To be gutted that I've forgotten how to ice skate?

[JellyDiamonds]

The other night, for the first time in years and years I went ice skating. I used to go every Friday night as a child, had my own white skates and everything. Never had lessons, but used to be able to wizz around the rink like a bat out of hell.

Well the other night I got on the ice and I almost shit myself, I was terrified and could barely manage to let go of the side! I clung to it like a lynchpin for the whole time was there and the one time I did let to I fell on my arse! I rarely ever used to fall.

I'm gutted. What happened? I was so looking forward to it but my confidence evaporated as soon as I stepped onto the ice. Is it an age thing? I presumed I'd never forget?

25 years passed in between me whizzing round the ice as a young teen, and then going again recently to introduce my children to the ice. I banged on about how good it was and how they would love it. Reality was, none of us let go of the side for the whole hour. Thoroughly peeved that I appear to have lost my balance and my nerve.

YANBU! I learned to skate on a frozen lake when I was very young and spent every winter racing around it, going into a flying heap whenever I caught my skate on a bit of a frozen leaf or twig and still loved every minute of it.

I took DC skating a couple of years ago and holy crap, I had to cling onto the side (no sides to cling onto on a lake!) and I wobbled around for ages before having the nerve to try a tiny glide of maybe two feet!

I used to be great at skating, took lessons in figure skating as a teen. Tried it a few years ago at an outside rink and could stay up but just sort of wobbled along feeling terrified :(

Yes it's strange isn't it as it's a fact that once you learn to ride a byke it's there for life. Wonder why it's different for skating?

I think it's like riding a bike, personally, the not forgetting. I need a few minutes and a couple of turns around the rink to get my balance right, then I'm fine. My longest break was approx a decade, and the children were surprised I could skate so well (as was I!) The children are always because I boast so much at how good I am still. I do love ice skating.

The rink was horribly crowed anyway, and there were lots of gangs of teenagers who were obviously unstable on their skates but still showing off, and I think that might have felt unnerved. I was scared they'd crash into me.

Do you have dc?

I had great balance before and it's shot now.

I think less balance is required for riding a bike.

Same happened to me. I used to whizz around like a mad thing on the ice. Went with dd and her friends when she was 10 and fell on my bum a lot whilst they all glided about.

Damn centre of gravity and bigger arse.

Hired skates are rarely sharp enough so you can slide sideways almost as much as forward/backwards which feels very insecure.
I'm a totally different shape/centre of gravity which also doesn't help. And I have dodgy knees a dam far more aware of what a fall could do to me, so it's no longer the carefree experience i remember as a young teen. That and the fact that ds2 has no coordination whatsoever meant I just gave up on reviving it.

I think yabu. I had a break of 20 years and recently took dd. It took me a few minutes and god knows how I used to skate backwards but I could still do it.

I think those hired skates don't help either, they really are awful.

at the risk of sounding smug I'm much the same shape (or slimmer maybe than at 17) that probably does help.

Yes, the hire skates were shit. They were exactly the same hire skates as they used 20 plus years ago, and I don't think they'd been sharpened in all that time either! I'd assumed that they'd have replaced the hire skates with shiny new hockey boot style ones for some reason, but no.

Hire skates have two problems - they are not kept properly sharpened (it's safer for all concerned if they aren't) and they often do not give proper support to the ankle which makes skating virtually impossible.

I still go skating using my own skates - each time I go it takes me a few minutes to find my balance and then I am fine.

I think you should go again very soon OP, get back on the horse, or it'll build up in your mind and stuff.

I'm always scared just before I get on the ice so I get it (but there's nothing like it is there).

My dad always took me skating when I was little and if he thought the skates were missing something he'd take them up and ask to get them sharpened and it was treated as a perfectly normal request.

I know what you mean OP. I skate quite a lot on our local pond but I'm nowhere near as confident as I used to be. OTOH I can still ski like a demon.

I've booked to go to the outside rink at Somerset House in London in a couple of weeks and this thread has worried me! I went skating years ago and was expecting to just take it up again and be the same standard as before! Obviously that is not going to happen!

I agree with flamingtoaster, skates must be firm and supportive around the ankles; your feet/ankles should not bend inwards.
I used to do a lot of ice skating at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, and got quite deedy going backwards, spins etc. But now I'm old and have problems with balance just walking along, and I bet my bones aren't as solid as they were. I'd be terrified of having a fall and breaking a femur.

I also used to ride at every opportunity. Loved it. There's a lovely riding school in our village and I watch wistfully as the line of ponies and horses goes past our house. But I just daren't do it. I'm also a bit plump, and once I'd mounted it, the poor horse would probably turn its head round to look at me and say, "You've got to be joking missus...!"

Yes, go again SOON. I do think that our centre of gravity shifts as we get fatter older.

Oh, Hatespiders, I went for a riding lesson years after stopping as a teenager. Everybody was bumbling along in a big circle, except for me, because my horse decided to utterly mock me by randomly weaving around and making me look like an incompetent arse .

LOL BOFster!! I know the owner of our village riding school very well. I told her I used to ride, and she said, "But you must come and have a go! We've got some very large carthorses suitable for carrying weight, and they're very placid..." After I'd punched her on the nose (only joking) I politely declined her 'kind' offer.
This thread has made me reminisce about my ice-skating days up in Scotland. How we used to whizz around that rink!
Actually though, I can still swim, and I expect I could ride a bike at a push, so I don't reckon we forget how to do these things. Oh to be young again! sigh...

I was an figure skater at competition level until I was about 15 but you'd never know it now. It was a very long time ago and I'd like to say Im like Bambi on the ice but that would be an insult to Bambi.

I am almost 57 however but Oh I yearn for the old days when it comes to skating.

I am really surprised how people who were hood skaters now can't skate. Surely it's down to fear of falling? I have never been a paticularly good skater but I can still skate the same as when I was 10. However I am getting more and more scared when skiing - I can still ski but I am terrified of hurting myself

I can skate, but there's skating and there's skating :)

And you are spot on with your comments re a fear of falling. I just dont bounce like I used to and a couple of silly falls I've had recently in my day to day life have shaken me up quite considerably.

I reckon in my case it's about balance. I get bad vertigo and even walking makes me a bit fearful of falling. I'm resisting getting a walking stick, but no doubt I'll soon have to. I really don't want to risk broken bones and being a burden to my dh for weeks on end. I'm only seventy, but I haven't worn too well hahaha! (See thread about giving up teaching!)