Xinhai Dude

This is part 2 of a series on Mabrouk. In this part I describe in excruciating details the four slalom components of Mabrouk previously summarized in What is Mabrouk: a slalom variant of Grapevine. I learned to skate a sustained Mabrouk by first practicing the four slalom components, and by connecting them with rudimentary transitions. I later refined these transitions to make the entire Mabrouk sequence flow, but that is for part 3 and beyond of this series.

Following diagram and filmstrip recap key takeaways from part 1. Remember to read them from right to left, as indicated by the yellow arrow showing the direction of body movement. Labels s1, s2, s3 and s4 denote the four slalom components of Mabrouk. Transitions are annotated by balance moments b1, b2, b3 and b4. Vertical blue and pink bands show when left and right skates glide alone as the primary bearer of body weight. Thus, the blue left skate can be seen bearing weight and gliding around balance moments b1, and later around balance moment b3. The red right skate can be seen bearing weight and gliding around b2, and later around b4.

Similarly, the filmstrip above illustrates a full Mabrouk sequence, incorporating both slalom components s1, s2, s3 and s4, and balance moments b1, b2, b3 and b4. Remember to read them from right to left, as indicated by the yellow arrow showing the direction of body movement. At every component and moment, the projected center of gravity is indicated by a yellow circle on the ground. Slalom components are labeled in white – they are symmetric distribution points where both skates shoulder body weight equally. Balance moments are transition steps where one skate shoulders all body weight, colored blue when the left skate carries body weight and glides, and red when the right skate does so.

TLDR: for those of you who just want simple instructions on learning Mabrouk, search for the label TLDR on this page. You may ignore deep introspections and tedious expositions on Mabrouk. Those are really for academics, and for learners with too much time in their hands.

Mabrouk is a slalom variant of a figure skating move called Grapevine. The Grapevine skating pattern is described and diagramed as early as 1880 by Vandervell and Cox in “A System of Figure-skating”. The slalom version is presumably named after Swiss slalomer Eddy Mabrouk. Both Mabrouk and Grapevine employ the same exact 4 components, namely forward/backward criss-cross, and forward/reverse eagle.

While Mabrouk emphasizes four curved slalom footwork around equally spaced cones. Grapevine strives to have the skater move in a streamline without giving explicit thoughts to slalom components. This difference can be seen in patterns they trace on the ground as presented below.

While the two diagrams look very similar, in actuality these two moves are skated with distinct attitudes and goals. To skate Mabrouk, one has to keep the cones in view and constantly adjust skating patterns accordingly. On the other hand, Grapevine is skated more freely, with the eye trained in the general direction of body movement, despite the 180° turning of the hip from side to side. A skater primarily moves in a streamline in Grapevine. Thus the gliding skate will trace a slightly flattened slalom curve as there are no cones to avoid.

Like Grapevine, Mabrouk is also skated exclusively on outside edges. This when done to perfection appears to an onlooker as if a skater had Jackson’s moonwalk power, and could effortlessly propel herself indefinitely around cones, while turning forward and backward, without ever lifting any skates from the ground.

I have previously written much about Grapevine already. I started by trying to learn the ice skate version Grapevine, even before I could skate much. That journey was documented in Learn to Skate the Two-foot Grapevine Analytically. But I never quite managed to sustain the move indefinitely on ice, even though I understood intellectually how it would be done. I subsequently tried to skate Grapevine on inline skates. This turned out to be even more difficult, due to much stronger friction between wheels and pavement, compounded by my unfinished Grapevine training. However, instructions from Naomi Grigg on toe pivots and heel pivots proved to be enlightening, as I recounted in Learn the Two-foot Grapevine on Inline Skates. While I still couldn’t sustain Grapevine indefinitely on pavement, I was finally able to do so on ice by applying these pivots.

It wasn’t until I followed a great YouTube video on Mabrouk from Daniel of SkaMiDan fame that I truly managed to string all four component moves of Grapevine into a continuous sequence. In other words, the Mabrouk way of looking at the same four components was eye-opening. Breaking the sequence into four distinct and common slalom components allowed me to learn to cleanly transition from one component into the next. It taught me how to inject energy into the sequence at every one of these four components. I finally had a mental model for how to articulate these transitions, and to string the four components into a single sustained flow.

This article is part 1 of a series of articles that together document my learning journey for anyone in the same position. But first, go watch Daniel’s video, and subscribe to his channel. Daniel has gracefully allowed me to use his excellent video as a source material for illustration in this article. Thanks, Daniel!