I'm supposed to watch the edge. Um, what's an edge?

Forget the edges. Forget the toe picks. Forget flutzing.

If you're watching the Olympics and can't tell what jump they're doing, here's some advice:

Don't worry about it.

Seriously, unless you're planning to become a fan, and watch all the time, and look at the protocols (never mind), it literally doesn't matter what jump they're going to do. They all look alike in the air. This is because they all ARE alike in the air. Once the skater has achieved orbit, the position and rotation and landing are identical for every jump.

Okay, incipient geeks, yes I hear you-- some skaters rotate to the left, some skaters rotate to the right. This changes the dominant side, but not the basic position. 'K? Can I get back to my post now?

Ditto the footwork-- 3-turns, choctaws, counters, rockers, brackets, walleys, twizzles, I could start making up words at this point and you'd have no clue.

But it doesn't matter. Just enjoy.

Now, that said, if you really want to know what's going on, forget about edges and toe picks. You have to watch a lot of skating to be able to pick up on this in the fraction of a second in which it occurs. You want to watch the entrance.

Axel
We'll start with the easy one. Everyone recognizes the axel because it takes off forwards. (Skating geeks shut up-- I know that all jumps take off more or less forwards. You're just confusing the issue.) The axel has no backwards set up. In fact, doing a challenging backwards pattern before entering the forward take-off edge will earn you points. (Listen for comments about "difficult entry to that axel.")

And this is the secret of recognizing jumps. You'll often notice that the commentators know what the athlete is going to do before they do it. This is partly because they have a cheat sheet, but also because they know the set ups-- they are primed to watch for a certain jump because the set up is part of the skill. Skaters who don't "telegraph" their jumps (Yuna Kim, Jason Brown, Patrick Chan, and Michelle Kwan come to mind) are a lot of fun to watch because of this; it is also one of the things that makes their programs flow so beautifully.

Lutz
Technically a toe-assisted counter jump off a back outside edge. Forget it. Watch for a long shallow edge, usually the longest entry edge of all the jumps, and skaters tend not to precede it with footwork. This is because it is a "counter" jump-- the rotation is in the opposite curve of the entry edge (for people who jump to the left, it will be a clockwise entry edge and a ccw rotation). This is changing, because any difficult entry gets you points. Again, listen for the comment about difficult entry.

Skaters often put the lutz in a corner, to give them the maximum entry distance. One of the things that used to make Yuna Kim's lutzes difficult to spot were short entry edges, and she would place them in the middle of the ice, where no one ever does lutzes.

The lutz is the jump where skaters put one or both arms over their heads, the "Tano" or "Rippon" positions. I've also seen this done with the axel.

This is the jump with the most "edge calls"-- taking off from the wrong edge-- because the counter rotation can force the foot onto the wrong edge at the last minute if you don't time it just right.

Flip
The flip is a toe assisted jump from a back inside edge, but watch for a long forward edge and/or a short (two-three moves) footwork sequence before the skater does a quick turn for the back take off.  Ironically, after judges starting really hammering skaters for "flutzing" their lutzes (flipping to an inside edge at the last moment, which makes it a flip), skaters fixed that and started "flupping" their flips-- turning to an outside edge, making it a lutz. The only reason you care, is because a take off from the wrong edge is one of the things that mysteriously lowers the scores.

Loop
Outside edge jump with no toe assist. However, you want to watch for another longish entry, on a much tighter curve than either the Lutz or the Flip. Skaters will often cross their feet and appear to be lifting off a crossed two-foot glide. This is also a common second or third jump in a combination.

Toe loop
Same entry as the loop, but with a toe assist. This is one of the hardest jumps to spot, as most skaters find it easy, so they throw it in willy nilly, especially if they've missed an earlier jump and need to add points. It's a common first quad jump, and also common in the "bonus"-- the second half of the program where you get extra points for every jump. Another common jump in combination.

Salchow
A common "warm up" jump (the other is the double axel), that is, a jump in the first few seconds of the program to get the feel of the ice. This is another "edge" jump, with no toe assist, often telegraphed by a very curvy entry edge and an upper body wind up. This and the toe loop are generally the only quads you'll see (this has to do with the actual number of rotations in the air, which is fewer than four, trust me.) Matthew Savoie used to do a triple (quad?) salchow out of a back hydroblade position. Amazing.

Footwork sequence: jumps
Walleys, bunny hops, albrights (also called scissor and mazurka), splits, falling leafs (falling leaves?), Russian splits (Jason Brown anyone?), and this year one of the women has a one-foot axel in her footwork. (Can't remember who it was, but I almost dropped my coffee.) These generally don't count as jumps; they're calculated in the necessary turns and changes of direction for the footwork.

Footwork sequence: turns
WHO CARES. This is the part of the program where the skaters generally have the chance to create some art, to connect with the audience, to sell the program, to tell a story. If they aren't doing this, if they're just "technical" skaters with the requisite number of turns, edges, changes, etc. then they are doing it wrong.

Any questions?

WHAT is he talking about?

As we move into the competitive season, I'm starting to think about the phrases you hear from the commentators. "Features" "Clean landing" "Extension" "Wrap" "Run of the Blade" When I hear these I know what I'm looking for, because I'm a figure skating expert. But what about the non-skater casual fan?

When I watch hockey or football, I find the comments make me more, not less confused. It took me quite literally years to figure out what a "hat trick" is, and I'm still not entirely convinced I've got it right. I'm so confused by football terminology that I can't even come up with an example of a phrase that confuses me. So here's a little lexicon, and this week I'll add short posts on how to apply these to your own skating or teaching as well.

Features
Features are extra difficulty added to specific skills. Every skill has them, but you most commonly hear about them in spins because it's probably been the most obvious change in what figure skating looks like now. A feature is any variation to the basic position or rotation. So if you're doing an upright spin and wave your arms (creating a helicoptor effect), that's a feature. A different foot position is a feature, as is changing the spinning edge. (Different from a position change-- that's a thing in itself. There are four basic positions-- upright, sit, camel and layback. Features occur within each basic position.) A classic "forward" spin is actually on a back inside edge, but you can do any spin on any edge, and changing from one edge to another without losing speed or center is difficult, and gains points. All those "haircutter" contortionist postitions are a feature. You can only use any given feature once per program, which is why you get these awful can't-keep-my-eye-on-what's-happening flailing spins. I was happy to learn that there is a new feature this year-- 8 rotations in one position-- and you can use it as often as you want throughout the program. So we'll be seeing longer spins this year. And because extra rotations take time up in the program, you're also going to see some warp-speed rotating. Nice.

Clean landing
This is probably the most commonly used, and abused, phrase in figure skating commentary. It has come to mean a landing that is fully rotated, but originally it meant just what it sound like-- a landing that didn't kick up any snow or spray, i.e. "clean". Perforce, an underrotated landing won't be clean in this classic sense. The underrotation itself scrapes and gouges the ice. Other things to watch for that make a clean landing are a straight, upright back position (no pitching forward or twisting) and a held edge. Fussy choreography following a jump is often the coach's "fix" for a jump that the skater can't check (i.e. stop the rotation). Michelle Kwan was a genius at the saved landing. Watch her free leg cross behind her landing leg sometime-- she's having difficulty checking the rotation.

Extension
Just what it sounds like-- using the full range of motion of arms, hands, legs, feet, and neck, especially in held positions. The classic extension move is the arabesque or spiral, of course, but the best skaters will demonstrate good extension on everything. That blurry tight back scratch spin is a function of good extension, with all extremities pulled in and as tight as they can go. Watch for better expression in this as well this year. The ISU Judging System has changed the spiral sequence to encourage long full extension rather than a series of fussy features. As one judge said to me "we got tired of ugly spirals." Spirals will now be 6 to 8 seconds in a single position (with edge changes) or two positions of 3-4 seconds each. Hallelujah.

Wrap
A wrap is actually an error. While not specifically wrong, it affects rotation and ruins the beauty of the air position. Watch for a very high free leg with the knee sticking out during the jump's air time. It's very difficult both to spin fast and to land cleanly when you "wrap" during a jump.

Run of the blade
This skill comes to the fore in the men's Moves in the Field skills, the women's spirals, and in footwork. It means smooth, snowless glide. Watch for skaters whose glides don't stutter or wobble, have no loss of speed, and for footwork sequences with clear, obvious, snow-free curves and turns. Since I picked on Michelle Kwan for her questionable landings, I'll pull her out here as the queen of the glide. No one demonstrates this ability better. It's created through the skaters' understanding of which part of the blade to put in contact with the ice. Since a blade is a rocker, i.e. curved on the bottom, you can press the back, middle, or front of the blade, plus either the inside or outside edge, to create different turns, to aid acceleration, and to emphasize flow.

Underrotated, formerly known as "cheated"
Jumps are scored based on the difficulty of the entry, and the number of rotations in the air.  An underrotated jump is more than 1/4 of a turn short of full rotation, and almost always has to be reviewed by the live video in the judges' station. It is the main cause of delays in announcing the scores, as the judges review selected jumps.

What commentator's phrase has confused you?