If you're like me, and have a big time gap between skating as a child and skating as an adult, when you first step on the ice after a long hiatus in your new or rental skates, it almost feels like being on a sheet of ice on a sidewalk. It feels a bit dangerous at first and it takes some time to get your ice legs back. It took me three skating sessions to be able to let go of the wall with even a modicum of confidence, but I was really determined to skate again!
There are differences between adult and child skating with both psychological and neurological aspects. The psychological ones I'm qualified to speak of, the neurological ones you'll have to get from someone else. First, as adults we all have responsibilities and if we injure ourselves we can't always fulfill them, so when an adult approaches the ice it's often tentative. This makes it harder to learn. As children, when our bones are still greensticks, we can fall and get right back up and do it again. As adults, not always. And if you were lucky, like me, and learned to skate as a child before age 11, you have a decent chance of getting that smooth patin a glace look back to your skating with practice. When someone learns to skate as an adult, they keep the jerky marionette look that you see on the ice when the adults are skating. This is perfectly normal and not considered a flaw in adult figure skating! I notice that when I'm feeling intimidated by a skating figure, I do have the jerky marionette look and I tend to lose it when I've learned that figure.
In skating, both ice and roller, the most common injury is the wrist or hand injury as it's a natural instinct to put your hands out to break your fall. In ice skating particularly it's easy to also injure your head, because the surface that you fall on is slipperier and your hands might not stop your fall quickly enough to prevent a bang on the ice. You can approach this in two ways: first, learn how to fall appropriately. The fall sideways is easily teachable, and while you might not always be able to achieve it, it's safer if you can, and easier to do if you remember to keep your knees bent, and springy. Second, while learning to skate and achieving some sense of security on the ice, wear a helmet! Even as a more experienced skater it is a good safety practice to wear a helmet while in lessons or learning a new skill. These rules are good for both adults and children.
When you skate again it feels a bit different at first and it's easy to see why, if you look at it as a physics problem. It's easier to skate as a young person who's body weight is equally spread out over their vertical axis. As an adult, we have added breasts and perhaps other weight issues that we did not have as children. So your weight is distributed unevenly on the axis and you must learn to compensate for that, which means learning skills all over again. Skating skills we could achieve with one body, we have a harder time with our new adult bodies. Or in my case, my old one!
There are differences between adult and child skating with both psychological and neurological aspects. The psychological ones I'm qualified to speak of, the neurological ones you'll have to get from someone else. First, as adults we all have responsibilities and if we injure ourselves we can't always fulfill them, so when an adult approaches the ice it's often tentative. This makes it harder to learn. As children, when our bones are still greensticks, we can fall and get right back up and do it again. As adults, not always. And if you were lucky, like me, and learned to skate as a child before age 11, you have a decent chance of getting that smooth patin a glace look back to your skating with practice. When someone learns to skate as an adult, they keep the jerky marionette look that you see on the ice when the adults are skating. This is perfectly normal and not considered a flaw in adult figure skating! I notice that when I'm feeling intimidated by a skating figure, I do have the jerky marionette look and I tend to lose it when I've learned that figure.
In skating, both ice and roller, the most common injury is the wrist or hand injury as it's a natural instinct to put your hands out to break your fall. In ice skating particularly it's easy to also injure your head, because the surface that you fall on is slipperier and your hands might not stop your fall quickly enough to prevent a bang on the ice. You can approach this in two ways: first, learn how to fall appropriately. The fall sideways is easily teachable, and while you might not always be able to achieve it, it's safer if you can, and easier to do if you remember to keep your knees bent, and springy. Second, while learning to skate and achieving some sense of security on the ice, wear a helmet! Even as a more experienced skater it is a good safety practice to wear a helmet while in lessons or learning a new skill. These rules are good for both adults and children.
When you skate again it feels a bit different at first and it's easy to see why, if you look at it as a physics problem. It's easier to skate as a young person who's body weight is equally spread out over their vertical axis. As an adult, we have added breasts and perhaps other weight issues that we did not have as children. So your weight is distributed unevenly on the axis and you must learn to compensate for that, which means learning skills all over again. Skating skills we could achieve with one body, we have a harder time with our new adult bodies. Or in my case, my old one!
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