Top Tips For Your First Time Ice Skating!

Hello and welcome to my channel, I'm Coach Julia and today is World Ice Skating Day, which is a day as a figure skater. I'm so excited to celebrate, it's a great day to go out and enjoy this wonderful sport of figure

skating

or hockey or speed

skating

or whatever else you want to do here on the ice, but today we're going to go over my top five

tips

for skaters for

first

time

. If you've been skating for a while, my channel is full of chalk everything. types of tutorials so check out my playlists and see if there's anything that inspires you but if you're a

first

time

skater this video is for you okay so let's get started.

My first tip for

your

first day of ice skating is to make sure you wear a lot of layers, it's very cold here, but as we practice, our body temperature rises, we warm up and then we want to get rid of some of those layers, so I have a full video on what to wear on the ice and I'll post a link in the description below so you can watch it and get my full info on what to wear, but here's the snapshot. Don't wear jeans if you are wearing something cotton and it gets wet, it will become heavy. and it's going to be cold, so wear something that's very stretchy and something that gives you a lot of mobility and doesn't have a high cotton content.

I like to wear these leggings, but when I work I wear a pair of Eddie's bow fleece. Line of pants that are waterproof and elastic. You also want to wear something that is close to

your

body in the summer. I'll wear a tank top in the winter. It's long sleeved like this one because it traps my body heat next to my body so it stays. warm and as I get my temperature up I feel a little comfortable inside so I like that layer right next to my body and then I put on something like this something like this is perfect it's stretchy okay so I still have very good Mobility so I can practice all my skating without being restricted.

It also has a zipper so it's easy to take off when I start heating up. You could wear something like this in the summer, but in the winter you could do a fleece version just because it's a little bit warmer and the temperature is definitely different here in the summer than in the winter. I think figure skating should be a summer sport but that's just me so this would be my second layer, something that's really mobile and zips up and then if it's really cold days I might add a third layer, sort of, so this is a fleece with little to no fleece.

It's an Eddie Bower down jacket that I really love. I usually wear it under my work parka all year round. It doesn't have a hood, which I love because it doesn't get floppy and get in the way, but it gives that little extra layer of insulation on those really cold skate days and as my body temperature rises, I can take them all off. these layers down to that single base. a cape that stays very warm and last but not least gloves so if you want to have something warm on your hands these are just a cheap pair of knitted gloves and you can get them almost anywhere these days of the year, but they will remain.

Your fingers warm those extremities, but if it's your first time, you can expect to fall a few times, so bring a backup pair because once those gloves get wet from the fall, you'll be miserable, so wear a pair of gloves and keep those fingers. warm, but bring a backup, okay, again. I have a whole video on this. I'll link it below, but that's my first tip. Wear layers. Now for the second tip, you need to make sure you wear the right socks and get skates that fit you properly. Well, and make sure they are tied well.

You want your skates to fit you right, so that the heel sits snugly on the back of the skate and your toes just barely touch the front of the skate, so you really have no wiggle room if you tell the person at the skate counter your street shoe size, they should be able to convert it into a skate size that will be quite different. I wear a size 6 and 1/2 and these rentals are a size four for socks you want to wear a tall thin sock that sits above the top of the skate, if it is as short as this then your skin will rub against the skate and you can get blisters, and if it's thick and fluffy it will be warm, but it can also cause blisters because your foot can move inside the skate, so think about tall, thin socks once you put the skate on.

I like to have skaters hit the ground with the back of their heel to make sure the heel is right. The way back to the skate pocket now with this rental we have these little click straps. I don't know what they're called, but little click straps you want to be really tight, especially the one at the top around the curve of your ankle, so I'm going to readjust it a second time to make sure it's really tight. I now have a whole video on how to properly lace your skates, so if you have laced skates, go ahead and check out the link.

Here's how to properly lace your skates. Tip number three is to see if the rink you are skating at has any type of skating aids. They come in many small format mats. You have some that look like a sled. They look like little stamps that you can hold on to some of them are metal and look like a walker. We use cubes in our range, which I love because they are completely adjustable. You can usually separate them all and find the right height for you if they are as low as this, you will never be able to get used to standing and skating properly so you need to make sure they are quite tall, this is still not high enough for me, here we go, this is perfect.

This is very tight so I can still stand while skating. One last thing to consider before heading out on the ice is whether or not you want to wear a helmet. I've been skating for years and years. I do not do it. I even want to admit how many decades, but it's a long time, so I feel very comfortable knowing how to fall correctly, keep my chin tucked in, and my head secure. In fact, I think figure skaters are the best falls in the world. You've probably fallen about 50,000 times, but if you're a beginner and you're not used to falling, you don't want to hit your head, that's fine, and it's much more common to hit your head when you're a beginner, so if you have a good ski helmet, you may want to bring it or see if your track has helmets you can use.

Our range has them in a wide selection of sizes, so we layered, we've got some skates that fit properly and we've decided if. we're going to use safety gear or if we're going to use a helper, now it's time to get out on the ice and skate, so put your hands on that wall, step over the little plastic, okay, and then you'll find your balance right here. Okay, now you can start by using that wall for support if you're not using some kind of skating aid, but do your best not to lean on it because then you'll never get used to standing. okay, I know this is easier said than done for some of you, but keep your weight right over the middle of the skate so that as you skate, if your weight reaches your toes, if you are on figure skates, you travel, If you're on hockey skates, you're going to roll forward because there's nothing to grab and we want to avoid falling backwards at all costs.

CU is when those head injuries start to happen, so I want you to think about bending your knees to keep your hips bent down keeping your shoulders right over your hips and right across the center of my skate. If you imagine I have a line across my body, it would be Head, Shoulders, Hips through the center of my skate and then we can walk like this, just think. about shifting your weight and taking some small walking steps, bonus point if you can do it with your toes out because eventually we'll be pushing with those edges, okay, we'll be pushing on those skates and you can get used to that by having your toes of the toes okay, so I want you to think about that nice line through the toes of the body.

The next thing we're going to talk about is our arms, so you want to keep those arms tight at the waist, like those cubes. I showed you that you want them with the waist cinched in front of you. You'll see figure skaters doing all kinds of beautiful things with their arms, but they had to start with their hands in front of you. Now the reason we do it is because it's the safest posture and it keeps your posture slightly forward, we don't want to fall backwards on the ice, okay, so you have that nice line across our body with our hands in front. and you just practice taking some small walking steps like this.

Now I have a complete tutorial for those first time skaters. how to move on the ice how to fall how to get back on all of that and I'll link it in the description below so you can check it out in your first skating steps and that brings us to my last skating tip. is to try to find some instruction, okay most ranges offer some format of group classes or private lessons or both, if you come here to skate during the holiday season and are a little nervous try to see if the rink will suit you again. skating offers any type of private lessons, private lessons are generally available for people of all levels and what a fun date idea for you and your friend, your partner, your girlfriend, your boyfriend or whatever to take a little lesson skating together.

Really great and will give you some of that one on one contact on your first time and may give you a lot more confidence if they don't offer private lessons for a skater of your level. See if there are any small groups. The classes are sometimes four-week classes that come out around Christmas and that could be a great way to give you some extra

tips

on the ice, but you can always check out my videos. I have over 200 skating tutorials here on this channel there is a playlist that is just skating tutorials for beginners and that's where you want to start and they have how to get back up how to skate forward how to skate backwards I have crosses I have all your skills for beginners on that playlist and if you like it you can keep coming back through your more difficult skating skills so those are my best tips for the first time skater.

I hope you found them fun, but most of all I hope you really get out and enjoy the ice today, International Skating Day. Now I would love to see all of your skating today on World Skate Day, so be sure to tag me with skating coach Julia so I can see your videos on social media. If you enjoyed this video, please give us a thumbs up and as I always look forward to reading all those comments in that section below, happy skating and see you next time.