The Physics Behind Figure Skating

ARTICLE BY JOY MERRY, WASILLA, AK

As a figure skater, I can confidently say, figure skating employs a crapton of physics. Different parts of the blade are used to execute various elements such as jumps, spins, and footwork dance sequences. Your arms and legs also play a huge role in creating and minimizing air resistance.

Ice has a low level of friction. When your blade slides against the ice, it melts and forms a tiny layer of water. This process is called sliding friction. The skater deforms the ice through sliding friction in order to propel themselves forward and backward. The faster the skater goes, the more friction is generated. Your skates have inside, outside, and flat edges. Edges, on several areas of your blade, are used to execute footwork.

All of the most impressive jumps (and less impressive jumps) are only possible through employing toe picks. One of the most important things when landing a jump backward is to land on your toe picks and shift to the tail of your blade to stop the rotation. Shifting from your toe picks to between the rocker and tail of your blade, and extending your arms and legs creates air resistance to stop the rotation out of your jump. In figure skating, we call this a checkout.

When spinning, you use the area of the blade that is called the spin rocker and barely touch the drag pick, in order to minimize travel. Traveling is a term used to describe how much a spin moves from where it started. Every skater has their favorite spot on their blade. It can vary depending on your center of gravity. In a standard one-foot spin or front scratch, to gain speed, your arms and legs should start extended and close into your body as close as possible, to lessen drag and create momentum. When doing a spin of any kind, it’s important to not drag the tail of your blade. This could slow down your spin and could be very dangerous.

When doing glides, such as forward spiral, forward grab leg spiral, or forward Chinese spiral, it’s important to stay in the tail of your blade so you don’t end up catching your toe picks and falling forward.

When doing any backward spirals, such as backward Y spiral, Charlotte, or backward grab leg spirals, it’s important to stay in the rocker and drag picks so you don’t catch the tail of your blade and fall backward. Y spiral can be dangerous when done backward, but more so when done forward. Falling forward on a Y spiral while going forward can cause long-term damage if you don’t fall properly. My favorite glide just so happens to be the Y spiral, but doing it forward caused my first patella dislocation.

Your arms and legs, in addition to your blades, are extremely important components in figure skating. Figure skating requires a ton of physical strength to create momentum and sometimes carve through it. There is also the artistic aspect of using your limbs creatively and elegantly to create illusions. Different areas of your blade keep you in balance and help create an array of movements. Figure skating is so much easier to appreciate when you know how much work and perseverance it takes to make the sport elegant.