World and Olympic coach Michelle Leigh explains how to fix a 2-foot toe loop take-off. First, she draws a tracing for the toe loop on the ice and explains what’s supposed to happen on a correct toe loop. As she explains, the skating foot should glide back toward the toe pick of the picking foot and then come off the ice parallel to the pick in the ice. The skating foot then comes off the ice and continues in the jump direction while the toe pick of the picking foot remains in the ice to finish the take-off.
Common toe loop errors occur when this timing is changed. Sometimes skaters jump simultaneously off two feet and sometimes they pick up the skating foot before it has even reached the toe pick of the picking foot (toe axel). Michelle says, “It’s really important that a skater learn to glide right past their toe pick. When the foot comes up in the air it goes beyond the toe pick.”
Michelle shows a walkthrough exercise to help with this problem. She also shows how to use a series of waltz jump toe loops where the skater tries to cover as much distance as possible. She also emphasizes the kick-through motion and says, it “almost feels like a split jump.”
Michelle also talks about why coaches and skaters should avoid trying to fix the issue with a back outside pivot which is common correction for not following through on a toe loop. The pivot does indeed get the skating foot to move past the toe pick, but the jump loses a sense of direction and flow.
At the end of the video, Michelle has a skater demonstrate more helpful fixes. The first is the “two foot loop jump” where the skater starts backwards, initiates rotation with the edges and shoulders, jumps off the heels, rotates in the air and lands backward. The second is a more advanced version of the two foot loop jump where the skater actually takes off from only one foot (axis leg) and kicks it though before landing on the other foot.
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