Adult Skaters -- What sessions do you like to skate? What are you working on?

[gkelly]

I was a preliminary-level skater as a kid and now as a middle-aged adult I'm stronger in my basic skating but will probably never land my lutz and axel again, much less ever master the beginning doubles I worked on as a teen and for a while in my late 30s.

When I was in grad school, I had a flexible daytime schedule and access to one or two adult-oriented dance or general skating sessions at times, as well as regular freestyle sessions.

Now I work full-time so daytime sessions are not convenient although I can take an extra hour for lunch once a week -- on relatively empty public sessions, "private lesson ice" when offered and when I can schedule a lesson, freestyle sessions when offered, or dance sessions that attract older adults and those with flexible schedules (but on which I can't practice freestyle skills, nor patch -- MITF or dance patterns and isolated skating skills only).

Otherwise I tend to skate on regular evening and weekend freestyle sessions that are popular with all ages and skill levels, and sometimes early mornings.

If there are no more than 5-10 skaters on the ice it really doesn't matter much what the others are doing or how old they are if most are around my skill level or below.

If there are 20-30 skaters on the ice, if I'm practicing freestyle then it's best if everyone else is too. If I'm practicing moves, it's best if the other skaters recognize the patterns.

If I'm feeling aggressive and wanting to put out my best skatin, the ideal situation would be no more than 15 other skaters of my level and above, including a few high-level competitors. You rise to the level of the session.

If I'm feeling tentative, e.g., if I'm out of shape for health reasons or having been off the ice for a while, then I prefer a slower paced session to get my skating legs back under me.

[Skittl1321]

I did not start skating until my mid 20s, I am 30 now.
I just passed my Adult Bronze Free and have told my coach I have no intention of doing a loop again He says I still should work on it in group class, but is okay with not using lesson time for it.

I am now working on a combination of moves- mostly Silver, which I won't be able to take due to a labral tear that prevents me from doing spirals on one side, but also some other things from higher levels. I am also working on upping the difficulty of my spins, doing combination spins with position changes and foot changes. I am working on a flying sit, but really just as a novelty, it is not allowed at my level.

I skate 2 freestyle sessions a week and 1 public. During the winter I drop the public, the crowds are insane. Sadly this means I only skate twice a week, as that is all the freestyle available to me. There is a 7:00 a.m. session two days during the week, but I begin work at 7:30 a.m. I work full time, so day time publics are not an option. We don't have "coffee club"- but the old rink I went to that did didn't allow camels/back spirals/ or program music, so you couldn't use it in lieu of freestyle anyway. Besides, they are always during the day.

I take group lessons still because they are a very small group and are a bargain, and include free ice time. I take 2 a week, plus my 1 private a week, so I am at the rink 3-4 days a week.

[overedge]

I skate mostly on sessions that I qualify for (test level) with elementary-school and middle-school age kids. The session is technically open to anyone of any age but I am probably the only skater over age 16. I skate 2-3 times a week depending on my work schedule.

There's an adult session at my club but it is in the late evening, and it's too late for me if I have to get up early for work the next day. I go on it when I can.

Some of the other adults could go on the session with the kids, but they won't because they are scared of the randomness of the littlest ones. I actually enjoy skating with the kids because everyone does a pretty good job of looking out for everyone else, and it's fun to see the kids learn new things and to watch their programs get better.

ETA: Forgot to mention that it is sometimes hard for me to get onto the freeskate sessions with the kids because they are scheduled at a convenient time for kids, e.g. in early/mid-afternoon after school gets out. This is usually not a convenient time for a grownup with a grownup job

[GarrAarghHrumph]

I started skating when in my 30s, and I am older than that now. I changed to ice dance after I herniated a disc in my back - doctor told me no more jumping, so I retired from it. I also do MITF.

I usually have two lessons per week: one with my dance partner, one with my MITF and dance coach. One of those lessons is early morning, the other is over a long lunch hour. I also skate Saturday mornings in freestyles.

The early morning ice is often just me and 2-3 other skaters. The lunch ice is seniors/elite level, so that's a lot of fun. Saturdays are open freestyle.

I'm almost always the only "adult skater" on the ice. There are a couple of people who skate just before or after I do, though, who are adults. And when I skate on the senior/elite ice, there are other adults on there, but they aren't adults like me - over age 30. These are elite skaters in their 20's. Not quite the same thing.

Lately, however, I've been on one public session during lunch, which is almost always other adults. However, there are usually only a few people on that ice.

[aliceanne]

A rink near my job has a public session for the summer from 7am to 8:45am, so I have been taking advantage of that. There are usually not more than 10 people on the ice.

My normal habit is to spend 15 or 20 minutes on moves and then the rest of the session on freestyle. I'm reversing that this summer and working on extension and ice coverage. I'm also trying to improve my weak side for all of the various edges and turns. To do this I've been learning all the adult move patterns and the ISI footwork patterns.

Durning the winter I skate at night and it is almost impossible to practice moves (too many people).

I skated quite a bit as a teen, and took it up again in my 40's. I'm now almost 60. My strength is speed and soft knees, my weakness is poor extension and turnout.

[Synchkat]

My club has lots of sessions for adults so I skate on adult only ice. Fall to spring we have a group lesson for 1 hour in the mornings and then there's another hour of ice after that for freeskate or dance. We have another 2 or so hours in the evenings. Right now for summer we only hve evening ice which is a dance session for 1 hr and then a freeskate for another hour.

I have skated since I was 5, and ice danced competitively so I mainly work on skills and dances. I plan on testing my Tango Romantica this summer so that is what I will be working on tonight. I often go and skater with an older gentleman who likes to dance so I do dances with him. Since he turned 80 though I have noticed he has become a bit more unstable on the ice so I might cut back on the just to protect myself.

Oh I also do synchro so for those sessions it is just our team out there doing synchro, sometimes we do skills on those sessions too.

Also I stay home with my 4 year old son so this is why I can skate during the day and at night as well. I he isn't in school the rink has a daycare that he loves going to so I can always skate.

[AndyWarhol]

I skated from when i was 12 to almost 17 in the 90's, before quitting to have a more "normal" life. I used to skate twice a day, 5/6 days a week. I often missed school for skating. My one regret of quitting is that i didn't test up to the level of my abilitiy at the time, as im now only pre-primary (E3 back in the day) but had clean programs for tests up to novice. WAH!

I skated very sporadically over the past 11 years or so... usually twice a year. I decided to start skating properly again last year, however, moving cities, partying in new city, not having money, getting a job etc put a spanner in the works, so i started properly this year (literally that day after i got back from my xmas break in Europe).

Ive built up to skating 3 times a week now, in the before work freestyle, but next week im increasing to 4/5 times.

When i started, i couldn't do my singles any more, now ive almost of my axel (its landed but its cheated) and im working on some doubles.

my spins came back pretty easily. my layback is my best/favourite spin. my flying camel is a joke.

[Bunny Hop]

I skated as a teenager for a couple of years, just doing group classes, and had got up to learning basic jumps at the point when the rink closed down permanently. There were no other rinks easily accessible by public transport, so I only skated very sporadically on public sessions after that.

I took up skating again in my mid 30s when my husband and I were looking for a sport we could do together. The plan was to learn ice dance, and that is what we've done, although he is now a lot more advanced than me, having had better access to ice time and coaching. I retained none of my teenage skills. I don't test or compete, but I still have ambitions to learn as many of the dances as I am capable of doing. At the moment I'm working on Swing Dance, Fiesta Tango, Fourteen Step and Foxtrot.

At the moment my weekly lesson is on a very busy early evening figure skating (i.e. freestyle) session that is open to all disciplines, levels and ages. It's lethal, with teens jumping, little kids not looking out, dancers doing patterns and everything in between. I'm hoping to seek a new lesson time, as I'm not happy with that session at all.

I much prefer the early morning figure (freestyle) sessions we go to, which are sparsely attended until about 6:30am. It's mostly some of the teenagers working on their programmes, plus some adults doing dance or freestyle. Everyone is good at looking out for each other and giving way to people in lessons and/or on the music. It's a pretty good atmosphere and everyone concentrates on their own practice. Worthwhile getting up early to attend.

There's also a dance only session once a week. I don't mind it on the rare occasions I can have a lesson, but otherwise I play it by ear, and if I feel I'm getting no practice done because I'm spending so much time keeping out of the way, then I get off.

So, on the whole, I guess I prefer sparsely attended freestyle sessions.The mix of levels or disciplines doesn't bother me; it's more important that everyone is willing/able to keep a good eye out for other skaters. Also, I work office hours, so any session I attend has to allow me to get to/from work on time.

[misskarne]

I started skating just after my 22nd birthday (the skates were a present to myself! ) and I will be 24 this spring.

No previous skating experience; only a couple of "for fun" trips to the rink in my early teenage years, and I was truly rubbish! My main memories of those trips was a whopping great bruise on my tailbone and awful blisters. I didn't know anything about skate sizing then!

Very, very occasionally I skate public at my rink; the morning (10am-12) session is almost always deserted during the school term, although I got a rather rude shock the last time I went and discovered people on my session! Lots of people! However, skating alone gives me the heebie jeebies somewhat unless I am working program runthroughs. When coach gave me the green light to self-choreograph my last program, I did several empty publics. More room, better conditions to work out ice coverage, etc.

But usually you can find me on the afternoon freestyle (3:30-5:30). It's usually just busy enough to create a little bit of havoc, but not so busy that you can't get anything done.

I'm currently at Aussie Skate Free Skate 3, and working on my loop and flip, and camel spin. (My camel-sit is actually better than my regular camel.) Last week I achieved the incredible moment of actually landing my loop on one foot! However, this was short-lived when I could not repeat the feat. Coach jokes that I'm more likely to land my flip and possibly my lutz before I land the loop. It was the same story with salchow and toe - it took me a month and a half of solid work to land my salchow with any consistency, and five minutes to land my toeloop.

[skaterina79]

I skated as a child for a few years to end up quitting in high school. Except for a few random trips to the rink during the winter season with friends, I took a very extended absence from the ice until about 2 years ago!! Anyhow, I'm 31 now and I'm so happy that I took it back up When I first started skating seriously again, I started with public ice to see what things I could still do and if I wanted to continue skating and find a coach. Needless to say, I went from skating on public initially to skating with a coach on freestyle ice once a week with a couple of practice sessions either on public or freestyle ice. I now skate 3 times a week with my coach on freestyle ice plus about another 2-3 times on public/freestyle ice, public ice around here during the summer is DEAD lol and its a great deal to skate on you can't beat two hours of nearly empty ice for $5!! Many times I am the only adult on freestyle sessions, however there are a couple of adults that I skate with often during the summer. I really don't mind being the only adult on freestyle sessions, at first it used to intimidate me a little to see young kids working on their doubles and I was trying to get my singles back, but I don't mind it anymore. I also find that most of the kids are usually pretty good about looking where they are going, for the most part. I also teach LTS twice a week, during the off season, 4 times a week during the winter season. Yes I'm on the ice a lot but I love it!!

[Bunny Hop]

At the moment my weekly lesson is on a very busy early evening figure skating (i.e. freestyle) session that is open to all disciplines, levels and ages. It's lethal, with teens jumping, little kids not looking out, dancers doing patterns and everything in between. I'm hoping to seek a new lesson time, as I'm not happy with that session at all.

Apologies for quoting myself, but I turned up at the rink last night to find that the normally packed session was quite managable. I know this was just an aberration, but I was still amused that this happened right after whinging about it here. Coach has, however, found an early morning lesson time for me now, so I won't have to deal with that session anymore.

[gkelly]

Yesterday I had my lesson on a lunchtime public session that was a little more crowded than usual at that time (30-40 people on the ice) and the ice itself was quite bad because the power had been out for about two days and they were in the process of restoring the ice.

I didn't think I could work on anything that required a lot of ice because of the traffic or a lot of control because of the ice quality. So I ended up working on forward upright spin, all brackets in isolation holding my coach's hand, and back inside loops.

Next time I skate on good ice that I can control the blades on better, I'll see if I can apply what I learned about the brackets and loops.

[GarrAarghHrumph]

I haven't skated in a couple of weeks, but hope to get back to it Wednesday night and Thursday. Wednesday night is Igor Lukanin's adult clinic of doooooom in Montclair, NJ. All adults in the NY/NJ/PA area who'd like to come on down, PM me for clinic of dooooooooom info. Igor will make you fit if it kills you.

Thursday is my regular lesson. Having not skated in a couple of weeks, I'll probably have no legs left by the end of the day on Thursday.

[Synchkat]

Garr...I could really use a class like that but I think the commute would be too far for me.
I really have to get back into shape, my test is in just a couple of weeks.

[GarrAarghHrumph]

My coach wants me to test MITF in September, but I'm, like... I can't even do the entry into and start of the second half of this one move yet. So maybe October for me.

[ioana]

This is the first week when I'll skate an evening FS session on Monday night and then another one Wed morning -second one with lesson. As long as the sessions are reasonably empty, I like being on the ice with more advanced skaters as well since it tends to motivate me. Daytime public sessions are good, but not really an option if you work full-time (which I do).

I was off the ice for over a year with a destroyed knee (yes, that's the technical term for torn ACL, partially torn MCL and meniscus ). Hopefully, it holds up to skating 2 sessions since I was ok doing one FS session for the past few months. I'm working on adult gold moves until I can get back in shape (already passed intermediate MITF before getting injured) and hoping to get my axel back and start working on doubles maybe by the end of the year if I'm lucky.

Garr -is your coach part of the whole 'get ready for September, so then when you test in October, you'll be overly-prepared?' -school of thought?

[gkelly]

My coach wants me to test MITF in September, but I'm, like... I can't even do the entry into and start of the second half of this one move yet. So maybe October for me.

Which move?

This morning I was on a more-crowded-than-usual session with a bunch of mid-level kids, some more competitive than others, and a few adults slightly more advanced than myself.

Then on the next session a couple of elite (JGP-worthy) skaters got on and raised the standard by a couple of notches, so I was glad not to be skating that session. But if I had been, I'd deal.

[Debbie S]

I'm getting close to be able to test Gold MIF. My coach thinks in the fall. The challenge will be finding a test session since fall is usually a dead time for testing b/c of post-summer break, Regionals, Sectionals, etc.

I just need to get my 3-turns in the right places and get those BO brackets.

[AndyWarhol]

I had a terrible skate this morning.. i have the flu with has been lingering for a week, and i couldn't feel my feet under me.. needless to say, my axel was terrible and doubles were no where in sight...

also doesn't help that 90% i jumps i went to do i had to abort due to someone learning crossovers.. rah rah rah.

ent rant.

[Adultsk8r509]

I skate publics. Where I live I usually have most of the ice to myself. It's a crime.