Learn How to Ice Skate as an Adult Even If You Never Did as a Child

The fear of falling may be the hardest part of ice skating to get over for adults peering in the windows of an otherwise charming rink. Adults are usually so scared when they begin to learn that instructors often start them out crawling. After that instructors teach them to fall down: Not-forward or back, but onto their side. Once' students have overcome their fear of the slippery, unknown beneath their skates they can begin learning to propel themselves. They begin by taking little "marching steps," and then gliding as they pick up momentum. From there, the enthusiastic beginner can take on the famous "forward swizzles," by making tiny heel to toe football-patterns in the ice. Once this is mastered, he can then learn the most dangerous, the most deadly, the most feared of all steps, the dreaded "Lifting Up of One Foot!"

By now; the novice' skater is under full sail and skating under his own power and, if he's really brave, letting go of the handrail. This is where skating gets fun. From here you can learn to stroke with the inside edges of the skates and to come to a snowplow stop, does it sound hard?" It is taught to young children all the time! From the snowplow, beginners can then try a little backwards skating. For this they are allowed once again to hold onto the rail. But only briefly! Soon it is time for a try at - you guessed it -the "backwards swizzle."

If you can master this tricky move, and most can with little trouble, than you can certainly find real excitement by learning the next step,- the 'forward cross-over. If you've ever seen a speed skater whipping around a corner with one leg shoving off and; crossing the other, you know the beauty and drama of a high-speed crossover. Though yours may be slow in comparison there definitely is still a great feeling of acceleration to be had with this technique. But by far, the most important step to becoming a sophisticated skater is the hockey stop. No skater can claim bragging rights until he can burn his way up to a smirking youngster and send a sheet of shredded ice into his sarcastic visage.

Source:

Dearmond, Stephen J., and Karin Kunzle-Watson Ice Skating: Steps to Success (Steps to Success Activity Series) 1995