Gliding Versus Rolling:
- "For beginning skaters who have achieved a reasonable level of comfort, ice-skating on high quality blades with optimal ice conditions feels like fluid gliding. It is a wonderful sensation. Roller skates feel like smooth rolling while balancing and pushing.
At a more advanced level of ice and roller-skating, both types of skating feel similar to each other. For example, a waltz has the rise and fall and grace of a swirling ballroom dance. Both ice and roller feel like fluid movement with wind in one’s face."
Switching May Not Be Easy:
- "It requires some acclimation to switch from one to the other. An ice skater needs to adjust to the short wheelbase of quads. A roller-skater needs to adjust to the ice blade sticking out in front of and in back of the boot. This affects the requisite placement and control of center of gravity; it effects cross-over footwork and ways to avoid tripping and/or falling. A quad roller skate has four points of contacts on the floor; an ice skate has a single point of contact. Therefore ice skating requires a little more checking of turns, spins and jumps, and quad roller skates need roller-specific techniques for 3-turns and spins."
Buy Your Own Skates:
- "Having one’s own equipment improves one’s skating dramatically. Good equipment makes the sport so much more enjoyable. However, you must be patient during the boot break-in period, and use pads if necessary. Do not buy an overly stiff boot until you need it. Let a coach or instructor guide you. For roller skates (quads), let a coach or instructor adjust your skate’s “action” -- how responsive the steering mechanism is. It must be opened up verrry gradually, as your control develops."
