Olympic coach Michelle Leigh discusses the back preparation edge for axel. This video is a continuation of Michelle’s discussions of the axel. Together, these videos represent some fantastic ideas for this challenging jump. Michelle’s previous videos on axel were:
In this video, Michelle offers a valuable tip to help skaters become comfortable with the axel preparation edge. It’s common for skaters to learn an axel from a standstill and it can be scary and challenging to switch to the back outside preparation edge entrance. By placing their hands behind their back, skaters have better awareness of their posture which is so critical for this jump.
Notice that Michelle implies that she always starts moving axels with the free leg in and not stretched. As she says, “Come into the axel and you can keep the free leg minimized…maybe someday introduce a free leg.” Most top coaches seem to echo this sentiment as the “minimized” free leg on the back preparation edge minimizes potential problems like raising the free hip or tilting the body away from the direction of travel. Even worse, some skaters use the extended free leg just to maintain control of the back edge and as soon as they “collect” the free leg to step into the axel, they essentially lose control of the edge.
Some coaches always teach an extended and stretched free leg as part of the axel setup. The most common reasons seem to be esthetic and have nothing to do with the mechanics of the jump. But the potential problems at the beginning are probably not worth risk. Most top coaches teach a “minimized” free leg in the beginning and after the skater has mastered the entry and the jump, the entry can be changed to be more visually appealing if desired. It’s often helpful for skaters that have a solid axel and a “stretched” free leg to go back to the “minimized” free leg when beginning to work on the double axel. Amazingly, many skaters have body position errors that they can overcome in a single axel but not the double.
Michelle also takes a moment to suggest skaters should not have a deep knee bend on the back preparation edge. The deep knee bend is awkward looking, it’s hard to stabilize, and skaters that use this entry tend to have poor alignment on the step. Michelle makes a point that the body position on the preparation edge should be comfortable and the skater should be able to hold it indefinitely.
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2 responses to “Online Figure Skating Video: Axel Edge Preparation (Michelle Leigh)”
Michelle, your tips are so wonderful. I just reviewed all of your axel videos start to finish. The way you explain each position step by step has totally changed the way I teach this jump. Thank you!
Thank you – that was a great tip about the hands behind the back