I had to ease into whichever moves were the newest. Two things have helped to shorten that time considerably: #1 - a thorough off-ice warm up and #2 - diving right into some quick moves when I first get on the ice (turns, footwork). Just getting everything moving and "loosened up" seems to work for me. Now, I just have to get that down to 4 minutes before competition in 9 weeks!

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

Hey Rusty Blades, what do you do for your thorough off ice warm up?

Yeah, that's how long I took to warm up on ice before I did sectionals last year. I was lucky that it was just at one ice surface...and my event coincide with the evening public session at the other rink!!! So I skated enough just to get my spins and a couple of jumps before I walked over to the other rink to skate my event!

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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!!!

Hi,

I too didn't skate as a child. I've always skated with an old injury too. Anyhow, I need at least 20 minutes to skate my best even if I warm up off ice first. I don't need to find my skating legs like when I miss skating for a bit but I always need that warm up period.

teresa

You would have to ask that, wouldn't you! I do whatever I remember to do I am a person who is habitually early for everything so this is what I do (less whatever I forget):

Stretches/flexibility (at least 10 minutes):
Hamstring, torso (forward, back, to the sides), arms, legs (forward, back, to the side), torso rolls, neck rolls, arm rolls (both ways), deep spiral (both legs)

Speed/quickness (10 minutes or more):
Baby steps forward, backward, to the left, to the right
Cross-over baby steps left and right
Cross-over baby steps on the diagonal (4 directions)
Rotational steps CW & CCW (these I added to work on my closed hips: put your left foot down as close to 180 degrees from the right foot as I can, snap the right foot over beside the left, repeat, etc.)
Splits

The first set seems to help get the muscles loosened up and the last set of quickness moves really helps warm up the old muscles at 6 a.m.

For me at least it seems that the total time from arriving at the rink to being warmed up is the same but I have managed to move more of it to off-ice time.

I should put the whole thing on my iPod, with music and voice to remind me to do everything!

Most of my warm up is adapted from "Conditioning for Figure Skaters", adapted for an old broad who doesn't do jumps (yet!) and avoids getting down on the dirty floor.

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

The time needed to feel warmed up and confident on the ice does shorten as you progress and gain confidence in your own ability. I would say though that I find the 2.5 minutes warm-up time allocated to us in competition to be way too short. Now if they could allow us at least 6 minutes, I'd feel a whole lot better about going out and doing my hardest jumps!

Nicki

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www.myspace.com/insatiableskater

I do take ages to warm up. My group lessons on a Tuesday allow no time to skate before and I am often rusty and slow, yet my alone practice afterwards I do stuff which I really couldn't do in the lessons!

I have private lessons on Thursdays, which vary in time, and I much prefer the later one as it gives me a chance to skate for at least 30 mins before the lesson starts and I feel that I make much more progress in that lesson.

I am just hoping this will improve as I get better as I have only been skating a realitively short time.