What is the difference in the figure skates and hockey skates?

What is it like for someone who has learned to skate on hockey skates to try figure skates, and vice versa?

• I grew up learning to skate on hockey skates and I found figure skates extremely difficult to motor in. You have to push off with only the tips of the skates as they don't have an sharpened concave edge like hockey skates but instead have a flat edge. I found myself continually triping up on the tips as well. Overall, figure staking felt horrible compared to hockey skates. But I guess it's all about what you're used to. (Any feedback from figure skaters who tried hockey skates long after they became proficient in figure skates?)

• Answer:

  I started figure skating at the age of 5 and tried hockey skates at the age of 7, speed skates at age of 9. Then, for 2 years, I pactised both figure skating and short track speed skating in parallel (before afterwards focusing purely on short track). I still remember that it felt very weird with hockey skates not being able to use the typical "sawtooth" tip I was used to from figure skates to accelerate - a movement which is much more similar to off-ice walking as feet point straight to the front and not sideways. I fell a few times and moved in a very awkward way, as I was missing the resistance usually receiving from the tips when leaning forward, before then figuring it out after some time. Also, the differently shaped blades (one blade vs. double-edged concave blade) lead to hockey skates being much more "slippery" than figure skates. For me, it first felt like skating without any blades, as I did not expect the blades to find such low resistance from the ice when pushed against in order to move forward. What was even more weird than the different skates was the circumstance that I had absolutely no clue how to handle the wooden hockey stick I was handed and how to hold it when accelerating or braking, let alone how to exercise a shot or stop the puck. But thats's a different story... ;-) During the time I practised figure skating and speed skating in parallel, I always had to get used to the different blades each practice for about 1 or 2 minutes, even though I switched skates every week 2 or 3 times and the difference between these blades is even more significant (very different length of blades, blades pointing to different direction than feet to improve entering left turns, blades bent instead of straight to optimize for left turns). However, after the initial minutes, whatever skates I was wearing it felt rather "natural". I strongly suppose this would be the same feeling as if having used hockey skates instead.