Coach and former French competitive skater Vincent Restencourt gives a quad toe loop lesson to 2015 US National Champion Jason Brown. It is uncommon for skaters and coaches at this level to share such an intimate look at a typical quad lesson, so this video is extraordinary. Notice there isn’t a lot of detailed discussion or in-depth analysis, but very simple concepts and just a few words or gestures to make a change. Also notice the number of popped jumps as this is somewhat typical when working quads, at least initially for most skaters. At this point, Jason had not been landing quad toe very often, so the fact that we see some clean attempts is also fun.
Vincent starts out with some easy triple toes as a way to ensure timing, and also get more shoulder turn as the jump releases up into rotation. On the initial quad attempts, Vincent has Jason hold a dodgeball in his non-axis hand as a way to focus on pulling in tight. Jason admits this becomes his only focus and he isn’t as aware of the rest of his body or the jump timing. Incidentally, placing an object in the non-axis hand can also raise a skater’s awareness of shoulder movement and help create more rotational energy at take-off.
After putting the dodgeball away, Jason works on more attempts, some good and some not as good. He gets full rotation on some. It’s incredibly common for skaters at all levels to “try too hard” when learning a new jump, and it still happens on quads for most skaters. Notice that Vincent wants to limit the number of attempts Jason makes, both for physical reasons (avoid injury and wasted effort while tired) and mental (hard to stay focused).
Jason tends to “tip over” in the air backward (axis tilt) which is typically caused by too much upper body movement at take-off. Vincent instead wants the jump to come more from the hips, with the hips leading and driving up into the jump. This feels awkward to Jason on the first attempt and he pops it. But Jason does a nice quad toe to end the lesson.
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