Holds
There are many different ways to hold on to other skaters, and a good routine will have a variety of holds. Holds are constantly evolving, but these are the basic ones:
· Shoulder -- Left arm in front, right arm in back. Arms straight. The one-in-front/one-in-back hold gives stability. If you have both arms in front you will be pushed forward off the line. If both are in back, you will drop off the back.
· Hands -- Palms in. (Place your hands at your sides, palms on your thighs, then extend forward or back as appropriate, keeping your palms "facing in" to your body). The front thumb will be pointing up and the back one will be pointing down. You are responsible for grabbing the hand in front: wrap your thumb and forefinger around your neighbor's wrist, and have her thumb (which will be pointing downward) between your little finger and the next finger. Having the thumb between two fingers is what gives this hold its stability. The front hold will feel more secure than the back, but remember that to the person in back of you, her hold on YOUR hand feels secure.
· Wrists -- Wrists facing. Wrap your whole hand around your neighbor's wrist, extend your forefinger up the inside of her arm. Wrist holds can be painful on a curve, when half the wrists are forced to bend backward
· Elbows, Open Elbow -- Grab above the elbow, not on it.
· Open Arm -- Grab below the elbow.
· Choo-choo -- There are several types. The most common is with both hands on hips/waist of skater in front of you. Sometimes one hand will be on the waist, and the other on the shoulder. Sometimes both hands will be resting on the shoulders of the skater in front.
· Basketweave -- there are several types, but each involves holding the hand of the skater just beyond your neighbor on either side. The basketweave puts skaters very close to each other, and can be extremely stable. The important thing, once you have gotten connected, is to keep your elbows locked to give support to the line:
· Front basketweave -- Stand in a line, side by side, hip to hip. Extend your right hand to the side, reaching across in front of your neighbor, and take the hand of the person just beyond her. The neighbor to your left will extend her right arm across your front to hold the hand of the person to your right. Now put your left arm over the hand that is stretched across you from the left, and grab the hand of the person just beyond. The person to your right will put her left arm over your right, to take the hand of the person to your left. You have one hand over and one under, one palm facing out and one facing in. The skater on the end of the line takes the "last free hand" with her outside hand.
· Back basketweave -- as above, but hands are in back, one over and one under, one palm out, and one in.
· Mock basketweave -- Two lines of skaters in a hand-to-hand hold merge into one, with one line ducking under the arms of the other line, and coming up in the "spaces", still holding on. If the line that ducks comes from the back, the basketweave will be in back. If the line backs in from the front, the basketweave will be in front. Another type of mock basketweave has one line ducking under into the spaces of another line, letting go of hands and reconnecting on the other side, while the line that didn't duck keeps its original hold.
· Teapot, Teacup -- Crook one elbow and place that hand on your hip. The other hand holds onto the upper arm of the neighbor who has crooked HER elbow. You have to HOLD the crooked arm in place and not let it get pulled out, or else the neighbor holding it will slide away.
· Goalpost -- Arms out at shoulder height, bent at elbows, lower arms pointing upward, palms in to form a "goal". The upper arms are "wrapped" so that your arm and palm are pressing inward toward you AGAINST your neighbor's arm and palm which are pressing inward toward her.
· Half Goalpost -- Shoulder hold, but one arm is bent upward at the elbow. Each skater has the "same" arm up, e.g. all skaters have left arm holding right shoulder of their neighbor, and right arm bent upward. In this hold, the only thing keeping the line together is the single arm (in this case the left) holding the neighbor's shoulder. Lattice -- In a block or a parallel pinwheel, one arm connects to the skater beside you, and the other to the skater in front of you.
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Formations
Formations are constantly evolving, and many have a variety of names. All formations are some variation of the five basic types: wheel, line, circle, block, and intersecting move:
· Wheel, Star, Pinwheel -- Spokes should be evenly spaced, and each spoke extends straight out from the center unless otherwise instructed. A pinwheel can have as few as one line rotating around a spot in the center of the line, or it can be composed of as many spokes as can fit around a common center. Pinwheels with more than six spokes are unusual.
· Hollow Wheel, Open Wheel -- A Wheel in which the spokes are not joined at the center.
· Pivot or One Pin -- A line that pivots around one end. The line should extend straight out from the pivot point.
· S-Wheel -- A pinwheel composed of a single line in which the two ends are curved strongly opposite each other to form an S. The ends of the S should not extend beyond the pivot.
· Infinity, Eight -- An S-Wheel in which the ends are joined across the pivot to form an infinity sign, or a figure 8.
· Wrapped Wheel -- A pinwheel with three or more spokes in which the spokes are curved all in the same direction to "wrap around" the center. Spokes should be evenly spaced around the center.
· Hurricane or Traveling Star or Traveling Pinwheel -- A pinwheel in which the center of rotation (the pivot point) changes position on the rink.
· Parallel pinwheel -- A wheel in which two or more parallel lines rotate as if they were one. The hardest thing in a parallel wheel is keeping the centers of the lines aligned with each other.
· Oreo -- A three-line parallel pinwheel, in which the center line is doing something different from the other two. For example, the middle line may be in a spiral, with skaters holding the waists of the line in front, and having their feet held by the skaters in the line behind.
· Add-On Pinwheel -- A wheel in which skaters join onto the ends as the pinwheel rotates, adding to the length of the line. This is considered more a show move than a competition move.
· Egg Beater -- Two or more pinwheels rotating close to each other in opposite directions and slightly out of phase, so that the spokes overlap.
· Jump Rope -- An eggbeater in which one or more lines or circles of skaters are not in the pinwheels, and skate through the middle of the eggbeater as it rotates, rather like double-Dutch jump rope.
· Gear -- An egg beater in which one pinwheel remains in place, while a smaller pinwheel travels around the outside, meshing with the spokes of the larger wheel as it goes.
· Revolving Door -- Pivots and/or pinwheels that overlap slightly so that skaters must release and rejoin in order for the lines to pass by each other.
· Egg, Ball, Snowball -- A small circle that travels in or through a larger formation
· Block -- Any arrangement of multiple lines in a block. The alignment of lines and rows needs to be maintained throughout a block maneuver. Blocks are often nicknamed by what footwork is contained in them, or by the music they are skated to in a particular program (e.g. the waltz block, the lunge block)
· Pyramid Block -- A block in which lines are graduated in length and offset so that a solid triangular shape is formed (e.g. three lines 3, 5, and 7 skaters long). Alignment of lines is extremely important so that the pyramid shape is maintained throughout the maneuver.
· Rotating block -- A block in which the entire formation rotates around a common center, maintaining the block form throughout. (like a parallel pinwheel with three or more short lines)
· Line, Kickline -- A straight line, usually of the entire team.
· Hinge -- A line folds in the middle and the sides approach each other as in the closing of a hinge. Skaters can either stop at the point the lines meet, and form two parallel lines, OR, one or both of the lines can let go, and skaters pass through to let the hinge open up again.
· Pass-through, Intersection -- Any move in which two lines or sets of lines pass through each other usually (but not always) by having one or both of the lines or sets of lines let go and rejoin following the pass.
· Cross or Pass -- Two lines, originally end-to-end, skim past each other face to face or back to back, trading places and usually forming a single line after the pass/cross. The skaters that were on the outside at the beginning are in the middle after the cross. If the two lines are opposite spokes of a pinwheel, it is usually called a cross, if the lines are not part of a pinwheel, it is usually called a pass.
· V, Arrow, Chevron -- A line or set of parallel lines shaped like a V or a V within a V.
· Peel-Away, Swoop, Swoosh, Tangent, Zipper -- Two or more lines come very close to each other and then curve away, "glancing off" each other. Lines are usually face to face, skaters have feet held in line with each other, both traveling on the same "tracing", one foot in front of the other, one on an inside edge, one on an outside edge.
· Circle -- The fewer the skaters, the greater the torque and the more difficult it is to perform complex footwork.
· Thread the needle -- A move in which one or more lines pass through perpendicular to another formation by passing between the skaters of the other formation.
· Clock or Lollipop -- A line pivots around one end. A circle forms around the pivot end, with the center of the circle being the pivot point of the line. Both the line and the circle rotate, sometimes in the same direction (but at different speeds), sometimes in opposite directions. The skaters in the circle duck under the line as it passes over them. If the line is short in relation to the size of the circle, it's a clock. If the line is long, it's a lollipop.
· Snail -- A line that curves in on itself. The formation is circular, but the ends are not attached, and the inner end is "wrapped" by the remainder of the line.
· Traveling -- Any rotating formation can be made to "travel", that is to change the position of its center on the rink.
· Saturn -- A pinwheel consisting of a single line pivoting at its center, with a circle formed around the center portion of the pinwheel. The circle can either be attached to the line, or it can move independent of the line, passing through at 2 points.
Intersecting Move -- This is official term for any move in which skaters or groups of skaters "pass through" other skaters or groups of skaters. It can apply to lines, blocks, circles, etc
See Elements
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