The Complete Book of Figure Skating

I like that it explains of the figure skating and how to improve and the type of equipment needed to help advanced. Very good book.

This book is very well written by a great authority. Most of the criticism of this text relates to the fact that it is not for everybody. The descriptions are perfect for skaters who are familiar with skating terminology, but at times too cursory for beginners. If you're a beginner some of the contents will be confusing, but in time you'll catch up and it will all make sense. Where this book shines is in its insights into student/instructor relations. It's useful to both pupil and teacher. Anybody who is serious about becoming a better skater will find something useful every time they open the cover. Anyone who is contemplating becoming a skating professional should definitely get this book and read it carefully.

This book is complete in the sense that it has information on all aspects of skating, from beginner skills to advanced techniques. However, the beginner section is not extensive, so this is more for skaters who have mastered the basics and want to learn the proper technique for spins and jumps. The pictures to demonstrate the moves are nice, but sometimes not very helpful, since the in-between steps are not included (a lot happens from picture 1a to picture 1b).

Explanation of moves could be a bit more detailed. The book does not contain any drills. Overall, it contains useful information but you may also resort to another source to learn figure skating.

This book is a great way to double check your coaching explanations! Sometimes it may be tough to find a new way to explain a maneuver to a student, but this book makes it simple!

very helpful to me! Easy to understand the explanation of words used in figure skating. Recommend to beginners :)

Good reference book for skaters and skating fans

GREAT BOOK TO HAVE AS A MOTHER OF A FIGURE SKATER.

I have been a fan of this sport for years, being " an armchair " expert and awarding marks! However, I now know the difference between a Salchow and an Axel, the different edges of spins, and the technical quality needed for a death spiral! The book is very well written, not too difficult to understand, and various famous skaters from the recent past mentioned for their particular expertise. But although the descriptions and photos are very good, I think that a DVD of the actual moves would be easier. I have a DVD of ballet steps, starting with the five positions and advancing to the technical difficulties of arabesques, pirouettes and grand jetes. If a DVD were available to accompany this skating book then it would have had a definite five star rating, but as it is, the static photos merit only four stars.

A phenomenal source of figure skating knowledge, covering pretty much all basics, edgework, spins and jumps. Mildly outdated as published in early 2000s, but not really in any relevant way. (Eg. claims quint jumps will happen soon.)

I pick and read some parts of the book. It is helpful for spectators to understand the sport a bit better. In practice, I had to make up my own exercise routine. The book doesn’t contain any workout to become a figure skater. However, I found the detail of the movements helpful. It gives me some assurance over my understanding of the terminology with watching clips from the Internet.

Last year I started learning to skate with the SkateUK programme. This is definitely the most useful book I bought. Steps to Success is a bit difficult to follow, and hard to dip into at random. Figure Skating (Petkevich) is good, but seems to be aimed at more advanced skaters. This book is ideal for people in their first few years of learning to skate - it's the one I turn to when I can't remember where my feet should go in an open mohawk, or wonder how on earth I'm ever going to get low enough to do a teapot.

Its a fairly well written book about figure skating and one of the best in print. Some small errors are present for the UK reader since the US and UK Skating scene are not the same and dances, jumps etc are sometimes different or called different things.