Most people will learn the basics while learning Classic-style
skiing. For some ideas about this, see
Get Comfortable
on Skis -- the
list of
topics on that page could be a good start for your own list of key
things to learn early.
If you decide to start directly with skating, that same list of
topics will still be a helpful start for your own list of key things to
learn early -- if you substitute "making basic skating strokes" wherever
you see the words "shuffling" or "striding".
If you haven't already learned the basic skiing skills from lessons
and experience in Classic-style skiing, that makes it even more
important to take lessons from an instructor to start learning ski
skating -- to reduce the chance of problems or risks or dangers from
many aspects and motions of skiing (not all of which are exactly part of
skating).
Having fun
Some ways to have fun
deliberately fall down into soft snow -- after you learn how to
fall down safely and get up
do the silliness of sliding your skis straight backward and
forward without hardly going anywhere
feel the magic of shifting your body from side-to-side in a
rhythm that somehow moves you forward a little.
somehow get yourself to the top of little gentle hill and savor
the accomplishment of having done that with things on your feet that
just slide away when you try to push them straight back like normal
walking.
glide back down this little gentle hill and feel the reward of
your work
