One year progress! My first year of figure skating: 36 year old beginner adult (w/a few more clips.)

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After skating here and there on ponds as a child, which I hardly recall doing, and once at a rink in Montreal, I saw some inspiring skaters in person and on RU-vid at the Bryant Park rink in November or December 2020. In January 2021 a municipal pond reopened nearby after more than 30 years absence, and I bought some skates to try it out…
I LOVED the feeling of skating and spent every hour I could at the pond. Covid restrictions had shuttered most rink skating options, but I was able to sign up for a Learn to Skate class in the spring at one of the nearest rinks, an hour from home. Frustratingly, the half hour class and half hour practice time was the only ice time I had each week, thanks to Covid. Well, at least the class was happening! At the last session I had made it through adult LTS level 3, ready to start at 4 if I stayed in NY. But…
We moved to Europe about a week after the last spring LTS class, and I spent some time in June getting used to the ice again. Thankfully a rink was easy to get to! I noticed a coach who seemed very skilled and also lighthearted and pleasant while instructing, and one day I approached him about lessons. Since mid July I have had at least one lesson a week, and I skate at least five days a week for and hour and a half, usually.
Here are clips that show my progress in the span of a year!
I have a lot to work on, but I am really pleased to be tackling cross rolls, Mohawks, and all kinds of things that seemed impossible at first. 3 turns are the thing I least enjoy working on and struggle the most with, but I am plugging along with all kinds of stuff and hope to see some cool skills coming together after another year in 2023. :)
I actually posted a slightly shorter version of this last night but had a lesson today and decided to add a bunch of clips since Coach Awesome had me try a lot of new things out.
#AFI Cotroceni #Cotroceni on Ice

Опубликовано:

13 янв 2022

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Комментарии : 98

@torimcgurgan7924 2 года назад

I can't believe they let someone skate while they were re-icing, haha! Everyone is ushered off where I'm from 😅

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

I’ve only ever seen lessons while they do, and everyone else does get cleared off. (Luckily I was a little less awkward after having some lessons with the zamboni going.) I was the only one on the ice, and I’m around all the time, so they went for it at an odd time mid session, and I did my best to ignore it. XD.

@lilianmatheson3664 2 года назад

I thought the same thing. Not where I go...

@donovans6472 Год назад

i was wondering that too...

@AndyBalfe1 Год назад

😂

@IntuitiveGanesh Год назад

I KNOW! That was my exact thought!

@peterpollard4162 Год назад

Good for you! I'm a beginning windsurf at 74.

@lucyli1679 2 года назад

Your story gives me so much courage. I am 45, and I just started to learn skating.Hope one year later, I will make a great progress like you! Thank you for posting!

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Thank you so much! Have fun, practice a lot, and I'm sure you will learn so much.

@BarbaraDanelle Год назад

Thank you for sharing your progress! It's so nice to see another 30+ adult skater who is farther along than I am thus far. I'm 37 (about to be 38) and just started skating six months ago. I just finished level 4 (LTS), and still feel pretty awkward. Looking forward to a time when I can be a bit more graceful, and less fearful of falling. HOT TIP for all of us adult skaters, one thing that's been helping me lately is balance training on a Bosu ball! ;)

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

Thank you. It’s great to hear from others beginning at the same age range. :) At six months in I was still feeling so awkward too. Now that I’m about a year and a half in something has come together, in the past month, so that I feel amazing and comfortable on the ice now.

@wanpenrakcheep1792 Год назад

@@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl You are my inspiration to continue skating for my age 77, 1yr with my coach I am just skating on my own balance and a little bit of swizzles forward .

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

@@wanpenrakcheep1792 aw, thank you! Keep it up, and enjoy!

@salsatosalchow7294 2 года назад

Yayyeee!! More adult skaters! That’s so exciting! You look like you have really nice balance from the beginning. Love your edge work! Keep posting!

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Thank you for the kind comment. :) Looking back I am a little amused that I was trying shaky one foot glides right in the beginning. :D I’ll definitely keep posting. Speaking of balance… I’ve recently gotten my four year old started skating too. She is having weekly lessons with Coach Awesome. The reason I’m mentioning it is that the first time she put on her skates she walked right onto the ice totally steady and marched along with no wobbles or hesitations at all. I couldn’t believe it. Some day I’ll put together a progress video for her too.

@salsatosalchow7294 2 года назад

@@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Yes well, if you’re thinking your four yr old is a natural-she definitely got it from you! That’s interesting what you said about one foot glides. My coach has this lasting impression about my very first week or so when I appeared at the rink (in rental skates. Also, 3 months before I started taking lessons from him) that I would pedal round and round the rink for hours. I finally thought about this (Because I don’t remember doing this at all) and realized it’s because I was trying to discover my balance on one foot! So props for going right for it!!

@lilianmatheson3664 2 года назад

I love seeing th progressions your coach's support. I am 42, I have been skating for almost 1 year now. I rally wish I had more time that I coukd go. With work and family it gets a little hard. Good job on your progress.

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Thank you for your comment. I hope you get more chances to skate. I was lucky that I could skate just about every weekday morning for a couple hours from July 2021 to the end of February. Now it is much harder to get to the rinks for me too.

@46bigguys Год назад

I love it we need more adult skaters 1 because there way nicer then teens and 2 because it gives hope to others who wanna start skating

@TT-ce9sm Год назад

Thank you very much for posting your progress. And it's really comforting to see learning people among common people. Every time I visit mass skating there are people who charge around like lightening and there are tiny girls who jump nonstop and among them there am I, slow and awkward and scared to hit somebody.

@Just_Call_Me_Tim Год назад

I love seeing your progress! You look like you belong on the ice! I'm 37, and from the southeastern US; ice skating wasn't really a thing growing up, but I've always LOVED watching it and wanting to. But, over time I'd about given up on ever getting to until the thought occurred to me to look into it in the city I work out of now. There's probably 4 ice rinks around town and at least one hosts LTS classes! I'm going for broke and diving in as soon as I can work out a day to start classes! I'm happy to see you've found your thing and are chasing your passion!

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

Enjoy the classes! It is so fun, great exercise, and a wonderful challenge. :) It can be tough, but if you enjoy it then the work put in just feels amazing. I’ll be posting another progress video soon if computer problems get sorted out.

@lefrancaisavecmomo.. Год назад

Bravo !!! 🎉🎉🎉 It's impressive 👏👏👏. I admire your goodwill

@barbarab202 2 года назад

I love seeing progress of other adult skaters. I just started skating at 44 and am in my 5th month of group lessons (3 of us progressing very similarly). I’m just finishing CanSkate level 6 and cleaning up backwards crossovers. Mohawks are slow, and 3 turns are my nemesis. Hoping to move on to StarSkate next (Canadian system).

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

Enjoy! That sound like pretty solid and fairly rapid progress. :) Yeah, forward 3 turns were still scary and hard for me after even about 6 or 7 months of the private lessons and lots of ice time (besides the one semester of group.) Ugh. I don’t think they felt truly like no big deal until the past month or two, especially the inside turns. (Using a FI3 entry for spins the past few weeks finally did the trick for that!)

@7of9123 Год назад

I've come back to this video a few times over the past year. For me it's now 14 months of skating. Thank you for sharing! I think it's so important but also so hard to not compare (in a negative sense and judge) your progress to someone elses. Every body is different, every sense of balance learns other things first, every skater focusses on different exercises. Experiences in others sports can have a huge impact. The amount of ice time, the quality of ice time, even which skates you might or might not be able to afford. I just want to leave here that everybodies skating journey ia valid. As long as you're feeling joy about skating, you're doing it right! Thank you for sharing not to compare myself to but to have representation of what A skating story can be like. 🤗

@CiaraSymbollic Год назад

Thank you for sharing this. I will be 27 this year and I'm currently pregnant with my second baby. I LOVE skating and have rollerbladed since I was a child. Figure skating and inline figure skating has become a new love of mine but I haven't been able to do it since having children. I'm really looking forward to a time when things slow down so I can finally get back on my skates. I miss it so much and you make me feel confident in picking it back up even if I will be a little older. You're an inspiration. It's never to late to start something. ❤️✨

@yushenyu7670 Год назад

Lovely, it is never to late to skate. go go go.

@chandramaulana1076 Год назад

Those progresses are really cool ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

Thank you!

@JoyceChow Год назад

Wow! Great progress!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

Thank you!

@Bodtaib Год назад

Alone girl on the ice. So beautiful... 😊 😊 😊 😊

@torimcgurgan7924 2 года назад

I really loved this video! 😊

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Thank you!!

@judymiles7186 2 года назад

I'm proud of you!

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Thank you! ETA after some coffee: That’s kind of you to say and it made my morning. :)

@linyan9299 Год назад

It’s better than my 3 years. It really depends on how often you go on ice and practice.

@aleddlol Год назад

That’s super cool I’m currently working on a quad lutz!

@christiewong5102 2 года назад

I am still learning crossovers ! After one year program!! I am so afraid of falling!

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Keep at it, and you'll find yourself learning more and more. Falling used to scare me, but somewhat recently it stopped worrying me so much. Maybe I had enough falls to convince my brain it really wasn't the end of the world to? :D Are you in group lessons or do you work with a private coach? A lot of what I have learned only was possible thanks to my coach holding my hand, sometimes for weeks or months, until I was confident on my own. There is no way I'd be able to do a quarter of what I can now if I had only gone to LTS.

@kristyskirt9015 Год назад

Good work. You have open heart ❤️ and a true love of flying on the ice. Well me too I still skating over 65 yo. Yet I keep up with the young freestyle whipper snapper figure skaters, Just got my Riedell Flair 910 figure skates oh boy new skate break in. I do weights and flexibility workout to really put the power down. Loved your fwd and bkwd cross rolls Cheers

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

Thank you. Also, that is wonderful, wow! I fully intend to follow in your footsteps… or skates… and keep up with the kids for decades. :) I hope you followed me or subscribed, because I hope to post more progress videos. ;)

@jb7644 2 года назад

Your technique is strong!!! did you have other forms of training prior to skating like dance? This is extremely good practice especially with your focus on proper technique!

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Thank you so much. It makes me so happy to read this. ❤️ Nope, no dance. I’m tragically awful at dancing and hate to even try. 😂 Athletically I was always quite strong, great at running and long jump in school, and I skied since age 3, but that’s about it. I entirely credit my coach with any bit of gracefulness or good technique. I don’t refer to him as Coach Awesome for nothing! 😆 Unfortunately we just found out we have to move back to the US in just a month, so I’m literally crying my eyes out over losing my coach and rink. It’s going to be much harder to progress. 😭

@justadditude4537 2 года назад

im shocked no one is saying this.. I was surprised to see your waltz jump you pull your left leg up then jump ive never seen that in person and i always lift my right for momentum-- either way thats cool!

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

You haven't seen a lefty jump in person? Wow, I heard it was less common but have skated with a few other lefties recently. I can jump the other way too, and my coaches were not sure if I should stick to lefty, but I prefer it now that I am doing salchows and toe loops and spins. The other night I was a bit confused when a little girl practicing near me did a lovely spin in the usual direction and then suddenly was doing another very nice spin in my direction! Probably I confused onlookers sometimes when switching from lefty to righty working on waltz jumps too. I think I have a clip doing that in my waltz jump progress video?

@GriziDaWiz Год назад

aww man, itd be so cool to have frozen lakes to skate on. Where I live there is one rink within 30 minutes and it is usually packed to the brim every time.

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

This year it has been too warm for skating outdoors so far. :( I was really looking forward to skating anytime at the park a few blocks away, but I'm not sure that will happen even in February looking at the weather. It's an hour to either of the nearest rinks for me, but thankfully they are not crowded at the times I can go. It's so much harder to progress without space to really practice comfortably!

@Mike-lh4wn Год назад

Looking very good to me. Keep at it. : )

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

Thank you! I sure will keep working on it. 🙂

@edengarden6811 Год назад

I love it! You are amazing. I am 35 and just started with inline figure skating. I feel like i missed my change, but what is age?! Right? Of course i have more fear of falling and hurting myself but i am going to continue and get really good at it.

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

That’s awesome. You are more brave than me… I rather fall on ice. XD Keep at it :)

@yangjiao4269 2 года назад

inspirational ~~

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Thank you :)

@carlwheezer2808 Год назад

this was so cool!! im 14 and i really want to start skating

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

I hope you try!

@carlwheezer2808 Год назад

@@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl i ended up breaking my wrist when skating a few weeks ago 🤡

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

@@carlwheezer2808 oh no! I’m sorry to hear that ☹️

@carlwheezer2808 Год назад

@@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl its cool, im still determined to skate!!

@s4093366 Год назад

You are really my role model! How many hours do you spend on the rink per week? Thanks a lot.❤❤❤

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

Hi, and thank you! At that time I was skating about 6 or 7 hours a week with one or two hours of private lessons. Often I skate a few more hours per week now than that, but the past couple of weeks and next few it is only two hours. I have to drive a couple hours for each skating session, so I try to be there long enough to make it worth the trip.

@Meep295 2 года назад

You're doing great! Just one thing, I'm not sure if you fixed this by the end but when you do backwards crossovers you dont actually lift your front leg, you only lift your back leg ♡

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Thanks. That is news to me, but I'm still just learning all this.

@Meep295 2 года назад

@@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl that's ok :)

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

@@Meep295 I'm still working on it, and feel less comfortable (and do click blades sometimes,) but Coach Cheerful did make the change you wrote about to my crossovers not long after you posted the comment. ;)

@Meep295 2 года назад

@@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl awh I'm so happy to hear you're improving 😚 don't worry I still click blades sometimes, I just try to keep my feet as far apart as I can or else I'll definitely fall on my face xD

@esmee2276 2 года назад

You don’t need to lift both!

@____-gy5mq Год назад

What boots do you currently use/recommend?

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

I skate in someone else's custom Harlicks, and I love them so much that I have my own customs in the works. I also have a pair of old Klingbiels that I plan to try soon as a backup or later for the PIC skates (I still need the blades mounted, but I like them.) I recommend going to a fitter that can tell you which brands are shaped best for your foot. Jacksons are wider (I started with their recreational softecs. Those got me into skating unlike the thin, floppy, vintage leather kind I had as a kid,) but if you have a different foot shape Risport, Graff, Riedell, SP Teri, Avanta, and others are options. I'm personally not yet a fan of Edeas. I'm an old school leather kind of girl, and I don't like how loose the ankle feels, but Coach Awesome went from old school SP Teri to Edea and wouldn't switch back.

@LolaSkates Год назад

Vai, am si eu 36 de ani si sunt si patinator artistic incepator!! Locuiesc în Tokyo, Japonia, dar s-ar putea să mă mut în România anul viitor și mă întrebam cum este patinajul artistic în România, sunt multe patinoare, mulți antrenori buni disponibile? Te descurci uimitor de bine și mă bucur că ți-am găsit canalul!! Salutare din Tokyo! Lola

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

Hi! I’m hoping English is okay, because I can’t write very much Romanian. The figure skating situation in Bucharest is okay but not perfect. There is the Otopeni rink, but that closes for the summer and they do not allow figure skating on publics. I actually never skated there. The AFI rink is small but cheap and open many hours each day. There are quite a few coaches, but I’m biased that mine is the best. 😃 He works with adults and also with very serious young skaters. If you are in another part of the country there may be no rinks, but several cities do have them, like Brasov. In winter there are many seasonal rinks, but overall there is less skating than in much of the US, Canada, or Japan (from what I hear.) Currently there is more chance to train in Bucharest all year than I am discovering in Germany (where I’m moving.) I will actually plan on going to Bucharest as much as possible for lessons and practice while the German rinks are closed! I’m very spoiled with so much ice time in NY now. I’m glad you enjoy my channel 🙂 I’m happy to answer any questions!

@LolaSkates Год назад

@@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Hi, thank you so much for replying! So sorry for writing in Romanian, I noticed the banners above the ice rink and the familiar language in it 😂 and thank you so much for the valuable info. The intent is to move to Brasov!! I had researched previously and was aware that there's an ice rink over there, but couldn't find much more info as to if it's open all year round, and anything about coaches. I could definitely go once a week, maybe more to Bucharest for coaching sessions since it's only a couple hours each way, but I would definitely want somewhere to practice almost on a daily basis like I do here!! Figure skating is so rewarding (and addicting!!), I love it so much and I wouldn't want to have to quit for lack of rinks/coaches. And yes, love your channel!! 💕

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

@@LolaSkates ah, Brasov is great! I also never got around to skating at the Olympic rink, because of COVID and then the beautiful seasonal rink was open. I thought that would be nicer than inside, and it was lovely with the mountain and old stone buildings. :) I saw some coaching happening on the session at that outdoor rink. The coach had some serious blades. Im sure you’ll find coaches in Brasov, but if you could so easily make it to Bucharest so often then working with Cornel would be my first choice any time. 😄 The train or drive are more like three hours, but some people definitely travel that far for lessons (I know several here.) I think the Olympic rink does close for some of the summer, but you could go to AFI in Bucharest. I totally understand about wanting to keep up with frequent ice time. That’s a dilemma I have now with Germany and it feels like a heartbreak. 😔

@a.popescu9596 2 года назад

Bună ziua, îmi place foarte mult video-ul dumneavoastră. M-am uitat la el și învăț. Unele mișcări le fac și eu, altele nu, urmează... Cam aceleași figuri mă interesează și pe mine în momentul de față. Ați putea vă rog să-mi spuneți numele antrenorului și cum aș putea să-l contactez?

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Buna! Mulțumesc! Folosesc Google Translate, pentru ca romana mea nu este foarte buna, si sper sa nu faca fraze ciudate! Antrenorul meu a fost Cornel Gheorghe, și este absolut excelent. Nu vreau să-i postez numărul de telefon online, dar dacă mergi la Cotroceni on Ice cineva te poate ajuta să intri în contact cu el. Îl recomand cu căldură, deoarece nu numai că are o asemenea îndemânare în patinaj, dar este și fantastic în explicarea și predarea, este foarte răbdător, face să învețe distractiv, și îi place să lucreze cu adulții (ceea ce unii antrenori nu sunt interesați să facă). :)

@a.popescu9596 2 года назад

@@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Thank you so much for the quick reply. I am currently skating at Allianz Țiriac rink on WEs but I am planning to go also at Afi some mornings on weekdays as I feel that just one session per week is not enough. Keep training like that and I am sure pretty soon we'll see you dancing on the ice like a pro!

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Ah, the Otopeni rink was still closed except to "legitimate athletes" due to covid when I was still in Romania, so I have never skated there. I hope to some day if/when plans work out to return to Bucharest. If you skate a few times a week then you will definitely learn much faster. Good luck. Weekday mornings at AFI are nice, and perhaps you can set up a lesson then. :) Thank you! :D

@iuliamagiulia 2 года назад

Asta unde este?

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

Cotroceni on Ice (patinoar AFI) Bucureşti si statul NY.

@chris.cloudroom 2 года назад

@@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl oh.. NY.. I was really curious where did you skated on the lake, after realizing the ice rink was Cotroceni on Ice, cuz I remember we are not allowed to skate on any lakes in Bucharest at least.

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

@@chris.cloudroom It doesn't seem there would be much chance to skate on lakes in Bucharest anyway. I fell through ice once as a child and don't care to repeat it. ;) (Thankfully it was only knee deep, but the walk home was miserable.)

@user-qt1ik9wm4w Год назад

spend more time to practicing "power pulls", stroking, skating on edges (and then deep egges) etc. Almost every move you make should give you additional speed. I recommend these channels ru-vid.com ru-vid.com ru-vid.com ru-vid.com

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Год назад

Thank you, I certainly have done all of that and skate far more nicely currently than back then. :) Thank you for the links. I am familiar with all but the KrigorStudio.

@lesyagn4830 2 года назад

Колени нужно сильнее сгибать и пружинить.

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

да, мои колени не сгибаются так сильно, как я думаю. I’m hoping my knee bend is a little better currently, but my coach definitely points it out frequently in every lesson.

@miamiracer 2 года назад

Nice, but I was expecting at the very least a double axle. By the way, it's not a good idea to skate while the Zamboni is trying to resurface the ice, more than one promising skater has perished, ground to an icy pulp, after tripping and falling into the machine's blades.

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

😆

@miamiracer 2 года назад

@@jiji2998 I know, I was being funny, she did great for the short time she had been practicing. I as serious about the Zamboni, though.

@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl 2 года назад

@@miamiracer You'll be glad to know I am safe from the Zamboni since the rinks I skate at now definitely don't allow skaters on the ice with them. ;) Thank you for saying I did well for the time I've been skating. I'm afraid my progress feels like it has slowed dramatically with having to change coaches, but perhaps it just feels that way with a new focus on jumps and spins? I've been waiting a month to make a spin progress video but keep waiting for them to go better from crossovers after having done that well just one day a couple of weeks ago then... not since.

@miamiracer 2 года назад

@@ThatFigureSkaterZamboniGirl Don't give up. I skated for years but mostly self taught. Not good on jumps and I could only really do a back spin on my right foot :( , but I loved it and got a lot of compliments from better skaters. I used to skate at Madison Square Garden and Rockefeller Plaza when I lived in NYC.