Figure skating relies on the following fundamental principles, which I will explore more in-depth in later blog posts:
- Edges and Circles: All figure skating happens on one of 8 edges, traveling in a circular arc. The skater does nothing to ride an edge on a circle, other than hold their body. Forces between the blade and the ice accelerate the skater toward the center of the circle, while the skater remains stationary in a non inertial reference frame subject to the fictitious force known as centrifugal force.
- Ways to Stabilize the Body: To create clean movement, the body must be solid as one piece. Ways to stabilize include turning out both hips, locking the legs against each other, twisting the spine to its maximum, and others. This is more complex than ballet, where things are stabilized only through turnout. The Importance of Turn-In.
- Aplomb: The skater’s body is most at ease when aligned along the effective direction of gravity — either vertical if the skater is stopped, or leaned into the circle to create an effective vertical. The size of the circle is affected by both degree of lean and speed of skating.
- Epaulement: The shoulders are twisted, often to the maximum possible, to keep all body parts on the circle. Remaining on-circle puts the body in its lowest energy configuration, thereby enabling freedom of movement, as needed, for transitions. Skating positions can be analyzed as exaggerated versions of ballet positions, in which body parts have all been squeezed onto the circle. Spins are an exception, in which ballet-type 3-D body shapes are used.
- Vectors: Forward velocity, centripetal force, centrifugal force, gravity, effective gravity.
- Angular Momentum: On three axes. Angular momentum around the vertical is inherent in all cases. Angular momentum around other axes is involved in remaining on balance while moving body parts.
- Pushing Against the Ice: Two feet to two feet, two feet to one foot, one foot by itself (push-pull). Ways to build locomotion. Pushes starting from two feet allow the body to reconfigure. Pushes starting from one foot are more limited because only certain things are possible given the initial position of the body. Challenge: find all the opportunities for push-pull.
- Isometric Movement: The body can change shape either by pushing against the ice, or by pusing against itself (isometric movement). In this case, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Particularly important uses of isometric movement include changes in epaulement (twisting of the spine) to change direction; and use of the free leg to counter-balance push-pull and other maneuvers.
- Conversion between Linear and Angular Speed: Energy may be transferred between linear and angular momentum through effective pushing against the ice. This happens as the radius of curvature of the circle is increased or deceased, moving the center of the circle closer or further from the skater. A spin becomes centered when the center of the circle the skater is traveling around moves underneath the skater’s body. The skater should be able to increase and decrease the radius of curvature in a controlled manner. Another places this happens is as the free side of the body leverages around the skating side in an Axel takeoff.
- Movement Range and Dynamic: When going through transitions, some movements happen smoothly and steady (twisting of the spine on FO8), whereas others happen more quickly (twisting of the spine on Swiss S). The skater must have full range of movement of all necessary body parts, and be able to move them in a controlled and safe manner in all sorts of dynamics.
Additional Topics
- The Meta Method or, how to train your body to do anything (within its physical limits).
- Conditioning the Body for Figure Skating. Focus on ankles, quadriceps, hamstrings, stretching.
- Benefits of Studying Figures outside the rink. We all talk about how studying ballet can help your skating. But how does studying skating help (or hurt) your ballet?
- Listening to Your Body. When is enough enough?
- Building Small to Large in your Training Sessions. Ballet spends 45 minutes at the barre, 30 minutes in the center and only 15 minutes jumping at the end. This avoids injury by ensuring the body is fully warmed up before jumping, and by limiting the total time spent jumping.
- Marking Jumps for safety and profit. How can you practice jumps without jumping?