Figure Skating Basics: Different Kinds of Jumps

What do we all really watch figure skating for? The jumps. They are amazing and death-defying and so entertaining. They are beautiful and impossible for most of us. I can't imagine hurtling myself and a couple of skate blades through the air over rock-hard ice.

As I've watched figure skating over the years, I am still amazed by their grace and skill and by all those jumps. There must be dozens and dozens of figure skating jumps, right? No, just many, many possible combinations of the same jumps. And different ways to present them in the variety of routines performed by each skater.

There are really only six major figure skating jumps. They are the Axel, flip (or toe Salchow), loop, Lutz, Salchow, and toe loop. Each one can be a single, double, triple or even quad depending on the number of rotations a skater is capable of and wants to include in a routine.

Each of these six jumps requires the figure skater to launch into the air, rotate and land. The launches are made either from the edge of the skate or from the toe. Toe-assisted jumps use the toe pick, the serrated metal found at the front top of the figure skate's blade. Edge jumps include the Axel, loop, and Salchow. Toe-assisted jumps are the flip, Lutz, and toe loop.

The only one of these jumps that a figure skater enters into while moving forward is the Axel. You'll see the skater preparing for all the other jumps by skating backwards. The other direction that is a factor in each jump relates to rotation. This part is determined by the figure skater and can be either clockwise or counterclockwise. Most figure skaters choose counterclockwise - primarily because they are right-handed. Skaters that rotate clockwise may be left-handed or ambidextrous in their jumping abilities.

So are these six jumps all that a figure skater really needs to know? Of course not. These jumps are only the tip of the iceberg. There are spins and techniques that we haven't even touched on yet. There are also other smaller jumps that are often used for transitions in figure skating routines.