A skater asked me today how long I had been skating. It’s a question I get a lot from beginners. I understand — you see someone do something that you aspire to, and you wonder how long it will take you to get there.
I answered, “About four years… But it isn’t the years, it’s the hours.”
I explained that there were skaters who were way more advanced than me who started only a couple of years ago. And there were people who have been skating for 20 years, who were still beginners.
The main differentiating factor, beyond raw talent, is how many hours one is willing to spend practicing and improving. If you spend 100 hours going around in a circle you will get really good…. at going around in a circle. If you spend 100 hours learning how to spin, or do the Downtown, or do backwards cross pulls, you will most likely get better at that specific skill.
Focused practice is not an option if you want to achieve a physical goal. That goes for skating, playing the guitar, long distance running, or West Coast Swing.
From my observations, lots of hobbyists get to a particular level of proficiency and then they just kind of plateau. They aren’t really driven to learn much more beyond what they already know. Which is totally fine! It’s a hobby, not a job.
But if you aren’t satisfied with where you are in your pursuit, it helps to examine what kind of practice regime you have in place, and how you might make the best use of your practice time.
For me, that means keeping a running list of skills or moves that I’m working on, and making sure every session I spend some time working on 2-3 of those. Lately those are corkscrews, tick tocks, and the hydroblade.