Artistic Roller Skating
artistic roller skating news, calendar of events, competitions, rules.
roller skating inline hockey figure artistic skating
Welcome to rollersports.org
What is this site about?
This is the official site of the International Federation of Roller Sports. This section is dedicated to artistic roller skating. This is only a presentation page. In order to have more information and news about artistic and figure roller skating go to FIRS home page.
Click to enter FIRS' Official Site
What is Artistic Roller Skating?
Artistic roller skating (sometimes called roller figure skating) is a group of roller skating events similar to figure skating on ice. The events are:
- figures (similar to compulsory or "school" figures on ice)
- dance (solo and team)
- free skating (single and pairs)
- precision (team skating, similar to synchronized skating on ice)
Skaters use either quad or inline skates, but quad and inline skaters usually compete in separate events and not against each other. Inline figure skating has been included in the world championships since 2002 in Wuppertal, Germany.
The sport is very similar to ice figure skating, and there is some crossover between the two sports; some ice skaters use to compete in both. However, roller figure skating is considered to be more difficult than ice figure skating because ice allows the skaters to draw a deep, solid edge to push off from when performing jumps such as a lutz or an axel. On roller skates that's not possible , because it will confuse in the rotation, making it difficult to land the right way.
Artistic skaters most commonly skate on traditional quad skates. Skates designed for artistic skating typically have leather boots, a strong, heavy sole plate, and a jump bar for reinforcement. For free skating, skaters usually use a large toe stop, which can be used in a "toe-plant" take-off or landing in certain jumps such as the Mapes or the flip. Dance and figure skaters generally do not use toe stops, as they may interfere with some maneuvers.
Some artistic skaters use inline skates. Skates designed for inline artistic skating have leather boots (as ice and quad figure skates do), and usually have rockered wheels and a toe stop or toe "pic". Rockered wheels (wheels which are arranged at different heights so that the baseline of the wheels forms a curve instead of a flat line) are more suitable to skate the curved "edges" which are typical of artistic skating than un-rockered inline wheels are.
(From Wikipedia.org)
How can I get more information about Aristic & Figure Skating?
If you need more information about artistic and figure roller skating or about the world of roller sports go to FIRS (Federation Internationale de Roller Sports) home page and you will get all information you need. Including rules, international committees, championships, tournaments, stages, trainings, regulations, competitions, contests and whatever you need to know about artistic roller skating.