Extended edge

A plain edge held for a third of a circle, long enough to be a position in its own right.

positionentry RBO

Not checked yet. The mechanics 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.

outside edge: the paler line
RBO. A skater who rotates the other way traces LBO: the same element, generated from this one.

shoulder to hip —on the —
held position · sustained back outside edge, free leg extended and turned out. Negative twist means the shoulders are held back against the hips, which stores rotation before a takeoff and checks it on a landing.

A plain edge, held. Time is what turns it from the gap between two elements into an element: British Ice Skating asks for a third of a circle, or three seconds, before anything else is allowed to happen. Three seconds is a long while to do nothing on one foot.

There is nothing to hide behind. On a turn a mistake arrives and leaves again; here it accumulates. The edge either holds its depth or runs shallow, the free leg either stays extended and turned out or it drops, and the shoulders either keep their check or come round and take the edge with them. That is the exercise: holding the position.

Watch the free hip. A foot that drops has almost always been given away by a hip that opened a second earlier.

Derived

RBO is three letters (foot, direction, edge): right foot, backwards, outside edge. Every edge in the guide is written that way, so RBI is a right foot travelling backwards on an inside edge.

RBO traces an anticlockwise lobe seen from above the ice. Change any one of the three letters and it curves the other way; change two and it curves the same way again.

A skater who rotates the other way does the same thing from LBO. Same element, mirrored.

Build on

Off the ice

From RBO

Clusters from RBO

Appears in

In the USA's grades

None of the American level lists in this guide name it.

In British Ice Skating's tests: BIS Skills 1, BIS Skills 3, BIS Skills 4, BIS Skills 5, BIS Skills 7, BIS Skills 8.