Adding some more stuff that may be relevant:
- Caveat to the “you can’t teach yourself” thing: once taught by a coach, some skaters can feel what they’re doing wrong some of the time. Even if they can’t, anyone can prop their phone on the boards and record themselves. This is the way 99.9% of good skaters practice.
- A lot of skaters keep a notebook for stuff to practice, questions to ask their coach, notes on lesson times, choreography sketches, etc.
- A note on choreography sketches: frequently when learning or choreographing a new program, skaters draw out the outline of an ice rink on a sheet of paper and draw the tracings that would be made by their skates on it. It creates an easy reference for what things should be done where on the ice (the pattern). This is also how patterns are shown in rulebooks and on judging forms.
- Many skaters have what’s called a “Kiss and Cry bag”, which is an easily portable bag that can be taken on the ice and set on the boards. Pictured below is my sister’s, which contains:
- gloves
- water bottle
- ibuprofen
- hair bands
- bandages
- notebook, as mentioned above
- forms and other paperwork (receipts for ice time, etc)
- CDs for music
- Agree 100% on the “nobody can skate well in rentals”. My sister and I tried once (we forgot our skates on a trip) and we failed so epically. Neither of us could do more than crossovers or hold an edge, and she’s headed to an international competition in a few weeks. Caveat though: most people learn in rentals for the first while, so they are ok for simple beginner-y stuff.
- Some experienced skaters can put their skates on in less than 5 minutes, because though it’s difficult and precise, muscle memory is a thing.
- As it relates to soakers (aka blade socks, also called softguards): basically the process of taking skates off is, you dry them off with a towel, but because they’re crazy cold, even when you get all the residual ice and water off, there’s still gonna be some condensation that happens as the blades come back down to room temperature. As such, you put em in soakers which catch that condensation and make sure your blades don’t rust sneakily while you’re not looking. In addition, a lot of soakers are made to look like cute animals. For example, here’s my skate with pastel bunny soaker:
- As to breaking skates in: OP is 90% right. One thing to add: certain types of skates take more or less time to break in, because not all skates are leather, and further, not all leather skates are the same kind. My current skates, pictured above, are Edea Ice Fly (Edea is the brand, Ice Fly is the model). They had basically no break-in period, and I only had to take a day or two to get used to the different center of balance (Edea skates balance further forward than other brands), because they’re synthetic. By contrast, my previous pair, Risport Excellence (again, brand first, model second), took me over a month to break in, and that was with time spent wearing them around my house in hardguards (skating term for standard plastic blade guards) and also using a hairdryer to warm the leather so they would mold to my feet faster (you can do this with all high-end skates).
- While breaking in skates, you really can’t bend your knees, and when you do it hurts. Paradoxically though, you still have to bend your knees as much as possible. Nobody can jump for the first third of the skate-breaking-in period. (The break-in period can be between a few days and a month depending on both the skates and the person.)
- More specifics on skate bags: a popular type of skate bag is the Züca, which is the kind I have (first picture). They have a metal frame and can be used as a small chair in a pinch. (It’s also popular among young skaters to sit on the back end, where the wheels are, and ride them around like a higher-up version of those butt scooters we all rode in elementary school.) Additionally, many major competitions (Nationals, Worlds, etc.) give out suitcases/skate bags as goodies. My sister’s skate bag (second picture) came from Nationals. All of these skate bag types have significant amounts of mesh so the skates can air.
- A common thing for skaters (and some coaches, esp. those who both coach and skate) to have is pants which have zippers all the way up both sides. This way, you can take them off or put them on over skates. (Tbh, the biggest problem with quick costume changes in shows is when you have to take your skates off to take off or put on a costume.) Unfortunately, I don’t have any of these to take pics of, but they basically just look like fleece athletic pants with zippers down the legs. Because of the existence of these, it is pretty common to see people taking their pants off on the ice.
- OP is right about pads, but forgets about the kind which go inside your skates to protect your ankles from blisters! If your feet/ankles are blistering, you don’t just sit there and take it, you buy what are called Bunga pads or ankle sleeves. They’re EXPENSIVE (like $60 for a pair) but they also last for ages. They have a gel inside and a woven fabric outside, and they’re stored inside-out so the gel can air. Below are mine:
- Another thing you can do to keep your feet from blistering is get your skates “punched out”. Essentially, this means that if any part of the skate is problematically tight, you take it to your resident skate person and get it fixed. Any experienced skater will have a favorite skate sharpener (mine’s name is Rich and he works by my home rink), and this sharpener will also be able to make modifications to boots: stretching the boots for kids whose feet are growing, and punching out certain areas to make sure they fit a specific contour in anyone’s foot perfectly.
- OP is right about number of hours for lower end blades, but for higher end ones it takes longer. In any case, skaters never count the number, because it’s so easy to feel when your blades need sharpened. If you wobble on deep edges, or if your blades don’t crunch into the ice, or you skid when you stop, your skates need sharpened. Additionally, one blade has a limited number of sharpenings in it (more sharpenings for higher-end blades). This is the main reason that skaters get new blades after they stop growing (another possible reason being gaining levels and needing a higher-end blade).
- OP is 10000% right about toe picks being a frequent cause of falling, but forgets the most painful and shitty type of toe pick fall: the belly flop. Not only does any exposed skin get ice burn, but you probably get the wind knocked out of you. Furthermore, it never happens on anything complicated; it happens on like. forward crossovers. It sucks. So not only does it hurt like a son of a bitch, you also inevitably feel like an idiot. That’s the only kind of fall I’ve ever seen pro skaters not just bounce back from immediately.
- Nobody fucking realizes how CROWDED warm-ups are, or how often people get in other peoples’ way. Collisions happen very infrequently, because good skaters stop or move on a dime, but people messing up other peoples’ jumps/patterns happens ALL THE TIME. You don’t even get frustrated, you just start over without giving it another thought, because it happens so often. If you’re skating on a normal freestyle session, the ice is inevitably crowded as fuck. If you’re skating on public ice that isn’t in the middle of the afternoon (when everyone’s in school), then the ice is even MORE crowded as fuck. On crowded sessions, you can skate in a circle three, four, five times before being able to ATTEMPT a jump.
- I’ve never been to an ice rink that doesn’t have a place to buy food. Never. There is always good food in an ice rink. Actually, because locker rooms are frequently packed (see OP’s comment about pro skaters taking their whole damn house to competitions), the cafeteria is frequently the overflow space for extra skating-related crap (bags, costumes, everything and the kitchen sink).
- In smaller competitions, results are posted by way of printed paper taped to the wall. Even in bigger competitions, shows, tests, etc., there’s paper taped to stuff. Skate orders? On the locker room wall. Bulletins? On the rink door. Paper is taped EVERYWHERE.
- GLITTER OH MY GOD HOW DID YOU FORGET GLITTER?!?! Every locker room, bathroom, hallway, etc etc etc is COVERED in glitter and also smells nauseatingly of hairspray. Even the mens rooms.
- Speaking of hairspray, everyone borrows everyone else’s stuff. You need lipstick? Ask someone. Mascara? Ask. Fishing line? Ask. (Fishing line is used to sew in hairdos because it’s clear, and bobby pins and other hair fastening stuff comes out too easily when skating and can be a tripping hazard. I have never been to an ice rink that doesn’t ban bobby pins.)
- There’s this whole complicated system of volunteers that works behind the scenes at every competition. Ferrying papers and music, printing things, bringing food to the judges, figuring out where the fuck the skater who’s supposed to be on next is at, etc. Everything that keeps a competition running smoothly happens because of the Volunteer Network™.
- Outdoor ice rinks SUCK. Inevitably. It’s nowhere near as terrible as wearing rentals, but doing difficult tricks on outdoor ice is still not recommended. It’s not because of debris on the ice or anything, just that the ice quality is BS.
- The kind of material that’s under the ice in a rink makes a difference. Materials for under rinks include plastic, concrete, sand, wood, and others. Lots of other stuff, including temperature, coolant type, chemicals used in making the ice, and style of ice grooming, make a difference in the quality of the ice. (Wood seems to be the best base for an ice rink, because it’s a bit bouncy and makes jumps easier.)
- Ice rink stands SUCK. They’re too cold, the benches are hard, etc. Nobody with any sense goes into the stands of an ice rink without several coats and blankets, some for wearing and some for sitting on.
I also feel compelled to write about some exercises that skaters do in off-ice workouts, because a lot of people don’t know and it’s really hard to find info about this. So this seems like as good a place as any to write this down.
My sister and brother are competing internationally in a few weeks, and here’s their workout plan (and mine, bc I like to tag along):
Skating for 3 hours a day, every day from 6-9am. Frequently they don’t get home until 10am or later, though, because their coach keeps them to continue working on jumps and lifts off-ice. Two days a week (Thu and Fri), 2 more hours, from 4-6pm. In addition, every other day, they do “high intensity cardio”, which works like this. For each of arms, legs, and core, they pick a strength exercise and a cardio exercise. The strength exercise needs to work the specific muscle group described, the cardio does not - it’s purpose is to get your heart rate up in a way similar to the way skating does.
Set 1:
Arms: lateral raises & jumping jacks
Core: situps & grapevines
Legs: one-legged squats & jump rope
Set 2:
Arms: pushups & skipping (cross arms in front and skip like an axel takeoff without turning)
Core: planks & mountain climbers
Legs: wall sit & side toe hops (like on ice, but multiple times in a line each way)
For each sub-set (arms/legs/core), they do the strength exercise for 30 seconds followed immediately by the cardio exercise for 30 more seconds, then repeat with no rests for 4 minutes. After this, they get a one minute rest, then do the next set. Repeat for each item on the above list.
That’s about it! Please ask if there’s anything else you’d like to know or anything you’d like more information about. I tried to keep each topic short so I could cover a lot, but I know much more than what I wrote here.
