Figures
Figure skating requires the accurate following of a fixed pattern on the floor, commonly
involving one- or two-foot turns from forwards to backwards or vice versa. Most skaters
use figure skating to improve their general skating skills, and a lot also find the
idea of performing a figure better than others to be the ultimate skating challenge.
Because of the high demands on skate control in figure skating, all figure skaters use "quad" roller skates. Most serious figure skaters have a separate pair of skates designed specifically for figure skating, but if you're only using figures to hone up your skating skills, you don't need to take this step.
At right: Tamera Russell, Junior International Figures
At left: Peter Rye, Masters Men's Figures
And one video:
Lisa Cottrell, 2005 State Championships, Figure 8a
Morley's main figures training session is at 5:30 pm on Mondays. Please feel free to drop in and see what figures is all about.
And In Case You're Wondering ...
... how this relates to "figure skating" on ice:
In the past, all competitions, on ice skates and on roller skates, involved figure skating as you see above. Freeskating and dance came later, as "adjuncts" to the figures competition. But because figure skating on ice did not have the audience appeal of the other events, the discipline was ultimately dropped from its own competition!
On roller skates, we have retained figures in all our competitions, because the skills involved are too fundamental to ignore.