Gordon's Glossary

I thought I should post a brief glossary of terms I use, so that both non-skaters and skaters will understand what I'm talking about. For a lot more information about the technical aspects of skating check out Don Korte's excellent Figure Skater's Website.

• 3s -- a 3-turn. More specifically I would usually say "LFI3" (as in, "those darn LFI3s are my nemesis!") which denotes the starting edge of the 3-turn.
• APB -- Adult Pre-Bronze. The lowest level of the adult testing track in US Figure Skating. The other levels are Bronze, Silver, and Gold, and then there are some other options above that.
• Boy Points -- sometimes skaters (who are, after all, 90+% female) complain that boys (and men) get treated more easily because they are so few, i.e., they succeed not solely on skill but also by getting favorable treatment ("boy points").
• BXOs --back crossovers.
  
• Click of Death -- the "clicking" noise you hear when your blades touch each other. Usually the CofD is heard while doing crossovers, but other moves can also result in this disturbing noise. The CofD is almost always followed by a nasty fall.
  
• Cross & Hold -- when learning or practicing crossovers it's often helpful to practice skating in the crossed-over position, i.e. one leg crossed over the other and both blades on the ice. Skating in this position requires one to be able to hold the crossed-under blade without allowing it the toepick to catch or the blade to turn and run into your other blade causing a Click of Death (see above).
• DDM -- Dorky Dance Music. Much of the music used for the compulsory ice dances has been in use for about forever, and anyone who skates much has heard it so many times as to be thoroughly tired of it.
  
• Edges -- RFI, RBI, LFI, LBI, RFO, RBO, LFO, LBO. As my first coach Anna used to exclaim, skating's one-footed! Most skaters spend very little time with both feet on the ice unless they are standing still. So the abbreviations above refer to which foot (Right or Left), which direction (Forward or Backward) and which edge (Outside or Inside). The outside edge is the edge of your skate on the outside of your body and the inside edge, the inside of your body. See this article on edges for more info.
  
• Eeyore skate -- this is for anytime you skate and you feel like Eeyore from "Winnie the Pooh" -- dragging, not getting much out of it, not motivated.
• FS -- freestyle, as in "FS session".
• FXOs -- forward crossovers.
  
• MIF, MITF -- Moves in the Field. These are patterns that are used by skaters to practice and demonstrate proficiency for testing in the US Figure Skating test track.
  
• Perseverance -- I use this term to label any time I skate and there's nothing particularly exciting to report. It's a reminder to myself that perseverance in practice is a very important part of skating.
• PSS -- this stands for Pinky-Swear-Skate. My skate buddy Mary and I made a pact to skate Wednesday mornings at 6 a.m. The idea of the pact was that if someone is holding us accountable we'll be able to do something that's hard -- get our butts out of bed at 5 a.m. to go skate.
• Shiny Rink -- Sherwood Ice Arena, so called because it's pretty new and nice.
• Shiny Rink+ -- Mountain View Ice Arena in Vancouver, WA. It's even nicer than Sherwood, but recently they've closed one of the ice sheets (it was the only rink in the Portland area with two sheets) so it's perhaps less nice than it was.

Last updated 3/1/07.