Bracket-counter

A forward inside bracket and a backward counter in one cluster, on both feet, entered from crossovers.

BIS Skills 6exercise 6New on 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 turns that both fight the curve, one after the other on the same foot. The bracket turns against the lobe and changes edge; the counter turns against it and does not. Putting them in one cluster means the skater rotates against the curve twice with a single edge in between to do the resetting on.

Speed is the thing to get right and the document says so twice, once for each turn. Neither of these can be forced round, and the edge that joins them is short: arrive fast and the bracket rotates late, which leaves the counter starting from a lobe that is already wrong. The skaters who make this look calm are the ones who gave up some speed on the entry.

One note on the source. The October document writes the intermediate edge of the second cluster as a right back outside edge, which cannot be right: a bracket stays on the same foot, so a left forward inside entry can only produce a left back outside edge. Skills 7 builds the same cluster and writes the mirror correctly, so this looks like a transposition.

Elements

Right forward inside bracket-counterRFI → RBO → RFO: 2 turns on one foot.
Left forward inside bracket-counterLFI → LBO → LFO: 2 turns on one foot.
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 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.

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.