Figure Skating Steps/Turns
I’ve made a guide to the ISU classified difficult steps/turns. For ice dance, the 6 difficult steps/turns are rocker, counter, bracket, choctaw, outside mohawk, and twizzle. For singles/pairs, the 6 difficult steps/turns are rocker, counter, bracket, choctaw, twizzle, and loop. For 3 of the difficult one foot turns (rocker, counter, bracket), I’ve also included examples from each of the 8 entry edges because in my opinion, they are the hardest to tell apart of the steps/turns. This is especially true for rockers and counters since skaters maintain the same entry and exit edge (inside to inside or outside to outside) in both. In singles skating, the direction of the step/turn (clockwise or counter-clockwise) is important because a skater must have 5 types of difficult steps/turns in both directions to achieve level 4 on their step sequence, so I will also separate them by their direction.
The skater changes from back to front or front to back, maintaining the same edge (outside to outside or inside to inside). The blade turns in the direction of the entry curve.
Rockers that Rotate Clockwise
RFO-Rocker (RFO to RBO): Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov enter on right forward outside edges and exit on right back outside edges. You can also see the ice marks of a rocker in this gif.
LFI-Rocker (LFI to LBI): Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir enter on left forward inside edges and exit on left back inside edges.
RBI-Rocker (RBI to RFI): Scott Moir enters on a right back inside edge and exits on a right forward inside edge. Tessa is doing a LFI-Rocker.
LBO-Rocker (LBO to LFO): Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter enter on left back outside edges and exit on left forward outside edges.
Rockers that Rotate Counter-Clockwise
LFO-Rocker (LFO to LBO): Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir enter on left forward outside edges and exit on left back outside edges.
RFI-Rocker (RFI to RBI): Scott Moir enters on a right forward inside edge and exits on a right back inside edge.
LBI-Rocker (LBI to LFI): Yuzuru Hanyu enters on a left back inside edge and exits on a left forward inside edge.
RBO-Rocker (RBO to RFO): Yuzuru Hanyu enters on a right back outside edge and exits on a right forward outside edge. You can also see the ice mark of a rocker in this gif.
The skater changes from back to front or front to back, maintaining the same edge (outside to outside or inside to inside). The blade turns in the direction of the exit curve.
Counters that Rotate Clockwise
LFO-Counter (LFO to LBO): Mikhail Kolyada enters on a left forward outside edge and exits on a left back outside edge.
RFI-Counter (RFI to RBI): Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir enter on right forward inside edges and exit on right back inside edges.
LBI-Counter: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir enter on left back inside edges and exit on left forward inside edges.
RBO-Counter (RBO to RFO): Scott Moir enters on a right back outside edge and exits on a right forward outside edge.
Counters that Rotate Counter-Clockwise
LFI-Counter (LFI to LBI): Tessa Virtue enters on a left forward inside edge and exits on a left back inside edge. Scott is doing a RBI-Counter.
RFO-Counter (RFO to RBO): Scott Moir enters on a right forward outside edge and exits on a right back outside edge.
LBO-Counter (LBO to LFO): Yuzuru Hanyu enters on a left back outside edge and exits on a left forward outside edge. This is also his entry to his triple axel and the “back counter” entry to make the axel look as if it “came out of nowhere” that skaters do, since counter-clockwise jumpers take off for the axel from a left forward outside edge.
RBI-Counter (RBI to RFI): Tessa Virtue enters on a right back inside edge and exits on a right forward inside edge.
The skater changes both direction (front to back or back to front) and edge (inside to outside or outside to inside) and the blade turns in the opposite direction of the overall turn.
Brackets that Rotate Clockwise
LFO-Bracket (LFO to LBI): Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir enter on left forward outside edges and exit on left back inside edges.
RFI-Bracket (RFI to RBO): Tessa Virtue enters on a right forward inside edge and exits on a right back outside edge.
LBI-Bracket (LBI to LFO): Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter enter on left back inside edges and exit on left forward outside edges.
RBO-Bracket (RBO to RFI): Michael Parsons enters on a right back outside edge and exits on a right forward inside edge. Rachel is doing a RFI-Bracket.
Brackets that Rotate Counter-Clockwise
LFI-Bracket (LFI to LBO): Mikhail Kolyada enters on a left forward inside edge and exits on a left back outside edge.
RFO-Bracket (RFO to RBI): Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir enter on right forward outside edges and exit on right back inside edges.
RBI-Bracket (RBI to RFO): Nikita Katsalapov enters on a right back inside edge and exits on right forward outside edge. Vika is doing a LFI-Bracket.
LBO-Bracket (LBO to LFI): Quinn Carpenter enters on a left back outside edge and exits on a left forward inside edge.
The skater changes feet (left to right or right to left), direction (back to front or front to back), and edge (inside to outside or outside to inside).
Rhumba Pattern “Double Choctaw” (Wd-XF-LFI-OpCho, Wd-XB-RBO-ClCho)
Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte enter on left forward inside edges, cross their right foot in front of their left, and exit on right back outside edges in the first Wd-XF-LFI-OpCho (LFI to RBO). On the second Wd-XB-RBO-ClCho (RBO to LFI), they enter on right back outside edges (also the exit edge of the first choctaw), cross their left foot behind their right foot, and exit on left forward inside edges.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir do a LFI-XB-Closed Choctaw (LFI to RBO). They enter on left forward inside edges, cross their right feet behind their left, and exit on right back outside edges.
Scott Moir does a LFO-Swing Choctaw (LFO to RBI). He enters on a left forward outside edge, swings his right leg forward, and exits on a right back inside edge.
The skater changes feet (left to right or right to left) and direction (front to back or back to front), but maintains the same edge (outside to outside).
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir do a RBO-Open Mohawk (RBO to LFO). They enter on right back outside edges and exit on left forward outside edges.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir do a LFO-Swing Closed Mohawk (LFO to RBO). They enter on left forward outside edges, swing their right legs forward, and exit on right back outside edges.
A continuous traveling turn that must not turn into checked three-turns or a pirouette
Anastasia Gubanova performs a right back inside twizzle that rotates clockwise.
Counter-Clockwise Twizzle
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir perform a right forward inside twizzle that rotates counter-clockwise.
A turn that maintains the same edge and direction
Anastasia Gubanova performs a left back outside loop that rotates clockwise.
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong perform a left forward outside loop that rotates counter-clockwise.
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