Is Ice Skating Hard To Learn? How Long? + Tips to Learn Quicker

It is awesome to watch people skating on the ice with ease and comfort but you might be wondering is it really that much easy? If you are willing to learn ice skating and wondering whether learning to ice skate is hard or not, then you are at the right place as I am going to answer this question in detail and later will share some tips for getting started with ice skating.

Learning to ice skate is hard but it is not impossible for an average person. Balancing is what people find very hard in ice skating because of the thin blades, It is very hard in the beginning but after a few weeks of practice and after learning to balance, it becomes pretty easy and you pick up the speed.

 

How Long Does It Take To Learn Ice Skating?

On average, it takes 2-3 hours of practice to learn the very basics of ice skating while it may take more than 30 days to really get good at ice skating. Everyone has their own pace of learning, and though this learning time period depends on a lot of factors.

You may get good at ice skating pretty quickly or it may take you months to actually learn ice skating, there are actually a lot of things that come into consideration while measuring the time period of learning anything.

Factors Affecting The Pace & Ease Of Learning to Ice Skate

Below I have talked about some factors that influence the pace as well as ease of learning ice skating.

The Time You Spend On Practice

That’s obvious, the more time you spend on ice skating, the faster you will learn and easier it will get for you to ice skate as time pass bye.

Friend Coach or Professional Trainer

If you get trained by any professional coach or even one of your friend or someone in the family who know ice skating, then you will catch up ice skating pretty quickly. I did too!

Prior Sports Experience

If you have tried other balancing sports earlier, then you can dramatically improve the pace of learning as you already know the most difficult part of ice skating which is balancing.

If you have tried sports like roller skating, rollerblades, skiing, then you will be able to learn ice skating pretty quickly.

I knew to roller skate before I tested out ice skating and because of my skill on roller skates, I was able to learn ice skating pretty quickly, It took me a little more than 2 weeks to get good at ice skating and I was praised by one of my friend who was ice skating for quite a long time as I learned it very quickly.

Is Ice Skating Harder Than Roller Skating?

It is easier on roller skates to glide while it is easier on ice skates to stop and take turns because their blades are designed for the same. Ice skating is harder than roller skating for newbies because the blades of the ice skates are so thin making it difficult for starters to balance but there is actually not a big difference.

That’s what I think after trying both of these sports.

Many people find ice skating to be easier while many people find roller skating easier too. And actually, I think both are very similar and almost equal in my opinion while ice skating is a little harder according to me.

7 Tips to Learn Ice Skating Quicker & Easily

Now, I am going to share some tips that I and many other people found pretty helpful.

Get Properly Sized Ice Skates

It’s obvious but many people actually ignore it. Buying ill-sized ice skates will make you feel uncomfortable and you may find difficulty in learning ice skating and you may even get blisters if you buy too short skates.

Get Trained By A Trainer Or a Friend

It is much easier to learn ice skating from a trainer than learning it yourself. You will need to get to know about many different kinds of stuff like balancing, turning, stopping, and many more by yourself which going to take a lot of time.

If you know a friend of yours who is ice skating for quite a while now, then just you can ask for his guidance. I learned to ice skate from one of my friends and it was really easy and fun for me honestly.

If you cannot find a trainer or a friend to guide you up, you can basically just surf the internet. Many people are teaching you ice skating online on Youtube and you can also read different blogs on skating. This will help you to boost this process of learning to ice skate.

Avoiding the Fear of Falling

Almost every person who is willing to learn or is currently doing ice skating has a fear of falling on the hard surface. This fear dramatically flattens the learning curve.

Think of that the floor is made up of wool and you know just think nothing is going to happen if you fall. Go slowly, there is no need to hurry, go slowly and just keep going.

If you go with a positive mindset, you are not going to fear falling that much.

Walk With Your Ice Skates For 10-30 Minutes

In the very beginning, walk with your ice skates, just do normal walks

just like normal walks, left leg up, right leg down (you know…….) but the twist is you have to do this while wearing your skates, this will help you learn balancing which is the most common problem of many people.

Do this for at least 10 minutes before even starting skating. (when you have never skated in your life, don’t do this every time you skate)

I found this to be really helpful as I came to know about the mechanism of the ice skates and learn a little about balancing by doing this.

Watch Video Tutorials On Ice Skating

Watch this video, this video is super helpful. You can also watch other videos on Youtube on ice skating.

Practice

That’s Obvious, all I want to say is Practice, Practice, Practice – Practice makes a man perfect so keep practicing.