Backward inside counters & twizzles

A forward outside 3-turn into a backward inside counter, which carries on into a two and a half rotation twizzle.

BIS Skills 7exercise 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 document is unusually direct about the purpose: two difficult turns, combined. A backward inside counter and a multi-rotation twizzle are both turns that have to be produced by the body against an edge that offers no help, and here the second one starts from what the counter leaves behind.

The counter comes first and it is entered from a crossover, so the strong backward inside edge the objective asks for has to be made in about a second. Everything after that follows: a counter on a shallow edge cannot be checked, and a twizzle entered without a check unwinds.

Controlling the exit is the third objective, and it decides whether the rotation ends where the skater meant it to. Two and a half rotations reverses the direction of travel, so the skater finishes facing the opposite way to where the counter left them. That reversal is the point of the count, and two or three full rotations would not produce it.

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.
Left backward inside counter-2½ twizzleLBI → LFI → LBO: 2 elements on one foot.
Right backward inside counter-2½ twizzleRBI → RFI → RBO: 2 elements 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.
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.