Why do some people progress so quickly in skating and others don’t? I have been skating on and off for 20 years and I still don’t have an axel or any doubles. And then I see people who have all of their doubles after 2 years of skating and it’s really discouraging. How are they getting so good so quickly???
I have progressed quickly because of: (a) I had a professional ballet career and in that career I learned not just how to dance ballet, but also the PROCESS of how we can think about human movement and train our body for it, as well as general stuff of body conditioning, avoiding injury, etc. (b) As Tracy Fjeseth mentioned I came in understanding the importance of developing the basics step by step, like building a race car, and I committed to practicing figures as the best way to build quality technique safely and efficiently. I am *very* efficient with my on-ice time, and also committed to a lot of it for an adult (~10 h/wk).
For the first 18 months I spent 90% of my time practicing figures, and finding it fascinating inside my body; contrast this to most beginners who want to jump and spin as soon as possible. Building it up right takes patience. After 18 months I began free skating naturally, now that I had the edges to support it. Our bodies are right to be afraid of things in skating, and solid technique is the antidote to that. I strongly believe that figures are the best way for adult beginners to train. Now I spend only 2/3 of my time on figures.
For adult beginners not familiar with ballet, I also recommend ballet studies. For example, if you are an absolute beginner, I would recommend 2x/wk ballet class and 1x/wk on ice. (Most beginner skaters spend too much time on the ice and not enough time learning to work with their bodies off the ice).
I describe in detail my process of training, in the hopes it will be useful for others: https://www.artofskating.org/how-to-train-your-body-to-do-anything-within-its-physical-capabilities/
If you want to start with figures, the best place to go is World Figure Sport: https://worldfiguresport.org/global-skating-technique-classes/
Here’s another article that might be of interest, on how we can arrange our training: https://www.artofskating.org/i-train-like-an-olympic-figure-skater/