figure skating

Anonymous asked: i am 18 do you think i can start staking and doing comptiavite

I think we’ve said this time and time again, any one can start skating regardless of their age and anyone can compete, though it may not necessarily be at the level that gets you to Worlds. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REynXnZAITk
That’s a video of an 81 year old lady competing. Anyone can skate and compete. 

Anonymous asked: no offense but you seem kind of clueless about skating. I dont see why all these people are taking advice from someone in prejuv..

Then what are we getting wrong about skating? Correct us for anything we get wrong, please, if you have superior knowledge. We wouldn’t want to give bad advice.

Anonymous asked: heres a little mindf*ck... im in preliminary and i cant do a mohawk, spread eagle or a NICE split jump! )': idk why, i just cant do it.... </3 any tips?

Not that much of a mindf*ck, to be honest with you. I’m PreJuv/Juv and though I can do a mohawk I absolutely cannot do a good split jump or spread eagle. Just keep on working on it, all three of those involve opening hips and if you’re like me and don’t have open hips it can take a while to get there :3 

Anonymous asked: Is there any technique I can use to avoid injuring myself (mostly pulling muscles or damaging tendons) while skating? I'm a newer skater and haven't quite gotten into figure skating yet. I recently got a minor injury on a muscle near my hip. It'll be gone soon, but I was just wondering if you know of techniques to avoid that. :)

To be honest the only thing you can do to avoid that is learn how to fall. It tends to happen naturally as you improve your skating, (my worst falls happened within my first two years), but the main advice for falling is do NOT fall on your back, pulling your arms out in the middle of a jump to break your fall will only break your wrists, and try as HARD as you can to fall on your but and/or hip. Those falls hurt the least. 

But overall… yeah, the falls and pain is sort of part of skating. Getting used to it might be the best advice I can give XD

Anonymous asked: I'm fifteen and know the basics of ice skating, but I've always REALLY wanted to learn to figure skate. What differences are there between the two?

We tend to use the two different terms for the same thing, so if you know the basics of ice skating you probably know the basics of figure skating. Figure skating is used more if you’re coached/compete/do shows and ice skating essentially covers all of that but also just skating on a public session. [Us skaters just use the term “skating” when talking amongst ourselves, which confuses everyone else because they think skateboarding] 

So there isn’t really a difference at all, and learning to figure skate really just means that you’re taking lessons :D

“Figure skating isn’t a sport” they said.

“Hey, where did you get that sledgehammer?” they said.

Anonymous asked: I am almost 17 years old, and have only gone ice skating three times. I absolutely LOVE it! And picked it up almost instantly. Now I want to learn how to figure skate. But I am worried about the price, and starting so late. Are there any prerequisites that I should be taking to prepare myself? I've heard that you should take ballet. Is that true?

Ballet is something very useful to take before and/or with skating, but I wouldn’t say should more than it would be helpful. Ballet improves your form, balance, and flexibility, all important things in skating. Many of us do take it say once or twice a week to help, but it certainly isn’t necessary. As a skater one of the most useful things you can do is off-ice, which is mostly practicing jumps in sneakers with your coach. It can also include stretching and balance exercises, so you may say it’s a very skater-specific ballet. This off-ice would be a sort of co-requesite of skating to help your improvement :D

As for the price, I hate to say this, but skating is definitely expensive. You can avoid extra costs (such as for competition, get a pre-made dress instead of a custom one and you can save $500) but the total of coaching and paying for ice time and the increasing price of your skates as you wear them down and whatever off-ice or ballet you wish to take is dizzying. 

Of course, you start out slow, with $30 skates and a group lesson once or twice a week (group lessons are cheaper). If you still enjoy skating after a few months of working on that, I would encourage lessons more often and then getting private lessons from a coach. More expensive, of course, but your goal is skating is directly proportional to how much money you are going to spend. Once you get the feel for it all, you’ll be more familiar with your goals and what you want to achieve in skating. Then your plan and how often you skate will be adjusted, along with how much it’s going to cost— higher or lower depending on what you wish to do. 

To be honest, you have nothing to worry about in terms of age. Age doesn’t really matter, it’s just that the older you get the harder it is to improve. But you’re still relatively young, so there shouldn’t be many issues if any at all. Just ignore those who are seven years younger than you are and landing doubles— they’ll make you feel bad, but they started much younger than you did so fretting about it will get you nowhere.

TL;DR: Ballet helps but is not required. Price is relative to your skating goals but it is relatively expensive compared to say team sports. Starting late will hardly inhibit progress unless you let it get to you. 

Good luck! I hope you enjoy skating as much as we do!

Anonymous asked: do you have advice for people who just started figure skating. i'm 19 almost 20 and i just love it. (:

Just know that skating involves three things and three things only: Falling, getting up, and trying again. The main idea is to remember that whenever you fail, you just have to do it again and try to fix whatever you did wrong.  Don’t beat yourself up with frustration if you can’t land a jump or do a spin or pass your moves test, you just make a mental note to keep on working on it and you’ll eventually get it. Have fun! :D

(Answering this here because it was submitted)

I am 13 years old, and i started skating when I was 5 (don’t bother 2 grab your calculator- its 8 years) and I can only do stuff up to my double lutz.  I’ve been seeing girls like 11 do stuff that I’m doing, and I want to know if I am like below or just at average the skater.  I skate 4-5 days a week for 1-2 hours. Should I increase the amount I am doing? what could help me? Am I below average skaters? help!

Well, in order to determine an average you have to figure out out of what group of skaters you’re thinking about. Olympic skaters? You’d be below average. Recreational skaters? Above average. If you want to go to the Olympics with skating however you’re doing it now probably isn’t going to get you there. If you’re doing skating for the joy and half a dozen competitions a year along with a few shows and passing all of your tests, you’re doing fine!

Double lutz? I don’t have that. I’m 15. I haven’t been skating for as long as you have, of course, but think of how I feel when those 11 year olds start practicing their double axels! Plus, were you skating 4-5 days a week when you were 7 years old? Probably not. 

If so, though, you may not have a good coach. If you think your coach is excellent, I believe you, but I had a coach for three years who wasn’t very good and didn’t teach me effective techniques. I switched a year and a half ago and now my skating feels so much better. 

If it isn’t that, it could be that you’re just a slower learner than others. That’s nothing bad at all, it may just take longer to pick up techniques and correct body positioning and all that *lovely* stuff that comes with skating. Don’t beat yourself up about it, that can actually make you regress if you get frustrated really easily. If you keep on working hard the higher level jumps will eventually come, and it feels absolutely fantastic when they do!

I wish you luck!

Anonymous asked: Haha, I have (almost) the same question, so I found this site via Google. I'm 17 years old myself, and I'd love to figure skate as a hobby! Can I get good at it, (such as jump and spin) even though I don't have competition goals?

Anyone can be good at skating regardless of their goals or age! You just need to work hard and practice! :)