The block is a figure originated by placing at least three (since 1998/99 season) lines parallelely one in front of the other. The main difficulty of this figure consists in keeping all the lines straight, parallel, aligned and equidistant from each other. How you skate a block is the same as a line but the added difficulty of having four lines skating together at the same time. This makes it more difficult than the line, and the work of the skaters in it must take care of many different factors. Compared to a line a block is more agile in its movements and allows the team to execute steps they can’t do in a line because of the way the line usually moves on the ice: mostly transversally. The block has, moreover, two perpendicular axises we can consider as the base and the height of a rectangle, which actually makes its shape rectangular. One of the most important exercises a team can do is a change of configuration, and as a matter of fact at least one change of axis is required in the Short Program. The change of configuration consists in a 90° rotation of the arms and shoulders of every skater. After dropping their arms they rotate and grab the arms of the skaters in front and behind them, so they transform 4 lines of 5 skaters in 5 lines of 4 skaters. So far I've talked only about a block we can call the Standard one: there are also other kinds of block a team cannot execute in a Short Program but can insert in their Free Skating routine.
They are:
and any other combination of minimum 3 equidistand and parallel lines.
The block is of enormous importance in Synchronized Skating; one of the best ways to teach your skaters to perform it well is use it as a warm up exercise at the beginning of every practice session, thus making them practice daily what they usually do during a competition’s warm up.
