HOW TO START FIGURE SKATING | ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS ⛸️

Hello Internet friends, did you just watch the Beijing Winter Olympics and cry at how incredibly beautiful Yuzuru Honey is and then you

start

to wonder how the hell she does all that and then you

start

to wonder if there is any potential that I can do it myself ? of those cool spins on ice too and the answer is yes you can, but maybe don't try to use your darling's quad ax on the first day in the eyes. Welcome to the

ultimate

guide

for anyone looking to start

figure

skating

for the first time. especially those starting later in life, aka adult skaters, I will discuss everything from how to find the right coaches for lessons to what skits to buy as a beginner to work-life balance with

figure

skating

as an adult and if I can compete for the US Federation and how long does it take to see progress because there is a lot of adult figure skating and very little information.

I just want to post a video like this that details everything from my four years of experience as an adult figure skater. I know there are a lot of people trying to learn how to figure skate, but honestly, figure skating is one of the most inaccessible sports, which is the downside of figure skating. I started skating around the time the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics came around in 2018. Holy shit 2018 sounds like eons ago because of Panda, what better time to leave this during the peak season of the Winter Olympics for new people to get inspired and try something new anyway, information that is really useful for all of you.

The first thing I want to talk about. The question is how to find the right skates and blades as a beginner, because honey, I'm going to tell you right now that rental skates don't cut and they don't provide ankle support, so what I recommend you do when you start skating . I'm buying a pair of beginner skates that aren't that expensive. My beginner skates are literally bought on Amazon. They are called Jackson Ultima Mystique with the Mark II blade. Usually when you get ahead in figure skating you buy the boot and blade separately and then have someone professionally assemble it, but for a beginner skate like this the blade is ready to be pre-assembled so it's pretty easy .

Those are the skates I learned to skate on for the first four months of my trip, where literally all I did was learn how to skate. to go forward, backward, crossovers, uh, basic edges, no really jumps, no really turns, then around four months one of my trainers saw my skates and my blades and said no, no, those They're not going to be enough, so I bought a couple. of what I would call my intermediate skates, which is this model called jackson debuts, we'll put everything in the description below so you know what exact products I'm talking about so you know that jackson doesn't consider it ideas or any kind.

First off for me, I honestly wish they would sponsor this video because figure skating equipment is so expensive, but anyway I also bought this separate blade from Jackson and they are called a legacy blade when I transitioned to my intermediate skates. I wanted something. that might give me enough ankle support for basic jumps, so nothing too fancy, but at least I'll be able to do things safely like a waltz jump, a toe loop, a sound like your very basic single jumps, plus of being able to have a sword. That's good enough for me to be able to do a scratch spin, a two-foot spin, and a one-foot spin when you get your first pair of intermediate skates.

I definitely recommend going to a real skate shop because there will probably be specialists who can help you. find the right boot for you, what they actually did was they made a thermal mold of my feet and they put the skates on you and then they put your feet in this oven or I don't think they put your feet in my bed. They put the skates in the oven and then have you wear them and just sit there for about 20 minutes or so while the skates mold to the shape of your feet. Pro tip if you go to a pro shop and they try to sell. you like something super super expensive like in the 700 800 range and they try to market these really advanced blades to you, probably trying to increase your sales because when you start out, you literally don't need something that expensive. gear because you're not trying to do these quads or triples or doubles, even ones that require a stiff boot to support the ankle for a safe landing and impact.

Also, the paddles that are really expensive are super light and are also thinner in terms. of the shape of the blade, so you may find it harder to turn or learn to turn correctly if you buy blades that are too advanced for you, so my most advanced skates, the one I have now, turned after about a year and a half after my skinny journey as an adult figure and I currently have concert ideas that I really like a lot and I still have the same sword. I saved a lot of money just by keeping the same blades because honestly, I don't like it.

I need a more advanced blade for what I'm trying to do right now, so I looked up the retail price of this one online and it says it's like a hundred and forty-nine dollars. Mine when I bought it was definitely not that expensive. I made it, uh. the rink I skated at and there was a pro shop inside that ring and I'm sure they have special discounts for certain rinks and stuff so sometimes I ask around and see where the cheapest place is to find these dates because a lot of times they are much cheaper than the price listed online and this pair of skates have lasted me so long skating with these for two and a half years and the reason I switched to these is because my debuts at Jackson actually wore out because you bend .

Your ankles when you skate actually stopped giving my ankle as much support, so I slightly hurt my ankle when I was trying to do a loop because my skates just weren't supporting my ankle. The last thing I want to discuss is breaking your boot, so this is something that no one tells you when you buy a new boot for the first time, you will feel very uncomfortable and very stiff and that is totally normal because skates are designed to help protect your ankle, but for someone who I'm already a beginner like when I started, it was literally stiff as a stick because you're just not used to it and you're not comfortable being on the ice.

My skates are so tight around my ankles that I feel like I literally can't bend them. or my knees and when you first start skating your coach will probably tell you that you need to bend your ankles and knees, you will feel more comfortable after two weeks of skating with your new skates so what I would do is actually this. like the jumping drill you can just hold on to the side of the ring to help you put on your skates and the only thing I wish I did differently is I wish I started with adeyas instead of jackson. the adeyas are designed to have a sort of feel like you don't really need to force them like I do, in my opinion you still do a little bit, but at first they are not as stiff as Jackson's Rydell's or some of the other brands that are designed to be forced , so that's one reason I like Adele's better, the rose gold is just a plus number two, learning how to do those damn lessons, most skating lessons are private lessons, which is a bit Annoying because they are a bit expensive.

I would say skating is one of those things. where it's so technical that you actually need someone to look at you and tell you what's right and what's wrong to make sure that first, you don't develop bad habits and second, you don't get hurt, it's not even something like dancing when you have a mirror and you can look at yourself and see what you're doing, especially when you first start, you don't really have that strong mind-body connection, at least I didn't like it, I would literally do something and it would feel amazing. and I was like, oh my god, I'm doing that and then I was filming myself and I was like, wow, that definitely doesn't look like what I thought I was doing, that's ugly, that toe isn't pointy, I was like, oh Jesus Christ. and that's kind of the story of my skating career, there are other alternatives that are maybe more financially viable, there's a program called learnisgate, which is like a group skating program that lasts several weeks, designed for beginner skaters of all abilities. ages, but a lot of times those are large group sessions and you don't really get the individualized attention that you need when you start skating and you also don't choose the coaches in these large group sessions and they can be very unpredictable, so a question that I got a lot things in previous skating videos that I've done before, like my training for 30 days like an Olympic video and also in my adult figure skating competition video, how many times do I take lessons per week or how many times do I practice for a week.

So currently, at my current stage where I'm competing, I take between two and three lessons a week with three different trainers and each lesson is 25 minutes long. For me, you can take hour-long lessons, but honestly, when you start skating, you really don't. I need so much and I also like that the lessons are very expensive. What I felt was helpful to me is that I would just take a 30 minute lesson and take more time to practice those skills myself because when you first start, a lot of things are like having that sense of self-intuition, I'm understanding how. it feels and you don't really need as much instruction as if you could be told what to do, but until you figure out what that really feels like in your body, it doesn't.

There is no point in taking lessons to learn more advanced things in such a hurry. Also, when I started during the first year of life, I only took lessons from a single trainer because that was all I needed, but today, in terms of my lessons, I take them from three different trainers, so my first lesson is with my general coach for everything technical, so we cover jumps, we cover spins, we cover things called moves on the field, which is basically everything in skating that is not a jump or a spin, so I will do a lesson on choreography and edges, this coach really helps me, as does my skating skills and I also choreograph my programs for competitions and you know, I do all the refinement and artistic touch.

The last coach I took is a jumping specialist to help me. training my jump specialist is someone I just started working with, probably when I was like three years into my skating journey when I started learning how to jump on the shaft. I like to trim my shaft into a heart so there is a newer training technique that uses a pole harness which literally looks like you are being fished on a fishing pole which is a bit fun but gives you a better idea of how the jump will feel, like there's no There are a lot of coaches who have the arm strength to pull a big person like me because it's easy to pull, you know, like a little five-year-old and six-year-old with a harness and make them jump because they literally defy gravity. because it's like, I don't know, like 50 pounds, but if you're trying to love me and a huge adult, you really pick someone that you know has enough arm strength to do.

The third thing I want to talk about is how to find a coach and how to find the right coach for you as a beginner, usually when you search for the range website closest to you they will have a figure skating section where they will list the coaches who work in that range and generally If you have any kind of bio, a lot of times you'll see their credentials in terms of PSA scores, which stands for professional skateboarders association. Keep this in mind that credentials are not everything because much of what it takes to find a good coach is more so. how that coach helps you understand how to do things and trains you the right way.

Honestly, I think one of the best ways to find out which coaches are good at your rink is to start skating there and make skating friends, whether it's another adult. Skaters, generally people in the skating community are pretty friendly, like try to strike up a conversation with some of these people who regularly go to that rink because they would probably have a lot more information about who is a good coach to work with. Another good way is to go to the rink and honestly like to practice and analyze what type of skaters you see these coaches training.

Do they reflect who you are and who you want to be? Does that skater look like my body type? Then maybe you can use that to push you towards your decision as well, so there are three things I look for primarily in terms of looking for a coach: one is technical brilliance, two is the connection of mental and emotional support and the third is your coaching style. training, so the first is, of course, whether they have the technical ability to give it. goodhabits because the worst thing is having a trainer who develops poor foundations for you and also this is a very important thing to keep in mind, a good trainer for young children may not be a good trainer for an adult, there are some trainers that you literally don't know how to work with an adult body when you are an adult, your body is different when it comes to liking jumping technique.

You have to find someone who knows how to train someone with an adult body instead of training kids with a bad cough in the cafeteria before the rotation, the second thing is the emotional and mental connection. I say this in several ways, such as one, of course, if they support you, if they are kind, but more so, if they respect you as a person and care about you as a person. skater and cares about his goals and coaches don't take adult figure skaters seriously and don't believe their goals are real and that's the worst part, the last thing I look for is in terms of training style and this is more mixed. bag for me because I tend to like both, some trainers are more intensive others are more casual so depending on the type of style you like one might suit you better normally if you have like a Russian trainer they are very very tough technically on you and honestly I really like that because I'm an intensive type of person so I like someone who you know gets down to business and takes aggressive action.

All the little things that I'm doing wrong and I'm striving for perfection, but at the same time I've also worked with other great coaches who, as you know, are more relaxed, they like to engage in more conversations and that's great too, because sometimes My no. Keep in mind that for some people the whole Russian thing is too much and you will feel like oh I will feel defeated after working with this trainer, definitely don't do that, it all depends on you, the training style. works for you okay the fourth thing I want to talk about is ring time and how to practice.

When you start figure skating, we will start to realize that you need ice to practice, but generally, in any case, there are two types of sessions. There's something called the freestyle session and the regular or general public session, so you're probably already familiar with the public session, which are basically the sessions you would attend when you and your friends say, "let's go ice skating." to have fun" and freestyle sessions. These are sessions that are specifically geared toward older skaters, so let me break down the pros and cons of both. Usually the advantages of a freestyle session are obviously that they are made for figure skating and therefore there are only figure skaters in the eyes and the ice is much softer because it is not destroyed by hockey players, children kids, crazy people, all that kind of good stuff, the downside is that it's usually a little more expensive and it could be intimidating for someone who's just starting to go to school when I started figure skating.

I stayed in a public session for about three months before going to a freestyle session. You start skating. It's actually pretty good to learn in a public session because there's less pressure and you don't feel intimidated by all these really good skaters doing it. all this crazy stuff going on around you, but it's probably also the smartest thing to do from a safety perspective until you learn how to stop, i.e. accelerate and decelerate properly, it's actually not that safe for you to be in a freestyle session because, Even though these people are figure skaters and they know how to stop and they know how to take care of you and look behind their backs, you still run the risk that if you don't know how to stop then you don't know how to protect yourself.

Just something to keep in mind, but also saying that, once you're ready, don't be afraid to participate in a freestyle session, even if you're an adult skater, you should feel totally accepted, anyone who looks at you funny, like if they clearly screwed him. it's like being rude and mean because once you know the basics anyone should be able to participate in a freestyle session given the restriction of that session because some rings separate it where you have to have a certain level of skill to be in a certain session because of how intense some people train, but if you're in a session that's open to everyone, you shouldn't feel intimidated to sign up and you definitely shouldn't feel embarrassed skating in a freestyle session because everyone starts somewhere. that's all part of the process and you just have to get through it mentally, so the advantages of a public session is that it's cheaper and quieter and that's it, the disadvantages are that it's often very crowded and full of a billion small and scary. guys with hockey skates spinning around at a billion miles an hour and you feel like you're going to die every second because you might run into them, but a tip for beginner skaters who are trying to save money is that they can really practice a lot of little things. um, in a public session, a big part of learning how to skate in the beginning is just practicing and delving into very, very small movements that will eventually help you learn to skate better.

I remember when I started skating. I literally didn't know how to do a two-foot spin because it was so uncomfortable. What I would do is just go to a public session and literally grab the smallest piece of ice next to the boards and just spin back and forth holding the boards just to get the feel of what a spin feels like and then when I started learning three turns, my three turns were shit and I would like to do 53 turns on the left side, 53 turns on the right side and that honestly builds. It's up to you, another question I get a lot from my viewers is how often do I practice when I first started skating.

I probably averaged four to five times a week and probably skated two to four hours at a time depending on the day and time I currently have at work is that I typically skate three or four times a week, usually three times during the day. day of the week, so I get up before work at six in the morning. It's always good to have a plan. what you want to practice in that time you usually like a warm up. I'll probably warm up for about 10 minutes where I just do edge exercise lines around the ring, which would mean things like cross twists and alternating crosses and then I'd do jumping jacks and then I'd spin and then I'd pick something that I'm technically wrestling with for a long time, my backtracking was absolute shit, so I would just take part of the session and tell myself I'm doing it.

I'm going to take these 10 minutes just to do stepbacks for that period of time and I feel like that really helps me stay disciplined. You will always want to do the things you are good at because it feels great, you look great doing it. but you really need to do things that you don't love to be better at the sport holistically, so I would like to force myself to do these things that I'm not the biggest fan of, but I know I am. Eventually I need to learn how to do it. The last part would just do more things like choreography and running a program, so this isn't until later when you really need to compete and test and all that kind of good stuff that we'll do.

We'll talk more later, that's basically practicing all your performance in the competition and it won't grow to build up stamina and be able to do everything from start to finish without feeling like you're about to die, so next thing we're going to discuss. I think I'm at number five. I've lost count at this point: USFSA membership and clubs, so the US federation is the US FSA, almost every city or track has an associated club, so when I started skating. I was part of the Philadelphia skating club, but since I moved to New York, I'm part of the New York figure skating club.

If you want to try and compete, you must be part of a club and then you must also be a member. from the US Skating Federation, so you just pay these two fees and it sucks, but that's how it's structured. The next thing I want to talk about is testing. In my opinion, testing is one of the most confusing things. What are tests? It is right. step to compete, so there are all these individual levels from pre-preliminary to senior, which are the people who compete at the Olympic and national level, like the Mariah Bells and the Karen Chens and Nathan Chen for the world for each of those levels post

guide

lines on their website that I believe are acceptable to the general public.

Each level has a different set of elements or things that you must perform in a specific way in front of the judges. Your rows will have test dates like every month. like this Wednesday they will have a formal testing session the judges will judge you based on whether they think you are qualified to pass and then they will pass the value like any test you would take in a real academic setting to break it down there are two. types of tests there is a field movements test and there is a free skate test this is where it gets really confusing each level has those two tests first you must pass the field movements test in order to take the free skate test moves on the field are your basic skating skills, stroke crossovers, turns, edges, your free skating test is actually a choreographed program to music and you have this set of elements that you have to do.

There are also two different test tracks, there is a normal track and there is one for adults. The regular rink is aimed at basically everyone, from young children to adults, they are the ones who go from the initial pre-preliminary skating to high level skating. I tried the regular track, I took my prelims and prelims moves to field tests, but that translates and it's the same. and moves on to the pre-bronze and bronze adult field events. I took my first test probably two years into my skating journey. The advice I have here is to only take the test when you are ready as these judges are very demanding every time you test you have to register and pay a fee so you can fail you have to pay a fee again and do the thing again, so if you are not in a hurry to compete or pass a certain level because you need to qualify for a competition. you should not take the test until you feel super comfortable, next is the competition, there are official competitions for adults approved by the US federation, there are regionals for adults and there are also nationals, for me, in fact, I will compete in an upcoming competition which is the US Eastern section then in April there will be national test events and the competition events will basically be one on one so if you were to test me for example for bronze for adults, you would be competing in the adult bronze, each level of competition will have a specific set of requirements, meaning you can choose any song you want, but it has to be a certain length, like one minute, 40 seconds max, there are penalties if you spend extra time or less time and then they will also be as a set of elements as they are. oh you have to do four jumps and you have to do two turns of different nature, it basically means two turns with different positions, you need a sequence of steps that covers like half the ice and again this is more in advanced stages like the ones you do.

You don't have to worry about this if you are starting to skate for the first time. Honestly, a better resource would probably be my first competition adult figure skater video because it goes into more detail about the entire competition experience. I will post a video soon. that documents my journey in the adult sections so it'll probably help give more flavor and context so the next thing I want to talk about is how to financially manage skating if you've been watching this video so far and your attention isn't has diverted elsewhere. so you've probably already said that figure skating is really expensive, it really sucks because it makes it really inaccessible to anyone who wants to get involved in a sport, we need more people of color in skating, we don't see that many people. color that represents the United States in the Olympic Games.

I just wish anyone who wanted to figure skate could do it when I started skating. The financial part was very difficult for me because I was literally a student who had just graduated from college. with a ton of student debt, but there are lots of creative ways to avoid these outdoor pop-up ring sessions during the holidays, they tend to be cheaper and sometimes what I see people do is if you have another friend who also are interested in learning. how to skate do a private lesson together and split the cost like some coaches are okay with taking two people and having them split the cost.

I became much heavier on learning to save properly and make sacrifices, which often means that I won't go out to eat as much as all my friends. I will not participate in social expenses such as going out becauseI know that figure skating is something that is more important to me. I will more or less learn to cook all my meals. Not really going out to eat, that honestly has saved me a lot of money and especially living in New York where it's so expensive really helps me. You know, having more budget to attend to something I'm passionate about and the next thing I want.

What I want to discuss is work-life balance with figure skating. If you're an adult trying to work full time and skate, it's very difficult. I think one of the first pieces of advice I have is to definitely communicate with your work like anyone else would set boundaries for anything else in their personal life, you should be able to feel comfortable doing that, hopefully with your company as well and not all companies. They have a great culture. I work in a company as a strategy consultant, also known as a business consultant or whatever that field is called and normally our schedule is very difficult before the pandemic we traveled from Monday to Thursday we are never at home the schedule revolves around work schedule What I find most difficult for clients is finding the courage to stand up for yourself, which is something My former roommates have taught me that, especially in corporate America, if you don't stand up for yourself like no one else, you will stand up for your interests and how you want to live and balance your life and live a healthy life.

It's setting a schedule for yourself, so you don't need as much brain power to figure out when you're going to skate, how long you're going to stay for me, sticking to your schedule helps me know what days I need. go skating check check check like I don't have to think about it besides my current job. Also be very good at knowing how to fit this into your schedule for me because I have to fit this in before work and get up at 6am I have to have a really good sleep schedule and that's something I struggle with a lot because, in Theoretically, I should be asleep by 6am.10am. and which means I should be in bed at 9:30 but realistically I'm in bed at like 10:30 and I actually fall asleep at like 11:11:15.

Figure out a good balance of which days typically work best for you. Incorporating skating into my work, for example in consulting, Fridays tend to be a little calmer than, for example, Mondays, so on a Monday, instead of skating, I would like to do some type of conditioning exercise on the gym or some type of off-ice training is finding time on the weekends in your weekend plans to go skating as an adult. It's difficult because it seems like during the week you can't do anything but work and you have to fit everything into your weekend. I've already started.

Go to Prospect Park on the weekends, which has really affordable sessions and pretty good ice in the morning. It's a little difficult, but it allows me to adapt to some of these things I want to talk about: motivation, mental strength and progress. The first thing I want you to understand is that progress is slow, but that is completely normal and you just have to keep working little by little until you achieve something. It literally took me a month to figure out how to move my butt to back up. It probably took me about three months to feel even remotely comfortable doing crosses because every time I crossed my feet I thought I was going to trip and die, it took me at least three or four months to figure out how to get comfortable doing two feet. spin how to do the most basic jump a waltz jump it took me a year to get my spin and luts.

I remember training my loop and thinking I'm never going to be able to do this jump, this jump is so hard I just can't figure it out, I feel like I'm going to trip over my ankles every time I try, I kept breaking it, I kept breaking it and one day I just It clicked and I thought I would never be able to do this. Rule out the possibility that you can do anything and for my axis it still continues. I still can't lie on my axis and I've been skating for four years. Also, these numbers I give you are just to provide context. how long progress takes and if you need to take longer than that, that's totally normal, you go at any pace as long as you progress in a way that meets your personal goals, that's a plus in your books when you start skating , not realistic to look like what you see on NBC Sports, but that doesn't mean you can skate with much better quality in the future.

It's hard as an adult to start skating because it's not like little kids who don't fully understand fear. to fall yet, but when you are an adult you understand that if I do this I could fall and if I fall I could hurt myself, so then it becomes a mental block of fear and you have to learn to overcome it well. Finally we come to the end of this video. I know it was a lot of information. I hope this helps people have more access to information about figure skating. Please like, comment and subscribe if you want to see more content similar to this.

Most likely I will publish. There's some kind of documentary coming up about my progress and my journey to competing in the eastern sections, so definitely look out for that video and also if you have any questions about adult skating, send them below. I will always be happy to respond. I almost read it. every comment that flows through my videos and I do my best to respond to them. If you leave enough questions below, maybe I'll watch them and create a video for adult figure skating. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for watching.

This figure skating video means a lot to me and I hope it can help you start your journey too. That said, I'll talk to you next time, bye.