All About Edges: What Are They & How Do You Do Them?

Hi everyone. This is Aimée. Welcome to my channel. Coaches and skaters talk about edges all the time. My skaters will often hear me tell them to use their edge to get a better push or hold on to their edges. If you're new to skating or you're a parent of a figure skater or a hockey player, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about edges. In this video, I'll explain what edges are, why they're essential and how to improve them. Skating on edges is a more advanced way of skating with power and speed. Once you get past all the basics, the skating elements and steps consist of edges. Learning how to control and use your edges is critical for you to become efficient, confident, and more advanced in your skating. Before you learn more complex elements, such as turns, jumps, and spins, you must master edges. A skate blade has two edges, inside and outside. The inside edge is on the inside of the blade. The outside is on the outside of the blade. Between the two edges is a groove. It's called a hollow. The hollow is what creates these two precise edges. Even though your blade has two edges, there are eight edges that you can create when skating. If that math sounds weird to you, let's work it out. Each skate has two edges. You can skate forward and backward, and you have two feet. That adds up to a total of eight possible edges. Right and left, forward inside and outside, backward inside and backward outside. When you skate on both edges simultaneously, you are on the flat of your blade. This is what you're doing when you're gliding on two feet in a straight line. It's not efficient to skate this way though. You'll go slower and turns and transitions are much more challenging. When you're on flats, you can make curves and turns when you get into the ice with your edge. The deeper your edge, the sharper your curves and turns are. This is critical, not just for figure skaters, but also for hockey skaters. Once you master your edges, you'll find that you're almost always skating on edge, or at least you should be. Skating on edges is an essential skill that you must develop as you progress. As a coach, I usually introduce the concept of edges to my skaters when they're at the learn to skate basic two level. Once you've mastered a one foot glide for four full seconds, eight out of 10 times with control, you are ready to work on your edges. I usually introduce edges using curves where I ask my skaters to glide on a half circle or low on two feet, and then gradually lift up one foot. We begin with the forward outside edges as most skaters find it more challenging than the inside edges. Inside edges aren't more natural for most skaters, but many skaters will also naturally toe push more often to skate on their inside edge, which we want to avoid. These curves eventually become your basic consecutive edges that appear as pattern number two on the pre-preliminary or adult pre-bronze moves in the field, soon to be called skating skills test. This is the first official US figure skating test that a figure skater will take on their skating journey. Honestly, I have my hockey skaters learn all the patterns too, even if they never test them. When you learn the consecutive edges, you're learning to change lean, change load, and control the natural rotation of the body while gliding on a curve. Skating on a curve creates rotational movement with the upper body, and sometimes the lower body if the upper body rotation is not well controlled. When the curve gets deeper, you may have a challenging time controlling the rotation of the upper body. You can use different techniques to control your upper body on the forward outside consecutive edges. One technique could begin with the same arm in front. Another method is starting with the opposite arm in front. There's no right or wrong. Typically my skaters perform the curves. I watch for what looks natural to them. If they're having difficulty holding the edge, I adjust their arms working with their natural instincts so that they can hold the edge. Some coaches prefer different techniques though. Always follow your own coach's recommendations and advice. Whatever technique you use, understand that you must have proper body alignment over the blade. Your ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, head need to be in alignment over the blade. When skating forward, the weight on the blade should be on the middle back of the blade. When skating backward, the weight should be on the middle front of the blade. How do you create an edge? You must be gliding. You also must be leaning your body over the circle from the blade up. You create the edge by the lean of the blade, your body alignment and your balance on the blade. When you're skating on an edge, your hips should be offset at about 45 degrees of your line of travel. When you're skating forward on an edge, the hip on the inside of the curve should be forward to lead the rest of your body. When you're skating backward on an edge, your hips will face inside the circle with your hip closest to the curve leading you backward. Before each push, bend both your knees. Pushes should always be made from an inside edge using the part of your blade under the ball of your foot. This is the front half to one third of your blade. It is not your toe pick. Pushing from your inside edge is the only effective technique. It's the only way to get enough of your blade into the ice to exert the most significant force. Using your toe pick, as many beginning skaters do only works at slow speeds and does not provide enough power for sustained glides. It's also hard on your ankles. When you go to take your moves in the field or what will be called a skating skills test, judges will make notes about toe pushing. You will have to correct it to pass more advanced tests. Think about it. Hockey skaters don't even have toe picks. The front third of your blade should contact the ice, not your toe pick. As you push, keep your weight over your pushing foot before transferring your weight to the skating foot. Your posture should be upright by engaging your core. The easiest way to engage your core is to draw your belly button in. Think about drawing a line from your shoulder straight down through your hips, down your skating leg onto your skating foot. This helps with balance and creating the curves required for edges, giving you a more polished and more elegant appearance. Your head should be up, not looking down at the ice, preferably looking over the leading shoulder. Your skating knee should always be active, rising or falling. You will often extend your free leg with your foot turned out and toe pointed directly over the tracing of the edge made by your skating leg. The skating knee is active and your free leg is passive. As you rise up in your skating knee, you draw your free leg in. And as you bend the skating knee, you extend your free leg. Aside from the curves, there are some other exercises that I often use. Swizzle pumps on a circle forward, backward, clockwise, and counterclockwise. This exercise aims for you to feel that the edges are on the circle and your body lean is balanced over the circle. You will feel both the outside and the inside edges while on two feet. One foot glides on a circle, right, left, forward, backward, clockwise and counterclockwise. You skate edges while moving on a circle. Balance on two feet, then pick up the leg to the outside of the circle, holding it as a one foot glide. Arms are held with the free arm in front and the skating arm held behind. Your body will have a slight lean to the circle. Isolate your body position to balance over the gliding foot. Your body should hug the circle and the free non-skating hip should be aligned over the skating foot. Slalom. This exercise will teach consecutive lobes and change lean from one circle to another. Increase your body lean, knee bend, and pressure into the ice as you increase your speed across the ice. Consecutive basic edges on an axis. This is what's in the pre-preliminary and adult pre-bronze moves in the field or what will be skating skills. These are taking curves to a whole other level. You start in a T position on the axis. You're skating foot perpendicular to the axis. You initially hold your free leg with the free toe to the skating heel and pass forward to a straight free leg position. It's different than a swing roll where you swing through rather than holding your toe to heel position. Your arm should pass close to your side in a down up motion. You also pass your free leg close to the skating leg so that a controlled rotation will be easier. With each step down, place perpendicular on the long axis. You perform the edges for the next edge to begin them on the correct edge. For backward edges from a standstill, you perform a back pump with your pushing foot in front. This can be difficult for skaters that have only taken group lessons. Often group lesson instructors will teach backward pumps as a C cut, where you're pumping next to your skating foot. But the correct backward outside edge has a push in front of your skating foot. Use a pivot action to step perpendicular, turning the free toe in before stepping down. After pushing your free leg is held firmly in front, passed close to the skating foot, and then held close and firmly behind the skating heel before extending the free leg. The extension by the way is optional, but it helps to have a more elegant appearance. Also helps you maintain momentum so you can get back to the axis on the edge. Edges are fundamental skating skills that skaters use in all figure skating disciplines, as well as hockey. You need to be on edges for good control and edges are required for turns, jumps, and spins. In a future video, I'm going to go over turns. So make sure you hit that subscribe button and ring the bell so that you don't miss that video when I post it. If this video helped you out hit that like button and share it with somebody else you think it could help. Just post it on your social media too. This is Aimée. Thank you for watching. I will see you real soon. Happy skating. Bye.