How to be more graceful figure skating....?

Some people-- a lot of the figure skaters you see on TV--are just gifted with natural grace, such that, without much formal training, they just look good. It's wholly unfair, but there you have it. For us mere mortals, we work for our grace.

The main way to achieve beauty as you skate is practice. This is an unfortunate truth. Just being on the ice for a prolonged period of time will help immensely. As your body just grows accustomed to balancing itself and moving, you will naturally grow more graceful.

As other people have said, try dance lessons. Ballet especially trains the dancer to move lightly and with precision, two traits that make you more graceful as a person. Not only that, but it's usually a great workout, amazing for flexibility, an really gives you a work out.

In general though, as a coach of a year or so, I've noticed that the kids struggle with a few things that make them seem more ungainly. There are two areas that really are key in appearing graceful on ice: knees and arms/shoulders. If your knees are always locked, or you don't really bend them, you will appear stiff and uncomfortable. Watch public skaters and new figure skaters. Are their knees bent? I'm willing to bet that they aren't. Compare them to the Olympic level skaters. What makes Olympic level skaters so great looking (besides UBER-talent) is that their knees and ankles bend a LOT, allowing them to sink down and rise up gracefully. Not only does it give "levels" to their performance, it widens their range of motion. "Soft" knees and ankles will help you "flow" from position to position.

The second area is the arm/shoulder area. The biggest thing I see with beginners is that they keep their arms straight and stiff like boards with hands that are all flat and tight that are as stiff as and greatly resemble gardening spades. Not only this, but many skaters I know skate sort of hunched over. This just....doesn't sit well with me. To fix this, make sure you keep your shoulders back. (This is where ballet will really come in handy!) Also, you need strong arms when you're skating. Don't take this the wrong way and all of a sudden get sloppy on your moves. Arms are very important, but there is a very fine balance between strong and stiff. This takes-- you guessed it-- practice! Here's a link to a nice little ballet site that helps with "ballet hands."

http://www.balletformeandyou.com/articles/2010/7/1...

Good luck with your skating, and I really suggest taking up ballet!!! :)

Unfortunately, it's really hard to be more graceful if you're not naturally good at dancing. It will take hard work and lots of practise. Remember, flow is something that does take a while to achieve on the ice - give it some time.

As for being more graceful, taking some form of dance class would be a good idea. Ballet would help you a lot - plus, it also will help you increase strength and flexibility. Jazz or modern dance would also help (but personally I think ballet would be the best type of dance for cross-training).

If you don't want to, can't be bothered, or can't afford ballet classes, practise at home. Stand in front of the mirror and practise arm movements, leg extension, etc. I don't do ballet, but I often just dance off-ice - put some music on and try to just feel the music. Remember, it takes practise.

So, basically, take some dance classes, or just practise. I am naturally ridiculously uncoordinated, but with practise and hard work, I am beginning to get better at grace and flow. Good luck!! :D

Being graceful is definatly not somethig that comes over night, trust me. Anyone can be graceful but it takes a lot of time and practice. In programs you kind of have to feel the music and move with it. It's hard to explain. To accomplish that, you could take a few dance classesand really work on the quality of your movements.

Personally, I watch myself do parts of my programs in the mirror and such. I make sure everything flows the way I want it to and look neat and high quality. I also spend about 30-40 minuites a day working on choreography to make sure I know all of my steps by heart and they come as second nature to me. I also work on smoothing out sections that are messy.

Always remeber to have good posture! Bad posture makes you look like a slob and like you don't care. Your arms don't need to be perfect, just make sure you pull your shoulders back and it makes such a difference.

Okayso grace can fake a while to achive. I'm almost 15 years old and I could only be considered graceful last year. Well, I'm graceful in my programs but in real life I'm a complete klutz. When I first started skating I was an awkward mess, and now people in my rink actually look up to me. All you need is a little hard work and a lot of persistance.

Ballet or dance classes can help, but some people are just naturally more graceful than others. If you're not naturally graceful, then you're not going to be as graceful as someone who is naturally graceful. Try and make your movements flow together a bit more, just extend your arms and don't skate quite as sharply.

Consider taking ballet (for grace and fluidity) and jazz, or contemporary/dance (for interpretation, expression, and movement). If you can do both mediums, you'll develop into a well-rounded skater.

I've seen very good, and graceful high level skaters skate to, and stick to classical, 'everyone-skates-to-it' music. Nothing wrong with that. Give (some of them) contemporary, hip music to skate to, and they're 'confused.' They don't know how to interpret the music, despite their coaches' choreo. They look uncomfortable, and there's no feeling or expression, just foot movement. They never bother to explore that type of music either on, or off-lesson, or allow themselves to 'let loose' in exploring another technique on ice.

Ilia Kulik(sp) comes to mind, same for Kristie Yamaguichi. I call them well-rounded, because they can skate to any type of music, pull it off, and not look uneasy while doing it. Granted they're Pros, but you can do the same as an amateur; just modify some movements you may not feel comfortable doing.

Check out the DVD series - "Magic of Style" - Ann Margret Frei. Included are simple arm movements-you can even do them while simply stroking, or walk-through them off-ice.

The Best.

It's really about pushing yourself. Keep it together. Go for it. You cannot hold back. You may get hurt in the process, but by forcing yourself to keep it smooth you'll get it. If you're having trouble being graceful, practice harder. Once you're really good at something like strokes, they naturally become more graceful. But I do agree with the above answer, ballet DOES help.

P.S. Make sure to always have good posture when you skate, keep your head up and everything relaxed but firm :D

I think that all you need is two things: a smile and good music. Smiling is important, it affects your presentation mark and you want to make the judges show that you are happy skating and performing for them. Would you give a good mark for someone who looks like they are too scared. If that is the case still smile. Don't worry about the jumps. Always think about your routine before bed time. Imagine yourself mastering each element. It will give you self-confidence. For the music, you need a music that goes with you. If you skate to a jazz song but you aren't into it, it will show. You can even have your favourite songs in instrumental. Try not to be so stiff lossen up. And you don't have to be in a big level to be graceful. Here are examples of younger people competing:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GepBUtqVmss

As you see she is smiling 80% of the time she goes well with the music.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LQBGDEJcNbA

She isn't smiling but her movements go with the music.

You could take ballet, which helps with gracefulness. Another thing that helps me is having someone record me skating so I can see what I look like and what I could do to make it look cleaner. Also, just practice, practice, practice!

Ballet REALLY helps with figure skating and it also strengthens your legs. You can also try to use your arms more and make sure to skate with your back up and when you check out and stuff that your arms are shoulder height.

Look into ballet or yoga classes. I was a ballerina for 9 years and everyone says that it really helps with my skating!

:)