First Skating Lesson

[toddmanley 0]

This afternoon I'm taking my first skating lesson. I've been getting pretty comfortable with my own skates over the past two months and now feel I can now benefit from taking a couple of lessons to learn skating fundamentals. On my own I've become comfortable at crossing over in both directions, doing hockey stops to both the right and left, and some backwards skating. I can't transition from skating forward to back, nor back to forward.

Since this is all new to me, what are some general expectations I should have going into the lesson? Are there a set of skills that I should be working toward mastering? Any and all advice is appreciated.

-Thanks, Todd

[jds 20]

Edges. Learn to use both your outside and inside edges and be able to balance on either. Practise this a lot.

[toddmanley 0]

Good point. We spent a fair bit of time doing edge work, especially outside edge. Not sure if this is advanced by any means, but the teacher had me doing step-overs from outside edge to outside edge. I was going as a pace where somebody probably could have walked faster than me around the rink. It was a feeling that felt really awkward and foreign at first (probably due to my past ankle sprain injuries 15+ years ago), but after a while my balance got much better.

Between that and really focusing on getting myself low (mind you, I'm 6'9"), my legs are pretty damn tired/sore. Other than that it was a good experience. Back to the outside edges...any good off-ice exercises that might help? I have two bosu balls that I could use if they'd prove useful from a balance perspective.

[jds 20]

I have two bosu balls that I could use if they'd prove useful from a balance perspective.

I have noticed a big improvement from working on my balance. Balance is something that can be improved with training and Bosu's are great for working on this. I do these two every time I go to the gym:

-with the dome side up, stand on the Bosu in a hockey stance (knees deeply bent, back straight, arms bent at 90 degrees) and close your eyes. Try to hold the position as long as possible.

-with the dome side down, stand with one leg centred on the Bosu. Once this gets easy, close your eyes. Try to hold as long as possible. Add a deep bend to the knee on the Bosu. Closing your eyes really adds to the difficulty so it might be a good idea to do this near a wall so you can catch yourself if you start to fall-and you will at first.

[BarDownGinos 3]

Don't be afraid to fall, and practice practice practice. When you get more comfortable on skates than you are walking down the street, thats when you can stop practicing so much.