@moonvine asked in the Debi Thomas thread about the difference between school figures (also known as compulsory figures) and creative figures (also known as fancy figures or special figures)
OK, here's some history and explanation.
School figures
As noted in the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_figures,
"In 1897, the ISU adopted a schedule of 41 school figures, each of increasing difficulty, which was proposed by the British."
From 1897 to 1990, the compulsory figures portion of singles competitions sponsored by the ISU
It was these standard figures that were used in the compulsory parts of competition (more advanced ones in senior competition especially as the 20th century moved on, medium-difficulty ones in junior and lower competition, the easiest ones in low-level competition below international level).
All of those 41 figures consist of two or three circles, with a diameter approximately 3 times the height of the skater (or approximately the same as the skater's height in the case of loop figures). Two circles make a pattern that looks like 8 (hence the phrase "figure eight") and three circles looks like ooo.
Here's a link to a roller skating site that gives details and diagrams first for these standard 41 figures, and then for additional variations that may or may not be standard in roller skating these days but were never standard on ice: https://skatedancediagrams.weebly.com/school-figures.html
On the Wikipedia page linked above, if you scroll down to the Works cited at the bottom and click on Special Regulations for Figures, you can find a link to a PDF of the detailed rules for figures tests, that US Figure Skating still offers (though not many people take these tests any more).
That document also contains diagrams of the 41 school figures at the end, after a lot of pages about rules for testing.
There were and are plenty of other training exercises designed to be practiced on circles, so they could be practiced on patch sessions or otherwise teach about controlling edges and turns on circles. Those later roller skating examples might fit that definition. Some exercises based on circles are used on skating skills tests in the US and elsewhere.
For now, we’ll just focus on the figures that were part of the official list of school figures used in competition.
Here is a video of skaters practicing figures on a "patch session" (each skater using their own patch of ice): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noVEHiUcaUw
With few exceptions, the skaters in this video are working on standard school figures. At the beginning and end you see some skaters who are only doing pieces of the circles at a time.
OK, I’m also going to include this video of a coach demonstrating all the different one-foot turns used in figures (not counting loops). She’s not doing the whole patterns of the figures, but this will be useful for learning the differences between these different kinds of turns:
www.youtube.com
OK, here's some history and explanation.
School figures
As noted in the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_figures,
"In 1897, the ISU adopted a schedule of 41 school figures, each of increasing difficulty, which was proposed by the British."
From 1897 to 1990, the compulsory figures portion of singles competitions sponsored by the ISU
It was these standard figures that were used in the compulsory parts of competition (more advanced ones in senior competition especially as the 20th century moved on, medium-difficulty ones in junior and lower competition, the easiest ones in low-level competition below international level).
All of those 41 figures consist of two or three circles, with a diameter approximately 3 times the height of the skater (or approximately the same as the skater's height in the case of loop figures). Two circles make a pattern that looks like 8 (hence the phrase "figure eight") and three circles looks like ooo.
Here's a link to a roller skating site that gives details and diagrams first for these standard 41 figures, and then for additional variations that may or may not be standard in roller skating these days but were never standard on ice: https://skatedancediagrams.weebly.com/school-figures.html
On the Wikipedia page linked above, if you scroll down to the Works cited at the bottom and click on Special Regulations for Figures, you can find a link to a PDF of the detailed rules for figures tests, that US Figure Skating still offers (though not many people take these tests any more).
That document also contains diagrams of the 41 school figures at the end, after a lot of pages about rules for testing.
There were and are plenty of other training exercises designed to be practiced on circles, so they could be practiced on patch sessions or otherwise teach about controlling edges and turns on circles. Those later roller skating examples might fit that definition. Some exercises based on circles are used on skating skills tests in the US and elsewhere.
For now, we’ll just focus on the figures that were part of the official list of school figures used in competition.
Here is a video of skaters practicing figures on a "patch session" (each skater using their own patch of ice): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noVEHiUcaUw
With few exceptions, the skaters in this video are working on standard school figures. At the beginning and end you see some skaters who are only doing pieces of the circles at a time.
OK, I’m also going to include this video of a coach demonstrating all the different one-foot turns used in figures (not counting loops). She’s not doing the whole patterns of the figures, but this will be useful for learning the differences between these different kinds of turns:
The Four Figure Skating Turns (3-Turns, Brackets, Counters & Rockers)
Keep getting confused when it comes to 4 figure skating steps? Then here is something that is going to help! âºâº https://www.nextedgetutorials.com/4skatingtur...
www.youtube.com
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