Glossary of Skating Terminology

Edge Call: The identification by the Technical Panel that a fliporLutz jump took on the wrong edge; i.e., a flip entry taking off on an outside edge or a Lutz entry taking off on an inside edge.

Edge jump: A jump in which the skater takes off from the entry edge of the skating foot, without bringing the free foot in contact with the ice to assist the takeoff. Edge jumps include Salchow, loop and Axel.

Edges: The two sharp sides of a blade after a radius has been ground into the width of the blade running along the length of the blade. Grinding the blade this way also results in a depression between the two edges, known as the hollow. For each foot, the edge closest to the center line of the body is the inside edge and the edge farthest from the centerline is the outside edge.

By controlling the placement of their center of gravity over their skates a skater can glide on either both edges simultaneously, or on one of the two edges alone.

Egg beater: A synchronized skating formation consisting of two interleaved wheels.

Element: A major movement in a program such as a jump, spin, step sequence, lift, throw, death spiral, etc. Elements are categorized as listed or unlisted depending on whether they are include in the Scale of Values.

Element Code: The alphanumeric code (abbreviation) for a listed element included in the Scale of Values. Unlisted elements do not have element codes.

Element Level: The level of difficulty assigned to certain types of elements by the Technical Panel according to difficulty factors specified for those element types.

Element points: The points earned by the execution of listed elements in a program.

Eligible skater (athlete): A skater eligible to compete under the rules of national and international governing bodies. These rules generally allow skaters to earn income from skating with certain minor restriction. Exact restrictioms vary among various governing bodies.

Elimination round: Groups of initial performances, the judging of which is used to reduce the number of competitors in an event to a smaller number of skaters who then perform again in a final round.

Event: (1) The term often used for a category in North America. (2) The term used by the ISU for an entire competition that may consists of multiple categories. For example, the World Championships is an event that has four categories: senior ladies, senior men, senior pairs and senior dance.

Event Referee: The competition official who has full authority over all aspects of a competitive segment and supervises the panel of judges. Event referees are assigned by the competition's chief referee.

Exhibition lifts: The group of lifts used in exhibitions and shows whose use is not permitted in pair skating competitions. These can include unlisted overhead lifts, half lift, adagio lifts, etc.

Extra elements: Elements in addition to the allowed number of elements in a program. Under 6.0 scoring extra elements in the short program results in mandatory deductions. Under IJS scoring extra elements do not receive element scores.