How long did it take you?

[Frankie Spankie]

Not that long, my main issue was stopping. I roller bladed a lot as a kid and didn't start skating until I was 16. The transition was pretty smooth and a lot of people didn't believe I never skated before. I still don't feel like I'm any good, I'm well aware that I'm much improved. It probably took me ~3 months to get comfortable enough.

[Thesensation19]

4 years old when i started skating. 5 years old when i started hockey lessons. 6 when i started house league.

I was big, I was athletic, I was strong on my feet and had good vision so i was an average player but a below avg skater.

It was not until i hit 13 years old and went to a summer camp that i become an average skater. Didnt even realize i improved so much until next years house league camp.

Started Varsity hockey at 14 but barely played but the practices were great. Went from playing 1 or 2x a week to 3-4x a week just cuz i put myself on the ice more. I really had more of a passion at this age, plus tho i dont blame them it was them who didnt know much about the sport and did their best but i could of used more ice time lol.



At 16 I started to go to Power Skating lessons... anyone heard of Barbara (Long Island new york). One hell of a trainer ill tell ya that lol. She use to train pros and was an olympic figure skater. AnYWAYY her lessons once a week was exactly what I needed. After a year of that i saw real improvement but i quit cuz i wanted to hang out after school and not travel an hour for 15 minute lessons lol after 8 hours of school. I was lazy. But because of that time i really saw more improvement.

I got some real minutes but hardly any lol. I was finally a regular on the bench but they switched me to defense for w.e odd reason and that took some time to get use to. That was good practice tho for back skating. At 17 and 18 I finally became a starter and top point leader in the high school leagues.

At 17 I started to play more open hockey... small rinks were my favorite at the time. Now its more expensive for the small rink by me and too many people go but back then i really improved all around game in those small rinks




So to your question, the hockey lessons at 5 got me the basics and i was okay. The camp at 13 really brought me back to being average for my level and age and in many areas made me better than some guys. At 16, power skating lessons really brought me to a better time but it was the constant ice time on open hockey that has made me into a pretty dam good skater.

I am not a pure skater, i cant skate with flow and beauty lol but i am versatile and well balanced. My advice to you to get better at skating... go out there and DO IT


Public sessions. Go skate. Skate for one full hour or 30 minutes with break. W.e... jus do it! Do turns, do stops... dont worry about falling. Just have fun

Go to open hockey and just play with the puck...

Watch the movie pond hockey and ull see what the pros say and ull get what im getting at... Simply put, just keep doing it, challenge yourself and have fun

[iiTzLaMia]

I was able to skate on my own at 2 so it all came naturally for me

[nullterm]

Started at 29, able to go forward and turn.

Took me half a year to figure out stops good enough for hockey.

Cross overs took about a year.

3 years for transitions, was always my Achilles heel.

5 years in now and I'm finally comfortable with transitions at full speed playing D.

[theMajor]

a full 6 months to be pretty solid. the only thing im not 100% comfortable with now is backwards crossovers but im starting to get the feel for em. just skate as much as you can and push yourself when you do, everything will come in time

[TUCKER 06]

Spend the money and invest in an Adult Power Skating class. You won't be sorry. You will probably learn a lot faster with an instructor (or someone who REALLY knows what they are talking about) than feeling your way through public skating/stick & puck sessions.

I consider myself a more advanced skater, but I know that I have a ton of bad habits and a lot to learn still. I signed up for an adult power skating class that runs from mid-October to mid-December and my skating is already improving.

I know that power skating seems intimidating, but in an adult class there is usually a very wide range of skill level.

[clayman]

Originally Posted by tarheelhockey

That's absolutely true and I hope the total-newbies here take it to heart.

It takes courage to start skating as an adult. You are going to be obviously, visibly bad at it for a while. Kids get a free pass for being wobbly and falling down all over the place, whereas adults need to have enough self-confidence and personal security to know that nobody's really judging them because everyone in the rink understands how hard it is to learn.

The upside is that you really do get a lot of respect from experienced players if you stick with it. Again, it takes a lot of courage to get out there and make the necessary mistakes and keep showing up and improving.

Well said..

[nullterm]

One thing to add, in the course of playing I seemed to have gained some hip/leg flexability that probably helps my transitioning ALOT. I can remember a few years ago only being able to spread my feet say 135 degrees. But now I've noticed that I can now pretty much point my feet 180 degrees from each other with my heels together.

That probably has made transitions much easier being able to step fwd/back or back/fwd without having to either slow down as I slow/drag my edge during pivoting or have to correctly time a small hop while trying to keep up with the puck carrier and hope I didn't catch an edge.

[bwhinnen]

I started skating when I was 40, just under 12 months ago. I started the typical person holding onto the boards kind of shuffling around. Took some lessons and more ice time (as well as my own skates) and went from there. Now I am by no means a great skater, but do alright in the local C-grade summer league here. I try to hit the ice at least once or twice a week and rather than just concentrating on doing one thing the entire session I mix it up a little to make sure that I still do things I've already learnt and feel comfortable with as well as new things.

It comes down to confidence and trying and the time it takes is individual based on those two things. The more confidence you have the quicker you will learn and the more time you spend on the ice trying to do things will also speed that up.

Originally Posted by tarheelhockey

That's absolutely true and I hope the total-newbies here take it to heart.

It takes courage to start skating as an adult. You are going to be obviously, visibly bad at it for a while. Kids get a free pass for being wobbly and falling down all over the place, whereas adults need to have enough self-confidence and personal security to know that nobody's really judging them because everyone in the rink understands how hard it is to learn.

The upside is that you really do get a lot of respect from experienced players if you stick with it. Again, it takes a lot of courage to get out there and make the necessary mistakes and keep showing up and improving.

This is so true, and once I got over the fact that no one really cared when I fell over except myself it made things easier. Now that I know quite a few people at the rink, we laugh at/with each other when we fall trying new things and this helps to re-enforce the fact that no one really cares. All I do when I hear or see anyone fall, is to make sure they are ok.

A few things that have helped me in more recent times are wearing some hockey gear (shins, pants and elbows) when I skate so that I know if I fall I'm not going to hurt myself, this probably depends on the rink where you skate, but ours have no issues with us in 1/2 gear during a public session. The other is going to a larger ROH on my skates, funnily enough it has forced me to lean over and correctly place weight over my edges when doing turns, cross overs so as not to have the blade slide out etc and I found once I did this I improved in both ability and confidence quickly.

[Wilch]

Under half a year.