Olympic Figure Skating Coach Teaches Head Position On Take Off (Michelle Leigh)

Michelle Leigh works with a skater on drills intended to fix head issues.  [Check out Michelle’s theory ofhead position and movement during jumps.]  One of the most common problems that a huge percentage of skaters face when learning to jump is the tendency to turn their head to look where they’re going.  I’ve found that this is a particularly bad habit for many skaters with a lot of dance training, as they tend to spot every turn before it happens.

Turning the head in the direction of rotation during a jump take-off has 4 negative consequences. 1. The skater loses the feeling and awareness of their rotational side, 2. The skater pre-rotates the shoulders (which cannot be fixed without awareness of their rotational side), 3. The skater loses his or her axis prior to the jump as the back tends to twist and bend, and 4. The skater takes much longer to get to the rotational side in the air.

I challenge you to find video of a consistent elite skater that turns his or her head in the direction of rotation during the jumping movement.  If you look carefully at video of elite skaters on television, you’ll see only 2 head variations.  One option is the way that Michelle teaches it in this lesson.  The second option is having a neutral head, where the head simply rests in the middle of the shoulders and does not turn left or right with respect to the shoulders as the shoulders turn into the jump.  (Another way to say it is:  The head remains still on the shoulders but turns with respect to the rink.)

This plexi-glass drill is one of the most effective drills I’ve found to correct head problems.  Before learning this from Michelle, I used to have my skaters spot something in the rink (sign, banner, clock, advertisement, scoreboard, etc.) during the take-off.  But having skaters look at themselves in the glass is much more effective.  By looking at themselves, they can clearly see when they “prematurely stop looking at themselves.”

This is a fabulous learning tool and I think one of the best tips on the entire website.  Use this with your skaters.  They will complain and it will take a while for them to get used to it, but this is what the top skaters and coaches are doing.  Thank you Michelle!!

Add to “My Favorites” (Beta testing)