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Ice-skating isn’t just for the winter. It’s an activity that you can enjoy with your friends at any time of the day. Moreover, ice-skating also has a long history in the sports world, and many professional ice-skating athletes started out as hobbyists. Besides that, ice-skating is a great way to let loose and have a good time. But it’s also a tricky sport, and you must perfect your moves before you can truly enjoy ice-skating. Because if not, you can end up with injuries. This is why we’ve created this blog to help you improve your ice-skating skills more.
If you’re interested in buying new ice skates or electric skateboards, read our product insights at Outdoor Trends.
Improve Your Balance
Balance is the most important thing when it comes to ice skating. You’re essentially dividing your whole body weight between two thin plates, and any wrong move can cause you to slip. So it’s important to keep your center of gravity low, or else you’ll fall over.
That’s why you should use the correct skating position by bending your knees at the right angle, so your body weight is away from the body. You can learn to do this by using a raining at the ice rink. Once you master this, you can move on to improving your speed and techniques.
Keep Practicing
Practice is the key to perfection; the more you practice, the easier it will be to learn new ice-skating techniques. Many times, people who don’t practice their ice-skating often end up struggling to maintain their balance. That’s because ice-skating is dependent on your balance, and if you’re not practicing, your balance won’t be the same.
But just because you know how to skate doesn’t mean you can practice without any safety equipment. Remember falling on ice hurts a lot more than falling on normal ground. Not just that, but an injury during ice-skating would hurt more as well.
Watch Videos Of Professional Ice Skaters
By watching others ice skate, you can improve your moves too. But make sure you’re not watching pro athletes do dangerous yet beautiful moves. It’ll make you overestimate yourself, which can result in injuries if you fall or pull a wrong muscle. The best way is to watch videos of trainers where they explain how to perfect a technique step by step.
Additionally, don’t assume that you’ll be a pro at it once you’ve watched it and done it. It’ll take a while before your muscle memory can store the moves. You can do this by dividing the techniques into parts and then practicing them so your muscles will memorize them. It’ll take a bit longer, but you’ll be able to remember the moves easily.
Stretch Before Hitting The Rink
Most people ignore this part and end up with severe muscle pain afterward. If your body isn’t used to such demanding movements, it’s important to warm it up before you hit the rink. Simple stretching exercises will loosen your muscles and increase your flexibility.
Additionally, ice skating is quite cold, so if you stretch well, you won’t have any issues with your muscles locking due to the cold. But make sure you don’t stretch when you go into the rink because that can lead to muscle teas making it easier for your body to sustain an undetected injury.
Don’t Be Afraid To Fall
Even though the main idea of this blog is to prevent you from falling, sometimes it isn’t so bad. If you’re new and don’t skate frequently, you’ll likely fall in the rink. But here’s the trick. Instead of fighting the fall, it’s better to let yourself fall in a way that won’t cause any injuries. The best way to intentionally fall is by squatting slightly and falling to the side and cushioning the impact.
Wearing gloves and wrist guards will protect any exposed part of your skin from getting wounded. After falling, there’s a trick to standing up as well. Instead of getting back up on your feet immediately, get back into the squat position and then slowly stand up. It’ll maintain your balance and prevent you from falling again.
Practice With A Buddy
Practicing with a friend or someone else who knows how to ice skate will make you more confident in your skating skills because they’ll be able to guide you if you make any mistakes. Moreover, a friend also offers you support so you don’t feel as scared as you would have alone.
It also helps you keep your mind from falling because sometimes people fall only because they keep thinking about it. Socializing with a friend lets you divert your mind and focus more on having a good time rather than worrying about falling. That’s not all; you can learn a few more tips and tricks by watching your friend skate and comparing it with your methods.
Try Learning A Few Professional Movements
Learning some professional moves might not make you an Olympic-worthy ice skater, but it’ll definitely help you improve your skating techniques. The thing is that professional skating techniques are hard to learn and involve you being sharp with your movements. So even if you don’t end up mastering the techniques, it’ll improve your existing moves.
That’s not all. If you keep practicing and learning new techniques, you’ll become a skilled ice skater, and who knows, you might even get a chance to pursue ice skating professionally. Another great way to improve your skill is to try ice hockey. It involves heavy upper body movements, so you’ll learn how to balance yourself without restricting your body movements.
Regardless of the weather, ice-skating is a popular and fun activity that everyone can do, no matter what age. But it’s also slightly dangerous because falling on ice can lead to injuries. But if you perfect your ice skating techniques, you’ll be able to have a fun time without any worries.
Take a look at our buyer’s guides and product recommendations at Outdoor trends if you’re interested in ice-skating. Besides that, our website displays several other products, including the best budget mountain bikes, the best professional hoverboards of 2022, the best off road all terrain electric skateboards of 2022, the best surfboards, and many more.
