Olympic coach Michelle Leigh continues her discussion of salchow. See Michelle’s previous videos onsingle salchow and a salchow exercise. In this video, Michelle talks about turning the single salchow into a double. Just like most coaches, Michelle teaches it as a salchow into backspin.
Michelle offers several tips and things to watch for. She talks about minimizing the step up motion before the backspin. Later in the video she says you “push up nice and small into the air” (at 1:06 in the video). She isn’t talking about keeping the jump height small. What she means is that although the skater should step up strongly, the skater should not have the arms or free leg extended too far away from the body which will be hard to “collect” in time to do the double jump. Often skaters that learn very extended singles have a hard time “collecting” their arms and free leg for the double.
She also focuses a lot on arms and hands. She wants the hands to touch as the skater steps up before the backspin. Although she doesn’t say it, making the hands touch is a great way to give them something specific to do and to make sure the skater doesn’t pull the left shoulder into rotation early. Notice the backspin position, and then how she changes feet and flexes the landing toe at 0:36 in the video. This little trick is an excellent way to get skaters to flex their landing foot in the air in order to lock their landing leg. A straight landing leg is one of the most important fundamentals of good jumps.
Michelle teaches her skaters to learn the exercise as a walk-though. But she continues to use the same exact set-up near the wall to add speed and rhythm and she actually has her skaters do double salchows right there. It builds quickness and awareness.
Enjoy and please leave a comment.
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8 responses to “Learn To Ice Skate Video: Double Salchow (Michelle Leigh)”
Thanks Michelle!! I love using the glass! You have helped me so much!!
Michelle, I love your training drills and explanations! You have helped me so much How about the double toe loop next?
Fantastic! These videos are wonderful. I’ve been taking figure skating for about 9 months now (proper lessons) and I’m now onto double jumps thanks to these great videos. Thanks! Would it be possible to have videos on developing double flip/lutz from the single? Keep up the super job.
Thank you for the tips! will try them out on my students
THANKS MICHELLE
Love all your videos on sal development. Curious, should an adult skater be able to generate a double sal from such a slow speed? I can see how that’s possible for kids who are feather lite but I’m weary about attempting double as an adult at such a slow speed. (For the record I’ve landed the double numerous times just looking to make it stronger/higher and more consistent).
Anna, a good general rule for doing low speed jumps is to ensure enough air time to accomplish the rotation. For a slow entry speed double salchow near the wall, it does not matter what size the skater is if the jump height is enough to compensate for the skaters rotational rate. But in general slow speed reduces both height and rotation rate, so if a skater can do it slowly near the wall as Michelle is teaching, then doing it with more speed on a regular pattern becomes very easy. As Michelle notes, a slow attempt is just a great way to get the skater to focus on increasing quickness (for both jump height and quickness to rotation and rotational position), if they have the physical capability. And yes, some adults can do this exercise very well.
Beautiful – thank you, Trevor! Very helpful!