Michelle Leigh shares some of the exercises she uses to teach lutz. These are great drills that compliment the lutz drills presented by Nick Perna elsewhere on this website. With the prevalence of flutzes throughout the skating community, these drills are especially important.
Notice that Michelle wants her skaters to have a “strong sense of the outside edge.” She does this by making sure they rotate their shoulders fully in the drills. This adds more power to the edge. The shoulders should be in line with the edge the skater is on. She uses repeating back outside edge rolls, one foot power pulls, and choctaws (which she adorably pronounces “cha-taw”).
When you watch this video, it is very clear that Michelle wants her skaters to anchor their head at landing by looking over their landing shoulder. This is a trick used by a lot of top coaches. As in previous videos by Michelle at iCoachskating.com, Michelle wants the head to remain still during the initial rotation into the jump. In this video she calls it “the head wait on the take-off.”
All of the top coaches I’ve spoken with are adamant about proper lutz take-offs. And with the latest IJS rules, it’s something every coach needs to be very serious about.
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3 responses to “How To Figure Skate: The Lutz Jump (Michelle Leigh)”
Great tips!! Thanks so much Michelle! I love the emphasis on the shoulders and the choctaw entry. Thank you so much for your time an energy!
fantastic tips!! Thank you – I will try it on my younger students who are just about to start learning the lutz.
Nice and clear! Shoulder emphasis and head wait are two points I am going to work on in my next lesson. Thanks!