Things You'll Need:
- figure skates
- group lessons
- skating professional
- tight fitting clothing
- gloves
- guards for your blades
- towel
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Step 1
Find a skating club that teaches group lessons: Snowplow Sam is the first level for toddlers. Badge 1 is the first level for beginners. You may start skating before taking lessons. On a public skating session, work on bending in your knees and pushing off of your inside edges from side to side. Keeping your stomach and back strong (not leaning forward) and arms out to the side will help you maintain balance and control which will also allow you to move faster and prepare you for harder skating skills you will learn in group lessons. You can also start to "wiggle" backwards. Shimmy your hips from side to side and feel your weight pushing from one foot to the other. Make sure that no one is behind you as your push yourself down the ice backwards.
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Step 2
Practice, practice, practice. Without practice, you are throwing your money away in lessons. Determine when and how often you can practice what you have learned in your lessons. This especially is important when you reach the basic 4 level of crossovers--a skill that can trip up and frustrate many a new skater. A "crossover" is done when the foot in front crosses over the foot in back. Again, these are pushes and should not just be the foot stepping over the other foot. Practicing this on a circle is the best way to get the right feel for the edges. Crossovers are used in almost every element in skating.
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Step 3
Have you reached the group class of Freestyle 1 yet? You have conquered the dreaded crossover and are now bravely combining it with waltz jumps and scratch spins. This means that you are in need of a private lesson instructor. Ask your group lesson instructor if he or she has time to take you on for private lessons. You will need to pay for ice time through the skating club separately from your private lesson instructor fees. During the freestyle badge level, you will learn to jump and spin. Your first jump learned will be a waltz jump. Your back crossovers should now be strong because they will set you up for the waltz jump. Skating backwards you will hold the left leg in back extended and gliding on your right foot. You will then step forward holding a left outside edge with the right leg bent but in an attitude position underneath. This right leg will push through and lift you into the jump. You will land on your right leg backwards. Most beginner skaters make the mistake of swinging the leg around instead of lifting it through. Your hips should follow over your knee as it passes through and then will transfer weight over to the right side. You will also learn a scratch spin from backwards crossovers: Twist your body to prepare for the step forward on your left foot. Knee bend is so important here. If you pop up in the knee too soon, you will lose your spin and it will travel across the ice. Stay down in the knee and make a tight circle on your left foot. Center your spin by holding your leg out in front. You will feel yourself remaining in one place and this is when you can pull the foot into your thigh and squeeze your left leg tight and push your feet together. For every 30 minute lesson, you should be practicing an hour. Is your group lesson instructor booked up and not able to fit you into the schedule? Look around. Who have you connected with? Has a friend taken from anyone you may like? Look up resumes. What level of education do the staff professionals have? What have they done with their own skating or helping others?
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Step 4
By now you have been working with a private lesson coach. Bring a notebook to the ice with a schedule that organizes your new elements into a structured practice session. How much time are you going to spend on stroking (crossovers, strokes down the ice, or exercises your coach has given you)? How much time will you spend on dance, moves, and freestyle? How many of each jump, spin, or dance pattern should you do? When should you practice your program and for how long?
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Step 5
Are you afraid of jumping and spinning? No worries. Ask your private lesson coach to teach you moves-in-the-field or ice dancing. Moves-in-the-Field are patterns followed on the ice that will have you do various types of turns. A skating coach is necessary to teach you these turns properly. There are eight levels of Moves-in-the-Field which include brackets, 3-turns, mohawks, rockers, counters, spirals and more all done in combination. Dances are more theatrical and done to ballroom dance music. Again, you will find these patterns in the USFSA rulebook and a coach will show you how to interpret and read the abbreviations and patterns. Dance levels start at the preliminary level and reach up to the gold level with more complicated turns and edges. You can practice some stroking to prepare you for dance. Crossovers done low in the knees and extending the back leg is one exercise used by many.
