Michelle Leigh discusses some general jump principles she uses with her skaters. This discussion continues her thoughts on head placement and movement. She then moves to a more thorough discussion of shoulder and hip movements, take-off direction, and air position.
This is a very interesting video and it drives home the point of the forward take-off on the backward entrance jumps (salchow, toe loop, loop, flip and lutz). [This is still a controversial topic and I took a lot of heat for publishing that information at Skating Jump Secrets. -Trevor]
Michelle also does a great job of explaining the movements and feelings needed to get into a good air position. Notice the high arm positions and continued discussion of head placement and movement. Also, her description of how the hips and shoulders come into line matches that of other top coaches.
[Also notice the nice double axel behind Michelle at 1:25. This video may have been taken on an Elite Session at Mariposa.]
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4 responses to “Figure Skating Jumps – General Jumping Principles (Michelle Leigh)”
I’m a little confused on this one…I was under the impression that for a single flip keeping hips and shoulders “square” and in line with each other was really important. So this tip is about the the shoulders kind of “leading” the hips?
I think the guy doing the nice double Axel in the background at 1:25 was Mark Webster, please correct me if I am wrong?
Awesome! I was always told by my coach to not let shoulders pass the hips, but I can see how it works catching the hips up. Thank you Michelle! I look forward to helping my students get better jumps with this technique!!
I wish Michelle was my coach! I was told to keep the shoulders square but this way seriously helps with rotation. I have a lot more success with double flip attempts if I turn my shoulders first. Thanks for another great video!