Backward cross rolls

A forward 3-turn into a held back outside edge, rolled from there into backward cross rolls on both feet.

BIS Skills 3exercise 3In 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.

The extended edge comes back, and this time it has somewhere to go. In Skills 1 it was held and then the exercise moved on; here it is held and then rolled directly into a cross roll, so the position has to be given up under control.

That transition is the whole exercise. A held back outside edge has the free leg behind and the weight settled, and a backward cross roll needs that leg to come through and land on the other side of the body on a new outside edge. Everything about the two is opposed (the first wants stillness, the second wants a swing), and the mark is in whether the speed survives the swap.

Backwards, a cross roll is also the step a skater cannot check. Forwards you can see the lobe you are leaving; going backwards the new edge is behind you and slightly across, and the commonest fault is landing short and flat and then pushing to recover, which the judge sees as a hitch in a rhythm that should be continuous.

Elements

Left forward outside three turnLFO to LBI: half a turn into the circle, changing edge and staying on the same lobe.
Right forward outside three turnRFO to RBI: half a turn into the circle, changing edge and staying on the same lobe.
Extended edgeA plain edge held for a third of a circle, long enough to be a position in its own right.
Right backward outside cross rollRBO to LBO: a step onto the other foot, still travelling backwards, and the lobe reverses.
Left backward outside cross rollLBO to RBO: a step onto the other foot, still travelling backwards, and the lobe reverses.
Right backward outside edgeRBO: the right foot travelling backwards on an outside edge, tracing an anticlockwise lobe.
Left backward outside edgeLBO: the left foot travelling backwards on an outside edge, tracing a clockwise lobe.
Left backward inside push backLBI to RBO: a push off the inside edge onto the other foot's outside edge, still travelling backwards, and the lobe continues.
Right backward inside push backRBI to LBO: a push off the inside edge onto the other foot's outside edge, still travelling backwards, and the lobe continues.

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.