How Long Did It Take You to....?

[TheAquarian]

So I've been skating for 7 weeks now and I feel like I have made a lot of progress, that said i'm trying to figure out where I can reasonably expect myself to be a year from now in terms of skill.    I know no one can answer this for me because it depends alot of natural aptitude, training environment,   how often you practice, etc,   but I'd like to know about other people's experiences with skating.

How long did it take you to finish basic skills?

How long before you did spins?

How long before you started jumps?      

Doubles?

MITF?


Although I've enjoyed almost every minute of my skating experience, and have really appreciated my coach,  one drawback to private instruction as an adult is that I have no sense of what is considered "normal" progression.      

The main reason I am so interested in trying to guess where I might be  in a year is because I am planning to move overseas to South Korea and I have no idea how difficult it will be to find a good coach with the culture and language barriers that I will no doubt experience.   I have to so anticipate a plateau  in my learning at that point,  and I'm trying to get a sense of what I might have to practice without a coach.

[phoenix]

Well, as you said, there is no way to tell because there are too many variables. Some people really have a feel for it & zoom through the basic skills (though you spend the rest of your life perfecting them), and have relatively no fear of jumping, so they get those too. Spins seem to take longer for everyone, even those with a lot of natural ability. It also depends if you're out there 7 days a week, or 3 days a week.

You asked what our own progression was, so here's mine (I started at 27)

How long did it take you to finish basic skills?
When I started they didn't have separate levels for adults, so I did the basic 1-6 with everyone else. I think that was about 3 months (I did a couple levels in each session). Then I did one session of FS1, then switched to a private coach.

How long before you did spins?
Started working on them (1 foot entry) after about 3 months. I suck at spinning though & it was a good year or more before I had a decent scratch spin.


How long before you started jumps? About 3 months

Doubles? never did doubles; switched to ice dance

MITF? I didn't do moves until years later, as dancers aren't required to do them for testing. So I didn't start moves until I was into my silver dances, so that won't be a good comparison.

Do keep in mind though, that none of this will be a good comparison, because everyone is different.

[davincisop]

I've been skating off and on since I was 12, and was coached about 3 of those years up until recently when I started with my new coach. I'm 22 now, about to turn 23 and picked skating back up at 21.

How long did it take you to finish basic skills? To be honest I can't remember. I don't think I started learning a one foot spin until about a year and a half into the sport. So it probably took me about a year and a half to finish basic skills. I'm now on the adult track and 10 years later testing for pre bronze tomorrow. So as of tomorrow I will have technically passed the basic basic stuff lol.

How long before you did spins? About a year when I did the two foot spin, a year and a half to one foot. Now perfecting centering my scratch spin that I learned around 14, and trying to get myself lower in my sit spin and get three or more revs in my backspin.

How long before you started jumps?  Bunny hops about a year into skating.   

Doubles? Not yet. I'm sure hoping!

MITF?  Taking my first MITF and Freestyle tests tomorrow

[Sierra]

How long did it take you to finish basic skills?
A long time considering I'm a teenager. It took me a year and a half of going to group lessons once a week. Then I started practicing, got private lessons and new skates, and immediately zoomed to doing doubles about six months later.

How long before you did spins?
I was working on my one-foot spin about a year into skating. I competed with it and placed badly. After skating for two years, I'm working on scratch, backspin, sit, camel, back sit, back camel, pancake, layback and change-foot spins. None of them are good.

How long before you started jumps?
I was doing tiny waltz and toes probably six months, a year, into skating? At the year and half point, I was working on very tiny waltz, toe and salchow. Right now I am working on axel, lutz, double loop and loop combos.     

Doubles?
Two years after beginning skating, but only 5 months after beginning privates. I'm working on double loop and will probably start double sal soon. I landed my single loop less than three months before I began the double, so doubles have come very quickly for me.

MITF?
Right now, even though I am in privates, I never get taught things like brackets and twizzles. I am working on my Pre-pre and prelim MITF. I tend to pick up MITF quickly.



Competition: At 4 months of skating, I competed in Basic 2. It was stuff like snowplow stops, alternating half swizzles, etc. At a year of skating, I competed in Basic 5- back crossovers, one foot spin etc. At two years of skating, I competed Freeskate 2, but was only in that level because of my spins. When I competed, I had already landed flip and loop and started on axel a couple weeks later. Freeskate 2 is backspin, toeloop, waltz-side toe-waltz, chasses etc. At 2 years, 4 months of skating, I hope to compete in Pre-preliminary. (axel, sit/camel.)
The only competition I haven't placed last in was the Basic 2 one, in which I tied for first.

I do not know how quickly I would have progressed had I practiced, and had the right skates, right off the bat.

I skate twice a week for a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes. I hope to increase it to 4 hour 30 min. I take one half hour private per week and a group lesson, too, which is taught by my private coach and only has a few freestyle skaters, so it is actually quite beneficial even at my level. I practice very hard and never, ever fool around or chat.

You skate quite a bit more than me (jealous) and take more lesson time, so you will probably progress through basic skills much faster. But since you are an adult, you may slow down quite a bit when it comes to jumps, spins and doubles. Adults cannot afford an injury, because they have to work and drive. This tends to hang around in their subconscious when they jump.

Didn't Yuna come from South Korea? Correct me if I'm wrong.

[jjane45]

About a year to finish ISI learn to skate, with regular public skate practices for the second half of it.

Waltz jumps and two foot spins at ISI FS1. I struggled a lot on forward 1-foot spin and change-foot-spin, but then sit spin came rather naturally, back scratch will get there. Camel, OTOH, will be a completely different story...

Jumping-wise, not sure if I will ever get to doubles as I don't quite have the "pop" on single jumps yet. Not planning to compete and no MITF for now.

Yuna Kim trained in South Korea before moving to Toronto, but I doubt ice time and coaching accessibility are comparable to US metropolitan areas. Never hurts to check first depending on which city you are moving to!

[TheAquarian]

How long did it take you to finish basic skills?
A long time considering I'm a teenager. It took me a year and a half of going to group lessons once a week. Then I started practicing, got private lessons and new skates, and immediately zoomed to doing doubles about six months later.

I have never had group lessons.   I have been skating since the beginning of October, but I've been with a private coach the entire time - this is partly due to scheduling around work and school,  partly due to simply wanting to do things "right" from the start and learn quickly.   It's really interesting so far to see how different everyone is, but your experience is encouraging.

As of right now I am about 90-95% of the way through Basic 1 (Adult),  and 20% through both Basic 2 and 3.  She is teaching me things a little out of order, and I think she might be including a few things from the kids program that aren't required for Adults as well.   I mentioned in a conversation that I wanted to learn everything even if it wasn't required because it would probably be useful later on.  The past couple weeks I haven't learned as many new things because we have been working on fine tuning my stroking and one foot glides so as to not develop bad habits that will need to be broken in the future.

Competition: At 4 months of skating, I competed in Basic 2. It was stuff like snowplow stops, alternating half swizzles, etc. At a year of skating, I competed in Basic 5- back crossovers, one foot spin etc. At two years of skating, I competed Freeskate 2, but was only in that level because of my spins. When I competed, I had already landed flip and loop and started on axel a couple weeks later. Freeskate 2 is backspin, toeloop, waltz-side toe-waltz, chasses etc. At 2 years, 4 months of skating, I hope to compete in Pre-preliminary. (axel, sit/camel.)
The only competition I haven't placed last in was the Basic 2 one, in which I tied for first.

They have competitions for Basic 2???    I always just assumed  the "Basic Skills" competitions were for all levels combined.  Sweet!  Now I am even more excited.  lol  I am always revealing how much of a skate newb I am.   In a lot of ways I find it very amusing that I am the worst skater at my rink, simply due to lack of experience.

I do not know how quickly I would have progressed had I practiced, and had the right skates, right off the bat.

I skate twice a week for a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes. I hope to increase it to 4 hour 30 min. I take one half hour private per week and a group lesson, too, which is taught by my private coach and only has a few freestyle skaters, so it is actually quite beneficial even at my level. I practice very hard and never, ever fool around or chat.

You skate quite a bit more than me (jealous) and take more lesson time, so you will probably progress through basic skills much faster. But since you are an adult, you may slow down quite a bit when it comes to jumps, spins and doubles. Adults cannot afford an injury, because they have to work and drive. This tends to hang around in their subconscious when they jump.

It sounds like you and I have about the same amount of lesson time each week, however both of mine are private.  Basically I have a 30 minute lesson on Tuesday, and a 45-60 minute lesson on Friday depending on whether the time is needed to practice anything, and if our schedules allow.   There have been a couple canceled or shortened lessons due to conflict with school, work, etc.

As for how much I skate each week,  it really varies a lot.  In many ways, my teachers determine how much ice time I get by how much homework they assign.   This week I have been lucky.  In spite of waking up late I've spent about 6-7 hours on the ice,  but last week for example I was down to about 2.5-3 because I was swamped with school work.

Finally... what you said about Adult skaters makes sense...  but I REALLY try hard not to think that way. If anything I compare myself to the kids and try to put myself in a similar mindset and hold myself to similar standards.   If I am not doing that, I try to maintain a very proud mindset that says "Of course I'm going to be awesome at figure skating!  I'm going to be doing spins, doubles,  and everything in between and beyond because that's just the way it is. I'll fall a lot on the way to getting there,  I can't stop it or where I'm going, so I might as well embrace it!"  This kind of attitude doesn't allow for very much worrying.   If anything I'd actually appreciate an excuse to not be at work so much, so that I could spend more time on school  

Didn't Yuna come from South Korea? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, but she currently trains in the USA.    Yuna isn't really connected to my interest in Korea.  I'd decided to go there about a year before she became a household name.