The Difference Between Figure Skating Jumps

I've watched figure skating on television for years, since I was a little girl. And there's one thing that I've never quite understood - how do the judges and announcers tell the difference between all those figure skating jumps?

Outside of program requirements and a knowing what's planned for a particular routine, how do they know what a skater is actually doing? Experience in figure skating certainly helps. Having done many of the jumps themselves and watching them being done over and over again does give them an advantage over the common spectator.

But how do we, common spectators without all that experience, begin to recognize these jumps for ourselves? Fear not. You don't even have to enter full-force into the figure skating universe to make it happen.

You don't have to take any classes or go through any special programs for announcers and judges. You don't have to find your local ice rink to start trying jumps. And you don't need to juice up the Tivo or DVR so you can watch all that figure skating in slow motion - unless you really want to put yourself through that. You simply need to learn some basics. Once you start watching with an eye for those basics, you'll be surprised at how easy it is to tell one jump from another.

The International Skating Union (ISU) regulates figure skating all over the world so that U.S., Canadian, European and all other figure skating organizations worldwide recognize the same basic factors in jumps. These five factors are: entrance edge, toe picks, rotation direction, number of rotations, and landing edge. By looking for each of these factors and putting them together, you can determine the jump you've just seen performed.

The entrance edge of a jump refers to the direction of the skater (forward or backward), which foot is used to push into the jump and which way they lean when they make that push. For example, if a jump uses the backward right inside edge, you'll see a skater on his right foot leaning left and going backwards.