Time is on my side...

[FigureSpins]

New poll: given your choice, how long would you like your freestyle session to be, assuming the cost is affordable and the schedule is okay?

[CaraSkates]

At my rink and the other two I occasionally skate at, you pay per hour. My club will let people pay in 15min increments (I think it's a minimum of 30mins though...), others you have to buy in hours.

The nice thing is that you can make your hour start when you want - so if you skate 8-9 or 8:25-9:25, it's still the same price. I skated at a rink after work one summer and you had to pay/skate sessions. It was a disadvantage for me because I got there halfway through the first session and so ended up waiting 30 mins before I could get on.

[MadMac]

I prefer 60 minute sessions with 2 or 3 sessions scheduled back to back.

[taka]

About an hour and a half for me! Enough time for a decent warm up, a good practice and a lesson while not getting too dangerously tired by the end of it!

The actual length (and timing) of our patch sessions vary depending on coaches being around so people arriving/leaving mid (thoretical) session is pretty common, depending on who is coaching when. As long as you're not on the ice for longer that approx 2 hrs while having only paid 1 fee, no one really bats an eyelid - on the quiet weekday sessions anyway. The very busy weekends and Thurs evening sessions are all much more tightly regulated as they run very close to max capacity usually.

[fsk8r]

Most people at my rink are on monthly passes for freestyle so we skate as long as we want to. There's only a couple of sessions which are completely standard limited.
Most of the skaters generally aim for between an hour and 90min. Although if they've got more time available, it's not uncommon to skate two hours or more. Generally with a break though.
90min for me is optimal as long as the lesson is in the middle, so there's a chance to warm up, lesson and then practice. My schedule doesn't always allow it, but it's nice when it does.

[jjane45]

90 minutes is about right if I am actively working on moves, freestyle, and dance. For freestyle only practices, I'd say 60 minutes.

My rink used to offer a 90 minutes adult group freestyle lesson that was GREAT. Past tense, sigh.

[sarahspins]

My rink used to offer 75 minute sessions and IMO those were perfect.

Most sessions now are 45 minutes and it's annoying to me, mostly because it just doesn't feel like enough time to get anything done.  I've considered skating two of those over the summer, but that involves getting up much earlier than I'd like to.

[TreSk8sAZ]

I prefer 90 minutes so that I can get everything in and feel like I have time to work on new things without taking time away from other things I need to work on. But mostly I skate 60 minute sessions before work, then longer on the weekend. 60 minutes works, but sometimes I have to forego dance or MITF to fit everything in.

[icedancer]

I don't do freestyles but I would find 45 minutes completely annoying!

I need about 90 minutes to really feel like I've gotten anything done - I like doing two 45-minute dance sessions - there is an ice-cut in between so that is nice - but gets $$$$

[Icicle]

I don't do freestyle either. It's more expensive than public, but that's not even the main reason. I feel intimidated by advanced skaters doing doubles, so I feel that I should yield to everybody, and because of that I hardly get to practice anything at all. But time wise, I need at least 90 minutes or even two hours to get anything done. Even so I run out of time.

[nicklaszlo]

90 minutes because it reduces travel/wait time.  Longer is not available here.

[ChristyRN]

When I was healthy and skating 3x a week, I liked 60-90 minutes.  Now, I feel good when I've skated most of an hour. 

[sarahspins]

I feel intimidated by advanced skaters doing doubles

Imagine what it's like with triples.. or backflips

All kidding aside, I've gotten used to skating on some fairly empty sessions with some fairly high level skaters - it's taking me a while to realize that while doubles (and especially triples!!) are intimidating, when it's just one skater doing it, there's plenty of ice left over to work with, and if you learn their jump patterns, much like learning the high level MITF patterns, it's really really easy to know where they are going to stay out of their way.

I used to be very intimidated by it, but it doesn't get to me as much any more.. I have my own things to work on, and as long as we're all conscious of where we are on the ice, there are no problems   Of course I'm sure it helps that the people I skate with are awesomely nice 

[PinkLaces]

We have those annoying 45 min sessions at our rink. I have to skate 2 back to back if I am working on both moves and FS plus having a lesson. 90 mins is almost the perfect amount of time to practice everything and not just running through stuff once or twice.

[sarahonice]

Freestyles are 45 minutes for me too, which I find awkward. I feel like 45 minutes is too short and I have to rush through warm-up and leave out things I want to practice, or (usually) double up sessions. Plus it just gets so expensive. I like the idea of longer sessions or paying in 15-minute increments, though.