I’ve been learning figure skating on my own…

[everette]

For a year I’ve been once a week on a free public ice. No coach, no lessons, no club. Before that I had been skating recreationally every winter and I’ve managed stroking, stopping, one foot glides and swizzles since my childhood school pe. I’m also a former ballet dancer so I had already strong flexible legs and good balance. I’ve learned many things all alone with online instructions and youtube tutorials. Backward skating and stroking, edges, crossovers. Recently I’ve learned backward edges and spirals, and I’m close to completing forward inside mohawk. I can’t be sure if they’re correct, but stable at least. I’ve been extra careful and managed to avoid falling most time. I’ve posted videos on instagram for other skaters to judge. I’ve also done a lot off-ice training, almost everyday stretching and exercising mainly my lower body. I don’t really have any goals in figure skating, this has just been a fun hobby to get some physical activity. And a reason to get in the gym.

Yesterday I heard for the first time that I shouldn’t try to learn anything without a coach. Well, done already. Can I still do the things I have already learned or would it really be that dangerous?

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

For a year I’ve been once a week on a free public ice. No coach, no lessons, no club. Before that I had been skating recreationally every winter and I’ve managed stroking, stopping, one foot glides and swizzles since my childhood school pe. I’m also a former ballet dancer so I had already strong flexible legs and good balance. I’ve learned many things all alone with online instructions and youtube tutorials. Backward skating and stroking, edges, crossovers. Recently I’ve learned backward edges and spirals, and I’m close to completing forward inside mohawk. I can’t be sure if they’re correct, but stable at least. I’ve been extra careful and managed to avoid falling most time. I’ve posted videos on instagram for other skaters to judge. I’ve also done a lot off-ice training, almost everyday stretching and exercising mainly my lower body. I don’t really have any goals in figure skating, this has just been a fun hobby to get some physical activity. And a reason to get in the gym.

Yesterday I heard for the first time that I shouldn’t try to learn anything without a coach. Well, done already. Can I still do the things I have already learned or would it really be that dangerous?

Hello and welcome!
You shouldn't 100% go by online coaching and learning on your own. Good for you for trying to, but you really should get a coach. You can't be assured that you are doing things properly and may need to re-learn to do them properly with a coach, there is also a risk of injury (also falling is part of this sport and you need to learn via coach how to properly fall so you don't get hurt. Beyond that- what kind of skates do you have b/c you need proper equipment (boots/blades) for you and your feet, weight/height and needs.

 

[Diana Delafield]

For a year I’ve been once a week on a free public ice. No coach, no lessons, no club. Before that I had been skating recreationally every winter and I’ve managed stroking, stopping, one foot glides and swizzles since my childhood school pe. I’m also a former ballet dancer so I had already strong flexible legs and good balance. I’ve learned many things all alone with online instructions and youtube tutorials. Backward skating and stroking, edges, crossovers. Recently I’ve learned backward edges and spirals, and I’m close to completing forward inside mohawk. I can’t be sure if they’re correct, but stable at least. I’ve been extra careful and managed to avoid falling most time. I’ve posted videos on instagram for other skaters to judge. I’ve also done a lot off-ice training, almost everyday stretching and exercising mainly my lower body. I don’t really have any goals in figure skating, this has just been a fun hobby to get some physical activity. And a reason to get in the gym.

Yesterday I heard for the first time that I shouldn’t try to learn anything without a coach. Well, done already. Can I still do the things I have already learned or would it really be that dangerous?

Only a coach who watches you in person (not in an online video) can tell if the habits you've picked up are just wrong or downright dangerous. Please don't attempt self-teaching to progress any further until you've started lessons with a real coach. If the cost is a problem, are group lessons offered at your rink? Any way to get knowledgeable eyes on you, next to you on the ice, would be better than trying to teach yourself from youtube.

And I don't want to make you nervous, but I've spent my life on the ice, competing in pairs up to the senior level, and the worst fall I ever took and the only concussion I've ever had was doing an inside mohawk, making a careless error and getting my blades caught together. I'd done probably thousands of mohawks over decades of skating, but I kicked my own feet out from under me and sat down so hard I felt the shock wave run up my spine and actually felt my brain bounce against the top of my skull, without ever hitting my head on the ice. *Any* move you do on the ice can be dangerous if done incorrectly.

Please, we don't want you to ruin your enjoyment of the sport with an injury. Please, please, find a real live coach!

 

[everette]

Hello and welcome!
You shouldn't 100% go by online coaching and learning on your own. Good for you for trying to, but you really should get a coach. You can't be assured that you are doing things properly and may need to re-learn to do them properly with a coach, there is also a risk of injury (also falling is part of this sport and you need to learn via coach how to properly fall so you don't get hurt. Beyond that- what kind of skates do you have b/c you need proper equipment (boots/blades) for you and your feet, weight/height and needs.

I have jackson’s freestyle kit so I think I’m fine with my skates. Though I got pretty far with cheap recreational skates that looked like figure skates. I realized it a bit late that they’re not real figure skates.
But honestly, I rather quit than try to get into any coaching. In my country, all coaching in figure skating is centered to one academy. To even try their beginner group lesson for once to see if I ever want to come again, I’d need to buy membership & training license & insurance straight for a whole year. It’s not guaranteed that I would even get in. Also, even the cheapest beginner group lessons are expensive(compared to ballet) and with all the requirements for membership, license and insurance, it’s gonna be expensive even if I took only a few lesson in a year. If it just was easy like in ballet: everyone was allowed to join if they just paid the lessons.

 

[everette]

Only a coach who watches you in person (not in an online video) can tell if the habits you've picked up are just wrong or downright dangerous. Please don't attempt self-teaching to progress any further until you've started lessons with a real coach. If the cost is a problem, are group lessons offered at your rink? Any way to get knowledgeable eyes on you, next to you on the ice, would be better than trying to teach yourself from youtube.

And I don't want to make you nervous, but I've spent my life on the ice, competing in pairs up to the senior level, and the worst fall I ever took and the only concussion I've ever had was doing an inside mohawk, making a careless error and getting my blades caught together. I'd done probably thousands of mohawks over decades of skating, but I kicked my own feet out from under me and sat down so hard I felt the shock wave run up my spine and actually felt my brain bounce against the top of my skull, without ever hitting my head on the ice. *Any* move you do on the ice can be dangerous if done incorrectly.

Please, we don't want you to ruin your enjoyment of the sport with an injury. Please, please, find a real live coach!

I explained in my other message why I can’t really get a coach, even in the form of a group lesson. I won’t attemp to progress anymore, but the question is if I can keep doing the moves I’ve already learned.

 

[LolaSkatesInJapan]

Welcome!
Former pro ballet dancer here.
While flexibility, balance, body awareness, port de bra, artistry, turnout, extensions/lines are skills we can bring from ballet to figure skating, it’s a BIG mistake to think figure skating is merely ballet on ice. It isn’t. The weight change and distribution, use of heels, hips turn in (opposite direction of our ballet turnout), pelvis movement/position, etc etc VERY unique to figure skating and doesn’t translate to what we do in ballet. I’ve been doing figure skating for a while but still remembering when I started thinking I’d have an easy time due to my pro ballet background, how wrong I was. The ice moves, the floor we dance ballet in doesn’t.
Would you train ballet without a teacher? Can you imagine going on pointe without the supervision of a teacher in a studio?
Figure skating is the same thing, same as ballet, it’s not something you self learn.
Imagine learning a 1 hr 30 barre without prior instruction from a teacher only by watching Instagram, the amount of horrible habits and bad technique you’d develop!! Figure skating is the exact same thing, and once you create incorrect muscles memory from bad technique, it takes twice as long to undo than if you started from zero with the supervision of a coach.
No instagram video or comment or YouTube can replace a coach in person who teaches you and corrects you.
So yes, you shouldn’t be training figure skating without a coach and the best you could you is find yourself a coach ASAP.
Good luck!

 

[NanaPat]

I explained in my other message why I can’t really get a coach, even in the form of a group lesson. I won’t attemp to progress anymore, but the question is if I can keep doing the moves I’ve already learned.

I don't think you did explain.

When I reread it, I see a lot about what you have done, but you didn't really address the coach/lesson issue other than to say that you currently go to free public sessions.

 

[everette]

I don't think you did explain.

When I reread it, I see a lot about what you have done, but you didn't really address the coach/lesson issue other than to say that you currently go to free public sessions.

Oh sorry, the message hasn’t passed moderator approval yet.

 

[NanaPat]

Oh sorry, the message hasn’t passed moderator approval yet.

With luck it will appear. I wonder what time it will get (time you posted or time approved). If it comes in with the time you posted, it will seem like twilight zone time for me!

 

[everette]

Welcome!
Former pro ballet dancer here.
While flexibility, balance, body awareness, port de bra, artistry, turnout, extensions/lines are skills we can bring from ballet to figure skating, it’s a BIG mistake to think figure skating is merely ballet on ice. It isn’t. The weight change and distribution, use of heels, hips turn in (opposite direction of our ballet turnout), pelvis movement/position, etc etc VERY unique to figure skating and doesn’t translate to what we do in ballet. I’ve been doing figure skating for a while but still remembering when I started thinking I’d have an easy time due to my pro ballet background, how wrong I was. The ice moves, the floor we dance ballet in doesn’t.
Would you train ballet without a teacher? Can you imagine going on pointe without the supervision of a teacher in a studio?
Figure skating is the same thing, same as ballet, it’s not something you self learn.
Imagine learning a 1 hr 30 barre without prior instruction from a teacher only by watching Instagram, the amount of horrible habits and bad technique you’d develop!! Figure skating is the exact same thing, and once you create incorrect muscles memory from bad technique, it takes twice as long to undo than if you started from zero with the supervision of a coach.
No instagram video or comment or YouTube can replace a coach in person who teaches you and corrects you.
So yes, you shouldn’t be training figure skating without a coach and the best you could you is find yourself a coach ASAP.
Good luck!

Makes perfectly sense. I never thought it like this because in ballet I had high goals, but now I don’t have goals at all.

Also because apparently my ballet coaching wasn’t so good, I really wasn’t under a supervision. I was in group lessons(we don’t have private ballet coaches in my country), so the coach had too many students to look at. My feet got damaged on pointe and it stunted my feet growth at 9 years old.

However, actually my question was if can I keep doing already learned things recreationally.

 

[Diana Delafield]

I explained in my other message why I can’t really get a coach, even in the form of a group lesson. I won’t attemp to progress anymore, but the question is if I can keep doing the moves I’ve already learned.

We've only seen the one message so far. I would say you could still work on stroking with the edges you've learned, but not anything more advanced than that (spirals, turns, etc).

 

[everette]

With luck it will appear. I wonder what time it will get (time you posted or time approved). If it comes in with the time you posted, it will seem like twilight zone time for me!

I’m new here, so what does it mean when a message is awaiting for moderator approval? I don’t think my message had anything that would break the rules, shortly my country’s figure skating coaching is centered to one single academy and they have very strict requirements, not guaranteed if I’d even get in and I’d need to buy expensive licenses etc straight for a whole year, even to try a group lesson once to see if I ever want to come back.

 

[LolaSkatesInJapan]

However, actually my question was if can I keep doing already learned things recreationally.

Of course if you hire a coach or not is your choice and you’ll do what you like, but doing any figure skating skills with bad technique can lead to injury, even if you think you’re doing correctly.
Same as someone who thinks they’re ready for pointe, they’re not, they think they’re on pointe but not even getting over the box/platform, not enough ankle strength/stability/flexibility which can lead to all kinds of issues and injuries.
With figure skating you also risk injury, bad falls (you have slippery ice, blades like knives on your feet etc), if the footwear hasn’t been professionally fitted, doing anything else besides skating laps around the rink, one foot after the other, can also lead to injury. I’d say doing ballet unsupervised with bad technique is a bad idea, but even more so with figure skating given the environment (ice) and footwear (skates+blades) doing it unsupervised, likely with bad habits/technique … not worth the risk.

 

[LolaSkatesInJapan]

my country’s figure skating coaching is centered to one single academy and they have very strict requirements, not guaranteed if I’d even get in and I’d need to buy expensive licenses etc straight for a whole year, even to try a group lesson once to see if I ever want to come back.

This system seems very restrictive and hard to be coached like that

So hiring a coach in person seems impossible at your country

Would you be allowed to have a virtual coach lesson at the rink you train?
Not as ideal as a coach in person but a million times better than YouTube or Instagram. Have a coach give you lessons by Zoom. I’ve seen coaches offering this

 

[everette]

This system seems very restrictive and hard to be coached like that

So hiring a coach in person seems impossible at your country

Would you be allowed to have a virtual coach lesson at the rink you train?
Not as ideal as a coach in person but a million times better than YouTube or Instagram. Have a coach give you lessons by Zoom. I’ve seen coaches offering this

Yes, it’s very unfair. Personal coaches are also all from this academy and only for higher level skaters. Ballet wasn’t so restrictive but afterwards I’ve noticed that the coaching wasn’t very responsible in ballet either. My ballet group had skill & age differences between the students but we all got on pointe at the same time.

If I get what you mean by virtual coach lessons, I’d probably have to look for a foreign online coach, would that be okay?

 

[Diana Delafield]

I’m new here, so what does it mean when a message is awaiting for moderator approval? I don’t think my message had anything that would break the rules, shortly my country’s figure skating coaching is centered to one single academy and they have very strict requirements, not guaranteed if I’d even get in and I’d need to buy expensive licenses etc straight for a whole year, even to try a group lesson once to see if I ever want to come back.

What part of the world are you living in? There are skating camps in the summer for adult skaters, from beginners on up, in Europe and the USA. If you could take vacation time (usually one or two weeks) and go to one of those, you'd get personal attention from the coaches and have new friends around you on the ice who may have the same situation as you at home?

 

[LolaSkatesInJapan]

If I get what you mean by virtual coach lessons, I’d probably have to look for a foreign online coach, would that be okay?

First you would check with the rink you train at to see if they allow it.
The rink I train at doesn’t allow that, can only learn with the coaches there in person (but they’re not restricting and will teach all levels and ages), but I’ve seen skaters taking ice lessons virtually elsewhere. Have to talk with the rink staff and see if it’s allowed.

But the suggestion above by Diana is a good idea too if traveling is possible. There are 3 skaters from Vietnam (where it seems there’s no coaching at all) who come twice a year to train with my coach. They stay for about 1 month each time, then go back, practice what they learned and they also consult with my coach virtually.
No idea how possible this would be for you, but maybe see what country is the closest to you and what they offer

 

[everette]

First you would check with the rink you train at to see if they allow it.
The rink I train at doesn’t allow that, can only learn with the coaches there in person (but they’re not restricting and will teach all levels and ages), but I’ve seen skaters taking ice lessons virtually elsewhere. Have to talk with the rink staff and see if it’s allowed.

But the suggestion above by Diana is a good idea too if traveling is possible. There are 3 skaters from Vietnam (where it seems there’s no coaching at all) who come twice a year to train with my coach. They stay for about 1 month each time, then go back, practice what they learned and they also consult with my coach virtually.
No idea how possible this would be for you, but maybe see what country is the closest to you and what they offer

Online coach seems to be the only realistic option, though some comments have said that online coaching isn’t valid. But I guess I can at least try. Can you recommend where to look for online coaches?

 

[LolaSkatesInJapan]

I think the people mean that online coaching is not valid if it’s only a pre recorded video, like the ones from YouTube and instagram, because this coach is just demonstrating and you will never get the proper corrections and execution feedback from her/him because she/he is not watching you, but during the corona pandemic time I know people who got the virtual ice lessons when regular practice wasn’t allowed, because this coach is not pre recorded video, she/he’s watching you through the camera in real time through ZOOM and can make corrections in real time.

I personally never took such lessons (in the past when corona was happening I took a few lessons -much less than now, no corona any longer- with my coach, but had to take private ice time for them -only my coach on camera and I in the rink) so I wouldn’t personally feel comfortable recommending a coach I don’t know. I think it will be trial and error until you find a coach you like.
Maybe someone here who has done them private virtual real time classes can recommend.

I googled “virtual figure skating coach”, “figure skating virtual coaching” and such and got results.

 

[hope_skate]

Online coach seems to be the only realistic option, though some comments have said that online coaching isn’t valid. But I guess I can at least try. Can you recommend where to look for online coaches?

I wouldn't say it is not valid, more like "less ideal". Because an in-person coaching can see your entire body whereas an online coach can only see as much as the camera shows them. Unless you have a cameraman moving along with you, it is quite challenging for the coach to pinpoint the issues. Another usual issue is the connectivity, lag and (uncommon but important) real sound. What do I mean by real? Well, my trainers (the first one taught me how to skate, the other - current one, is teaching me figure skating) can literally hear if I am not using the correct part of my blade. I was practicing my jumps and my coach said to do it again because he can hear me landing on the wrong part of the blade and that could be bad for my knees. Minor things like using the wrong part of the blade when stroking, or landing on the wrong part of the blade etc can lead to you developing bad and harmful technique.

If you don't mind sharing which country you are in, maybe we can help with the options. For example, I live in Moscow (Russia) and we do have coaches that offer online lessons along with in-person coaching. But, depending on where you are, you may find it difficult to arrange time (timezones) and payment (no visa or mastercard here for obvious reasons) for the lessons.