How to Learn Ice Skating by Yourself
Stay near the sides of the ice rink., Keep your knees bent., Walk in place in your skates., Walk over the ice with your skates., Practice falling safely., Look in the direction you are skating, not at your feet., Skate gently forward., Combine left...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Stay near the sides of the ice rink.
Doing this will allow you to hold onto something if you feel that you are going to fall.
Hold onto the walls to steady yourself while you get a feel for the ice, then let go when you feel ready. -
Step 2: Keep your knees bent.
Resist the urge to straighten up, especially if you feel you’re about to fall.
Bending your knees will improve your balance and keep you steady. , Practice little marching steps without going anywhere.
This will help teach you how to keep your ankles from bending.
It may feel silly, but not as much as wobbling your ankles in front of everyone will. , Take small steps until you’re a few feet away from where you started.
To prevent the foot you’re pushing back with from sliding backwards, keep both feet at a diagonal by pointing them outwards (like a duck’s feet).
Get a feel for the way your skates want to slide on the ice and learn to correct it. , Falling is inevitable, so don’t be embarrassed.
Instead, learn how to fall safely.
If you begin to lose your balance, try to squat down into a safer, more stable pose.
If you must put your hands out to stop yourself, curl them into fists so that nobody skates over your fingers.
Try to land on the flat parts of your fingers between the knuckles (as opposed to directly on the points of the knuckles) to make this more comfortable. , This will help you keep your balance and go in the right direction, as your body tends to steer toward wherever your head is pointing.
Moreover, it will help keep you from colliding with another skater. , Place your weight on your dominant foot and place the weaker foot slightly behind it and at an angle.
Then, push gently with your weaker foot, gliding slightly forward on the dominant one.
Allow yourself to stop naturally, then repeat with the other foot until you are comfortable keeping your balance on both sides. , Once you can stride forward on either foot, try to transition between striding on the left foot and right foot with little or no pause in between. , One way to do this is to shift your weight to your dominant foot and drag the point of the other skate on the ground behind you (much as you do with the rubber brakes on the fronts of rollerskates).
Another, more advanced way to do this is to place your weight on the foot in front of you, twist it at an angle across your path, and lean your weight away from it so that it cuts/scrapes the ice in front of you to slow you down.
This takes much more practice and balance. , Push off with one foot and glide on the other as before, but this time, do it a little harder to give yourself more momentum and glide much farther across the ice.
Lean slightly into the glide and test your balance by lifting the other foot slightly off the ground.
Brake or allow yourself to slow naturally.
Repeat on the other side. , Now that you can both alternate strides and balance on either foot, combine these methods to skate like a true ice skater.
As you get better, your speed will increase naturally. -
Step 3: Walk in place in your skates.
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Step 4: Walk over the ice with your skates.
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Step 5: Practice falling safely.
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Step 6: Look in the direction you are skating
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Step 7: not at your feet.
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Step 8: Skate gently forward.
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Step 9: Combine left and right strides.
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Step 10: Teach yourself how to brake.
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Step 11: Improve your balance on either foot by skating in long strides.
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Step 12: Lengthen your left and right alternating strides.
Detailed Guide
Doing this will allow you to hold onto something if you feel that you are going to fall.
Hold onto the walls to steady yourself while you get a feel for the ice, then let go when you feel ready.
Resist the urge to straighten up, especially if you feel you’re about to fall.
Bending your knees will improve your balance and keep you steady. , Practice little marching steps without going anywhere.
This will help teach you how to keep your ankles from bending.
It may feel silly, but not as much as wobbling your ankles in front of everyone will. , Take small steps until you’re a few feet away from where you started.
To prevent the foot you’re pushing back with from sliding backwards, keep both feet at a diagonal by pointing them outwards (like a duck’s feet).
Get a feel for the way your skates want to slide on the ice and learn to correct it. , Falling is inevitable, so don’t be embarrassed.
Instead, learn how to fall safely.
If you begin to lose your balance, try to squat down into a safer, more stable pose.
If you must put your hands out to stop yourself, curl them into fists so that nobody skates over your fingers.
Try to land on the flat parts of your fingers between the knuckles (as opposed to directly on the points of the knuckles) to make this more comfortable. , This will help you keep your balance and go in the right direction, as your body tends to steer toward wherever your head is pointing.
Moreover, it will help keep you from colliding with another skater. , Place your weight on your dominant foot and place the weaker foot slightly behind it and at an angle.
Then, push gently with your weaker foot, gliding slightly forward on the dominant one.
Allow yourself to stop naturally, then repeat with the other foot until you are comfortable keeping your balance on both sides. , Once you can stride forward on either foot, try to transition between striding on the left foot and right foot with little or no pause in between. , One way to do this is to shift your weight to your dominant foot and drag the point of the other skate on the ground behind you (much as you do with the rubber brakes on the fronts of rollerskates).
Another, more advanced way to do this is to place your weight on the foot in front of you, twist it at an angle across your path, and lean your weight away from it so that it cuts/scrapes the ice in front of you to slow you down.
This takes much more practice and balance. , Push off with one foot and glide on the other as before, but this time, do it a little harder to give yourself more momentum and glide much farther across the ice.
Lean slightly into the glide and test your balance by lifting the other foot slightly off the ground.
Brake or allow yourself to slow naturally.
Repeat on the other side. , Now that you can both alternate strides and balance on either foot, combine these methods to skate like a true ice skater.
As you get better, your speed will increase naturally.
About the Author
Frank Green
Committed to making practical skills accessible and understandable for everyone.
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