Forward edges

The four forward edges, joined by chassés on one side and crossovers on the other.

BIS Skills 1exercise 1In the syllabus both before and after 01/10/2026

Not checked yet. The requirements on this page are a first draft by a non-expert, and no coach has seen them yet. Read them as a starting point and check them with a coach. Corrections are very welcome.

Two ways of getting from one edge to the next, set side by side. On the first, the free foot comes down beside the skating foot (a chassé). On the second it crosses in front (a crossover). The blades draw the same tracing either way, which is why this guide gives them separate pages and says so on both. The difference is where the free foot goes, and that is something you see by watching the skater, because the ice does not record it.

In between them the edge is held on its own, without a push and without a change of foot, until the skater reaches the long axis. That hold is the point of the exercise. An edge that needs a push every second is only a series of pushes. Holding one means the weight is genuinely over the curve; an edge the skater has been steered onto does not hold.

Elements

Left forward outside edgeLFO: the left foot travelling forwards on an outside edge, tracing an anticlockwise lobe.
Right forward inside edgeRFI: the right foot travelling forwards on an inside edge, tracing an anticlockwise lobe.
Right forward outside edgeRFO: the right foot travelling forwards on an outside edge, tracing a clockwise lobe.
Left forward inside edgeLFI: the left foot travelling forwards on an inside edge, tracing a clockwise lobe.
Left forward outside chasséLFO to RFI: the free foot comes down beside the skating foot, nothing crossing, still travelling forwards on the same lobe.
Right forward outside chasséRFO to LFI: the free foot comes down beside the skating foot, nothing crossing, still travelling forwards on the same lobe.
Left forward outside crossoverLFO to RFI: the free foot crosses in front of the skating foot onto the same lobe, still travelling forwards.
Right forward outside crossoverRFO to LFI: the free foot crosses in front of the skating foot onto the same lobe, still travelling forwards.
Right forward inside step wideRFI to LFI: a step onto the other foot placed wide, nothing crossing, still travelling forwards, and the lobe reverses.
Left forward inside step wideLFI to RFI: a step onto the other foot placed wide, nothing crossing, still travelling forwards, and the lobe reverses.

This page lists which elements the exercise calls for and what it is working on. It does not reproduce British Ice Skating's sequence, pattern or wording. For the exercise as published, go to their own document.