Figure Skating Moves

Let me ask you, how many times, while watching figure skating on television or at an arena, have you gone "awwwwwww" and almost touched your jaws to your knees? No one would be able to answer the question, as it is impossible to keep a track of things occurring at such high frequency. Arguably, one of the most beautiful form of sport mankind has witnessed, figure skating, is no child's play. It takes a lot of skill and practice to perform the wonderful figure skating moves.

What are Figure Skating Moves?

Various individual skills such as turns, edge patterns and steps are developed by the skater, as he performs his skating routine. A combination of these skills in a sequence is called a 'move' and a figure skater is judged by the moves he is able to perform. This makes 'moves' important, as they help showcase all the skills a skater has acquired over the years. Also, every move has some significance attached to it, on which the judges will be judging the figure skater. Flexibility, speed, balance and the skill of skating on the edge are essentials for any skater to perform good figure skating moves. Stroking, 3 turn, axle, waltz and figure eight are some of the common names of figure skating moves.

List of Figure Skating Moves

A figure skating moves list is not an easy one to compile, as there are numerous moves performed by the skaters. They tend to keep on innovating the moves in their own way. However, some of the basic figure skating moves are listed below:

• The Figure Eight is considered as a basic figure skating move. This move is probably the first move a figure skater learns. While performing this move, the skater has one foot on the ice throughout the move. The skater has to trace the number 8 while performing this move.
• Stroking is when you lift the foot which isn't gliding and transfer your weight from one foot to the other. If you are not use to balancing on a single skate, try making short and quick movements initially.
• Axle is a rather tough figure skating move to perform. In this move, the skater jumps in the forward position and lands on the outer blade of the back foot.
• Crossover is when the skater crosses his outside skates over his inside skates to facilitate easy turning around of the skaters.
• Lutz is a figure skating move, wherein the skater launches himself from the back outer edge of the blade of one foot, but lands on the same edge of the other foot.
• Sit Spin is performed by the skater in a sitting down position, with one leg in a bend down position to enable the spin, while the other leg is extended as much as possible.
• Combination Spin as the name suggests is a combination of various spins performed by the skater, changing his feet throughout and maintaining a constant speed throughout.
• Death Spiral is one of the figure skating moves performed in pairs. In this move, normally, the male partner is the one who spins around holding the female partner's hand, who is maintaining a horizontal spin position.
• Throw Jump is another common figure skating move in pair performances, where the male partner lifts his female partner and throws her in the air where she completes one or more revolutions.
• Attitude is a move started by the skater, with a one foot glide. He then puts his non-gliding foot behind him, turns slightly on the outside and bends his skating knee.
• Attitude Spin is performed in the attitude position, where the skater after lifting his free leg starts spinning.
• Lay Back Spin is performed by the skater by putting his/her arms and shoulders backwards and bending the back to form the curve.
• Forward Swizzle is a basic figure skating move. To perform this, the skater needs to put his arms away, and keep his feet together. The skater's back should be straight and knees bent. Then while gliding on the ice, he needs to keep pushing his feet away from each other bringing them back together by straightening the knees.
• Snowplow is a method to stop skating without crashing. The skater needs to point the toes of his ice skates together, reducing his speed and eventually bringing him to a halt.

The above mentioned moves are some of the common figure skating moves in the field. There are certain moves like the 3-turn, two foot spin, double/triple axle, waltz jump, which are difficult moves in figure skating. A skater learns them at an advanced level and needs impeccable skills to perform them.

If you are a beginner, kindly perform these figure skating moves under proper guidance only, as you may get injured. You can join a figure skating academy to learn the moves properly and perform them with ease.