Say I read there are specail blades for Ice-Dancers,so I was wondering about something. We all know you can't compete in Hockey skates. But does anyone know if you can wear Ice-Dance skates to compete in Figure Skating? For eg. if a skater's blades on her Figure skates were lost. Could she put on a pair of Ice-Dance skates and compete? Or would she be disqualified?

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FSWer

A freestyle skater could wear ice dance blades- but a high level one probably wouldn't want to. They are essentially the same thing, but the tail of the ice dance blade is shorter than a freestyle blade (so that you don't click your partner's blades.) I'm not entirely sure, but I think that the toe pick profile is probably smaller on an ice dance blade than a high freestyle blade because they don't do large jumps (but dance toepicks will still be larger than recreational figure skate blades).

On the opposite note, there are many dancers out there who wear figure blades. I don't know if there are any elite competitive dancers who do (if dance is your main discipline it makes sense to wear dance blades), but I've heard of multiple girls who passed through their Gold or Pre-Gold dance test and never got special dance blades because they also did freestyle

There are also synchro blades- which are shorter than freestyle blades to prevent you from tripping on the other skaters, but I believe they are slightly longer than dance blades. Only one member of our synchro team has synchro blades. I would think that on the elite teams the skaters for whom synchro is the primary discipline are more likely to wear synchro blades

Dance boots usually have the back cut out of them to help facilitate knee bend. A freestyle skater could wear these if they wanted to. My coach actually recommended I get some, as I have horrible knee bend, but they are out of my price range. Once again, an elite freestyle skater might not want to wear dance boots instead of freestyle boots because of the pressures that triple jumps put on their boots. But they certainly could wear them.

I also wanted to add though: If a skater's freestyle blades got lost, she probably wouldn't be able to put dance blades on and just go, unless she had a pair of dance blades/boots she was totally used to, and even then it might throw her off. Because the tail is different the feel of the blade is so different it would be a really bad idea. If you have to skate on totally new equipment, you probably want it as close to your old stuff as possible.

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-Jessi
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I wear dance blades, but do very little free skating. Husband, who does both disciplines, has free blades, but they are a low-level, all-purpose blade.

Most high-level dancers would wear dance blades; all high-level free skaters would wear free blades.

In theory you could go out and do a programme in a pair of borrowed or hired skates, but you would have to be a really good skater to do this. It has been done - I've known someone win a drawn partners competition wearing hired boots, although admittedly they did sharpen the blade for him - but I wouldn't care to do it.

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Mrs Redboots
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Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

It is really a personal preference. I know several people who have gone through their gold dances in freestyle blades. I know a couple of people who had dance blades, didn't like them and went back to dancing in freestyle blades. I also know a few people who freestyle in dance blades. I even know one person who skated Silver Pairs in dance blades.The freestyle in dance blades is a little limited and IMHO the people who freestyle in dance blades really struggle to do the jumps and spins.

Ok I'm confused. On what Jessi said. does that mean a competitive skater like Michelle Kwan, Kimmie Meissner or Ashley Wagner COULD sub. Ice-Dance skates for reg. Figure skates if they wanted to? They just wouldn't want to? Or would they not be allowed?

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FSWer

You can wear any type of blade, or boot, that you want to. It is just a matter of what you prefer and feel comfortable in.

Yep, I'm one of those people who are working on their Gold dances in freestyle blades. I've been in them all my life and they've done me just fine, so why mess with a good thing?

Like others have said, boot and blade combos. are preference and no skater can be disqualified for their skate choice, so long as they're wearing figure skates. So, to answer your question, skaters like Kwan and Wagner could wear dance blades or boots, but it'd be highly unlikely at their level that they would switch. Many elite freestyle skaters prefer and are loyal to a particular brand and style of skates simply because they're accustomed to the fit and feel. Skittl1321 said it best.

Doing freestyle in dance blades is NOT the same thing as doing dance in freestyle blades. I made it through half my international dances in freestyle blades (gold seals -- which have about the biggest toepick around) but would never, ever try to do any real jumps on dance blades. The toepicks are way, way too small. When you land a jump, you land on the toepick and rock down to the blade. The toepicks on dance blades are small enough that you're just as likely to rock forward (and on your face) as you are to go backwards. I know one person who can do an axel in dance blades (sometimes), but that's all he's ever practiced in. He jumps up and doesn't use the toepick for any assistance, unlike the normal technique where you jump from the toepick.

Interestingly, I also can't even do a backspin in dance blades, since I rock up onto my toepick to start the spin. In dance blades, it's no longer there to help you!

The Rule Books says this in section 3565: Skate Blades - All Disciplines. Figure skating blades used during competitions and tests must be sharpened to produce a flat to concave cross section without change to the width of the blade as measured between the two edges. However, a slight tapering or narrowing of the cross section of the blade is permitted.

That's all it says. So any blade that meets those criteria would be allowed. A high-level freestyler like Kimmie Meissner would not compete in a dance blade, though, because it would put her at a disadvantage if she didn't have the "right" style of blade for her discipline. The smaller toe picks on dance blades, for instance, would not serve her nearly as well. These rules apply to all tests and competitions, not just high level ones. I know of some low-level adult synchro skaters who have competed in hockey skates. It's not the best choice for synchro, but it's not against the rules.

Once you get used to skating with dance blades - it is amazing what a good freeskater can do in them. I've seen high level competitive dancers do double axels, double lutz, loop, salchows, toes, - even a triple salchow - in dance boot and blades. Some guys will do anything on a dare! Not pretty but they did them. It's all in the balance point and connection with the blade - so a high level dancer would be very in tune with the balance and body alignment in a dance blade, and if they were advanced freeskaters in the first place at one time - they would be able to freeskate in dance blades.

However, freeskaters who have never used dance blades would not be able to land difficult jumps, let alone get the balance point to spin at a level 4.
So unless Kimmie, Michelle, etc. wore dance blades every day - they would not be able to skate well in them!