How often do you skate?

[sampaguita]

Just curious to know how often people skate... thanks for voting!

[Skittl1321]

I skate 3 days a week. 30 minutes on Tuesday, an hour on Wed, and 1.5 hours on Sat.

[MimiG]

At the moment, I'm only skating an hour a week for myself, but I'm hoping to increase that a bit this season. I'm on the ice a lot more while coaching, though!

[hopskipjump]

She skates 4 days a week 2hours, 3hours (plus 3 hours skate camp), 1hour, 1hour.

It will go eventually to 2,4,1,2 (plus any more time she or her coach ask for).  Spread over that time is 1-1.5 hour is private lessons, 2 hours of it is group instruction.

[fsk8r]

Do people find that skating longer sessions or shorter sessions more beneficial? If I could have my ideal, I'd skate for 90min at a time, with 30min to warmup and practice, 30min lesson, 30min post lesson practice to reinforce. I don't often get that as I'm only able to skate for 1hr before work. 1hr without a lesson is ample time to practice everything with no time wasted.

[Skittl1321]

I prefer shorter sessions because my knees and hip can't take long ones.  1 hour is the best for me.  The day I skate longer I only do 45 minutes of freestyle, then take a 30 minute break before LTS begins.

I used to only skate 30 minutes at a time, but my injuries have heeled a bit.   It helps I get ice for teaching, otherwise I couldn't afford to pay for the time and not use it!

[hopskipjump]

fsk8r - she likes the longer sessions because she "plays" during part of them.  I think play with friends keeps skating fun and fresh - there is a group and they tend to have the same coaches so 3-4 are playing while one is in a lesson and then they rotate.  They have competitions, dares, and follow alongs. Yes on a shorter time frame - the 30-30-30 is ideal for dd.  Then lunch and coming back is nice for her as well. 

One coach who was a professional skater told me that kids need to feel what they are doing wrong instead of always being told what is wrong - so that free time, I think, does improve her skating.

[icedancer]

I always think I don't skate that much but I usually try to go three days a week at least and skate for 90 minutes - 2 hours.  Honestly it takes about 45 minutes to warm up, LOL

Before the figures competition two weeks ago I skated a LOT, every day and sometimes twice a day, so it can vary.

Our rinks have these amazing deals where if you take a class, you get ALL of the public skating you want.  Such a deal.  Of course you sometimes have to deal with crazy public sessions but when school is in session you can find some quiet, nice ice to practice on.

[Sierra]

Do people find that skating longer sessions or shorter sessions more beneficial?

For me, since I only skate twice a week, I like to practice everything and not skip any elements. So I like to skate a minimum of two hours. I skate 2 hours one day and 2.5 hours the second day. I can easily skate up to 4 hours with quality practice when I occasionally get an extra session.

[jjane45]

I am accustomed to 1.5 hour public sessions. It's roughly 30 minutes warm up / moves, 30 minutes spins, and 30 minutes jumps. One hour freestyle is tolerable, but I refuse to do 45 minutes sessions because it's not worth the commute.

In the month of August, limited ice time makes me listless, but I am grateful I can still skate 2-3x a week (at incovenient sessions), not too bad compared to the usual 3-4x per week.

[karne]

I have been skating four times a week at 1.5 hours a time...

But I go back to university this week. 

Hoping to still make it three times a week.

[rosereedy]

I skate an hour on Monday and Wednesday and 40 minutes on Saturday. I am limited on when I can skate because of work and session times. Wish I could afford more.

[Bunny Hop]

Having gone from skating for two hours once a week, to skating three times a week for an hour or an hour and a half at a time, I can safely say I prefer the more frequent shorter sessions. This is something of a surprise to me, as it used to take me at least half an hour to warm up and feel stable, but the shorter sessions have forced me to get down to proper practice sooner in the session. Can't say I necessarily feel more stable, but I now don't have any excuse to delay things.

[karne]

Yup, certainly lost my Tuesdays. Although I could have gone today, my tutorial wasn't on, but it's too late anyway.

[elliegouda]

Since I don't have lots of time, I only skate on Mondays and Wednesdays, one hour each day. I wish I could do it every single day, but It's hard to work around my schedule. 

[PinkLaces]

I am skating 1 hour 4 days/week right now. Monday-Thursday.  I have been picking up another session on Thursdays so I go for 1 hr 45 mins.  45 mins is barely enough time for anything so I have to at least have an hour.  90 minutes is about perfect. 

[kiwiskater]

once a week at the moment. I'm considering a practice skate in the near future but I think regular practice is going to have to wait until the $ situation improves, since Feb the 3 biggest spenders have been Uni, fuel to work and skating...and my budget is not working well, I've spent more then I've earnt about 4/6 months since I started this job & I'm only spending on the essentials (skating is one of those 'essentials')...

[sarahspins]

I try for 2-3 times a week.. over the summer that turned into 0 times though 

I am also a fan of shorter sessions.. I usually only skate for about an hour each time.

[jjane45]

It seems like a concensus that two half-hour lessons are better than than one hour lesson, or 30x2 > 60. What about 20-minute lessons? In general would 20x3 > 30x2?

The trend nowadays seems to be towards 1/2 hour lesson but back when I was a kid most lessons were 15 minutes - even the higher level skaters - then we took more a week and had more practice time.

I think 15 minutes are enough if skater is thoroughly warmed up with all elements and knows clearly what needs work.

[sampaguita]

In my experience, 15 minutes is too short. 20 minutes is just right, but 30 minutes is better. An hour is way too long.

[fsk8r]

15min lessons can work well if you're focused in what you're working on. It's quite good for a moves only, spins only or power only lesson. It's not long enough if you want to do more than one thing in the lesson. I quite often pick up extra 15min lessons when there's something specific which needs working on.

I did mange to prepare moves and two compulsory dances for test in a 15min lesson, but it involved me and the coach remaining focussed throughout. I'm still impressed we managed it (it's a few years ago). However, as there becomes more to be working on, I prefer longer.  Sometimes though, it would be nice to split the 30min, so you have 15min lesson, practice then another 15min as sometimes, there's no point the coach watching you go through the learning process as it's just supervised practice at that point.

[techskater]

I have one coach I skate with where we do 30 minutes 2X per week and my other coach I do 60 minutes 1X per week.  My hour lessons often seem not long enough...

[karne]

I have one 30 minute lesson a week, mostly because I can't afford any more than that, but I've had to have 15s occasionally and I hate them. Too short. Don't get enough work done. If I had my way, I'd have hour lessons - I love working.


On internship at major newspaper = only skating once a week for two weeks. 

[Qarol]

I usually skate 3 times a week, but some weeks, I can only get in twice (so I voted 2x). For now, I only go for one 30 minute session at a time. I'm building up my stamina and hope to start going to two 30 minute sessions each.