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• Ice skating is the self-propelled gliding across an ice surface using metal-bladed ice skates.
• Reasons people ice skate include recreation, exercise, competing, and commuting.
• Ice skating can be performed on naturally frozen bodies of water, such as ponds, lakes, canals and rivers.
• Ice skating can be performed on human-made ice surfaces both indoors and outdoors.
• Skaters use natural ice surfaces for winter sports and need ice tracks/trails for distance and speed skating.
• Man-made ice surfaces include ice rinks, hockey rinks, bandy fields, ice cross downhill tracks, and arenas.
• Formal sports involving ice skating emerged in the 19th century.

Team Sports on Ice

• Ice hockey is played with a flat sliding puck.
• Bandy is played with a ball.
• Rinkball and ringette are played with a rubber ring.

Individual Sports on Ice

• Figure skating
• Ice cross downhill
• Speed skating
• Barrel jumping are sporting disciplines for individuals.
• Barrel jumping is one discipline within speed skating.

Early History

• Ice skating began in southern Finland over 4,000 years ago to save energy during winter travel.
• True skating emerged when using a steel blade with sharpened edges
• In the 13th or 14th century, the Dutch added edges to ice skates
• Dutch ice skates were made of steel with sharpened edges for movement.
• Modern ice skates have maintained the same construction, but varied in binding and blade shape.
• In the Netherlands, ice skating was for all classes of people, displayed in Dutch Golden Age paintings.

Types of Ice Skates

• There are five main types of ice skates, which include figure skate, ice hockey skate, the bandy skate, the racing skate, and the touring skate.

Figure Skates

• Figure skates have toe picks on the front of the blade, made of stainless steel or aluminum with a steel runner.
• Toe picks are used for jumps and backspins.
• Figure skating boots use layers of leather and are stiff for ankle support.
• The figure skate blade is curved, allowing for balance and weight adjustments.
• The base of the blade is slightly concave.
• The hollow runs the length of the blade, creating two edges that contact the ice.
• The forward part of the blade is saw-toothed and used for jumps and spins.

Ice Hockey Skates

• Ice hockey skates are used for ice hockey and ringette and sometimes for recreational skating.
• Skates consist of boot, laces, blade, and blade holder.
• Boots are generally made of molded plastic, leather, ballistic nylon, or a thermoformed composite.
• Each skate blade has two edges.
• Competitive ice hockey and ringette skates rarely use molded plastic due to limited mobility.

Ice Hockey Goalie Skates

• Goalie skates are cut lower in the ankle than regular hockey skates for a lower center of gravity.
• The boot is encased in hard plastic called a "cowling" to protect the toe, ankle, and heel from puck shots.
• The blade is longer with less rocker, helping the goalie move side to side.
• Goalie skates lack a tendon guard and are protected by synthetic material covering the toe.
• The blade of the goalie skate is less useful for turning than regular hockey skates.
• The boot of the goalie skate historically used a harder synthetic material than regular hockey boots.

Sharpening Ice Hockey Skates

• Sharpening plays a key factor in skating ability.
• Players will sharpen their skates hundreds of times in their career.
• Blades are hollow ground, creating two edges that contact and cut the ice for maneuverability.

Bandy Skates

• Bandy skates are used for bandy, rink bandy, and rinkball.
• Boots are usually made of leather and often exclude tendon guards.
• Styles are lower than ice hockey skates and often don't cover the ankles.
• Sharp-angled blades prevent injury to opponents from long blades.
• Blades are an inch longer than hockey skates, great for higher speeds on large bandy fields.
• Bandy blades are sharpened differently with a flatter bottom to the blade.
• Ice hockey blades are sharpened to create two side edges.
• Sharp cornering and "tight turns" are not achievable on bandy skates.
• Modern bandy skates allow for more distance to be covered at higher speeds.

Racing Skates

• Racing skates, or speed skates, have long blades and are used for speed skating.
• A clap skate uses a hinge to connect shoe to blade.
• Short track racing skates are generally taller to allow for deep edge turns without boot contact.
• Racing skates have a completely flat bottom with two edges to improve glide time.

Touring Skates

• Touring (Nordic) skates are long blades attached, via bindings, to hiking or cross-country ski boots for tour skating on natural ice.
• Blades are about 50 cm long with a radius of curvature of about 25 m.
• Length and radius of blades makes tour skates more stable on uneven ice.
• These skates are called kluunschaats in the Netherlands.

Double Runner

• Twin blade, cheese cutter, bob skates, or bobby skates are worn by young children to increase stability and balance.
• They can be attached with straps to the child's own winter boots.

Olympic Ice Skating Sports

• Figure skating is for people looking for an artistic sport.
• Ice Hockey is great as a team sport.
• Speed skating is for those looking to push their physical performance
• These sports are radically different, even with the equipment, despite being in the same rink.

Figure Skating

• Individuals, pairs, or groups perform in figure skating

Figure Skating - Singles (Men & Women)

• Figure skating was the first winter sport in the Olympics, contested at the 1908 Olympics in London.
• The Olympic disciplines are men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance.
• Skaters perform two programs, short and free skate, which may include spins, jumps, moves in the field, lifts, throw jumps, death spirals, and other elements or moves.
• Skaters perform 2 programs set to music that combines footwork, spirals, spins, and jumps
• Tricks are performed along the ice or in a circle, demonstrating agility, dexterity, and speed.
• Required equipment includes ice skates with a longer artistic blade.
• Competitors require costumes that do not block athletic movements and figures.
• Started as means of transportation and leisure activity on ponds.
• Dance movements were added to skating in 1863 by Jackson Haines.

Figure Skating - Pairs

• Skaters do side by side jumps and pirouettes, spirals, above head lifts, and throws the woman into a jump.
• The equipment is same as singles
• The history of pair figure skating developed with the single sport.

Ice Dance

• Part of figure skating, but is a different and separate sport.
• Ice dancing does not include jumps or lifts above the head
• Technical footwork and artistic interpretation play a bigger role in programs
• Ice dancing needs Ice dancing skates (shorter blade) and costumes for competition
• Haynes arrived in Europe from the US with his ballroom moves and ice dancing became popular by the early 1900s, but it remained recreational
• In 1952, ice dancing was added to the World Championships

Ice Hockey

• Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice skates, on a rink with lines and markings specific to the sport.
• Teams use ice hockey sticks to control, advance, and shoot a vulcanized rubber disc called a "puck" into the other team's goal.
• Each goal is worth one point.
• The team which scores the most goals declared is the winner.
• Each team has six skaters, one of whom is the goaltender.
• Ice hockey is a full contact sport.
• Needed equipment are ice hockey skates, a helmet, gloves, and a stick
• Games with sticks and some sort of puck date back to the 18th century.
• Contemporary organized ice hockey originated in Montreal, Canada.
• In 1875 a game was played between 2 teams of 9 players.
• Pro hockey developed from the beginning of the 20th century. The NHL is the league.

Speed Skating Disciplines

• What is commonly known as speed skating is long track speed skating

Long Track Speed Skating

• Speed Skating is considered a race over a distance on skates
• Skaters race on a two-lane oval rink, similar in dimension to an outdoor athletics track with ice
• Standard track should for major competitions be either 400 or 333½ m long.
• Tracks of 200 or 250 m are also used for training and smaller local competitions.
• Men and women both compete in 500m, 1000m, 1500m and 5000m.
• Women also race for 3000m and men for 10,000m.
• In the mass start, skaters cover 16 laps of the oval.
• Needed Equipment includes special speed skates and helmet for some events
• The first official race taking place in 1763 in England but it started developing in North America during the second half of the 19th century and the federation was founded in 1892

Short Track Speed Skating

• A form of competitive ice speed skating.
• Multiple skaters skate on an oval ice track with a length of 111.111 meters.
• The rink itself is 60 meters long by 30 meters wide, the same as Olympic-sized figure skating and international-sized ice hockey rink.
• The goal is to finish in the top two of each heat, not to manage the best time
• Same events are performed for both men and women for 500m, 1000m, 1500m, plus a relay of 5000m for men, 3000m for women
• Needed Equipment includes special speed skates and helmet
• Started in 1967 with international competitions from 1976

Non-Olympic Sports Using Ice Skates

• Include Ice cross downhill
• Freestyle Ice Skating

Ice Cross Downhill

• Competitive downhill skating on a walled track featuring sharp turns and high vertical drops.
• World tour is called Crashed Ice.
• A men's world championship has been established since 2010 and a women's version since 2015.

Freestyle Ice Skating

• Has been developing as a new phenomenon Since around 2010
• It uses hockey skates.
• Sport where you create figures with long jumps, ramps and equipment.

Other Ice Sports Not Using Ice Skates

• Bobsleigh (or Bobsled) uses a timed run down a narrow and twisting ice track inside a gravity powered sleigh.
• Luge uses a race down a narrow and twisting ice track with a single person with no protection, and also in pair events, and can reach speeds of 140km/h.
• Skeleton uses also a single race down the narrow ice track with no protection, but the racer goes down head first.
• Curling involves being a team sport played on the rink but without skates, having Two teams of 4 players who play 16 shots each to bring the stone curls to a target by preparing the ice with a broom.