Hi....

I went skating again today and the skates are feeling better already....
Im also going faster now and i've tried skating more on the back of the skate than the front, if you know what i mean...

My lessons are starting on Wednesday, and im so excited, then i'll be asking the coach where to sharpen them etc.

I think my technique for turning around is just horrible and I need to work on that, as i've seen some skaters turning so easily. But I'll get the correct technique with my classes and also to keep my balance when im going backwards.

The Figure skates has comforted me alot more on the ice than the hockey skates have though, and im loving it!

Well, I actually did use my hand-held to put the initial edge on my (factory-sharpened) blades. But--I had been skating for a while at the time, and had paid attention to how sharpening is done, and know the difference between a good and bad sharpening. It took some time to do the initial sharpening, but for me, it was worth it.

HOWEVER. For a beginner, I would most certainly recommend a 'professional' sharpener, and NOT a hand-held. If you have a rink to skate on, you have someone in the area who has a sharpening machine. Ask your coaches where they go, and ask the better skaters where they go for sharpenings. I would never, never recommend to a beginner that they do it themselves.

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"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
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www.signingtime.com ~sign language fun for all!

Dear all,

I am just learning and haven't got my own skates yet. Can I just ask - when the blade slide outwards that means it needs to be sharpened - it slides outwards because it is blunt and has no grip on the ice - have I got this right?

As far as I know that is correct.
I took my skates to a proffesional sharpener today and he said that is was blunt, and he sharpened it nicely for me!

Blunt means sharp. Edges slip when they are dull, and that's when they need sharpening.

Actually, blunt and dull mean the same thing. As in, a butter knife is a blunt knife. A paring knife is a sharp knife. Sorry--just the English major in me.

__________________
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
--Thomas Jefferson

www.signingtime.com ~sign language fun for all!

My dictionary also reckon that blunt is dull....hehehe

So my first lessons started last night! Was awesome, they moved me up a class within 5 minutes because of I can do quite a bit already...

We did alot of basic stuff last night but mostly usefull things.

One thing new that I learned is to turn around, I ussualy turned around clockwise and last night they said I must to it anticlockwise, so now i have to learn that again but I reckon I will succeed with that.
We also learned to lift up one leg, forward and backward. Was not too bad.

They showed us how to do a 2 foot spin, but I just cant seem to start the movement to spin and then continue. Any advice one that ?

Thanks again..

Starting a two foot spin.... one thing we use with little kids is playing baseball. Clasp your hands and swing them as if you're swinging a bat. If you hold your arms out straight in the swing and have your weight planted between your feet, you should spin around without really trying. A couple times like that to get used to the rotation and then you can work on proper arm position.

I haven't played baseball before so I have no idea! We dont have baseball in South Africa.
What i'll do tonight is to try and hold my arms out and see if I start spinning.
On what part of your foot do you actually spin ?

Well.......in truth, you don't have to switch to counter-clockwise, at least, not unless there's a good reason. Your coach probably wants you to do that because it's easier for them to teach if everyone is skating in the same 'direction'. There are many elite skaters who skate clockwise, current Olympic champion Sarah Hughes among them.

Go ahead and try skating counter-clockwise, because as a brand-new beginner, you don't necessarily know whether it will be just as easy or natural for you as turning counter-clockwise. But if you find it super-difficult, ask your coach if they can please try teaching you to skate clockwise. It's no good to keep fighting against your natural direction for no reason.

Just remember that you will need to learn to do 'moves in the field' and turn in both directions. Clockwise or counter-clockwise really only affects jumps and spins.

__________________
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
--Thomas Jefferson

www.signingtime.com ~sign language fun for all!

True Flippet....
Its just feels so unnatural to go counter-clockwise. But I will keep practising and im sure that it wil work eventually....if not I will speak to my coach....

I can turn Counter clockwise only at very low speed, but when I pick up speed, I just cant do it!

Oh yea, I got my blades sharpened and they feel awesome now!

Just holding out your arms won't get the movement blue111moon was talking about.

Here's a look at a baseball swing: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~virtualized.../baseball.html

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"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

ahhh nice example.....quite differently than my coach explained it though, but I will give this one a shot tonight and see if it works!

How about a two-handed tennis shot for a visual?

Wow. I pride myself as a pretty good user of the English language, but you are totally right!! My entire life, I was wrong!! Haha. I just looked it up. So weird. I thought blunt meant sharp partly because of the expression "I am going to be blunt with you..." which usually hints at some honest, "sharp" comments, no "sugar coating", if you will. Oh well. I was wrong. Thanks for correcting me, I always enjoy learning new things.

I went skating again last night to practic all the moves my coach showed us.
So firstly I couldn't skate for like 20 minutes, just the laws of skating....

Then I started turning around at low speeds and start increasing the speed as i practice. So I got to turnaround at a slightly faster speed, but not as fast as I want to yet and I think my technicque is not correct yet aswell, but im doing it CCW atleast.

Then I did some backward Skating and tried the Backwards crossovers, which I just couldnt manage because I just saw the click of death coming...but I got pretty much closer to succeed in it...

After that, i started to practice a two foot spin.
I found a strange way to start spinning and I know this is totally incorrect probably. I use my right leg to give me a slight push and turn to start spinning on one foot and then put my other foot down next to it. At the end of the night I was spinning excellent on one foot and not so good on two feet.
I managed to do the two foot spin a couple of times but was struggling with it quite a bit, but I guess practice will make perfect in that!
I cant spin more than two 360's though....hehehe, but I guess with more confidence I will get there. I feel very confident on my skates now though!

OK this is bugging me, can anyone explain why a dull blade causes the skate to slide outwards?

Because when blades are dull there aren't good edges, which causes the blade to slip. The edge is what grips to the ice, so if there's nothing gripping to the ice, well, then, you slip.

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- Ashley

The blades will need to be sharpened
The stiffness will go away after a few weeks
Ask your coach
The toe pick is most likely bigger than what your used to