Hold Your Line

I’ve heard that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But figure skating happens in curves and with edges sometimes called “lobes” shaped just like ears. An aerial view of a session would reveal an overlapping collection of arcs, swirls, curlicues, and loop-de-loops double-backing on themselves. Wide curves, tighter curves, and spiral formations. 

In years gone by, figure eights traced on the ice by athletes formed actual 8s with two connected circles. Three consecutive circles looked like snowmen but were officially called Serpentines. 

Switching quickly from forward to back or back to forward on one foot is called a three-turn and leaves behind a two-curved imprint of the number ‘3’. Twizzles, Swizzles, Double Axels, and Death Spirals: they all involve curves.  

Even the blades themselves curve slightly from toe-pick to heel. And the hollow — the concave space between the inside and outside edges of the blade — is a semi-circle, shaped like an upside-down bowl. 

There are no straight lines in skating. 

Still, during practices, when there were maybe 30 other kids whizzing around us, my older brother always gripped my hand tightly. He said through clenched teeth, Hold your line, which, even though we were on a curve, meant don’t stop, stay the course, go through them instead of around, keep going or they’ll never stop for you again. I knew what he meant. Each moment during those sessions was like a game of chicken. And that’s exactly what I was.

Jocelyn Jane Cox’s award-winning book, Motion Dazzle: A Memoir of Motherhood, Loss, and Skating on Thin Ice (Vine Leaves Press, 2025) explores motherhood, sports participation, and caregiving. She competed in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships four times and coached the sport for over two decades. Among other publications, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Slate, The Offing, Skating Magazine, The Linden Review, Cleaver, Litro Magazine, and Colorado Review. Her fiction and nonfiction have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. More information at www.jocelynjanecox.com and on her Instagram @jocelynjanecoxwriter.