Getting back on the ice after a month or more off?

[Spazactaz]

When you do this, does it always feel like you pretty much don't know how to skate at ALL?

For the past 12ish years, I've always took at least an entire month off... and every time I got back on, even a crossover felt completely AWKWARD and I felt like I was going to biff it on every stroke.

But I got back on yesterday after about 6 weeks off (longer than normal) and for the first time it didn't feel like I had been off. It was SO weird! I did all the doubles, even double axel which I usually don't ever attempt first day back.

[KatieC]

I only get to skate now once a week, and only for another week before I'm back to full time work and no skating til September. My skills definitely deteriorate, but at least today I was still able to do three scratch spins and crossovers. Lousy running threes though. But I know I'm not as limber as I used to be, and a hole in the ice can really make me wobble.

Sounds like you had a very nice skate yesterday.

[waltz_jump]

I'm interested to know what the other ladies will say about this, especially those who took time off for pregnancy. Hubby and I might try for our first baby this year and I know I would want to hit the ice soon after giving birth (good way to get back in shape too and hubby is in support of that lol). i'm also worried about losing my skills especially since I would like to test bronze moves and FS down the road but I know we'll probably have a baby before then first.

[Spazactaz]

I find that even if I only skate like once or twice per week, it's still enough to keep everything up to par.. it's just when it's an extended period of time, then it seems to take several skates to get back to feeling ~normal~.

I'm just doing twice per week during May. 2nd day back tonight, my goal is for triple sal and triple toe. Possibly try a loop. :p

[arena_gal]

It takes me a week at least to get good spins back and it gets harder every year. What are your spins like?

[leafygreens]

After not skating for a while, I can normally still do all my "tricks," but I feel very dizzy, winded, out of shape and generally "out of it." Sometimes I feel like this just from missing a week of skating. Even if I want to slow down my training, I usually try to go out and at least get the feel for the ice about once a week, to keep me from getting too stale. Even if it's just stroking around and doing some moves, it really helps rather than doing nothing.

[GarrAarghHrumph]

I'm interested to know what the other ladies will say about this, especially those who took time off for pregnancy. Hubby and I might try for our first baby this year and I know I would want to hit the ice soon after giving birth (good way to get back in shape too and hubby is in support of that lol). i'm also worried about losing my skills especially since I would like to test bronze moves and FS down the road but I know we'll probably have a baby before then first.

If you skate during pregnancy, as I did, be sure to listen to your body. If you start to feel like you're no longer stable enough to skate, then that's when you stop.

Pregnancy is actually what converted me from singles to dance. With dance, there's partner; and if your coach is your partner, you feel really stable and safe.

Afterwards, you can go back as soon as the doctor clears you for exercise. My only suggestion for your return is that you consider doing your very first skating session with your coach there. IMO, that helps.

[LLOS]

Spazactaz, maybe for you as a high level skater, you may feel it when you take a month off. For me as an low-middle class adult skater, I feel great when I get back on ice after the summer break (in June and July it happens that there is no ice for at least a month or more) I feel like I can skate better even though I had no training, it feels like what I have learned in the past season, had time to get in my body "memory" and I skate better and all things are back within 20 min....other than the summer break, I never have breaks, if there is ice I skate

[waltz_jump]

If you skate during pregnancy, as I did, be sure to listen to your body. If you start to feel like you're no longer stable enough to skate, then that's when you stop.

Pregnancy is actually what converted me from singles to dance. With dance, there's partner; and if your coach is your partner, you feel really stable and safe.

Afterwards, you can go back as soon as the doctor clears you for exercise. My only suggestion for your return is that you consider doing your very first skating session with your coach there. IMO, that helps.

Interesting...if you don't mind sharing how far along did you skate into your pregnancy? And at what point did you stop jumpng and spinning and start with dance?

I will definitely have my coach with me on my first session back!

[Spazactaz]

One of the coaches at my club skated like right up until she had her baby. I thought she was INSANE! She would demonstrate flying camels and everything.... and not just a little walk-through, a FULL out spin. I had no idea she was pregnant because I didn't think anyone about to have a baby would be skating so full out like that.

[livetoskate]

I'm interested to know what the other ladies will say about this, especially those who took time off for pregnancy. Hubby and I might try for our first baby this year and I know I would want to hit the ice soon after giving birth (good way to get back in shape too and hubby is in support of that lol). i'm also worried about losing my skills especially since I would like to test bronze moves and FS down the road but I know we'll probably have a baby before then first.

Everyone's experience is different, but due to intense sleep deprivation, I was in no shape to go skating until about 4 months after giving birth. Since then, I have only skated a couple of times. I'm too achy to jam my feet into skates and jump, and there's always something else that needs to be done that takes priority. Maybe when my son is a few yrs. old, I can start taking lessons again, or at least skate once a week. The skills were coming back and things were feeling pretty good the 2nd time I skated, so that was encouraging. I was also glad that my skates still fit, since my feet swelled up during pregnancy. Good luck to you!

[Bunny_Hop]

I feel like I can skate better even though I had no training, it feels like what I have learned in the past season, had time to get in my body "memory" and I skate better and all things are back within 20 min...

This happens to me too! I think maybe it's a psychological thing... when you're skating every few days, it can feel like if you stopped you'd lose the ability to do anything, so the skills seem "fragile". But then when I take time off and can still skate, everything feels more concrete.

Also with what you were saying, it's weird when I try something I haven't tried for a while (and had previously failed), and can suddenly do it, even when you haven't been practising that specifically. For example, when I was still solidifying one foot glides, I tried to do a spiral -- hey, I'm a teen, that's the kind of crazy thing we do -- and fell hard onto my knee. A few months later I tried another spiral and although it wasn't nearly high enough (and still isn't), I could/can hold the basic leg position without falling or even feeling too wobbly. The same thing also happened to my lunge and right-foot bunny hop. Has this happened to anyone else?

[ltnskater]

Ahh, the month of skating and returning, haha, sometimes it feels awkward (sometimes crossovers) and it takes a while to get everything back, but other times I've felt good and have done double axels on the first day back. One thing though is, usually my stamina plummets when I first get back on the ice, and even like 3 or 4 rounds of crossovers get me tired and add in 3 to 4 jumps after that, I'm out of breath haha

[gkelly]

Sort of. I haven't been completely off the ice since last winter, but I've been breaking in skates for the past three weeks so I haven't been able to do much of my usual skills.

Day before yesterday I finally managed to do all of the three turns, even the left inside ones, forward and back, which are the ones that scare me.

I was also playing around with loops, because for some reason I could control the back inside loops in too-stiff boots before I could control the three turns. And then I started trying the forward inside loop (right foot only), which I'd never been able to do before, or rather one day a couple months ago I got one attempt to actually loop.

This time I got it on my first or second try, so I kept trying a bunch more and most of them worked. Whee!

Don't know if I finally got the hang of the technique or if the profile of the new blades is more conducive to that particular skill. Maybe both.

[briancoogaert]

This year will be my longest break. I've been 3.5 months off the ice
The last time, it was 2 months off. I remember that the first hour was really difficult !!!
But in fact, the next hour was good.
I'll be back on the ice this week. I hope it will be OK. I miss the ice so much !

[Bunny_Hop]

and every time I got back on, even a crossover felt completely AWKWARD and I felt like I was going to biff it on every stroke

I was wondering about crossovers and this. I always worry if I haven't been skating for a while, whether I will still be able to do crossovers. I always thought that was just because crossovers are pretty much the hardest thing I can do, so I feel least confident about them.

But it seems like other much more advanced skaters also have a weird feeling about crossovers -- I remember on the Ice Mom blog a few weeks back she said her daughter gets the same feeling. Is it something about crossovers, that makes people feel awkward doing them even if they can do much more advanced moves?