How many hours of practice?

[amandascw]

Hi, just wanted to get a few opinions on something I've curious about. I currently in the usfsa freestyle levels working on everything from my scratch spin to starting to consistently land some single jumps etc. I currently skate only 1 hour and 40 minutes a week. I feel that this is not nearly enough especially since I am beginning to take the competitive approach to my skating. I am currently 14 and home-schooled (but not for the purpose of skating). What do you think? How many hours do you think I should practice? Like I said, just curious and any input is appreciated. Thanks

[Bill_S]

You don't mention what your goals are. Practicing less than 2 hours per week is sufficient for having fun and exercise, but you are going to have slow progress if you want to compete.

While our situations are very different (you have the advantage of youth = faster learning), I skated about 3 hours per week this year. I went downhill because that wasn't enough for me to maintain all my skills.

When I was skating 12 hours per week about ten years ago, I was learning quickly and building new skills.

The young people here who skate about 6-10 hours per week have become very good in a few short years. If you can, strive for that.

[lutefisk]

I agree with Bill S. that somewhere between 6 and 10 hours per week (let's say 4 to 5 times per week) is reasonable for adults.  Having said that, I've discovered that backing off every now and then is also a good thing.  At one point, when my work schedule permitted, I was skating 6 times per week and by the end of the week my legs would feel stale.  Sometimes less really is more.

[mamabear]

Are you doing private lessons?  Or LTS?  This is the type of question I tell my daughter she needs to talk about with her coach.  I know that her coach says for those levels at least 5-6 sessions a week and a session should be at least 45 minutes.  At least, I think that's right-the binder is at home and I'm at work.  I told DD when she wanted to compete that she needed to practice at least 4 times a week.  At that time, she was doing twice a week maybe.

I think there are a lot of other factors though such as
1) How chatty are your practice sessions? 
2) How busy are the sessions?  I feel like I can pack in as much in 45 minutes on a lightly attended public session as I can on an 1.5 hour freestyle because I'm not moving out of the way as much, practice repetitively and no one talks to me.
3) Are you supplementing on-ice time with off ice training?

[cittiecat]

I am in adult LTS and I skate between 4-6 hours a week. I have found that sometimes it's not how much you skate but the length between sessions that can hurt my ability to progress. I work and attend graduate school and there are no public times that fit my schedule most weeks Mon-Thurs. so I skate mostly Fri-Sun. I started skating Friday's because I found that if I went into lesson on Saturday morning after a week of not skating I would spend half the lesson time getting used to being on the ice again and essentially warming up. When I skate Friday night before my lesson it makes Saturday's lesson much more productive. Then I practice Saturday for 2-4 hours and Sunday for 2-3 hours. Some weeks I have to adjust this for other things and for June and July I will have to cut back because I will be studying for the bar exam.

I hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nicklaszlo]

Practice time is up to you, based on your goals and budget.  Practicing longer and more efficiently will make you a better skater.

[riley876]

I skate 12+ hours a week,  generally split into twice daily sessions.  Mostly on inlines, but 2 hours/week on ice.   I'm probably the world's slowest learner of physical skills,  but throwing so much practice time at it,  has started to show some actual real progress.    Found it helpful to be able to immediately build on the previous session's breakthroughs without having to waste the first hour of each session "getting it all back again"

Off ice strengthening has been SO helpful too.  I've noticed the stronger you are, the worse technique you can get away with.   Which on the face of it sounds bad,  but just getting something to work, even if it is ugly and "muscled", is sometimes necessary just so that you've got something to refine. 

I find I have to have a day completely off once a week, or my muscle strength starts to deteriorate.   

[LunarSkater]

I do recommend talking with your coach, especially if you want to start looking at competition. S/he will have the best information for you, your goals, and your situation.

I usually skate two or three days a week, mostly on the weekends. I have to schedule skating around work. Fridays I often skate the entire three-hour afternoon Freestyle session. Saturday I have a half hour stroking class, then an hour LTS class, then a 45-minute off-ice class. Sundays are either my off day (as I try to do yoga or other exercise during the week and I need at least one day to relax - which is actually recommended for athletes. Overtraining leads to injury.) or the day I get together with the other adult skater at my rink and hang out on the evening public session. Add it all up, it's anywhere between five and eight hours a week. It's enough for me to keep my current set of skills while still working towards the goals my coach and I have set up.

[tstop4me]

There are a lot of individual variables, and I'm a slow-learning adult.  But here are some general pointers.

(a) It's not just the total practice time per week that matters; the number of sessions per week is also important.  That is, skating 5 hours in one day each week is not as effective as skating one hour each day, 5 days each week.  You wrote that you are skating 1 hour 40 min a week.  I guess you are skating once, or at most twice, a week.

(b) The worst case scenario is when you skate once a week, a single combined lesson and practice session.  That just doesn't work.  Between lessons, you need at least one practice session.  Two practice sessions are better, and three practice sessions are better still.  Especially if you take private lessons, it's a waste of money if you can't get practice sessions in between lessons.

(c) One problem with long sessions is you tend to fade out towards the end, and the session becomes less effective.  How long a session you can sustain depends on your stamina.

(d) You will normally have good days and bad days, depending on many variables:  how you feel in general, how much sleep you got, how good the ice is, how your boots fit that day ....  If you have one long session each week, then a bad day translates into a bad week.  But if you skate 5 days a week, and if you have a bad day ... well, there's hope for a good day tomorrow.

(e) Since you are home-schooled, you should try weekday morning public sessions, if they are available, and if someone can take you; they're usually not crowded, except during school holidays and breaks.   If you want to make steady progress for fun, you should try to build up to 3 to 5 sessions each week , an hour to an hour-and-a-half each session (depending on your stamina and what you are practicing).  If you want to compete, that's a different story, and you'll need to work that out with your coach.

[DressmakingMomma]

My daughter (also home schooled for reasons other then skating) is pretty close in age to you and has been skating for a total of about 3-1/2 years (she had a couple of long breaks due to skate issues).

She was skating at least 2 hours 4-5 days a week before her last break. I would say she was practicing casually when I compare to what she is doing now.

She started up with new coaches and takes 2 privates (1/2 hour) each along with an off ice class and is skating 1 to 1-1/2 hours 4-5 days/week. We'd like to add a 3rd lesson if/when budget allows. Her actual ice time is about half to what she was skating yet her practices and lessons have a much higher level of intensity and I am stunned by her progress. She soaks her sore muscles in a tub of epsom salts every couple of days and takes Sat., Sun., and sometimes Mon. to recover.

My daughter's short term goal is to place well at a non-qualifying regional competition, eventually compete at a qualifying level, and talks about the possibility of becoming a coach herself. She has some pretty lofty goals and had a late start but I think if she works really hard she just might reach them. What you hope to get out of skating should be a guiding factor in how you approach lessons and practice.

One nice thing about homeschooling, is that if your rinks offer them, weekday lunchtime publics are a very affordable way to get in extra practice time - we go a couple times per week.

[rd350]

As much as time on the ice is important I think what you do and how your organize your practice sessions can help you get the most bang for your time.  If you have a coach ask them to give you a practice routine.  I find it very helpful and I use my ice time more efficiently and improvement comes quicker.

[PhysicsOnIce]

As most people have said if you are looking to becoming a competitive skater, you'll need to talk to your coach about what is a good training schedule for you. You should know that amount of hours you are able to train will depend on you significantly. For example, I'm a graduate student and I'm only able to make the evening freestyle session and since I have to drive 45 minutes to get to the rink I tend to have longer sessions.  My training schedule is typically includes 10 to 14 hours per week and 3 hours lessons and is broken down like this:
Monday-2 hours (30 minute lesson)
Tuesday- No Ice
Wednesday-1.5 hours
Thursday- 2 hours + 1 hour ( I take an 30 minute break between my two sessions)  (1 hour lesson at the end of the session, this is not at all optimal, but you have to do what you have to do if you want to progress.)
Friday- 2 hours (30 minute lesson)
Saturday- 1.5 - 2hours (1 hour lesson at the beginning of the session)
Sunday - 1.5 - 2 hours.

But there are a few things to keep in mind.

a) The effective time (i.e. the time you are actually working) of your practice is more important that the number of hours you are on the ice. Being on the ice for 45 minutes but re-tieing your skates 5 times, chit-chatting with friends, helping other people with there problems, on-ice warm up and stretching, messing with your hair, etc... makes your session significantly ineffective. Keep those things to a minimum. You need to get on the ice ready to work hard for as long as you are on ice.

b) The quality of your practice is equally as important. If you are 'practicing', but are not reminding yourself of the things your coach has been asking you to do and correct or just focusing on things that work well for you or just throwing yourself into new elements without thinking them through, you are essentially wasting practice time. You really should focus on the technique your coach is asking you for and think through things. Know your mistakes and know how and why you need to fix them. That is was practice time is really about; getting your body to understand what your brain has been told.

c)Sometimes less is more!!!! Focusing on proper technique, may mean that you are breaking things down in slow motion and it may seem like your are not "doing" much because you are not draining yourself, but it can be worth it. We have all seen (have been or are) those skaters that try something a million time always making the same mistake only to develop bad muscle memory. Once that is in grained in you... it will be much harder to gain proper technique because you'll be fighting yourself ( personal experience here). Take time to really truly understand what and why you are doing it. Working on your technique and the bases can make things all of the sudden appear without having to do a lot of effort. I.e. work on properly holding the inside edge of your three turn  and keeping your left shoulder in front of you before a sal (without actually jumping), and the jump will follow naturally.

d) Have a structure practice. Your coach can help you develop this. This essentially tells you what to focus on and how to focus on it. For me, for a two hour practice session it looks like this: 10 laps around the rink focusing on power and edge quality, 3 runs of my step sequence (15 minutes), 5 warm up jump drills, 5 axels, 2 warm up sal drills, 5 2Sals(add axel combos if landed), 5 warm up lo drills, 5 2Lo (add axel combos if landed), 5 warm up toe drills, 5 single toes, 5  2T 5 warm up drills flip, 5 flips, 5 2F , Typically this will take me around 45 minutes to an hour. Then I have 30 minutes to choose a jump or two to focus on and/or run through my program or a have a lesson. Followed by 30 minutes of spins.

I guess in short, it really sums up to what do you want from skating? Do you want to be a national level competitor?
Discuss your goals with your coach and let them guide you but know that the more quality effective practice time you spend on the ice the faster you'll improve.

[Ethereal Ice]

Though I am new at skating, I thought I would throw in what my husband and I have observed regarding practice time. We have noticed that figure skating, at least for us, seems to be one of those things that frequency (assuming it is a quality practice) seems more important than the length of the session. Due to physical limitations with my back, it is really difficult for me to practice much longer than 1.5 hours, and most of my skating sessions are really about an hour, all told. However, we go pretty frequently, we average four mornings a week, sometimes more. I also notice that skating is more challenging if I have more days of in between. That might sound obvious, but it I mean it *really* makes a difference. If I take more than 1-2 days off, my skates get tighter, my balance is really off, it takes me a half hour just to get my groove back, so to speak.

If I were a younger person like the op, who was training for competition, I would aim to skate most every day I could, hopefully 4-5 days a week at least. But I would not make them marathon sessions, 1.5-2 hours a day would give you 6-10 hours a week of practice time. I think that the shorter sessions also may lessen chances of injury, I notice that when people are working for hours and their bodies get fatigued, they tend to skate with a weaker body position and seem more likely to have falls. If you combine those shorter sessions with an off ice training schedule, you should be in excellent shape for upcoming tests or competitions.

[Andrea.Spencer-Kemler]

Hi, Physics!!

Quick question...when you mention "toe drills" and "sal drills", I'm assuming you mean for toe loop and Salchow. Could I ask what type of drill you're doing? Thank you!

[PhysicsOnIce]

Quick question...when you mention "toe drills" and "sal drills", I'm assuming you mean for toe loop and Salchow. Could I ask what type of drill you're doing? Thank you!

Yeah that's exactly what I mean. For me my biggest problem (in all my jumps) is head and shoulder placement when I get those right things work marvelously, when I don't I get to meet the ice rather up-close and personal. So the drills that my coach uses with me are typically focused on that.

For the Sal, assuming you are a right-directional skater, my go to drill doesn't really have a name, but it goes like this. Take a reasonable amount of speed, but slightly below what you'd use for jumping, set up a nice RBO with a strong back and shoulders, take the LFO, which you use for the sal, making sure to keep the left arm stretched in front right arm in back right palm facing the inside (i.e. toward your body), with eye contact on your left palm or slightly above it. Check your RBI and keeping your Left arm in front and constant eye contact on your palm get into a two-foot spin by deeping your inside edge and bring your right arm and leg in. Your left arm and your head should not change position.  You should feel a hook which is exactly and a natural acceleration in to a two-foot spin.  You should be spinning on your LBI edge, eye contact still on your left palm, after a few rotations assume your landing position.

For the toe, it is much more of a walk through of the jump. My two biggest mistakes with this jump are picking too far to the inside because I swing my leg around rather than going straight back which causes my right shoulder to drop and rushing my take off which causes my free leg to not pass. For my entry, I use a LFO-3, an short two foot glide and then switch feet to a RBO all on a fairly straight line. So, I'll do the LFO-3 on a straight line without much speed, glide on two feet and switch feet making sure that when I switch feet I am going straight back with my leg rather than swinging around without tapping onto the ice. I'll continue to do that all the way across the long end of the ice.  After that I'll go to the boards and work on the passing motion. Stand with t he board on your left right and on a RBO, pick as far as possible with your left leg but don't put too much weight on it, let your right skate glide back to your left and flick across the body making sure that the heel of the blade is the last thing that leaves the ice. I have to think that I'm kicking a ball with the inside arch of my foot when I pass . properly.  (this video shows that position I try to achieve on the wall really well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcsRkGxHJ5s) 

[fantasyfen]

In the Uni, I skated 2-3 times per week: 2 practice sessions on weekday mornings and 1 more session for lesson and practice immediately after. During the holidays, I skated a lot more. I skated 7 out of the past 10 days of June, which has improved my skating significantly but I feel is a bit on the excessive side of practice. *shrugs*

The rule of thumb for me is to have at least 1 day break after 1-2 practice sessions. I keep my practice sessions (on public ice) short. At most 2 hours and a max of 3 hours (that's because I have to skate around and find empty ice to skate on). But all in all, I guess 2 practice session is good, and 3 per week is just nice.