Learn How to do a Teapot / Shoot the Duck on Ice the Easy Way for Beginners! 

So happy to hear that Paula! Good luck with your future skills

How often you should sharpen your blades varies depending on a number of factors. It depends on how often you skate, how you take care of your skates, if you're using guards or not, the quality of the ice etc. If you're skating 3 times a week for example, perhaps your would need them doing after about 2 months. But again, this is entirely a personal preference. You will feel when your blades are not gripping the ice like they used to. Try some rental skates if you want to know what that feels like! As for how you sharpen them, normally most ice rinks have a specialist who can sharpen skates. There are also tools such as a "sweet stick" that can help in a pinch when you need an emergency touch up to get through your practice. Hope this helps.

@@IceCoachOnline thank you

@@IceCoachOnline guards make the blades wear down faster or slower? Also, should we be walking on our picks to avoid dulling the blade?

@@jrg305 hard guards are so you don’t dull the blades (eg when you are walking on hard surfaces where stones would get nicks into the blades. Or even small stones in the rubber. I wear them for every step I’m off the ice). So no pick walking needed.

Lean back and fall

Absolutely! It's called a pistol squat off ice. Good luck with proving your friend wrong 😂

@@IceCoachOnline Okay thanks!!! Hahahah my friend is a figure skater so ofc she can do it but then there's me...an out of shape bum LOL...she taught me how to skate tho so i gotta give her that

@@IceCoachOnline it feels like my muscles are just too tight to do one lol

Doing this off ice is an excellent idea. You build up strength before taking it to the ice.

They are quite heavy! You'll get used to it if you keep skating 🙂