Slip step

Both blades flat and running straight while the free foot glides forward until the leg is fully extended.

Also called slide step. Other names.

step

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.

The mark this leaves on the ice, both blades. A straight line is a claim as much as a curve is: it says the blade is flat, and a blade that is not flat is an edge and a different element.

shoulder to hip —on the —

both blades flat and straight · the free foot sliding forward to full extension. Negative twist means the shoulders are held back against the hips, which stores rotation before a takeoff and checks it on a landing.

You travel in a straight line with both blades held flat on the ice and the weight over the skating leg, while the free foot glides forward along the ice until the leg is fully extended. The skating knee can be well bent or straight. That is British Ice Skating’s definition, and it is all a published source says about the step. Nothing leaves the ice and nothing turns.

A flat, in the same document’s terms, is a straight tracing made on one foot, so both blades here draw straight lines and neither is on an edge. The weight stays over the skating leg throughout. British Ice Skating defines the slip chassé separately, and it shares only the sliding foot: there, on the second edge of a chassé, the free foot leaves the ice by sliding forward, which is a change of feet from one edge to another.

Build on

Two-foot glideBoth blades flat on the ice, as here. In the slip step the free foot then slides forward to full extension.
Forward strokingBritish Ice Skating's slip step keeps the weight on the skating leg as the free foot glides forward along the ice.

Appears in

In the USA's grades

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