What's the difference between ice skating and figure skating?

I just want to know because sometimes, I just don't which one I'm really referring to. Is it that ice skating is just gliding on ice but figure skating is doing all sorts of cool tricks?|||There used to be a huge difference back when figure skating really was that- skating figures. It used to be that you would have to make figures on the ice and be judged on how precise the figures were. That was competitive figure skating back then. Not how well you can do a triple axel (that was unbelievable that you could do that way back then!). Ice skating usually referred to just people going out for fun to skate.





Now when people say figure skating they still refer to the competitve skating, but competitive skating is now "cool tricks". When people say ice skating they still usually mean just going out with your friends and renting skates for the day and just having a lot of fun and not worrying about following guidelines or anything, but it can just be very general and include figure skating, hockey and other forms of skating.








Hope I helped!|||figure skating is kinda when you do the sport for real like compititions (like me)





ice skating is like "hey you wanna go ice skating with me?"

Report Abuse

|||In the days or Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill which was many years ago, ice skating and figure skating meant something different. That was when figure skating was redeveloping.


ice skating was also called freeskating and that was when the skaters performed jumps, spins, and choreography to music called a program.


figure skating was skating figures like figure 8s and other patterns. It was very difficult and had to be mastered before you could "ice skate or freeskate"





Nowadays:


ice skating could refer to recreational skating


figure skating refers to competitive skating or a level above recreational.





they could be used interchangably|||Hi! Well, ice skating is referring to simply gliding on ice, while figure skating is referring to the sport which can be individual, in groups or in pairs. It can be a competitive sport, or you can just practice for recreational reasons. It has many different levels and moves such as spins and jumps.|||Not exactly, ice skating is just a general name. Hockey players, figure skaters, ice dancers... they all ice skate. It's just what you do on the ice that makes you figure skating. It's like saying boarding. There's skateboarding, surf boarding, etc. When you are doing tricks and other things like that, yes, you are figure skating.|||Ice skating is known as all types of skating (e.g figure skating,hockey,speed skating e.c.t) where as figure skating is like the spins,jumps e.c.t.I just say ice skating when I'm talking about it because people tend to know what I mean as people who do ice hockey just say ice hockey or hockey rather than ice skating.Hope this helps =D|||ice skating is just skating on the ice (hockey, ice skating, ice dancing, etc) figure skating is when you use your inside and outside edges of your blade to perform jumps, spins, footwork, etc.|||well ice skating is inc general all kinds of skating ex, figure skating, ice hockey, public skating, just having fun on the ice. but figure skating is the specific spvort with jumps, spins, levels etc...





Hoped i helped!|||Basically :)


then youve got icedancing, pairs skating, speed skating e.x.t lol|||hockey players ice skate too. so the definition cannot be confined to figure skating and trickery.|||ice skating is just skating, figure skating includes jumping, spinning, etc...|||idk|||yep you got it