Two-foot glide

Both blades flat and parallel, carrying speed you have already got.

Also called forward two-foot glide. Other names.

basic

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 parallel, about hip width apart, running straight. Negative twist means the shoulders are held back against the hips, which stores rotation before a takeoff and checks it on a landing.

You push off, bring both feet under you, and let the skates run, both blades flat on the ice and parallel. The feet are about hip width apart: Ice Skating Australia and New Zealand’s KiwiSkate both cap the gap between them at a blade’s length, which toe pick to heel comes to the same width. Learn to Skate USA teaches it at its first level.

The programmes measure it by distance. Australia’s youngest skaters glide about a metre after three to five steps, and KiwiSkate’s 2008 badges asked for a glide as long as the skater is tall. Australia then puts the same glide on a curve, in both directions, and gets the curve by teaching the skater to lean into the circle. It introduces lean at this level, so the two-foot glide on a curve is where the edges in this guide begin.

Build on

MarchingIce Skating Australia asks for three to five marching steps into its first two-foot glide, and Learn to Skate USA's youngest level writes the march and the glide as one element.

Leads to

7 elements in the guide are built on this one.

Slip stepBoth blades flat on the ice, as here. In the slip step the free foot then slides forward to full extension.
Backward wigglesBoth feet stay on the ice, as here, and twist into a zigzag going backwards.
DipThe dip is taken from a two-foot glide: Ice Skating Australia asks for about a metre of glide and then the squat.
Forward strokingEach stroke finishes in a glide, and every programme teaches the glide first.
One-foot glideThe same straight glide with one foot lifted and carried at the inside of the skating knee.
Scooter pushesA scooter push glides on one foot after each push; the two-foot glide comes first in every programme.
Two-foot change of edgeBoth feet stay on the ice as they do here, and the change rolls them together onto the other pair of edges.

Appears in

In the USA's grades

Learn to Skate USA: Basic 1 to 6: Basic 1