A good skating goal is specific, small enough to reach in the next few weeks or months, and mostly within your control, like running your program at every practice or adding a practice session to your week. Work out the steps with your coach, then keep a simple record of each session in a notes app, a paper log or short phone videos. Looking back every so often shows you how far you've come and what to change.
Key takeaways
- Pick goals you can picture clearly and mostly control, like practicing between lessons, alongside bigger ones like passing a test.
- Break a big goal into small steps, and ask your coach what the next step really is.
- Keep a short log after each session: what you worked on, what went well and what's next.
- Phone video shows things you can't feel, and comparing an old clip with a new one is a lovely reminder of progress.
- Check in on your goals now and then, and change them when life, an injury or your skating changes.
Adult skaters tend to be busy people. Ice time gets squeezed in around work and family, lessons cost money, and progress can feel slow when you skate once or twice a week. Goals help you spend that time on what matters to you, and a record of your sessions shows you progress that's easy to miss from one week to the next.
This page covers both halves: setting goals that suit you, and keeping track of how they're going. Nobody needs a spreadsheet to enjoy skating, so take what's useful and leave the rest. If you're brand new, our page on your first 30 days covers what to expect before you set any goals at all.
What makes a good skating goal
A good goal is specific. "Get better at jumps" is hard to work toward, because you never know when you've done it. "Land my waltz jump and hold the landing" tells you exactly what to practice and what done looks like. The more clearly you can picture it, the easier it is to plan your practice around it.
It also helps if the goal is small enough to reach. A goal you can get to in a few weeks or a couple of months keeps you going, while one that's years away can start to feel like a weight. Big dreams are welcome, like a test or a jump you've always wanted. Just break them into steps you can picture yourself finishing.
Most of all, a good goal is mostly within your control. You can't decide when a jump will click or what the judges will think, but you can decide how often you practice and whether you run your program at every session. Goals about what you do are fairer to yourself than goals about results, and they're the part you can always make progress on.
You may have come across SMART goals at work, where the letters stand for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. The idea works for skating too, but you don't need the acronym. If your goal is clear, small, mostly up to you and something you care about, you're most of the way there.
Goals for now, this season and someday
It helps to think about goals at a few sizes. A long-term goal is the big thing you're working toward, like your first competition or a test. Shorter goals are the steps on the way, and the smallest are what you'll work on at your next few sessions. Each size feeds the one above it.
Say your big goal is to skate in a competition. A step on the way might be skating your program to the end without stopping, and this week's goal might be running the first half at every practice. On the ice, you only have to think about the small one. That's much easier than carrying the whole competition in your head every session.
Give your bigger goals a rough time frame, like "this season" or "before summer", rather than a fixed date. Skating progress doesn't follow a calendar, and adults have jobs, families, colds and sore knees to work around. A loose time frame keeps you moving without turning a slow month into a failure.
Examples of skating goals
Here are some vague goals turned into clearer ones. Yours will look different depending on where you are and what you enjoy, so treat these as ideas to adapt with your coach rather than a list to copy.
| Instead of | Try something like | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Get better at crossovers | Skate forward crossovers both ways around a hockey circle without stopping | You know exactly what done looks like. |
| Learn to jump | Land my waltz jump and hold the landing | One skill with a clear finish line. |
| Pass a test someday | Pass the Adult Pre-Bronze skating skills test this season | A real test with a rough time frame. |
| Skate more | Add one practice session a week on top of my lesson | It's entirely up to you. |
| Stop being scared of skating backward | Practice backward swizzles along the boards at every session | Small, regular steps build confidence. |
| Get fitter for skating | Do the off-ice routine my coach suggested twice a week | Easy to check off, even in a busy week. |
| Do a competition | Skate my program start to finish at a local competition this season | Finishing is the goal, not the placing. |
Some of these are about doing something regularly, and some are about a skill or an event. A mix works well. The regular ones keep you moving on weeks when a skill feels stuck, and checking them off feels good even when nothing else has clicked. If off-ice work is one of your goals, our page on off-ice training is a good place to start.
Planning the steps with your coach
Your coach is the best person to help you turn a goal into steps. They can see what needs to come first, and whether a goal is a good stretch or a bit too far for now. Tell them what you're hoping for, even if it feels silly to say out loud. Most coaches like knowing what their adult students actually want.
If testing is the goal, our guide to U.S. Figure Skating tests explains how the adult levels work. If it's a competition, our page on preparing for your first competition covers the run-up. Our guides to crossovers and the waltz jump break each skill into stages you can use as steps.
If you don't take lessons, you can still set goals, though they're harder to judge on your own. Learn to Skate USA class levels give you a ready-made set of steps, and our page on choosing a coach can help when you're ready for one.
Keeping a skating log
Progress in skating is slow enough that it's easy to miss. A simple log helps. After each session, write down what you worked on, what went well, what your coach said and what you want to try next time. It only takes a couple of minutes, and the next session starts with a plan instead of a blank.
A notes app on your phone works, and so does a paper notebook in your skate bag. Use whatever you'll actually keep up. Some skaters also note how they felt that day, because tiredness and nerves both show up on the ice, and a pattern can be useful to spot.
If you'd like something ready-made, the free 12-month skating goals tracker in the signup below this guide is a printable planner made for exactly this. It gives your goals and your session notes one place to live.
Using video
Video shows you things you can't feel, like looking down or a free leg that isn't quite where you thought it was. A phone is all you need. Ask a skating friend or your coach to film a few seconds of the skill you're working on, from far enough away to see your whole body.
The real value comes from comparing. Film the same skill now and again in a couple of months, from a similar angle, and watch them one after the other. Progress you can't see from week to week is often obvious side by side. Keep the clips in one album on your phone so they're easy to find.
Check your rink's rules before you film, since some rinks have rules about filming on sessions, and keep other skaters out of your clips where you can. Share clips with your coach if they'd like to see them, but leave the fixing to your lessons. It's easy to pick a video apart and end up more confused than when you started.
Checking in and changing your goals
Look at your goals every so often, maybe once a month or whenever your coach changes what you're working on, and read back through your log while you're at it. Skills that felt impossible a few months ago often turn up as things you now do without thinking. If a goal no longer matters to you, change it. That isn't giving up, it's how goals stay useful.
Plateaus are normal. Most skaters have stretches where nothing seems to move, and then a skill suddenly clicks. If a goal has been stuck for a while, make the next step smaller, or work on something else for a bit and come back to it. If fear is what's holding you back, our page on building confidence on the ice has ideas.
Life gets in the way too. An injury or a busy stretch at work can put skating on hold, and that's fine. When you come back, make your first goal about feeling comfortable on the ice again before you pick up where you left off. If something hurts, get it checked before you push on with a skill.
When you reach a goal, enjoy it. Tell your coach and your skating friends, and take a moment before you set the next one. Adults are often quick to brush off their own progress, and every goal you reach took real work.
This is general advice from adult skaters. Your coach knows your skating best, so if their plan differs, go with theirs, and see a doctor about any pain that doesn't settle.
