How long does it take to learn how to skate?

Question

I'm 24 years old and haven't skated since I was 5 and would now like to learn how to skate. I am wondering how long it will take to learn how to skate properly? How about if I want to be good enough to be able to play a game of hockey every now and then? Any tips or advice for a beginner? Thanks!

Answer 1

Its like riding a bike

Answer 2

While I wouldn't say skating on the ice is quite the same as riding a bike, especially when your skating in a game setting, I don't think that its going to be as difficult as you might think to get into it and not only that but get fairly good. My advice if your looking to get out there and play as soon as possible is get on the ice and skate as much as possible, the more you do it the more comfortable you will become with it and you can go from there. You will hit a point where your forwards and backwards skating will become second nature and when you get to that point start skating with a stick and pair of gloves. Other than that just mind your edges because thats a lot of what skating is all about. Good luck and have fun!

Answer 3

It won't be overnight. If you want to learn source out a skating club. Most will offer adult skating classes. Don't worry, they won't make you wear figure skates. Power skating and hockey skills classes are offered in some clubs. These will help bring up your level faster. Practice ,practice,practice.It's the only way.But practice with the help of a trained person is much better.At least til you get the program ideas down . Skates are also important. Ask someone you know is a hockey player for info if you can.Try to buy a skate that will suit the use.Quality,fit,price,and sharpening have big influence on skates and skating. Do your home work and have fun eh!

Answer 4

I started when I was around 34.

I had never skated before.

I was functional enough to start a beginner hockey class within a few times on the ice.

It took me about a year to be a good skater, with games and practices about three times a week.

Stick with it, don't be afraid, get into gear and doing real hockey stuff as soon as possible. It's worth it. Best sport in the world.

I've been at it five years now, and I skate well.

Answer 5

I started skating at 5 as well, and picked it back up when i was 17 and taught myself power skating at 24, now I'm 37. I'm considered a strong skater and I can use 3 of the 4 edges of my skates. You'll need to structure your self-training and practice one or two skills at a time (either on ice or inline). 1. Assess your current skills and start learning the basics...forward stride, shuffle turns, cross-over turns, before moving to backwards skating. It is a natural progression of one skill building upon another. 2. I practice during public/open skating sessions with volleyball-type kneepads and hockey gloves on to minimize bruising when I fall when trying some new skills. 3. Certain manouvres may feel awkard at first but keep trying...I used a book called "The New Power Skating" by John Wild ISBN 0-13-615279-1. It helps you visualize what needs to be done and breaks the different skating actions into categories. 4. Speaking of visualization, practice the manouvre without skates and think about how you will weight and unweight your feet in the skating action...I think this is an aspect that is not taught in skating or from friends teaching another...I found this was a important thing to remember when skating...like stopping you don't just jump on the edge of the blades to stop...it is a quick unweighing of the blades to allow you to turn them and weighing back down to quickly apply your pressure to skate to stop. This is just a start...I can talk about counter-leaning when turning etc...but the book will cover it off. 5. Finally, don't think you have to perfect every skill...work up to a level you feel confident in (basic forward stride, turn left and right, ability to control speed (ie: slow stop)and as long as you can keep up with the flow of the game you'll start to execute without think...this is why it is important to progressively practice the different skills. Then there's the stickhandling skill as well as development hockey sense and timing.

Concerning timing, it depends on how often you can practice, either on ice or hard surface. Inline skating does not allow you to turn as hard and as quickly as with ice skates.

Good luck...it is a fast and challenging game but so enjoyable.

Answer 6

i think that it really depends on the person.i went ice skating for the very first time last winter and i was scared that i was going to fall on my face but i did really good.i think that after a day i would have been really really good at it!however i watched people fall all over the place!but i think that if you have done it before even if it was some time ago that you will be able to get really good at it to where you can play hockey in no time!

Answer 7

a few miutes. make it half an hour if you're really terrible ;)
it'll take some more practice to become good at it, obviously, but to start to learn it only takes a few minutes. like the first anwser said: it's like riding a bike, once you've mastered the skill you'll never completely forget!

Answer 8

well it depends on how much u practice if u practise 2 hours a day then its good but if u practice more than that then it would take about 4 months

Answer 9

It really depends on how long you are willing to work at it in the day, and how out of shape, or in shape you are. I highly reccomend this website: http://www.wikihow.com/Ice-Skate-Well

And goodluck! It's a good form of exercise. :)

Answer 10

usually it only takes a couple of hours if it is a wood floor i don't know about ice skating

Answer 11

Probably about a day or two. It's like riding a bike....once you've learned...you just gotta get your legs used to it again