Requirement · part of 2. One of four options, and it decides the rest of the badge
2(A). Option A, Ice Skating
Optional May not apply
Fourteen steps: five explanations and nine on the ice. Needs a rink, which means opening hours, admission and usually hired skates. One of the five explanations is not about skating at all, and one is about a race you are not asked to enter.
Notes and warnings
Warning. THIS IS THE ONLY OPTION WITH A SEASON IN IT, AND THE ONLY ONE THAT ASKS YOU TO RESCUE SOMEBODY. 2(A)(2) wants the preparations for skating outdoors on NATURAL ice and how to make an ICE RESCUE, and neither half of that can be picked up at an indoor rink, because neither situation exists there. Read it as a piece of knowledge to be studied rather than a skill to be practised, and expect a counselor to ask about thickness, about what you do not do, and about reaching rather than going. THE OTHER THIRTEEN STEPS ARE RINK WORK and a rink is a business: opening hours, public session times, admission and hired skates. Nine of the fourteen steps are on the ice, which is several visits rather than one, so find out when the public sessions are before this option is chosen.
What this is made of
- 2(A)(1). Safety and courtesy on the ice
- 2(A)(2). Natural ice, and how to make an ice rescue
- 2(A)(3). The parts of an ice skate, by type
- 2(A)(4). Carrying skates at the rink and in transit
- 2(A)(5). Storing skates for a season
- 2(A)(6). Forty feet forward, then a snowplow stop
- 2(A)(7). Glide on two feet, then on each one
- 2(A)(8). Stroking from a T position
- 2(A)(9). Glide backward, twice your own height
- 2(A)(10). Skate backward twenty feet
- 2(A)(11). A 180 around a cone, both ways
- 2(A)(12). Forward crossovers, in a figure eight
- 2(A)(13). The safety of racing, explained not done
- 2(A)(14). A hockey stop
Where this step comes from
- Skating Merit Badge Requirements (Merit Badge Hub, last modified 2025-12-31), Requirement 2(A)