How long should a serious figure skater train daily?

Question

im a figure skater training for the olympics. am a beginner in the sport. im thinking of skating 4 hours a day five times a week. and 5 hours of skating on saturday. and sunday off.

Answer 1

I think your coach would be the best person to ask, but at least two hours per day.

Answer 2

two or three times

Answer 3

Hi there.

I honestly think the other answers are a bit too excessive.  You don't want to ruin your ankles or hurt yourself from too much repetition of jumps and spins that put so much strain on your joints, especially if you ever start doing triple jumps and complicated combination spins.

Most elite figure skaters skate between 3 and 4 ice sessions over the course of a day.  These sessions are usually between 45-60 minutes long.  In between, ballet, pilates, and strength training is recommended.

These 3-4 sessions should be spread out over the course of the day, perhaps 2 in the morning, lunch and off-ice training, and 2 in the afternoon.  This is a schedule, of course, for those who are home-schooled or tutored.  Obviously, if you're at school full-time as most people are, you'll probably end up skating before and after school.

I haven't heard of too many people skating on the weekends.  Usually, the weekends are for rest and allowing your muscles to recover from the pounding they got over the course of the week.  If you do skate, I'd suggest only 1 or 2 sessions on Saturday and none on Sunday.

Keep in mind this costs a small fortune to do, and if you're just a beginner, you in no way need to be skating this much.  Maybe 3 times a week for an hour a day is appropriate for a beginner, and even that sounds like a lot to me (I started at age seven and only skated 1 day a week for a few years.  By the time I was done with my doubles, I was skating 2 hours each morning before school, 2 hours after school, 5 days a week, and 2 hours on Saturday with some appropriate off-ice training. . .of course, this cost my parents around $2500/month.  Yikes!).

Anyway, good luck, and enjoy the sport.  Even if you don't make the Olympics (which most people don't), it's a truly fun and challenging sport you can do throughout your life.

Answer 4

If you are a beginner, you really can't say you are training for the olympics. You may want to go, but doesn't mean you are. I think you should do a lot of off ice training like jumps off ice, strength training, pilates, and ballet. 4-5 hours sounds pretty good, but one of those hours should be off the ice. OFF ICE HELPS A LOT!!

Answer 5

wow! that sounds like a lot. but one thing confuses me, are you training for the olympics or a beginner--to me, that seems like a big difference. i didnt know you could be both!!!

Answer 6

You should do 5 hours a day 6 days a week and just do an hour on sunday. You can also do some training off the ice like trying to be more flexible and taking ballet classes for stability.

Answer 7

All day. People in the olmpics need lots of practice.

Answer 8

seriously, if ur over like 5 or 6, the chances of making the olympics are very slim, still im not training for the olympics but mirai nagasu trains about 10 hrs on ice a week and caroline zhang i think about 16 hrs on ice, not inclding off ice, i skate 2-5 times a week usually at least 2 1/2  - 4 hrs each time, u dont wanna tire urself out so thats wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too much.

Answer 9

I've been skating for 16 and 12 of those years are competitive!

On average I skate 6 days a week. Sunday is for resting and sleeping.

Mon - Fri I would skate 5 hours a day.. spread out

Sat - INTENSE!! I skate all day long. With breaks in between.

Also in the mix is about 4 hours of off ice spread throughout the week!

But mind you, I'm not training for the olympics! The work has paid off.. I'm consistently landing triples now.

Good luck!