Backward outside extended position

Backward crossovers into a sustained back outside edge, held in an extended position for a third of a circle or three seconds.

BIS Skills 1exercise 2In 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.

Crossovers to build the speed, then one edge held long enough that nothing else can be holding you up. The position is the first thing in the syllabus with a duration attached to it: a third of a circle, or three seconds, with the free leg extended and the free foot turned out.

Both are needed because the exercise runs on both circles. Skating it one way round only is the commonest way of arriving at Skills 5 with one good side and one that has never been asked to do anything.

Three seconds on a back outside edge is longer than it sounds. The free leg is behind you where you cannot see it, the turnout has to come from the hip because the knee cannot supply it, and the whole thing is happening over an edge you are travelling away from.

Elements

Right backward outside edgeRBO: the right foot travelling backwards on an outside edge, tracing an anticlockwise lobe.
Left backward inside edgeLBI: the left foot travelling backwards on an inside edge, tracing an anticlockwise lobe.
Left backward outside edgeLBO: the left foot travelling backwards on an outside edge, tracing a clockwise lobe.
Right backward inside edgeRBI: the right foot travelling backwards on an inside edge, tracing a clockwise lobe.
Right backward outside crossoverRBO to LBI: the free foot crosses in front of the skating foot onto the same lobe, still travelling backwards.
Left backward outside crossoverLBO to RBI: the free foot crosses in front of the skating foot onto the same lobe, still travelling backwards.
Extended edgeA plain edge held for a third of a circle, long enough to be a position in its own right.

Not covered here

The introductory steps into the circle, and the choice of a three turn or a mohawk to get backwards. Both are the skater's to make and neither is specified.

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.