Rocker choctaws

Backward inside rockers into closed choctaws, three to a lobe, with a change of edge between the sides.

BIS Skills 6exercise 4In 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.

Three rocker-choctaws in a row on each side, which is the first time a cluster has to be repeated in succession. Repetition is the assessment here: one of these can be produced by a skater who is concentrating, and three in succession cannot.

The cluster itself is two changes of lobe in immediate succession, done in different ways. A rocker moves the lobe on one foot with the edge held, and the closed choctaw that follows moves it again by another route entirely. So the body is asked to accept a new lobe, settle, and then reverse. The second half of that has to be set up during the first, because there is no edge in between to do it on.

What makes the serpentine work is the change of edge at the end of each side. It is the only part of the exercise that is not a turn, and it decides whether there is anything left for the next side.

Elements

Left backward inside rocker-choctawLBI → LFI → RBO: 2 turns on two feet.
Right backward inside rocker-choctawRBI → RFI → LBO: 2 turns on two feet.
Left backward inside change of edgeLBI to LBO: the blade rolls across without turning, still travelling backwards, and the lobe reverses.
Right backward inside change of edgeRBI to RBO: the blade rolls across without turning, still travelling backwards, and the lobe reverses.
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.
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.

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.