Question from a guy who knows nothing about skating...

[kelekaZepLin]

Hey I was just wondering if anyone would answer a few of my questions that I have about figure skating?

I am 21 year old male, admittedly never really paid much attention to figure skating, although I watched it with my mom when I was little, until Sasha Cohen came around.

She has really sparked my interest in figure skating and I was wondering what a regular workout regimen would be of a Worldwide Figure Skating Competitor? I read somewhere Sasha works out 20 or more hours a week, but on average I was wondering what everyone does? Of course, no serious weightlifting stuff but obviously a lot of cardiovascular exercises...

Also what is the formal BASIC training that every figure skater must undergo to be a serious competitor? Like ballet lessons, or dancing lessons... that kind of stuff.

Oh I really want to know, when you launch into one of those spins, where you tuck your body in as tight as you can, what is that called and how in the world do you keep yourself from losing your equiliberium and getting dizzy? Whenever I just spin myself around with my legs, I feel drunk and feel dizzy! I often wonder how many revolutions Sasha does!

Sorry for my ignorance and hopefully no one has already asked, but this site seems to be full of real skaters and I just got curious to see how some of you all got started.

Thanks in advance for any responses for I know this question is a handful!

[Ashley]

As far as spinning go, skaters get used to the feeling and learn how to make themselves undizzy when they come out of a spin.

Skaters do some weight lifting, but not a whole lot because you don't want to add a lot of bulk. It's important to have strong arms, legs, and abdominals though. Most skaters take ballet and other dance, but it's not necessarily required for the sport. A lot of skaters are also taking pilates now - it's really great for skating because it focuses on core strength.

[loveskating]

It takes several years to learn to basically spin.

Kids start competing with a spin on 2 feet, then they learn a basic spin entry, then a scratch spin, then a sit spin

After that, however you still might not have found your center.

Finding your center takes a long time on the ice. Thankfully, there is this little gadget now that allows kids who have room to spin on it at home and find their center sooner than if they had to go to the rink to do it.

There is also an issue of just plain strengthening the muscles to do the various spins, again, lots of conditioning and ice time.

A skater might take patch (edging), ice dance (edging), singles lessons, as well as moves in the field, and off ice dance and conditioning.

To train at an elite level costs minimum $1,000 a week for lessons and ice time alone.

[Unsanelily87]

Hey! Welcome :)

Basically to train at an elite level, most skaters take a dance class two-three times a week, plus weight training (mainly leg-focused) and cardio. When I was at my peak, which wasn't elite, I was leg pressing approximately 450 lbs, and I'm sure Sasha can do that, if not more. Likewise, most figure skaters at that level practice about 2-4 hours a day, six days a week. I know Tara Lipinski would do 4 45 minute sessions a day, plus either dance or cardio. Obviously, the elite skater enrolled in school full time is rare.

It takes several years to learn to skate. Unlike other sports, you can't do a Chad Henricks at age 18 and decide to skate. I began skating 13 years ago, and although I stopped training seriously about 2 years ago, I still wasn't at an elite level. I wasn't working as hard as I could have been, I guess, but a huge amount of dedication and practice is needed.

When a skater is training to compete at the sort of level at which you're speaking, they're very used to spinning in all directions. As someone said, you pretty much work up to spinning. I know that when I began spinning, I got very dizzy, but when I was at my peak, I stiill got dizzy, but I knew how to adjust my focus. Now that I'm a bit "over the hill" in skating years (I haven't competed in two years, although I'm not too old to go back to it--it's just hard to balance a full-time education with a competitve skating career), I get dizzy when I attempt a simple sit spin. However, I can "pull out of it" relatively quickly. Also: the faster the spin, the less dizzy you get. I don't understand it, and neither does my physics professor, but there you go.

Hoped this helped, and if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

ETA: A bit of off topicness:
Oooh, and kelekaZepLin, I just read your profile, and it said you loved music. Me too! I actually write for a music magazine. What bands do you like? I'm assuming Led Zepplin because of your name lol--my dad met robert plant about two weeks ago. I was quite jealous. My dad meets all of these cool people. :)

[ZealousDreamer1]

Going into a spin like that is known as a "wind up". In order to be a competitive figure skater it takes a lot of time and money. I don't mean you have to be wealthy, I'm not, but you have to sacrifice a lot of things. Very soon I am going to begin working all weekend, including Friday nights, so that I can have more money to train. Sacrifice buying the latest stylish clothes, social life, lots of other things, but it's so worth it, and for people like Michelle Kwan/Sasha it's certainly paid off for them now. You kinda have to put a lot of money into it, if you ever want to get money out of it type of thing.

For me, I skate 2 mornings a week before school- I get up, do a lot of stretching, have healthy breakfast, go to the rink, skate for 45 minutes, go to school, then I go straight to the rink after school( a different rink this time) and do homework have fruit/energy bar in the car. I skate for 1 hr 30 mins give or take depending on how the session is going, or if I have a lesson or not. Then I go to a physical therapist with a background in dance/gymnastics who helps me stretch, do pilates/yoga/ballet/dancing moves, ultrasound/massage to loosen muscles. Then I go home, quick dinner, then to the gym to do elliptical/exercise bike, and 2 days a week weights.

Monday I don't skate at all, but after I get confirmed which means no more religious ed on monday nights, I will skate mondays too. I go to phys ther/gym though
Tuesday I have morning ice and the sched. I listed above.
Wed. I don't have morning, but the rest of the schedule
Thurs.- same as tues.
Friday- freestyle session, phys. ther. -->work
Saturday- skating, work
Sunday-work=$$!

and if it's a school break, or if I don't haver a lot of homework, I may skate again after dinner if I can find a session.

+I don't eat any junk food. well, rarely;)


It also takes a ton of dedication on the part of your parents....all the driving and gas money. I never hear the end of it from my parents...believe me I never never have the right to complain after all they sacrifice for my skating!

[Unsanelily87]

It also takes a ton of dedication on the part of your parents....all the driving and gas money. I never hear the end of it from my parents...believe me I never never have the right to complain after all they sacrifice for my skating!

When I got my driver's license, my parents were beyond thrilled.

[melody]

Going into a spin like that is known as a "wind up". In order to be a competitive figure skater it takes a lot of time and money. I don't mean you have to be wealthy, I'm not, but you have to sacrifice a lot of things. Very soon I am going to begin working all weekend, including Friday nights, so that I can have more money to train. Sacrifice buying the latest stylish clothes, social life, lots of other things, but it's so worth it, and for people like Michelle Kwan/Sasha it's certainly paid off for them now. You kinda have to put a lot of money into it, if you ever want to get money out of it type of thing.

For me, I skate 2 mornings a week before school- I get up, do a lot of stretching, have healthy breakfast, go to the rink, skate for 45 minutes, go to school, then I go straight to the rink after school( a different rink this time) and do homework have fruit/energy bar in the car. I skate for 1 hr 30 mins give or take depending on how the session is going, or if I have a lesson or not. Then I go to a physical therapist with a background in dance/gymnastics who helps me stretch, do pilates/yoga/ballet/dancing moves, ultrasound/massage to loosen muscles. Then I go home, quick dinner, then to the gym to do elliptical/exercise bike, and 2 days a week weights.

Monday I don't skate at all, but after I get confirmed which means no more religious ed on monday nights, I will skate mondays too. I go to phys ther/gym though
Tuesday I have morning ice and the sched. I listed above.
Wed. I don't have morning, but the rest of the schedule
Thurs.- same as tues.
Friday- freestyle session, phys. ther. -->work
Saturday- skating, work
Sunday-work=$$!

and if it's a school break, or if I don't haver a lot of homework, I may skate again after dinner if I can find a session.

+I don't eat any junk food. well, rarely;)


It also takes a ton of dedication on the part of your parents....all the driving and gas money. I never hear the end of it from my parents...believe me I never never have the right to complain after all they sacrifice for my skating!

That's amazing! I see you hardly have free-time, AND you go to school full-time. Do you have enough time for homework and studying (for exams)?

Here in Hong Kong people always put school and studying at the top of the list. Very rarely do people who skate competitively go to local schools. Either they go to school in another country and train here sometimes, or maybe they are homeschooled. For a normal skater who takes lessons here, it's very simple. We may take lessons once or twice a week, and at most practise another day of the week. For me, the most I went skating a week was twice, since I had hours of homework after school, and getting to the rink takes time.

Besides skating some skaters take dance, but we don't have all the extra weight-lifting/physical therapy stuff.

One of the bad things about skating in Hong Kong is the ice time. The rink opens at 8, I think, when school already starts, and all afternoon and evenings are public sessions, the rink is packed with people. It's only at night, after the public sessions, which is after 10pm, when they have special sessions for figure skaters. So... :confused:

[kelekaZepLin]

Thanks for all the replies. I have been hiking the past couple of days, but thanks a lot for the feedback and responses! Figure skating was always a lot harder than I thought it was. I had no idea how much training was involved!

To all that figure skate, I wish you the best of luck with your training and your pursuit of your dream! Thanks again!