Lutz Jump Tips – Take Off (Page Lipe)

Page Lipe discusses the correct lutz take-off and how to correct flutz problems.  This video is another amazing video on the topic of lutz here at iCoachSkating.com (see Nick Perna’s lutz1, lutz 2, and lutz 3videos, Michelle Leigh’s intro to lutz video, Audrey Weisiger’s exercises for lutz).

Page offers an important insight at the beginning of the video.  Many skaters flutz because they let their hips drift back behind them on the setup or during the reach back.  Page wants the skater’s hips underneath them at all times.

Page offers an simple back pop-up exercise on the line which she demonstrates.  She wants the skater to be able to jump and feel the pigeon-toe placement of the feet.  She draws the tracing left on the ice.  Notice that she wants the skating foot to remain on the ice until it is even with the toe pick placement of the other foot.  She describes the image as “a really narrow right triangle.”  She wants the pick placement to be less than a blade-length from the skating foot and in fact, the closer the better.

The skater should “make sure that they start pigeon-toeing as they’re drawing back in.”  She cautions against having a long reach that is held for a long time because it often causes a flutz.  She describes the proper motion as “a reach and a slide back.”

Page offers another exercise at the wall.  She wants the skater to think about it as a “sliding door.”  As the skating foot slides back, the picking foot comes forward in front.  It’s important to keep the hips underneath the skater throughout this exercise and Page shows a variation of the drill to help the skater get used to “reaching” while keeping the hips in the right position.  Notice that Page is not advocating placing the toe pick in the ice by reaching way back and “drawing the feet together.”  This is just an exercise for hip placement.

Another hip placement drill that Page uses has the skater facing the wall, and actually pushing their hips against the wall.  As Page demonstrates, the skater will rock from one hip to the other touching the wall but this ensures the hips stay forward as the skater gets used to transferring their weight.

At about 4:00 into the video, Page mentions correct head position and movement.  This echoes many of the other videos at iCoachSkating.com that deal with the head and jumping.  Head position is critical to good jumping!

In all of Page’s demonstrations, notice how close from front-to-back that she places the toe in the ice with respect to the other skate.  She does not want the skater to reach way back, place the toe pick in way back, and then draw the feet together.  Instead she describes it as placing the toe pick directly under the hip.

Page also addresses the importance of shoulder twist.  She does exercises on two feet to develop the proper motion and rhythm.  To develop the proper twist, Page has the skater try to get their arms perpendicular to their hips.

Finally, Page addresses the common mistake of swinging the picking arm around.  Page wants her skaters to keep the jump “narrow.”  This is very important as wide swinging straight arms can cause the skater to drop off the outside edge back to an inside edge, causing the flutz.  Page wants the skater to keep the picking arm close to the body and she wants them to bend it as it comes forward.  At the end of the video, Page offers a killer “guard-arm” exercise to help skaters correct arm issues.

This video has tons of valuable information.  Please leave Page a comment.

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