Steps and Turns
Step sequences are a required element in all four Olympic disciplines. The pattern can be straight line, circular, or serpentine. The step sequence consists of a combination of turns, steps, hops and edge changes. Additionally, steps and turns can be used as transitions between elements.
The various turns, which skaters can incorporate into step sequences, include:
-
Three turns, so called because the blade turns into the curve of the edge or lobe to leave a tracing resembling the numeral "3".
-
Bracket turns, in which the blade is turned counter to the curve of the lobe, making a tracing resembling a bracket ("}").
-
Mohawks, the two-foot equivalents of three turns and brackets.
-
Rockers, one-foot turns that involve a change of lobe as well as of direction.
-
Counters, one-foot turns that involve a change of lobe as well as of direction.
-
Twizzles, traveling multi-rotation turns on one foot
Choctaws are the two-foot equivalents of rockers and counters. Other movements that may be incorporated into step sequences or used as connecting elements include lunges and spread eagles. An Ina Bauer is similar to a spread eagle performed with one knee bent and typically an arched back. Hydroblading refers to a deep edge performed with the body as low as possible to the ice in a near-horizontal position.
Read more about this topic: Figure Skating
Famous quotes containing the words steps and/or turns:
“The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery....Child’s play is the infantile form of the human ability to deal with experience by creating model situations and to master reality by experiment and planning.”
—Erik H. Erikson (20th century)
“Death can only be profitable: there’s no need to eat, drink, pay taxes, offend people, and since a person lies in a grave for hundreds or thousands of years, if you count it up the profit turns out to be enormous.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)