Photo courtesy: https://www.usfsa.org/content/What%20Makes%20Quality%20Ice.pdf
I know many of my skater parents have heard their children complain lately that the ice has been ‘bad' and consequently, they couldn’t skate well. You may not never taken your child’s complaints seriously because you probably thought it was just an excuse for his/her bad practice. Well, let me explain why your child was not making up an excuse and in fact, poor quality ice can negatively affect your child’s skating. When your child is complaining of ‘bad ice’, he/she is actually referring to the ice being too hard or soft and/or too slow or fast. I, too, have complained about skating on ‘bad ice’ and blamed it for not being able to do my twizzles or footwork or land my jumps. So when my class skated on wet soft ice again this past weekend, I got curious and decided to look into what is the perfect ice surface for figure skaters. I’m not a science person and definitely not an expert in chemistry but wanted to learn and understand so I can provide a more scientific answer to my skaters and parents.
Temperature is a big factor affecting ice quality- the colder the ice the harder it is and faster you go. It also is a smoother surface. You would think ice should be kept at 32 degrees F since we all learned in school that it’s the temperature required to change liquid to solid. However, that temperature is not ideal for quality ice. The ice is warmed by heat from the air, lights, & humidity in the rink as well as people. The surface temperature of ice needs to be kept colder than 32 degrees F to stop the ice from melting,
There are different ideal ice surface conditions for different sports. Speed skating ice is around 2.5 to 3 cm thick, requiring a thin sheet of ice to help minimize resistance/grip and maximize quickness. Its ideal temperature is 15 to 23 degrees F. Hockey ice is about the same thickness but its ideal temperature is slightly warmer to be around 17 to 23 degrees F.
Figure skating, on the other hand, requires a thicker layer of ice of about 4.5 to 5 cm to absorb the impact of jump take-offs and landings. Did you know that male skaters weighing 150 pounds or more can land on the ice after a jump with more than 1000 lbs of pressure?…that’s a whole lot of extraordinary force!
Figure skating ice is the softest (wamest) of all surfaces. The ideal temperature for figure skating ice needs to be warmer than speed skating/hockey ice at around 24 to 26 degrees F. If the ice is too cold (below 20 degrees F), then it becomes hard and brittle. Having brittle ice affects the smoothness because when you dig your toe pick into the ice for a jump, a piece of ice will break out. Instead, figure skating ice needs to be soft so it grips the edges of the blades better and ice won’t shatter from the impact of big jumps.
Ice varies from rink to rink and even in the same rink over time. So next time your skater complains of ‘bad ice’, you now know that he/she may not be giving you an excuse but in fact, had to skate on not so ideal ice surface which affected his/her skating.