it looks like i may be taking private lessons soon (yay!). so i was just wondering what happens in the first lesson? i guess it's just the coach evaluating your skating? also how badly would 2 weeks of not skating effect skating? or is it different for everyone? my first lesson would probably be in a week or 2, but i won't have time to skate until next friday, which could be the day of my first lesson. ;i just don't want to forget the few things i know. i'm pretty sure my back 3's and clockwise 3's are going to be gone, since i had just started getting them on the day of my last private lesson. but i'm excited to be able to take private lessons.

Yes, your coach will probably start you off with the basics -- stroking, crossovers, etc. and then move on to see what else you can do. If you have specific goals, you'll probably want to discuss them with your coach.

For example, one of my main goals was more power in my skating and more comfort on the ice. Getting turns, spins and jumps was actually not a main goal because I knew how much work my stroking needed (and still does!).

I always try to warm up for at least half an hour before my coach gets there, so I never schedule a lesson at the beginning of a session. I'm lucky in that my lesson is usually fairly early on a Saturday morning on darn-near-empty ice and during the last half hour of a 1 1/2 hr session. Then there's a resurface and my power skating follows immediately. On a good Saturday, I could skate from 7:30AM-9:30AM on the freestyle, then 9:45-10:15 for power skating.

The longer I have to warm up, the better I skate. And I spend the first 15 minutes on the ice stroking -- doing laps of stroking, crossovers, swing rolls and cross rolls. Some days, I don't even get to the three turns because I get focused on stroking and want to keep working on it.

Anyway, warm-up well and have fun!!!

About being away from the ice for several weeks....I've actually noticed that it can actually *help* my moves, especially the ones I'm not really good at. But I don't think you can forget how to do anything. I took a summer off once, and I was doing everything I could do before after about 15 mins of warmup.

Good luck with your lessons! I just started taking privates too and it's awesome