Unrecognized Figure Skating Turns – Orphan Turns Part 2 (Nick Perna)

Figure skating coach Nick Perna continues his discussion of a set of unnamed and unrecognized turns that he calls orphan turns because they don’t below to any family and they have no formal name. In the previous video, Nick demonstrated a forward inside orphan mohawk which he dubbed the “brackhawk.”

In this video, Nick discusses some of the other orphan turns. He says, “I discovered that there was 8 orphan mohawks and there were 8 orphan choctaws, for a total of 16 turns that have no name. And some of them are very difficult to do and some are not that difficult at all.” One of the orphan turns is an advanced yet common turn often called the Scott Hamilton turn, the Scottie Turn, the flip flop, the helicopter, piston turns, or the barrel roll (and there’s probably even more names for it than that!) depending on where a skater or coach lives in the world. That turn is the back inside mohawk with natural rotation as Nick demonstrates in the video (back inside edge to forward inside edge).

Nick continues by discussing one of the most unusual orphan turns. It’s the forward outside orphan mohawk. Nick notes that a normal forward outside mohawk uses uses counter rotation. The orphan turn uses natural rotation. Nick demonstrates this unusual turn and then notes, “If we take that left forward outside natural turning mohawk and we jump it, guess what we get. We get a waltz jump.” Nick explains that most of these turns can be jumped or toe stepped or hopped for more variation.

Then Nick begins to discuss orphan choctaws. A standard forward outside choctaw uses counter rotation. Nick shows how to create the corresponding orphan turn using natural rotation. These kinds of turns provide interesting and unusual movements and patterns on the ice.

In some candid footage at the end, Nick explains to Trevor behind the camera that there really isn’t a single definition of a mohawk in terms of natural or counter rotation. And he shows more examples of these unusual turns. As noted in Part 1 of this series, these turns can be tremendously fun for skaters of all ability levels to attempt.