I brought the girls to skating twice during the past few days. I used to think skating was tough, till I tried skiing. So the silver lining is that skating now feels a lot easier to me by comparison.
There are things that are similar between the two. Like children tend to do better than adults because they are smaller in size thus nimbler, they are not afraid of the falls so they are braver, or it could be that they are just smarter and faster learners; Like the slim swift figures sliding on the ice/snow are a pure enjoyment to look at; Or like players for both sports are mostly light-colored (you can really count, sometimes with only one hand) the number of people darker than brown on the white surface...
....but I can tell you if there is ONE thing different between skating and skiing is this: when you fall, you can stand up on your own in skating but it is almost impossible for you to get up without help with the long ski boards underneath your feet, especially if you are an adult.
Trust me, I learned this the "hard" way -- as in, falling "hard" on my nose and getting up "hard".
