Figure Skating 101: A Fan’s Guide to This Olympic Sport

Figure skating is one of the most popular sports on television. Figure skating events typically garner higher ratings than even regular season NHL, MLB and NBA games. For whatever reason, the American public loves to watch the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat on the ice. Especially popular among viewers is the singles competitions. The ladies final at the Salt Lake City Olympics was the second highest rated show in Nielsen ratings history.

The new skating season is just underway and it is destined to be another very exciting year. Because it is an Olympic year, skaters are working especially hard to hone their skills and the media coverage is sure to be electric. Michelle Kwan, ‘s perennial favorite, is planning yet another run at the elusive gold medal and Timothy Goebel wants to show that his bronze medal in the 2002 Olympics wasn’t just a fluke.

Along with all of this excitement, this will be the first Olympic season to use the new International Skating Union’s judging system. The ISU hopes that the new system will eliminate any nasty judging controversies like we saw in the pair’s competition in

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. Unfortunately for fans, the new system eliminates the oh-so-exciting possibility of seeing a skater earn a perfect 10. But, excitement level aside, the new system promises unbiased judging which will undoubtedly have a positive effect on the sport overall.

So, you’re watching the U.S. Nationals on TV, and you see Sasha Cohen leap into the air and twirl around and land upright on one foot. It looks great to you, but then you hear Dick Button comment that while her takeoff was nice, she under-rotated, causing her to cheat the landing on her triple flip. What’s that all about? Well, it’s about the position of her foot when she landed. But, first, let’s go over the basic jumps.

Jumps

While they may all look similar to the untrained eye, the various jumps that figure skaters perform are all a little different from one another. It’s all about which foot and edge they start off on and then land on. The edge refers the edge of the blade that the skater is pressing on either as they take off or land. So if the skater is gliding along on their left foot and pressing on their outside edge, where the little toe is located, you would notice that they will begin to glide to the left. Likewise, if they press on their inside edge of the same foot, on the big toe side, they will glide to the right. Outside edges are generally considered easier to control than inside.

Toe Loop: The skaterskates backwards on their right foot, pressing the outside edge, then uses thetoe pick of their left skate to propel them upward while they rotate at leastone full revolution to the left then land on the right foot, again pressing onthe outer edge.

Loop
:Skatingbackwards, the skater takes off on the right outside edge, butinsteadof using the toe pick, they simply jump and rotate to the left. Sometimes they start the jump with their leftfoot crossed over their right as if they are in a semi squatting position. Then they will land on the right outside backedge.

Flip: The name ofthis jump is misleading as there is no real flipping going on. Instead,the skater takes off backwards ontheir left inside edge, and then usesthe toe pick on their right foot topropel them upward while rotating tothe left.This time, the skater will land on the opposite foot from takeoff, theright outside edge.

Lutz: Thisis verysimilar to the flip jump, but the skater must take off on theleft outside backedge, and then toe pick with the right foot and landon the right outside backedge. The average viewer may not evennotice the difference between a flip and lutz, but it is a very big deal to thejudges. Ifthey see that the skaterstarts to do a lutz and then switches to theinside edge just before takeoff,then the skater will be marked down,because they have done what is called a”flutz,” which is a combinationof the flip and the lutz.

Salchow: Goingbackwards the skatertakes off on their left inside edge and then swings theirright legforward in a wide, sweeping motion, then leaps up and rotates totheleft, landing on the right outside edge.

Axel: The mostdifficult jump for most skaters is the dreaded axel. It is harder than the other jumps because theskater actually rotates one and half turns in the air. This is the only jump you will see skatersbegin from the forward position. Theskater usually winds up for this jump by skating backwards, then steppingforward onto their left outside edge.Then they leap upwards and rotate one and a half times, landing on theirback outside right edge.

These are the basic big jumps that you will see skaters performin competition. Often, they willincrease the difficulty of their programs by completing jumps incombination. For instance, they mayperform a loop, followed immediately by a flip.Ifthey take a step or two in between then it is considered a jumpseriesrather than a jump combination, which is slightly less difficult.

When a skater completes a double toe loop, it just meansthat they have rotated two complete turns in the air. Today, elite skaters are expected to executetriple jumps and some have even managed to land quadruple jumps. If you hear a commentator complaining thatthe skater “cheated” the jump, that simply means that they didn’t really do allof the rotating in the air. Forinstance, they may do two and half rotations, and then slide the final halfturn as they land. They will lose pointsfor a “cheat.” Similarly, a skater mayloose points for “two-footing” a landing when they tap their non-landing footon the ice as they land. You have toreally watch carefully to catch these mistakes, but it can certainly mean thedifference between a silver and a gold medal!

Spins

The other skill set you see skaters performing is their spins. Like jumps, there are many different types of spins, but to the average fan, they may all look similar. Again, it’s all about the edges that the skaters are spinning on, along with their body positions. Here are the basics:

Back and forward spins: Most right handed skaters spin in a counter-clockwise rotation. The forward spin is performed on a left forward outside edge, while the back spin is done on a back right outside edge. It is very difficult to tell which edge they are really spinning on because it looks like they are positioned right in the middle of the blade. The easiest way to differentiate is to watch how they enter the spin, either forward or backwards.

Skaters change up their spin difficulty by changing positions and edges as they spin.

Sit spin: As its name implies, a sit spin is performed while the skater is in a sitting position, usually with one leg out in front.

Scratch: This is the classic spin that skaters tend to use as their big finale move at the end of the program. They spin very fast in a very upright position.

Layback: Again, as the name implies, the skater spins upright, then lays way back or to the side, arching their back.

Camel: The skater spins while elevating their free leg into a horizontal position. The torso is bent forward as well, forming a sort of “T” with the body. A flying camel is a regular camel, but the skater jumps into the spin.

Biellmann spin: Named after Denise Biellmann, who invented it, the spin is like a layback, but the skater catches the free leg with their hands and pulls it up behind their head.

So, these are the basic spins, but most of the time, youwon’t see an elite skater perform just one of these spins then go on tosomething else. Instead, they will do acombination of several of the spins. Forinstance, the skater may begin with a flying camel, transition into to a sitspin, and then finish it as a scratch spin.The difficulty is increased by changing positions, edges and feet, whilemaintaining speed and center. You’llknow when they are off center because they will start traveling across the ice,rather than staying in one place. Inorder for a skater to earn full points for a spin, they must complete a minimumnumber of revolutions, usually six.Furthermore, the positions of the skater’s free leg and their arms andback also impact their score on spins.Basically, it should look pretty rather than clunky.

Other Elements

Beyond the big jumps and spins, there are other elementsthat skaters must perform.

Footwork: When yousee skaters doing intricate steps and quick turns across the ice, it is calledfootwork. The faster and morecomplicated the steps and turns, the higher the level of difficulty. Likewise, judges like it when the skaterchanges edges, so that they end up doing a sort of “S” pattern on the icerather than a simple straight line, because it is harder.

Spiral: Although the usual definition of spiral implies that something is rotating, there is actually no rotation in a spiral. The spiral is the move where the skater skates on one leg and extends their free leg behind them above their hip level, in much the same position as the camel spin. However, some of the most impressive spirals are done with the leg being held in a much higher position than the hip. While this move is relatively simple, it looks great when done well. Often, skaters will do a series of spirals in which they will change feet or edges.

Spread eagle: Another relatively simple, yet classic move, the spread eagle is performed by skating in a slightly sideways position with the feet in the open ballet position with toes pointing away from one another. A spread eagle can be done on either the inside or outside edge, and often skaters will transition from one to the other.

Judging System

After the disaster of the gold medal judging snafu in the pair’s competition in

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, the ISU has instituted a new, fairer system. It is no longer the subjective system that allowed for favoritism or even cheating among judges. For the skaters it is a nice change because they can have some piece of mind that they are being judged on merit and skill and not on extraneous details that they have no control over. For the fans, the judging system seems complicated and a little anticlimactic. It was easier to interpret the skaters’ marks in the old system – clearly, a 9.8 out of 10 was good. Now, they have triple digit scores so who knows what they mean.

To simplify things, it is important to know that each skater earns two scores: the technical score and the program components score.

The technical score: Each jump, spin or footwork technique is assigned a base value, according their degree of difficulty. Depending on how the skater executes the element, they may earn either +3 or -3 points on the base. So, if an element has a base value of 7 points and the skater performs it perfectly, they may earn 3 more points for a total score of 10 points.

Program components score: This is what used to be called the artistic impression score. It includes five sections: skating skills, transitions/linking footwork and movement, performance/execution, choreography/composition, interpretation and timing. The skater is awarded points on a scale of 0-10, in increments of .25 for each component.

In order to get to a final score, the judges add the two scores together. However, the two scores are not actually a simple sum of the two scores. The program components score is factored so that the possible technical ability of the ladies and men is equal. The judges factor it all so that even though the ladies are not yet capable of earning the same technical score of the men, the two scores are worth approximately fifty percent of their total.

Clearly, the average fan cannot possibly try to keep score from their couch, but they can learn to see what the judges see and be more informed about the technical requirements. Learn to watch the whole skater, including the blade of the skate. The edges are the thing that matters most in the technical elements and the artistry and beauty is what matters most in the program components score.

Tune in to ESPN or the regular networks for this season’s exciting season. Will Sasha Cohen overcome the last few disappointing seasons and overtake Michelle Kwan at the Olympics? Will Johnny Weir continue his domination of the top of the world podium? Who knows? Anything can happen in an Olympic year!