Skating Elements

Before I started skating, I used to marvel at how Dick Button and Peggy Fleming could always name the skater's jumps so quickly after they finished them. I'd be sitting there with my little "cheat sheet" trying to work out the edges and directions and feet and figure it out for 30 seconds after each one finished. It just seemed like magic to me. Well, now its a little easier, and these pages will hopefully make it more clear to you too.

Some basics first. If you watch many skaters, you’ll notice that most figure skaters (about 90% in fact) jump and spin in a counterclockwise direction. While its perfectly legal to jump either way, more skaters feel comfortable with the CCW direction. Interestingly enough, most of the CW jumpers are left-handed.

The jump and spin descriptions throughout this section describe the steps a counterclockwise jumper would use — if you're watching a clockwise jumper, just change all the "rights" to "lefts" and vice versa.

Many of the elements in the listing below have pictures or short video clips to help you see what they look like. Thank you to all my skating friends who have volunteered to demonstrate these elements.