Figure Skating

Introduction - Figure skating is sometimes described as ballet on ice, combining artistic movement with athletic moves. Figure skating is an excellent sport for beginners to get into, because even for beginners, it's a great way to get exercise while having fun. If you have watched figure skating on television or in person at an event, you don't really realize what a great exercise it is, as they make it look so easy. And because you are having fun, the time passes quickly. Also, here in Texas, it's a great sport to beat the heat.

Fun for Beginners through Professional - At beginner levels, the emphasis is on grace and artistic movement while learning the basics of skating. As a skater progresses, the athletics side comes out more and more. At Olympic and professional levels, an extreme amount of athletics and physical conditioning are needed. You can figure skate a lifetime and never run out of new moves and techniques to try and learn. You will always be challenged.

Usual Events: Men's Singles, Ladies' Singles, Pair, and Ice Dancing - Most competitions have four types of events. As you can guess by the name, Men's and Ladies' Singles are simply one person performing on the ice. In Pairs, traditionally, one man and one lady perform together. However, in GLBT figure skating events, same gender pairs are allowed. Ice Dancing is similar to pairs, except that it's more like ballroom dancing on ice. Because ice dancing is a bit different from the rest, we included a separate catagory on this web site for it.

Clothing - Beginners usually just dress in sweat pants, T-shirt, sweatshirt, gloves, and maybe a stocking cap. Once you get warmed up, you can take off the sweatshirt. As skaters progress, they will want to start wearing competition style costumes. For competition, a lady's costume must include a skirt and a men must wear full-length trousers. The costumes are made of tight fitting stretchy material that allows for freedom of movement.

Skates - The boot on figure skates resembles a street boot with a heel, quite different from hockey or speed skates. The front of the blade is curved and doesn't go far past the toes. The back of the blade is mostly straight (with a slight bit of curve) and extends passed the heel. The most famous part of the figure skate is the toe pick, which we have given it's own section!

Toe Pick - The most famous and legendary part of the figure skate is the toe pick. But, unfortunately, it's the most misunderstood aspect of figure skating as well. As the picture shows, the toe pick is shaped like teeth at the front of the blade. It's main use is for some types of jumps, as the skaters can push off with the toe pick to throw themselves into the air. Many figure skaters are taught not to use the toe pick at all for spins. Some figure skaters use slight contact between the ice and the lowest tooth on spins. It should not be used for stroking. Because hockey skates don't have a toe pick, and hockey players are taught to stroke the blade all the way to the toe, a skater who is used to hockey skates will run into trouble if they skate with figure skates and stoke down to the toe pick. (Remember the movie?) Newcomers to ice skating who have been roller skating often think it's for stopping, similar to the rubber stopper on the front of a roller skate. Trying to use the toe pick for stopping is a very bad idea as it will throw you forward.

Figure 1: The figure skate blade is rockered at the toe with the toe pick. It's staighter at the heel and extends passed the heel of the boot.

Edges - Inside and Outside - Flat - Newcomers to ice skating are sometimes surpised to learn that each skate kinda feels like it has two blades instead of one. This is because the blade has a hollow in it with two distinct edges touching the ice. They are called the inside edge and the outside edge, depending on which foot. Skating on both edges is called skating "flat."

Figure 2: Showing the bades on both skates. Each blade is hollowed out to produce two edges, known as the inside edges and outside edges.

Skating on the Edge - Figure skaters skate mostly on one edge of each skate. Skating on edges looks more graceful and gives nice curved paths across the ice. Beginners will start skating flat, and learn to skate on edges as they progress. Once you learn to skate on the edge, you will notice how smooth and fun it is compared to skating flat. You will also be surprised how quickly you can turn left or right by simply going on one edge.

Harness - Rinks have a special harness with a pulley and cable on it to help skaters learn various moves, especially jumps. The skater puts the harness on and the coach or other spotter hold the cable and pulls it to assist the move.

Turns and Steps - In the basic definition a turn is a change of direction, say forward to backwards or backwards to forwards or left or right. However in competitive figure skating, this concept is expanded into "turns and steps" involving intricate footwork to impress. Some of these turns and steps have quite wierd names, so here we want to list out some of the more common terms you will hear.

Three Turn - a one foot turn where the skater traces the number 3 on the ice.

Bracket Turn - a one foot turn where the skater traces a bracket } on the ice.

Rockers and Counters - a one foot turn where the skater changes both direction and edge.

Mohawks - the two foot version of the three turn and bracket turn.

Choctaws - the two foot version of rockers and counters.

Spirals - for ladies only - the classic ballet like lifting of one leg above the hip.

Spins - Forward Spin - Back Spin - Moves where the figure skater spins around like a top. While skaters may spin in either direction, most skaters spin in a counter-clockwise direction, although some can spin either way. A counter-clockwise spin on the left foot is a forward spin, and on the right foot is a back spin. (and vice-versa for clockwise spins).

Upright Spin - Corkscrew Spin - Scratch Spin - An upright spin (aka corkscrew spin) is where the skater stands verticle and crosses the free leg in front of the skating leg. A fast one is called a scratch spin.

Crossfoot Spin - Similar to an upright spin, but the free leg is crossed behind the skating leg.

Camel Spin - Parallel Spin - The skater assumes an airplane position (spiral position) and holds the free leg behind and parallel to the ice.

Doughnut Spin - Similar to a back camel spin, but the skater pulls the free leg's skate blade back while arching the back. This creates a curved body shape parallel to the ice.

Sit Spin - The skater "sits" by holding the free leg out in front and parallel to the ice and bends the skating leg down.

Layback Spin - The skater bends backwards and artistically moves the arms. Be careful not to confuse this term with "back spin." Remember the term back spin applies to any spin and refers to a right footed counter-clockwise spin or a left footed clockwise spin.

Biellmann Spin - Usually executed by ladies - The free leg is pulled from behind to over the head by the skate blade which is held during the spin. Named for Swiss 1981 World Champion Denise Biellmann.

Flying Spin - Spins initiated with a jump. Examples include the flying camel and flying sit spin. Usually they transition from a forward spin to a back spin.

Jumps - The most dramatic part of figure skating is the jumps, where skaters jump into the air, perform one or more rotations, and land gracefully on the ice. Jumps are named based on how the skater takes off, how many rotations are made, and how they land. Skaters are allowed to rotate either direction, although most rotate counter-clockwise. Few can rotate either way. All of the descriptions here are given for counter-clockwise, for clockwise, change footing.

Single - Double - Triple - Quad - The number of rotations in the air determine whether it's a single, double, triple, or quad. Most elite males perform quads and triples. Elite females perform all triples, except for the axel. Very few females have ever performed the triple axle.

Toe Jumps - Edge Jumps - Toe jumps use the toe pick for assistance in the jumping. Edge jumps use no toe assist and are made from the edge of one skate. As you can probably guess, edge jumps are more difficult.

Combination Jumps - At competitions there is scoring for combination jumps. For a series of jumps to be considered a combination, there are strict rules. Each jump MUST take off from the landing edge of the previous jump, without any steps, turns, or changes of edge in between jumps. The first jump in a combination can be any jump. Because jumps end on the right back outside edge, that limits the next jumps to toe loops or loops. At the end of the combination, the skater can use a half jump, such as a half loop (which lands on the left back inside edge) and put a salchow or flip (which start on the left back inside edge) at the very end of the combination jump.

Jump Sequences - Sets of jumps which don't follow the strict rules to be a legal combination jump are called jump sequences. Jump sequences can have steps, turns, or changes of edge in between jumps.

Ranking Jumps by Difficulty - Before we list the individual jumps, we will attempt to list them in order of difficulty. In order to do this, lets assume that non-transitional jumps are all doubles. When single, some non-transitional jumps can be less difficult than transitional jumps. The easiest jumps are the transitional jumps in this order: Split jumps, half loops, Walley jumps, inside axels, and one foot axels. The toe jumps would come next: toe loops, flips, and lutzes. The edge jumps would be the hardest: waltzes, salchows, loops, and axels.

Toe Loop - A toe jump which takes off from the back outside edge of the right foot and is launched by the left toe pick. Lands on the back right outside edge, which is the same as the jump was made from.

Flip - A toe jump which takes off from the back inside edge of the left foot and is launched by the right toe pick. Lands on the back right outside edge.

Lutzes - A toe jump which takes off from the back outside edge of the left foot and is launched by the right toe pick. Lands on the back right outside edge. This is named for Tomas Lutz of Italy, a student of American Jackson Haines.

Waltzes - An edge jump which takes off from the left forward outside edge. A waltz is basically an axel with only a one-half rotation. Does not use the toe pick assist. Lands on the back right outside edge. Because this jump is only a half jump, the labels single, double, etc do not apply. This was created by Jackson Haines, an American in Austria who invented the move as an adaption of the waltz dance to figure skating. It's generally considered the first jump invented in figure skating.

Salchows - An edge jump which takes off from the left back inside edge. Does not use the toe pick assist. Swinging the right leg around helps with take off. Lands on the back right outside edge. This is named for Ulrich Salchow of Sweden, a student of Jackson Haines, who invented it.

Loops - An edge jump which takes off from the right back outside edge. Similar to the Toe Loop mentioned earlier, but without the toe assist. Lands on the back right outside edge, which is the same as the jump is made from.

Half Loops - An edge jump which takes off from the right back outside edge. Does not use the toe pick assist. Lands on the left back inside edge. This is usually a half jump and the labels single, double, triple, and quad do not apply.

Split Jumps - An edge jump which are a one-half rotation based on the flip, lutz, or loop.

Axels - An edge jump which takes off from the left outside forward edge. Because of this, axels need an extra one half rotation. For example, a triple axel is 3 1/2 rotations. They are considered the hardest jump in figure skating, except that a single axel is easier than a walley jump. This jump is named for Axel Paulsen of Norway, another student of Jackson Haines.

Walley Jumps - An edge jump which takes off from the right back inside edge. Does not use the toe pick assist. Lands on the left back inside edge. It's usually a single jump, and the labels double, triple, and quad do not apply. A walley jump is considered to be harder than a single axel because the inside edge is going clockwise, but the rotation needs to be counter-clockwise.

Inside Axels - An edge jump that is one and one-half rotations that takes off from the right forward inside edge. Does not use the toe pick assist. Lands on the right outside edge.

One Foot Axel - An edge jump that is one and one-half rotations that takes off from the left forward outside edge. Does not use the toe pick assist. Lands on the left back inside edge.

Politics of Scoring - One could write volumes about the politics of scoring in figure skating, because judges rate the skaters. Some ratings are more subjective than others. For example the technical scores are based on points assigned to elements of the program and the judges get to decide how much to deduct for mistakes. For artistic scores, these are subjective and can vary quite a bit from judge to judge. At Olympic levels, judges sometimes skew voting based on country and political blocks. Sometimes judges don't penalize the more famous skaters for mistakes, because the judges know that skater can execute the move correctly and the judges know that every skater makes mistakes. To make a long story short, because skating is judged by humans and it's mostly subjective, there will always be controversy.