Glacier motion is composed of plastic deformation of the ice， sliding of ice over its bed and deformation of the bed itself. Among these three components， basal sliding is a significant factor. And its law， which represents the relationship between the sliding speed， the shear stress at the base of the glacier and the characteristics of the ice bed， is the basal boundary condition of the glacier dynamic process. The estimation of basal sliding plays an important role in the study of glacier motion， internal stress distribution and mechanism of glacier anomaly. This study systematically reviews the development of glacier sliding and its existing estimation methods， which gradually expand from only considering the relationship between shear stress and ice bed roughness to taking into account the comprehensive influences of effective pressure and hydrologic process under the ice. We dissect the structures and functions of existing models， and then analyze the main problems and challenges of these methods， in order to provide references for further improvements of this model. Future studies on glacier basal sliding should be based on big remote sensing data and new technique， and focused on coupling the influence of subglacial hydrological processes， so as to promote the integrated study of climate change-glacier material balance-glacier dynamic response process.