World and Olympic coach Laurent Depouilly shares some exercises for proper lutz development. The first exercise is a back outside pivot drill. (NOTE: Laurent’s primary language is French so his pronunciation of the word pivot sounds more like “pervit” or “pervert.” Do not let this distract you from the valuable information he shares.) He shows how he sets it up, pivots to a complete stop with correct alignment, and then resets to start over, allowing a continuous process for maximum quality repetition. Laurent wants the skater to gain control of the shoulders while pressing on the outside edge.
For the second exercise, it’s the same as the first except there is more focus on transferring the body weight into the crossover after the pivot comes to a stop. The skater does not initially do this exercise correctly, but that helps make clear what Laurent is trying to make happen. The idea behind this exercise is a skater must transfer their weight at the moment of picking to properly do a lutz, and that means having correct alignment and body lean.
The final exercise again uses the back outside pivot to a complete stop, then pressing up on the toe pick and pressing into a back crossover in the other direction. Notice how Laurent demonstrates this by pushing off the outside edge to get rotation after the pivot stops (best way to perform the drill). The skater has not mastered this drill, so the skater demonstrating pushes off an inside edge (not ideal).
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