Why Figure Skating Might Be the Perfect Hobby for You

Hey skaters, it's Stace here from Next Edge Tutorials. In today's lesson I'm going to be convincing you why figure skating should be your new hobby. So if you're new to our channel, normally I'm out skating around showing you some jumps or some spins or some skating skills. Well today I'm going to be doing a little bit more standing still, convincing you why figure skating should be your new hobby. And the very first reason is you can move at your own pace. I know that if you join a recreational team, you might be brand new. But on that team, all those players might have been playing for years or the opponent team might have been playing for years. So then now you are versing someone who is so much better than you. And then you might feel a little intimidated or maybe you don't want to go back to the next game. Well with figure skating, guess what? You get to move at your own pace. You are on your own journey with figure skating. So if you wind up spending eight weeks at the barrier, guess what? You can spend eight weeks at the barrier. There's not this pressure to be good right away. So that's why I think that is my first reason why figure skating should be your new hobby. Now the second reason why figure skating should be your new hobby is that you'll never get bored. There's always something new to learn. In figure skating, we have six jumps. We have waltz jump. We have a loop jump. And we have many more jumps. With each jump is a single rotation, double, triple, quad. We have steps going in, steps going out. We have different types of spins. We have an upright spin. We have a back spin. We have loads of spins and within those spins we have kind of really cool different positions that you can try. So there's always something new to learn. I know that I've been skating, oh my gosh, like 30 some years and sometimes I'll get on the ice and I'll like do a step and I'll do something and then I'll be like, wait, I've never done that before in my life and I love it. So there's just always something new to learn and I know I've used this analogy before but I want you to think of it like if someone gave you a box of Legos and then you say, oh today I'm gonna make a car. With those same Legos, the next day you go, I'm actually gonna make an airplane and then you put the airplane together and then the next day you go, well I'm gonna build a house. There's so many Lego pieces in figure skating that you can build and put together and that's why you will never get bored with figure skating. All right, before we move on, I want you to click on the link below in the description for your free PDF guide on how to start your figure skating journey. This is going to help you. I want you to download it because I want you to tick off. It's talks about finding your local ice rink, how to get started, how to sign up for skate school, talks about finding a coach. It just lays everything out for you. That way you're not guessing what is my next step. It's all right here for you. So when you're ready, give it a click. All right, my third reason why you should start figure skating is exercise without feeling like exercise. If you're anything like me, I don't really like going to the gym because what do I do? Get on the treadmill, go lift some weights, maybe do some squats. I like movement. I like that freedom. You know, if I go on a 30-minute run, it's just gonna be here, but if you ask me to skate for two hours, put some great music on, do movement, skating. I'm getting my cardio up. I get to be creative with movement, moving around the ice with my arms, doing turns without even realizing I do like different types of squats on one leg. I might go down on two. So this is exercise without even realizing it. You know, if you do jumps, this is a jump and it's you're exercising. You're learning how to balance on that leg holding. You also work on your coordination when we do ice skating. You know, you're coordinating your arms and your legs and holding. You're constantly working on your core and your balance. So it's just, it's one of those things that if you start, you're gonna love it. You're gonna love the exercise. I mean, we just went a lap around the ice. I think an ice rink is roughly 200 feet long. Oh my goodness. Think of all the laps that you do in skating. I mean, you would go around the rink maybe 20 times or more. It's such a wonderful workout without feeling like it's a massive workout. So that is my third reason why you should start skating. Now, my fourth reason why you should start figure skating is the community is amazing. And what I mean by that, this is a swizzle. It might not look hard, but when you start out, that is difficult to get. And guess what? Someone who's higher level has been in those shoes and they go, you know what? You're doing a good job. You keep it up. Keep up that swizzle. You're gonna get those feet working where they come in and out. Then it's like a chain reaction. Then you see someone who's just starting out and then you give that person a compliment. The community is just so amazing at helping each other, building each other up, going, you know what? You did a great job. I saw you made it all the way around the rink without falling over. Or I saw you do that like waltz jump that you've been working really hard to get. And guess what? You got it now. So you will always find that knit community in figure skating. And another reason why is like I've met some of my best friends through figure skating. I have been to multiple weddings because of figure skating. I've been to graduations. I've been to, you know, birthday celebrations. Heck, I'm going to be planning a baby shower soon for one of my students now. And I also met my husband through figure skating. So the community is just absolutely incredible. And this is why you should start figure skating. And my final reason why figure skating should be your new hobby is you'll wish you have started skating sooner. The amount of times I've heard that I wish I had a dollar for every single time I heard that I would be rolling in the cash right now. Now I've had eight-year-olds that have said, oh my gosh, Stace, I wish I'd started sooner. I have 47-year-olds that have said to me, I wish I had started in my 30s. So if you, if I've convinced you to start skating today and you sign up and you start skating and then you realize I really don't like it, that's okay. I want you to go find something that helps you exercise, that gives you that community, and that makes you really happy. It makes you happy to be there because guess what? That's all we want in life. We want to be happy. So if figure skating makes you happy, please do it. But if it doesn't, don't worry about it. Thanks for watching Next Edge Tutorials and happy skating.