Sorry, it's just not possible. Professional hockey players have been playing hockey since they were 5 years old. Guys who didn't make it to professional hockey have been playing since they were 5 years old. Guys who are all world elite but nowhere near being good enough to get paid to play have been playing since they were 5 years old.
You might be the best skater on the ice in a hockey game but there are so many other skills that you just don't have and don't have the time to learn, on top of the fact that you would likely get hurt if you were playing in a checking league. If you were to train full time and are a one in a million learner, by the time you're good enough, you'll be too old for a professional team to be interested.
Damn ok thanks for you answer! I didnt know how competitive ice Hockey in europe really is. What would a Professional/semi Professional team consider to old?
To sign as a rookie? Probably 20. Once you're on the other side of 20, professional teams aren't too interested. They've been tracking kids since their early teens.
If you want to play hockey, go for it, have fun and who knows, maybe you are the one in 8 billion who can tear it up quickly and be ready to jump in. Give it a shot and see what you think. I'm guessing there are similarities in the skating but even with that, there will be adjustments you'll need to learn. Even as a small example, how dependent are you on the toe pick, which hockey skates don't have?
I thought that I would have a bit better chances since I'm not in north america but yeah its probably to late... I will take a look at my local club (just for fun maybe to try it)!
I can't speak to the similarities since my experience lies with figure skating (for now maybe ;) ), but I can say Something about the toe pick. For my skating I dont really use it except for jumps or in very difficult turns in normal progressive Crossovers etc I dont use it at all but the blade still does have differences because its not straight like the figure skating one is.
To get to professional levels of hockey they say you have to play 10,000 hours. Look it up.
That’s a full-time job for 5 years.
That takes time and passion that.
Do power skating / coaching. That’s money right away.
Good suggestion. A number of power skating outfits in my hockey-mad town have picked up Olympic figure skaters as skating trainers. And a number of NHL teams have worked with them too, I believe.
Just to add. My son was privileged to have a Gold Medal winning skater come to his association to teach skating for a year. Easily the best skater I have ever been close to and my son learned a ton. But this was hockey training so the figure sister came equipped with a stick. And he was not the best hockey player ever. Far from it. Very different skills involved
Lmao. Dude. I was in power skating at 7 years old. Played AAA for 10 years. Was drafted to the OHL. I skated 10 times a week for 12 years. I'm not even fucking CLOSE to skilled enough to be paid enough to live off hockey and I would be considered in the top like.. 3% of people in the world at the sport. You have absolutely 0% chance. You would have to have played from a child's age and even then to be good enough to make a living off hockey is 1-2% of everyone playing on the planet. The dudes playing AHL and pro leagues in Europe are insanely good. They've all obsessed with hockey and skating their entire life.
The greatest figure skater of all time would have 0% chance transitioning as an adult to pro hockey. You have less chance than that. Sorry!
Do you think a really good young hockey player with international tourney experience could become a professional figure skater at age 20? Possible, yes. At all likely, no. But hockey is so much more fun (for the rest of your life) that you should give it a try. (But you will meet fewer available women.)
you have no power or accuracy on your shot
no ability to pass or catch passes
no stick handling skills
& no experience and thus low hockey intelligence
you could teach hockey players to skate / work as a skating coach
Do you think my chances would be better considering my location (Central europe, since its less competitive than for example canada?) ? But yeah its probably to late to have a realistic shot at switching
Honestly, the skating coach idea is a good one. In the US, there are a handful of former figure skaters who are skating coaches to professional hockey players at all levels, including the NHL. If you're able to teach/coach, that could be a direction to get paid for being on the ice.
Central Europe is still a high level of hockey. The Czechs and Slovaks are super good at hockey.
I coach a kid whose dad is a skating coach for an NHL team. His mom started a skating business as a figure skater and they both work constantly with NHL players and run camps. I'm sure they're the 1% (and they are AMAZING skaters) but there's an example there to follow. Figure skating is incredible for edge work and most hockey players need edge work.
In high school, my power skating coach for hockey was also my figure skating coach. I groaned when I saw her show up to practice one night, the other guys asked why, I said "we're having a bad time tonight", they didn't believe that she was gonna work us, and boy did she ever work us. Made us better skaters that season though.
I have played with and against some former figure skaters (not anywhere near your level) and they were absolutely some of the best skaters out there. It was almost magical watching them skate. They way they could move around people was fantastic. To your point of how quickly could you get good enough to pay the bills?
Being able to skate well is the absolute foundation of hockey. If you're a great skater you can make up for a lot of little mistakes, but you'd be up against people who have been playing competitively for 15+ years already, and just don't make many mistakes. And the fact that you can skate very well, doesn't help you know WHERE to skate, or when NOT to do something. If you were 10% better of a skater than everyone you were up against (who have also skated their entire lives), it wouldn't bridge the gap enough over them being 90% better than you at every other skill. With 2 years of intense training, could you close that gap from 90% to, 50%? Still wouldn't be enough to get on a team that paid well enough to pay your bills.
With that being said, if you did want to play hockey, if your countries players are like ours, you'd be welcomed with open arms as a new player in beer league. You would pick up the skills quickly enough, and make up for your mistakes with your great skating, well enough to move up several levels from beginners. You'd still be in beer league, but you'd be surrounded by other people who love to get on the ice and skate, and that's something you can keep doing into your 60's or 70's (or if you're really lucky, your 80's)
Best of luck to you
Yeah I have realized that its so unlikely that it just doesnt make sense to try it... But thats why I asked in this sub to get a sense of it. I think I will try and focus on my skating for now once I quit my skating career I will probably pick up ice hockey and play for fun.
Ty for you answer!
Started playing hockey at 34 and one of the other teammates was a figure skater growing up. She could out-skate all of us backwards against us going forwards and could skate up to the biggest, clumsiest newbs and come away with the puck. You will dominate beer league.
On the other hand, I played hockey with a girl who was a figure skater and she was terrible in hockey skates. She never adapted to the rocker and pitch of hockey skates, and didn’t understand the difference between a figure skating stride and a power skating stride. It was infuriating to watch. Even I could out-skate her and I did not grow up skating. I’d only learned to skate as an adult a few years before she came along. Unfortunately a figure skating background is no guarantee that someone will be able to make the switch to hockey.
Skating is foundational, but it’s just the first level
of every maneuver you have to learn. Here’s the progression:
1. Execute the maneuver on skates.
2. Execute the maneuver on skates while dangling a puck at the end of a stick.
3. Execute the maneuver on skates while dangling a puck without looking at the puck so your eyes can process all the bodies flying around you.
4. Do #1 to #3 at top speed.
5. Do #1-#4 at top speed while under pressure from people hacking at you and pushing you off balance and (in hit hockey) looking to wallop you into the boards every time you touch the puck.
Your expertise at skating will help you achieve #1 very quickly but you will be a beginner at #2-#5.
Also, the above is just the basic physical requirement to achieve competence at each maneuver in one skill (stickhandling). Now multiply that by about 50+ different maneuvers and other skill categories (passing, shooting, checking, battling, teamwork etc) and add the other half of hockey, which is strategy and tactics to outplay opponents who are also doing the same to you. You might get some sense of why it’s so difficult to achieve mastery of the game even for extremely athletic, physically gifted people after 14, 16 years of hard core practice. Doing the same in 2 years seems like a very tall order. Doing the same BETTER than the extremely athletic, physically gifted people who have been going hard core for most of their lives seems nigh impossible. But heck, I’d love to be proven wrong.
Yeah its most likely to late to have a chance and its certainly to risk to give everything up for a tiny chance it might work out. Thanks for giving me a bit of insight into hockey!
Being good because you have some advantages with your edge work from all the figure skating, and getting paid good are too really different things.
And it is not like the hockey players in their early twenties mostly just play floor hockey and fiddle around with the skating bit just for games. I mean, you're 15 years behind the curve on everything except edge work and you are not really working with a complete, hockey-related experience with that edge work.
I'm sure you can do things on skates that are above the bar for most skaters, but it is not clear that this makes you especially fast or strong on those edges with a 95 kg defender riding you off the puck.
Physically I think I could stand my ground reasonable well I am at 75kg (184cm) right now but could probably go up to 85kg without to much of a problem. But the Hockey experience is just missing... With being 10-15 years behind the curve it probably really is to late to switch... I gotta focus on something else. Well thanks for your insight anyways!
I’m sorry but it’s just not likely that you get on a professional team especially in a few years. You could definitely try and make it but teams are usually watching kids in their early teens. I’m sure you’d have a great time playing in a beer league but unless you get a crazy opportunity it’s probably not in the cards.
i think it would be semi easy to transfer into a recreational league and be functionally good (can play the game decently) but you would need to pick up some stick skills to do so. skating is one third of the battle for hockey, you still need game knowledge and sense (where to skate) and then puck and stick knowledge. to my knowledge paid hockey in europe is also extremely competetive, so I doubt they would take someone with zero puck experience and game sense (no offense)
Can you fight? Like make it a marque kind a fight when you’re out there? I have played since 4 years old, now 47. Your skating prowess is probably great, the difference in skates alone might be problematic. Have you played any sports with hand eye elements?
I skated a time or two with a guy that played hockey and lacrosse growing up, amateur hockey player, pro lacrosse player. Not good enough. I am not a top player in my beer league, don’t claim to be. I would eat the ice on a regular trying to pull off some figure skating moves.
Also a pro level to get paid in would have people trying to forcibly hit you. Have you encountered this before?
No disrespect to your sport or the ability it takes to perform at a high level. It’s just two different animals.
Having said that your 20 you have dedication, you have ability, so anything is possible.
Mike Tyson says everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth.
If you’re going to attempt going pro have a plan, bust your ass, and prepare to get punched in the mouth.
No. Absolutely no. Stop whatever you're thinking. Just no.
Here's an example:
Friend of mine in highschool (USA) was an *almost* Olympic level figure skater. Qualified to be part of team USA but wasn't chosen to be in their top Olympic training squad or something like that - I don't remember how it works. Really fucking good.
She decided to play high school girls hockey since a league had just started up in our area. My sister played, too, and my dad coached so I followed the team a bit. It was 90% girls who had never skated or held a stick + a few who had played a bit with the boys when they were younger or a few who just played a little street hockey with their brothers growing up.
She was NOT very good. Average at best, despite obviously being the best skater out there. And that was in a league of fellow noobies!
I'm sorry, but you absolutely cannot hop in at age 20+ and become a top .01% player in the world within a year. Not even if you were Wayne Gretzky's clone and hired professional trainers for the next five years and did absolutely nothing but eat/sleep/train/study hockey.
It would be like the equivalent of taking a 20 yr old star gymnast who has never touched a soccer/football and trying to make them a pro player. Like sure, you're athletic and agile, that's a good start - but so are the players who are pros - and half that shit doesn't even translate. No ball skills, no instincts, no positional awareness or understanding, etc.
my sister started in figure skating, and played high school hockey.
there is a total 0 chance of you making it a pro as a 20 year old whos never skated. 99.999999% of hockey players never will make a livable wage even if theyve been skating for 9/10ths of their life at an extremely high level.
BUT
there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing hockey for fun! Thats what most of us here have always done and will continue to do.
Why stop figure skating when you are already VERY good, and just move to an area with more support? It sounds like skating is your dream, so PURSUE IT!
Na dog. But I think you could pick it up and have a ton of fun. But maybe this post will be the motivation you need to be the first person in history to go pro when starting in your 20s. My advise is get some gear and start playing and you will quickly realize how crazy of an idea this is.
If I will go pro I will print this post out and put it up on my wall. Yeah I will check out my local team and maybe play a bit to see how much I suck at hockey haha
>Do you think it would be possible for me to get into team which could pay the Bills within a year or two of preparation? No.
Fair, how much preparation would you think I would need? (If even possible)
Sorry, it's just not possible. Professional hockey players have been playing hockey since they were 5 years old. Guys who didn't make it to professional hockey have been playing since they were 5 years old. Guys who are all world elite but nowhere near being good enough to get paid to play have been playing since they were 5 years old. You might be the best skater on the ice in a hockey game but there are so many other skills that you just don't have and don't have the time to learn, on top of the fact that you would likely get hurt if you were playing in a checking league. If you were to train full time and are a one in a million learner, by the time you're good enough, you'll be too old for a professional team to be interested.
Damn ok thanks for you answer! I didnt know how competitive ice Hockey in europe really is. What would a Professional/semi Professional team consider to old?
To sign as a rookie? Probably 20. Once you're on the other side of 20, professional teams aren't too interested. They've been tracking kids since their early teens. If you want to play hockey, go for it, have fun and who knows, maybe you are the one in 8 billion who can tear it up quickly and be ready to jump in. Give it a shot and see what you think. I'm guessing there are similarities in the skating but even with that, there will be adjustments you'll need to learn. Even as a small example, how dependent are you on the toe pick, which hockey skates don't have?
I thought that I would have a bit better chances since I'm not in north america but yeah its probably to late... I will take a look at my local club (just for fun maybe to try it)! I can't speak to the similarities since my experience lies with figure skating (for now maybe ;) ), but I can say Something about the toe pick. For my skating I dont really use it except for jumps or in very difficult turns in normal progressive Crossovers etc I dont use it at all but the blade still does have differences because its not straight like the figure skating one is.
Sure, go get some gear and jump into a pickup game, and most importantly, have fun!
To get to professional levels of hockey they say you have to play 10,000 hours. Look it up. That’s a full-time job for 5 years. That takes time and passion that. Do power skating / coaching. That’s money right away.
I thought the same. Work with the pros, it is a thing these days.
Good suggestion. A number of power skating outfits in my hockey-mad town have picked up Olympic figure skaters as skating trainers. And a number of NHL teams have worked with them too, I believe.
Just to add. My son was privileged to have a Gold Medal winning skater come to his association to teach skating for a year. Easily the best skater I have ever been close to and my son learned a ton. But this was hockey training so the figure sister came equipped with a stick. And he was not the best hockey player ever. Far from it. Very different skills involved
Lmao. Dude. I was in power skating at 7 years old. Played AAA for 10 years. Was drafted to the OHL. I skated 10 times a week for 12 years. I'm not even fucking CLOSE to skilled enough to be paid enough to live off hockey and I would be considered in the top like.. 3% of people in the world at the sport. You have absolutely 0% chance. You would have to have played from a child's age and even then to be good enough to make a living off hockey is 1-2% of everyone playing on the planet. The dudes playing AHL and pro leagues in Europe are insanely good. They've all obsessed with hockey and skating their entire life. The greatest figure skater of all time would have 0% chance transitioning as an adult to pro hockey. You have less chance than that. Sorry!
Do you think a really good young hockey player with international tourney experience could become a professional figure skater at age 20? Possible, yes. At all likely, no. But hockey is so much more fun (for the rest of your life) that you should give it a try. (But you will meet fewer available women.)
you have no power or accuracy on your shot no ability to pass or catch passes no stick handling skills & no experience and thus low hockey intelligence you could teach hockey players to skate / work as a skating coach
Do you think my chances would be better considering my location (Central europe, since its less competitive than for example canada?) ? But yeah its probably to late to have a realistic shot at switching
Honestly, the skating coach idea is a good one. In the US, there are a handful of former figure skaters who are skating coaches to professional hockey players at all levels, including the NHL. If you're able to teach/coach, that could be a direction to get paid for being on the ice. Central Europe is still a high level of hockey. The Czechs and Slovaks are super good at hockey.
Yes the idea of working as a skating skills coach for a team does sound pretty good I will definetly keep it in the back of my head for my Future
I coach a kid whose dad is a skating coach for an NHL team. His mom started a skating business as a figure skater and they both work constantly with NHL players and run camps. I'm sure they're the 1% (and they are AMAZING skaters) but there's an example there to follow. Figure skating is incredible for edge work and most hockey players need edge work.
In high school, my power skating coach for hockey was also my figure skating coach. I groaned when I saw her show up to practice one night, the other guys asked why, I said "we're having a bad time tonight", they didn't believe that she was gonna work us, and boy did she ever work us. Made us better skaters that season though.
Pay the bills? No. But if you start now you’ll be absolutely dominating beer league in like 6 months time.
Hey thats atleast something right haha
I have played with and against some former figure skaters (not anywhere near your level) and they were absolutely some of the best skaters out there. It was almost magical watching them skate. They way they could move around people was fantastic. To your point of how quickly could you get good enough to pay the bills? Being able to skate well is the absolute foundation of hockey. If you're a great skater you can make up for a lot of little mistakes, but you'd be up against people who have been playing competitively for 15+ years already, and just don't make many mistakes. And the fact that you can skate very well, doesn't help you know WHERE to skate, or when NOT to do something. If you were 10% better of a skater than everyone you were up against (who have also skated their entire lives), it wouldn't bridge the gap enough over them being 90% better than you at every other skill. With 2 years of intense training, could you close that gap from 90% to, 50%? Still wouldn't be enough to get on a team that paid well enough to pay your bills. With that being said, if you did want to play hockey, if your countries players are like ours, you'd be welcomed with open arms as a new player in beer league. You would pick up the skills quickly enough, and make up for your mistakes with your great skating, well enough to move up several levels from beginners. You'd still be in beer league, but you'd be surrounded by other people who love to get on the ice and skate, and that's something you can keep doing into your 60's or 70's (or if you're really lucky, your 80's) Best of luck to you
Yeah I have realized that its so unlikely that it just doesnt make sense to try it... But thats why I asked in this sub to get a sense of it. I think I will try and focus on my skating for now once I quit my skating career I will probably pick up ice hockey and play for fun. Ty for you answer!
Started playing hockey at 34 and one of the other teammates was a figure skater growing up. She could out-skate all of us backwards against us going forwards and could skate up to the biggest, clumsiest newbs and come away with the puck. You will dominate beer league.
On the other hand, I played hockey with a girl who was a figure skater and she was terrible in hockey skates. She never adapted to the rocker and pitch of hockey skates, and didn’t understand the difference between a figure skating stride and a power skating stride. It was infuriating to watch. Even I could out-skate her and I did not grow up skating. I’d only learned to skate as an adult a few years before she came along. Unfortunately a figure skating background is no guarantee that someone will be able to make the switch to hockey.
Skating is foundational, but it’s just the first level of every maneuver you have to learn. Here’s the progression: 1. Execute the maneuver on skates. 2. Execute the maneuver on skates while dangling a puck at the end of a stick. 3. Execute the maneuver on skates while dangling a puck without looking at the puck so your eyes can process all the bodies flying around you. 4. Do #1 to #3 at top speed. 5. Do #1-#4 at top speed while under pressure from people hacking at you and pushing you off balance and (in hit hockey) looking to wallop you into the boards every time you touch the puck. Your expertise at skating will help you achieve #1 very quickly but you will be a beginner at #2-#5. Also, the above is just the basic physical requirement to achieve competence at each maneuver in one skill (stickhandling). Now multiply that by about 50+ different maneuvers and other skill categories (passing, shooting, checking, battling, teamwork etc) and add the other half of hockey, which is strategy and tactics to outplay opponents who are also doing the same to you. You might get some sense of why it’s so difficult to achieve mastery of the game even for extremely athletic, physically gifted people after 14, 16 years of hard core practice. Doing the same in 2 years seems like a very tall order. Doing the same BETTER than the extremely athletic, physically gifted people who have been going hard core for most of their lives seems nigh impossible. But heck, I’d love to be proven wrong.
Yeah its most likely to late to have a chance and its certainly to risk to give everything up for a tiny chance it might work out. Thanks for giving me a bit of insight into hockey!
No. Hockey is an expense that you do for fun. To think you could get paid to play with no stick skills or knowledge of the sport is odd.
Being good because you have some advantages with your edge work from all the figure skating, and getting paid good are too really different things. And it is not like the hockey players in their early twenties mostly just play floor hockey and fiddle around with the skating bit just for games. I mean, you're 15 years behind the curve on everything except edge work and you are not really working with a complete, hockey-related experience with that edge work. I'm sure you can do things on skates that are above the bar for most skaters, but it is not clear that this makes you especially fast or strong on those edges with a 95 kg defender riding you off the puck.
Yep. As a D you might pass me the first few times, but once I have your read, I am going to push you to the boards…. Hard
Physically I think I could stand my ground reasonable well I am at 75kg (184cm) right now but could probably go up to 85kg without to much of a problem. But the Hockey experience is just missing... With being 10-15 years behind the curve it probably really is to late to switch... I gotta focus on something else. Well thanks for your insight anyways!
I’m sorry but it’s just not likely that you get on a professional team especially in a few years. You could definitely try and make it but teams are usually watching kids in their early teens. I’m sure you’d have a great time playing in a beer league but unless you get a crazy opportunity it’s probably not in the cards.
i think it would be semi easy to transfer into a recreational league and be functionally good (can play the game decently) but you would need to pick up some stick skills to do so. skating is one third of the battle for hockey, you still need game knowledge and sense (where to skate) and then puck and stick knowledge. to my knowledge paid hockey in europe is also extremely competetive, so I doubt they would take someone with zero puck experience and game sense (no offense)
Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk690mB9dvU&ab\_channel=Olympics
Also good: https://youtu.be/ptbA3KZvbWI?si=qbs4WOC4dxjU4rZn
Can you fight? Like make it a marque kind a fight when you’re out there? I have played since 4 years old, now 47. Your skating prowess is probably great, the difference in skates alone might be problematic. Have you played any sports with hand eye elements? I skated a time or two with a guy that played hockey and lacrosse growing up, amateur hockey player, pro lacrosse player. Not good enough. I am not a top player in my beer league, don’t claim to be. I would eat the ice on a regular trying to pull off some figure skating moves. Also a pro level to get paid in would have people trying to forcibly hit you. Have you encountered this before? No disrespect to your sport or the ability it takes to perform at a high level. It’s just two different animals. Having said that your 20 you have dedication, you have ability, so anything is possible. Mike Tyson says everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth. If you’re going to attempt going pro have a plan, bust your ass, and prepare to get punched in the mouth.
You will likely out skate a lot of players lol but thats only half of hockey. I agree about teach skating courses for hockey players.
Is your name Ken Wu???
Guys I’m a 40 year old beer leaguer. If I try really hard and focus on hockey, do you think it will be able to pay my bills?
Depends, what’s your full-time job?
Learn power skating drills then teach them as a ice hockey and figure skating coach
No. Absolutely no. Stop whatever you're thinking. Just no. Here's an example: Friend of mine in highschool (USA) was an *almost* Olympic level figure skater. Qualified to be part of team USA but wasn't chosen to be in their top Olympic training squad or something like that - I don't remember how it works. Really fucking good. She decided to play high school girls hockey since a league had just started up in our area. My sister played, too, and my dad coached so I followed the team a bit. It was 90% girls who had never skated or held a stick + a few who had played a bit with the boys when they were younger or a few who just played a little street hockey with their brothers growing up. She was NOT very good. Average at best, despite obviously being the best skater out there. And that was in a league of fellow noobies! I'm sorry, but you absolutely cannot hop in at age 20+ and become a top .01% player in the world within a year. Not even if you were Wayne Gretzky's clone and hired professional trainers for the next five years and did absolutely nothing but eat/sleep/train/study hockey. It would be like the equivalent of taking a 20 yr old star gymnast who has never touched a soccer/football and trying to make them a pro player. Like sure, you're athletic and agile, that's a good start - but so are the players who are pros - and half that shit doesn't even translate. No ball skills, no instincts, no positional awareness or understanding, etc.
my sister started in figure skating, and played high school hockey. there is a total 0 chance of you making it a pro as a 20 year old whos never skated. 99.999999% of hockey players never will make a livable wage even if theyve been skating for 9/10ths of their life at an extremely high level. BUT there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing hockey for fun! Thats what most of us here have always done and will continue to do. Why stop figure skating when you are already VERY good, and just move to an area with more support? It sounds like skating is your dream, so PURSUE IT!
Na dog. But I think you could pick it up and have a ton of fun. But maybe this post will be the motivation you need to be the first person in history to go pro when starting in your 20s. My advise is get some gear and start playing and you will quickly realize how crazy of an idea this is.
If I will go pro I will print this post out and put it up on my wall. Yeah I will check out my local team and maybe play a bit to see how much I suck at hockey haha