Here are some practice tips based on stuff I found online. This is based on my decades of experience and the Meta Process I have developed, by which we can teach our bodies to do anything (within their physical capacity).
- How many times should I repeat a skill? Before you repeat it any times at all, you need to have correct information on technique and what you are trying to accomplish. Assuming you have that in place, you can repeat it as many times as you like, as long as it is getting closer to your goal. When it starts to get worse, your body is done for the day and time to move on.
- How do I know if I am practicing it correctly? You need that information from someone with specific knowledge; don’t start practicing a skill until you have had someone show you how. When you try a skill, you need to apply ALL the points learned from the expert. Assuming you have done all that, there are a number principles that are always true, and you can deduce incorrectness if any of them are violated. For example, unbalanced positions, unable to hold an edge when you should be able to, lack of precision repeating a tracing or coming back to center (for figures). Finally, the technique is not random or arbitrary, you can deduce what is correct for a new skill based on a prior skill you have already mastered. For example, if you are landing a jump on a BO edge, it will almost certainly be related to a BO edge you have practiced in figures (or MITF).
- When is it time to move on? See answer to q1 above. If you are making progress and you enjoy sensing subtle details inside your body, you can spend an entire session on one skill. If you are not making progress, or don’t know how to make progress on this skill, then definitely move on (and ask for more info from your resident expert).
- Why the corner may not be the most effective place to train? Because skaters like to practice jumps there. But if you’re training large figures, corners are probably better than other parts of the ice; and once you’ve invested 10 minutes on a layout you don’t want to move. Get to know the skaters you’re in session with, and what they are doing and where they like to jump. Some corners get more use than others. And attend the lowest-level session possible (with not too many other skaters)… unless you want to work on doing fast things today, it’s safer if the other skaters on the ice are slower.
- Yes. Adults! You can claim your space on the ice. Yes you can. Get a Bingo Marker and start drawing your layouts for whatever you want to practice today. There are no patch sessions any more, and people will skate through your stuff, but you drawing a layout suggests to other skaters they might spin somewhere else if they can.
- How Do I Practice? I haven’t written about this question yet on my blog, but it gets back to the Meta Process. Principles include: (a) Understand prerequisites to whatever you want to accomplish, and don’t try things that you have not developed the prerequisites for first. (b) Get accurate information on how to do it correctly; KNOW what you’re trying to accomplish. (c) Put your body through the movements slowly enough at first that your mind can think about it. (d) Break it down and practice each part separately. (e) As you get the pieces working, begin assembling them into the larger whole you want to practice. (f) Once you get it into a larger whole, practice that whole; our bodies do best when practicing sequences in rhythm. (g) Practice in rhythm whenever possible. Buy a haptic metronome (NOT Apple watch, use SoundBrenner Pulse). Play your music in the session’s rotation. (h) Rinse, repeat. Remain present and mindful and do not accept anything you know is wrong. If it’s wrong, stop and get it right before going on. Enjoy the repetition. (i) Stop when things start getting worse. (j) At the end of the session, review and write down what you improved that day, even if it was just one small thing. Celebrate the victory! If you improve day after day, month after month, you will go far!
Here are a few more answers to questions:
- How much you should skate? Due to how our mind-body system works, two or three times a week is minimal to develop these kinds of skills. Once a week is almost useless, our body “forgets” in the intervening 6 days. 30 minutes 3x/wk will be FAR more effective than 90 minutes 1x/week. If you can, skate up to 6 days a week; and leave each day when you get tired even if the session isn’t over yet, you will build up stamina over time.
- How to structure your practice? Spins, Jumps, Skills, Program, Dance…? There is so much! There should really be a graded curriculum going over this in detail. But in general… keep it simple. If you improve one thing in one session, that’s a win! I would not start jumping until I’d mastered all 8 basic edges, 3-turns and loops (on the ice not the jumps). This is age-old advice, for example, given by Mirabel Vinson, and probably takes most people 2-3 years at least. You can learn and practice spins during that time. Improved technique will make you a better skater but practicing a program and choreography interrupts that process. So the more beginner you are, the more I would focus on building technique and not running programs. But do of course present a program for your club’s exhibition, learning to skate to music and present to an audience is also important. Practice ice dance if you like ice dances. They are a great way to practice and improve edges, but also so is figures. Ice dances are also important as a way to teach our bodies to work within a rhythm. And also to work with another human body, if you can find someone willing to skate the dances with you! Get Lorna Dyer’s book explaining exactly how to do each ice dance, study the book and follow her instructions.