A few simple habits help adults get more out of their first months of figure skating lessons. Go to every practice with one or two things from your last lesson, and write down how it went afterward. On the ice, keep checking the basics: bend your knees, look up and keep your weight off your heels.
Key takeaways
- Go to every practice with one or two things from your last lesson, and jot down how it went afterward.
- A public session between lessons helps new skills stick. Practice near the boards, keep out of the traffic and check what your rink allows.
- Keep checking the basics: knees bent, chest up, eyes ahead and your weight over the middle of your feet, not back on your heels.
- Rentals are fine at first. Fitted skates, gloves and a little padding make practice easier once you know you're sticking with it.
- Progress comes in fits and starts, so compare yourself with last month, not with the skater next to you.
Once you've had a few lessons, the tricky part is often what happens in between. You leave a class with a head full of corrections, and a week later half of them have gone. This page collects practical tips for adults in their first months of figure skating lessons, from planning a practice to getting through a day when nothing works.
If you haven't had your first lesson yet, our first lesson checklist covers what to bring and wear, and our page on your first 30 days explains which skills usually come first. This page picks up from there, with the habits that help those skills stick.
Go to practice with a plan
Practice goes further when you know what you're there to do. Before you step on the ice, pick one or two things from your last lesson, like a longer glide on your left foot or more knee bend in your swizzles. Working on everything at once usually means nothing gets much better.
A simple shape for each session helps too. Warm up first, start on the ice with easy skating, give most of your time to your one or two things, then finish with something you enjoy. The table shows one way to plan it, and it works for a short session as well as a long one.
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Before you get on the ice | A few minutes of marching, leg swings and gentle lunges to get warm. |
| First few minutes on the ice | Easy stroking and swizzles until your legs settle. |
| Most of the session | The one or two skills from your last lesson, on both feet or in both directions. |
| Last few minutes | Something you enjoy or can already do, so you finish on a good note. |
| Afterward | A line or two in your log: what you worked on, how it went and what's next. |
Write it down while it's fresh, in a notes app or a paper log. It only takes a minute, and next time you'll start from where you left off instead of from scratch. Our goal-setting guide has more on keeping a skating log, and on picking goals that suit you.
Making the most of practice between lessons
A lesson teaches you a skill, and practice is where it sticks. If you can add a public session between lessons, you'll usually feel the difference. Public ice is good for stroking, swizzles, stops, edges and crossovers around the ends, even when it's busy.
Practice near the boards while a skill is new, so you have something to grab. Skate with the flow of traffic, stop at the boards rather than in the middle, and look behind you before you try anything backward. Many rinks don't allow jumps or spins on public sessions, so check the rules first. Our page on rink etiquette covers the rest.
If you're not sure what to practice, ask your coach at the end of each lesson. Something specific, like one-foot glides on your weaker foot, is much easier to work on alone than a general "keep practicing". It also gives your next lesson a head start.
Filming a few seconds of your skating now and then helps too. Watching yourself shows things you can't feel, like looking down or standing up too straight. Check your rink's rules before you film, and keep other skaters out of your clips where you can.
Not all practice has to happen on the ice. Standing on one foot with a slightly bent knee while you brush your teeth is good practice for a one-foot glide, and simple leg exercises help with stroking. Our page on off-ice training has more ideas you can do at home.
Posture basics to keep checking
A lot of beginner wobbles come back to a few posture habits, so they're worth checking every session. Bend your knees and ankles, keep your chest up and your back fairly upright, and look ahead rather than down at your feet. Hold your arms out to the sides, a little in front of you and around waist height.
Keep your weight over the middle of your feet when you skate forward. If it drifts back onto your heels, you'll feel tippy and a backward fall gets more likely, and if it drifts too far forward, your toe picks catch. When you skate backward, your weight sits over the balls of your feet.
When you push, push out to the side with the whole blade rather than off your toe pick. If you hear a scratch at the end of a push, the pick is catching. As you start on curves, lean your ankle, knee and body into the circle together instead of twisting your shoulders. Our guide to inside and outside edges explains how.
Getting more from your lessons
Get to the rink early enough to lace up and warm up before your lesson starts, so lesson time goes on skating. Tell your coach what you'd like from skating, even if it's just to feel steadier. Mention anything that affects how you skate, too, like an old injury or a fear of falling backward.
Ask questions. If a correction doesn't make sense, ask for it another way, and if something hurts or scares you, say so straight away. Good coaches want to know, and adults often learn faster once they understand why a skill works.
Group classes and private lessons both work in the first months. Group classes give you structure and classmates who wobble too, and private lessons give you a coach's full attention. Many adults start in a group and add a private lesson once the basics feel steadier, and our page on choosing a coach explains how to find one.
Gear that helps in your first months
Rental skates are fine for your first few weeks. Once you know you're sticking with skating, your own fitted skates make a big difference to how stable you feel, so get fitted in person if you can. Our skate fitting guide explains what a good fit feels like.
Lace snugly around the bend of your ankle so your heel stays put, and a little easier over your toes and through the top hooks so you can bend your knees. If your feet go numb, something is too tight. Check your laces partway through a session, because they loosen as you skate.
Wear gloves every time, and a helmet is a good idea while you're learning. Padded shorts or knee pads under your leggings take the sting out of falls, and nobody at the rink will think twice about them. If you'd like padded shorts made for skating, we carry CRS Cross padded skating shorts.
Once you own skates, wear hard guards to walk to the ice, dry your blades after every session and put soakers on before the skates go in your bag. New blades usually need sharpening before you skate on them. Our skating bag checklist and our page on when to sharpen your skates cover the rest.
Looking after your body
Warm up before you skate with easy movement rather than long, still stretches. A few minutes of marching or gentle jogging, then leg swings, lunges and arm circles, gets you ready. Save the slow, held stretches for after your session, when your muscles are warm, and our stretching routine has a simple version.
Tired, achy ankles and sore legs are normal in your first months, and they ease as you get stronger. Sharp pain, swelling, numbness or a knock to the head is different, so stop and get checked. Your form slips when you're tired, too, so stopping a little early is never wasted time.
If you have a joint problem or an old injury, or you haven't exercised in a while, check with your doctor or a physio before you add extra sessions. Leave room for rest days, too, because your body needs them to recover.
Patience, plateaus and other adult skaters
Progress in your first months comes in fits and starts. Something that worked last week won't work today, and then a skill you've struggled with suddenly clicks. That's how learning a physical skill goes for everyone, and a bad session doesn't undo the good ones.
Compare yourself with last month, not with the person next to you. They might have skated as a child, or be on their fifth lesson to your second. Notice the small wins, like a lap without touching the boards or a fall you got up from smoothly. Our page on building confidence on the ice has ideas for the scary bits.
Other adult skaters help more than you'd think. Say hello in your class or at an adult session, and you'll find people who know exactly how a sore ankle and a lovely glide can happen on the same day. Skating friends make the slow weeks a lot more fun.
This is general advice from adult skaters, not coaching or medical advice. Your coach can see how you skate, so if their advice differs from this page, go with theirs.
