Glossary

The words skaters and coaches use, and this guide with them, in a sentence or two each.

Barrier · also boards: The wall around the ice. Hold it when getting on and off, and stop beside it rather than in the middle. See Your first session.
Base value: The points a jump, spin or sequence is worth before the judges mark its quality. The ISU sets one for every element, and for spins and sequences one per level.
Carriage: How the head, shoulders, arms and upper body are held over the blade. Good carriage is tall and quiet. See Core and carriage.
Check: Holding the shoulders and arms firmly against a rotation, so that it stops, or does not start before it should. Every jump landing is checked, and so is the exit of most turns.
Clockwise and anticlockwise · also rotation direction: The way a skater turns in jumps and spins. Most turn anticlockwise, and the guide is written for them. A clockwise skater does the mirror image of everything: every left becomes right.
Cluster: The guide's word for a run of turns where each one's exit edge is the next one's entry. See Clusters.
Combination: Two or more jumps where the landing of one is the takeoff of the next, with no step between them. Not to be confused with a combination spin. See Jump combinations, Combination spin.
Cusp: The point in a turn's tracing where the blade changes direction, drawn as a small point or loop on the ice.
Edge: A blade has two: the inside edge on the big-toe side and the outside edge on the little-toe side. The word also means the curve a skater travels on one of them. See The eight edges, The blade.
Edge call: A mark the technical panel gives a flip or a Lutz taken off the wrong edge: an "e" for the wrong edge, or a "!" for an edge that was not clear. See Lutz, Flip.
Edge code · also LFO, RBI: Three letters for an edge: the foot (L or R), the direction (F or B) and the edge (O or I). LFO is a left foot travelling forwards on an outside edge. See The eight edges.
Edge jump: A jump that takes off from the edge alone, with no toe pick: the waltz jump, Salchow, loop and Axel. See Jumps.
Flutz and lip: Informal names for two common faults: a Lutz that rolls onto the inside edge before the takeoff (a flutz), and a flip taken off an outside edge (a lip). Both earn an edge call.
Free leg · also free foot, free side: The leg that is not on the ice, and that side of the body. The other is the skating leg.
GOE · also grade of execution: The judges' mark for how well an element was done, from −5 to +5, added to its base value as a share of it.
Guards: Hard covers for walking off the ice. Off before the first step onto it. See Looking after skates.
Hold: How two dance partners hold each other: where each stands, which way each faces, and where the hands go. See Holds.
Hollow · also radius of hollow: The shallow groove ground along the bottom of the blade that leaves its two edges. A smaller radius cuts a deeper groove that grips harder. See The blade.
Level: For spins, step sequences and some other elements, a grade from Base (B) to 4 given for the difficult features shown. A higher level has a higher base value.
Lobe: A curve skated on one edge, roughly half a circle. Pattern dances and the old school figures are built of them.
Mohawk and choctaw: Turns from one foot to the other that reverse the direction of travel. A mohawk keeps the same kind of edge; a choctaw changes it. See Two-foot turns.
Pick · also toe pick: The teeth at the front of a figure blade. For jabbing into the ice in toe jumps, not for standing on. See The blade.
Rocker: Two meanings. On the blade, the curve it is ground to along its length. As a turn, a one-foot turn that reverses the direction of travel, keeps the same edge and rotates into the curve, coming out on a new lobe. See The blade, Rocker (turn).
Skating leg · also skating foot, skating side: The leg carrying the skater on the ice, and that side of the body.
Soakers: Cloth covers for storing dry blades. Hard guards hold water against the steel; soakers do not. See Looking after skates.
Spin rocker: The tighter curve towards the front of the blade, just behind the pick, that a spin sits on. See The blade.
Spotting: Finding something familiar to look at so as to keep your bearings while turning, and to see straight again after. See Spotting and rotation.
Toe jump: A jump vaulted off the toe pick of the free foot: the toe loop, flip and Lutz. See Jumps.
Tracing: The mark a blade leaves on the ice. Every element in the guide is drawn by its tracing.
Turnout: How far the legs rotate outward from the hip. See Hips and turnout.
Under-rotation · also q, under-rotated, downgraded: A jump landed short of its turns. A quarter short is marked q; more than a quarter but less than half, under-rotated (<); half a turn or more, downgraded (<<) and scored as the jump with one turn fewer.