Backward inside counters

Backward inside counters, each one leaving into an open mohawk, repeated across the full ice surface.

BIS Skills 6exercise 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.

The same shape as the first exercise with the rocker swapped for a counter, and the swap changes everything about how it feels. A rocker goes round with the curve; a counter has to be turned against it. Put them in consecutive exercises and the difference is impossible to hide, which is presumably why they are consecutive.

Body preparation is named in the learning objectives and it is the whole thing. A counter has to be wound before the turn because the lobe will not wind it, and it has to be wound without losing the edge: lean into the rotation early and the edge flattens, leave it late and the turn does not happen. The window is small and it does not get bigger with speed.

The mohawk is what follows. Coming out of a counter into a change of foot means the check has to be partial by design: enough to stop the rotation running on, not so much that the new foot cannot be placed. Skaters who have learned to check hard find this harder than skaters who have not.

Elements

Right forward inside mohawkRFI to LBI: a step onto the other foot, holding the edge and staying on the same lobe. No cusp.
Left backward inside counter-mohawkLBI → LFI → RBI: 2 turns on two feet.
Right backward inside counter-mohawkRBI → RFI → LBI: 2 turns on two feet.
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.
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.

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.