What is artistic roller skating?
Artistic Roller Skating is a demanding and beautiful sport – strength and speed are combined with grace, poise, precision and agility.
Artistic Roller Skating is a fun, safe sport that is practised worldwide. There are four disciplines in Artistic Roller Skating
- The Athleticism of Freeskating
- The Grace of Dance skating
- The Spectacle of Precision skating
- The Poise of Figure skating
What is Freeskating?
Freeskating is individual performance. It involves a choreographed routine to music that incorporates jumps, spins and intricate footwork. Skaters taking up Freeskating will be learning coordination, techniques of jumps and spins and also the creativity of dance and drama in their artistic impression. For couples, this discipline can extend to Pairs skating where athletic power and strength produces magic routines involving overhead lifts and breathtaking spins in duets.
What is Dance skating?
Dance is the grace of ballet and the rhythm and precision of ballroom dancing. Individuals or couples can perform dance. Skaters start by learning compulsory dances such as Tangos, Waltzes and Marches . As part of their dance training, skaters taking up Dance learn timing, poise and expression. For couples, this discipline can progress to Free Dance where skaters perform duets involving a range of lifts, footwork and imaginative choreography in time to music.
What is Precision Skating?
Precision skating is team skating. The key is unison and precision skating is an excellent sport to learn and practice teamwork. To begin with, this discipline of the sport does not require the development of the increasingly high level skating skills of freeskating and dance. It involves creatively choreographed and presented routines involving set patterns and manoeuvres performed to music. Precision teams may include as few as six skaters or as many as 24.
What is Figure Skating?
Figure skating incorporates the most basic and important skills of artistic roller skating – skating on “edges”. Intricate turns and shapes are tracked on predetermined circles marked on the floor. Skaters learn balance and the skill of fine control over their skates as they learn and progress through more than sixty different figures.
What do I need to start artistic skating?
You will need a pair of skates. If you have rollerblades, start with these. Wrist guards are a good idea while you are learning new manoeuvres.
If you decide to follow through with more artistic lessons, you may swap over to the quad skates that are more usually used in artistic skating.
However, some artistic skaters are using specialised in-line skates in training and competition right through to Australian Championships and on to World Championships.
