ALL you need is ice skates and an icy surface to practice figure skating but now many communities have indoor ice rinks. Figure skating uses allot of different muscles that will cramp if you don't stretch properly.  Some exercises that you would warm up with are, arm circles, neck stretch, trunk circles, and front and side lunges.
		Now skaters wear nice flashy costumes and  usually fits their music theme. Most skaters have their costumes especially made. The free style skating or "free dance" is the final event and the most fun! The dance is all made up by the skaters and is fun and energetic.
	The hardest thing about figure skating is to keep your balance while you do your tricks. The secret to good balance is to shift your weight exactly over the ice skates. Allot of tricks balance depends on your posture. Posture now is more important then when people first started skating because now you have machines to polish the floors when ever you want and back then they didn't.
		Athletes compete in two kinds of ice skating—figure skating and speed skating. Figure skaters perform leaps, spins, and other graceful movements, usually to music. Speed skaters compete in races of various distances. Many young people and adults also play hockey, a fast, rugged sport in which the players wear ice skates. Millions of people attend ice shows each year. Ice shows are colorful spectacles that often feature champion figure skaters.

 

 

	Figure skates have blades with both inside and outside edges that allow skaters to perform the various movements. The bottom of the blade is hollowed out slightly to allow participants to skate on only one edge at a time. The front of the blade has small teeth, called toe picks, which allow the skaters to bite into the ice to perform certain jumps and spins.
		Unlike speed skaters, who bend forward on straight edges to gain speed, figure skaters stand gracefully, trying to achieve a smooth, effortless performance. The curved, shorter blade allows for making the necessary sharp turns and spins. The first world championship for male figure was awarded in 1896 and for women in 1906.
	Figure skating competition, began in the U.S. in 1914, is now watched by the United States figure skating Association. The first figure skating meets of the Olympic Games were held in 1908. In recent Olympics, three forms of figure skating have made up separate events: figure skating, pair skating, and ice dancing.