The bunny hop is the first little jump in figure skating. Learn takeoff, landing and glide flow in five steps – without rushing and with clear milestones.
The bunny hop is a small hop while gliding: you lift lightly off the ice, land softly and keep gliding. The honest answer: it is not a jump in the sporting sense but a learning hop – the first moment you really leave the ice, and the moment you learn to land.
In the Learn to Skate USA curriculum it stands at the very end of Basic 6, next to the forward spiral, T-stops and backward stroking [1]. Before that, Basic 1 has only a "two-foot hop in place" as a bonus [1]. This matches the Skate Canada definition: a hop is "a small jump without rotation" [2]. And in competition a small hop without rotation does not count as a jump [3].
Realistically you learn the bunny hop in two to four weeks of regular training if gliding and one-foot balance are solid (experience, not study data).
Without calm one-foot gliding there is no hop. Glide slowly, knees bent, eyes straight ahead, arms slightly out.
Milestone: glide 3 seconds on one foot, both sides.
Hop lightly in place, knees soft. The curriculum lists the "two-foot hop in place" as a bonus in Basic 1 [1] – here you learn to land with bent knees.
Milestone: 10 hops, calm and even.
Glide slowly and hop a hand's width forward without losing your track. The legs stay under the body, the landing is soft. In the curriculum the "side toe hop" in Basic 5 is a bonus for this [1].
Pay attention to the landing: bend the knees, put toe and heel down together, weight in the middle. If you land hard, take a step back and hop lower. Height is not the goal here – the feel for the landing is (practice, not study data).
Milestone: 5 hops in a row.
For the actual bunny hop a coach belongs at your side. They show you when and how to use the toe pick of the other foot at takeoff and how to land so that the blade keeps running. You learn these details best live, not from text (safety reason, see below).
Milestone: 3 clean hops per side.
After landing you keep gliding instead of stopping. This trains the rhythm you will later need for the waltz jump and others.
If you feel stable again right after landing, you have reached the real goal. Then in class you can link the hop with other elements, for example an arc or a small turn your coach sets (practice, not study data).
Milestone: 3 hops, then calm gliding over at least 2 meters.
Hops and landings load ankles and knees. A review of figure skating injuries names ankle sprains as the most common injury and recommends well-fitting boots, foot and ankle strengthening and leg flexibility [4]. I found no study on injury rates specifically for the bunny hop.
Wear a helmet, practice at quiet times and have a coach show you the takeoff first. This guide explains and motivates but does not replace supervised training.
Imagine you are hopping over a puddle, not over an obstacle: short, flat and with bent knees. The thought of a puddle stops you from hopping too high and landing with stiff legs (practice experience, not study data). And consciously feel the blade under your foot after landing – that tells you early whether the weight is in the middle.
A small hop without rotation in which you leave the ice lightly and land softly. The Skate Canada glossary defines a hop as "a small jump without rotation" [2]. In the Learn to Skate USA curriculum it is in Basic 6 [1].
No. According to the Technical Panel Handbook, a small hop with up to half a revolution is not a jump and at most feeds into the Composition mark [3].
Plan on two to four weeks of regular training (experience, not study data). It depends on how secure your one-foot gliding already is.
Recommended. The takeoff detail with the toe pick is hard to learn from text and comes with falls. A coach sees landing and balance immediately.
Yes. The Learn to Skate USA curriculum is aimed at beginners with no prior experience [1]. As an adult you often need a little more time for balance and confidence. Start with the two-foot hop and progress in small steps.
Shoot the Duck: One-Foot Squat With the Free Leg Straight