Exactly!!! Most people's limitations are mentally preconceived. Unless you have a physical ailment or disability, you can go as far you mentally believe you can. If you got a good coach who is experienced with working with adult skaters, s/he will probably push you past those beliefs.

I wasn't very athletic either. As a matter of fact I was very overweight!!!
I was just determined and I'm a little bit crazy. So I have no fear of falling on the ice. My coach tells me to try something, and I just listen and try to cross my ankles while airbourne. LOL If you are in relatively good shape, the only thing that holds you back is you.

Call me an optimist.

BlackManSkating

__________________
Proud to be one of the few black men out on the ice

Goals
Pass my Silver Moves Test
Finish Choreography for Silver Program
Land a Clean Double Toe and Double Lutz
Work on Double Axel and Rockers
Speed up back Camel

Hey not an overly optimist. I too found the feet crossing easy (well at least on the loop, the other jumps I needed to add a loop behind to cross), it's mental. It's the keeping the rotational axis straight thing that's a problem for me (maybe because of lack of personal coaching though, since group class is the default here in the Netherlands).

Fear is a BIG DEAL.

I've seen teenagers scared to jump simply because they're scared or embarrassed to fall.

And then I've seen adults in their 50s learn at an amazing pace simply because they have no fear of falling.

And then there are people who gossip and start to believe how scary or difficult skating can be past a specific level or element (e.g. axel) and end up psyching themselves or others around them out.

The bottom line is : Stay TRUE to yourself and know your limitations. Just because you didn't get far today doesn't mean you won't tomorrow. And don't listen to those naysayers.

__________________
Keep Evolving. "From this moment forward, every voice that told you - You Can't - , has been silenced." - Freedom Writers

Amen, amen, amen!

Wow you guys, you are all so inspiring! I am doing the group lesson thing since I am just pre-alpha, but I really feel like I'm not being challenged. I can do the moves required for my level with no problems. I dont want to ask my coach to move me up....but I wish he would. One day we had a sub coach and she came up to me and said she expected my coach to move me up next week because if i can do crossovers (what I was doing waiting for the other skaters to finish something else) than I shouldn't be in this class. Soooo....long story short, i haven't moved up yet. I just think the coach keeps people in the class the whole time regardless if it is too easy.

I am thinking of hiring a private coach just so that I can be challanged, and also so that they can recommend an appropriate group class level for me. I feel like after hearing all of your responses I would benefit from alittle one on one so I can excel at the level I think I can. Dont worry, I dont want to slack on the basics at all, but I feel pretty confident with the basic skating they teach in this class and want something new and exciting!!!

Tiara

Even a few lessons with a private instructor will be very helpful. Before committing to a lesson, make sure the coach has a list of what skills needs to be mastered at each level so that he/she can help you fill in any gaps you might need to move up a level or two.

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

I agree !!!

I have my up and down days as an adult skater. Some days I feel like I can accomplish much and others I get stressed out and feel like I can't do anything right. I'm guessing this is pretty normal for anyone who skates. =-) My sad days are generally how hard it is to learn things as a true adult skater. Most of my peers skated as children and I get frusterated how much they know and how much I have to learn.

teresa

But please know its hard to learn skating period, no matter what the age. Even though most kids arent afraid of falling, it does take young skaters a long time as well.

Nah! Ask the coach if you can move up... and ask the coach who's in Beta to test you up. If you're not feeling like you're challenged enough and there is a group class that would challenge, I'm all for it.

Tiara... I believe you when you say you won't slack off the basics... b/c a good coach won't let you slack off the basics if you TRY!!! They're EVILLE like that...

If you can afford a private coach, by all means, try 15 minute lessons to start and if you feel you need more than gradually go up in lesson time. I did that while I was still in somewhere between Gamma and Delta and it got me to the point where group lessons were too easy back then for me. (I know one guy who was starting out as a Pre-Alpha like you but missed the schedule to get into a group class. He ended up taking lessons with my primary coach for a while until the next group class. When he finally was able to get into a group class, he ended up just sticking with private lessons. In two short years, he ended up becoming a better skater than ME!!! )

__________________
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!!!

Well Tiara don't jump to conclusions... I do group class too but we have different instructors. There's one for which everything is always fine. If you CAN do crossovers, you should go to the next group, etc. She doesn't even seem to care very much if kids are flutzing instead of lutzing.
Then there's another who's so critical that she brings kids to tears, but I for one find her detailed critique very refreshing: I'm there to learn, and I won't learn if the coach tells me that everything's fine. So if you can do crossovers, she'll tell you to push off more, point your toes, mind your chin, arch your back, raise or drop one of your arms more, go deeper, etc. Truth is, with crossovers and edges, even when you can do them, you're FAR from "done" with them.
Then there's another coach who's also very critical but in a milder sort of way, but she's always critical about the things the other coach doesn't seem to notice. She's good weeding out purely technical errors that slip by others and she's interested in your tracings on edges: they seem to tell her a whole story, like an Indian with footsteps on the ground or something, LOL!

So before you declare that you should be moved up because you can do crossovers... Well it's not that I don't believe you. But your coach might feel that you can't practice certain basics too much. And I kind of agree with her. If you can do crossovers, try taking a circle a yard or 2 outside of everybody's path and keep up (you'll have to travel much faster), concentrate on pushing off, on looking up (not down on the ice), eliminating the stepping on the crossovers, on pointing your push off toe on the forward crossovers... You'll discover you can keep yourself quite occupied with that.

You remind me of the beginning of the outdoor season when several people were telling me how nice my edges were and how good my skating looked. Then my lesson started and my coach proceeded to tell me in no uncertain terms that I was too slow, not down in the ankles, bending at the waist, and generally looking really sloppy.

It was funny, but of course I do not pay her to say "Liz, you look lovely, don't change a thing." That is my husband's job, and he's good at it.

__________________
It's all about the dress!

I'm no coach, but I have assisted as a volunteer, and taught a bit in another sport. It's incredibly hard to teach much seriously within a group lesson context. I've had two group lesson teachers in my life who were really good at teaching group lessons - one in school, one in sport. The vast majority just get frustrated and babysit.

Part of what you get with one private coach as opposed to many group coaches, or a succession of private coaches, is one style of motion.

The choice which private coach can be important, because of the style switching problem, and because skating organizations make it difficult for a coach to "steal" another's student. Watch them teach, watch their students. Do they have fun? Do they teach/learn the same way you do?

You could take privates from several teachers at first, making it clear beforehand that you are not committing to them, and are trying out a few. A coach who won't agree to that isn't confident they can hold onto students, perhaps with reason.

I think the biggest thing in entry level skating is to completely commit your balance to one foot, for many seconds, especially while skating on the outside edge, which involves an overbalance (compensated for by centrifugal force, BTW). Based on my volunteer teaching experience, most of the kids trying to learn crossovers, turns and spins had trouble because they still hadn't managed to commit their weight completely. Once you have that right, you can balance or place the other foot wherever you want. It's hard cuz they are afraid they will fall over and hurt themselves.

The obvious way to get over most of your fear of falling is to practice it. Then it will be easy (?) to commit all your weight to one foot, and go as fast as you want. www.geocities.com/grunes/falling.html has my ways of falling.

Wow that's a great article on falling. For those dealing with FEAR of falling and/or jumping checkout " The "Evil" Adult" and "The Adult Athlete" .

Best statement I've heard : " Once you master it, falling is not a means of injury, but a means of preventing it. Falling safely is a basic component of the human design."

__________________
Keep Evolving. "From this moment forward, every voice that told you - You Can't - , has been silenced." - Freedom Writers

Hi Sessy,
In the class that I am in right now, we are only doing forward and backwards swivels, backwards wiggles, and skating on one foot for like 1 second.

The class i am in doesn't teach ANYTHING else. I can do all of the skills taught in this class well. I am spending my time sitting waiting for everyone to finish backwards swizzles ect. I want a coach who will correct my each and every error. I want to be challenged and have a class that will teach me something new that I dont already know how to do, or help me refine what I can do (crossovers for instance...they can use ALOT of work, and I want a class that actually teaches crossovers so i can spend 8 weeks improving on that). KWIM? Its not that I think if I can do crossovers I should be moved up, its that what my class is doing is so elementary my coach cant offer me any tips for improvment. That is why I want a private coach, so that they can knit-pick my faults and really help me to improve rather than just maintain.

Tiara- can you tell your instructor that?

Say "I feel like I have the basic idea of this move, and I'd really like it if you can be more picky in what you expect from me. I'd really like more corrections"

Some instructors don't want to discourage new skaters- it's really a fine line to cross.

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

Jessi, thats a great suggestion! I will ask my instructor at the next lesson!

tiara

I really do know how you feel, been there myself - but the result of that has been that every time we have a guest coach or I take a class at mom's skating club or just skate at my rink, the first thing that happens is that I get compliments on my 3-turns cuz I've done those enough to make me nauseous. Try swizzles with more power and speed and see if it's still easy, try to get a feel for how the skate digs, rips into the ice without scratching with the toepicks. But that's just a patch, I DO agree that you should really discuss this with your coach. Private lessons are always a good idea too if you can afford them.

Unrelated (kinda), there's even professional skaters who put swizzles in their programmes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C024mPXU76Y
time index 00:21 and 1:32 among others.

Sorry to be coming late into this discussion, but there are a couple of things I can't resist adding. Query's comments about "average" have some merit...but, as pointed out, average is just what you aren't if you stick with it, do your practices regularly, take lessons, get private coaching and so forth.

8 weeks? My crossovers are *vastly* better (F&B) than they were when I passed Basic 4 and Basic 5 (USFSA LTS levels), but that doesn't keep my coach from continuing to go back and add new aspects for me to work on. (I've been working toward the adult bronze moves test since I passed the pre-bronze test in August; those of you who have passed it or are working on it know that most of the patterns on it require BXOs--and the technique has to be good to get down the length of the rink in 4 crossovers.) We spent most of Friday's lesson on that, again...

Anyway, just as an idea of what's possible, I'll say that I'm 46 and have been skating seriously (preparing for tests) for about two years, with a year's worth of group lessons and basic skills coaching before that, and a 20 year gap since I'd last put skates on before *that*. I have the advantage of having a skating son, so I get to spend a fair amount of time at the rink, usually skating four days a week (to his five) for an hour and a half or so, with an hour of instruction scattered through the week. I am doing dance, and have passed the first two levels of testing (six dances) and the first moves test. I'm working on two of the three dances of the bronze level at the moment as well as the second moves test. That's the internal skating benefit, as it were--external to skating, it's also left me 50 pounds lighter and vastly more fit than I was a few years ago. I've no desire to return to average in that respect!

Keep at it, and welcome to the AOSS crowd.

Rob