I have to agree with everything overedge and shyjosie have said.
For me, the concept of safe skating is very personal. My husband used to skate and take lessons. At one point several year ago, while he was practicing a turn near one end of the ice away from the other students, an inexperienced skater skated up to him and couldn't stop. My husband fell while trying to get out of the other skater's way and broke his wrist. He was supposed to go on a scuba diving vacation a week later, and along with the injury, we had a mess to deal with to reschedule the trip, plus the fact that the injury and the cast on his arm interfered with his work. One little mistake snowballed into a lot of complications, not just for him, but for our family and friends and his work colleagues. I know you mean well and that you just want to be friendly and meet other skaters, but if you can't stop or have to grab onto someone to stop, this could lead to a fall or accident that could injure both of you.
FSWer, please remember that many of us here at MITF are experienced skaters, and we want to use our experience to help you. We aren't intentionally being mean to you or trying to hurt your feelings. To be fair to you, we need to be both happy about your progress and encourage you, but also answer your questions truthfully about things that you shouldn't be doing that could hurt you or others. Like Shyjosie said, we want you to succeed, but we want you and others on the ice with you to be safe. The most important thing for you now is to work with your coach to develop good basic skating skills that you can peform on you own. Then you will be able to interact with oher skaters safely on your ice sessions, which is a win for both you and them.
