International coach and jump specialist Chris Conte continues a lutz edge class at a seminar (see Part 1 here and Part 2 here). He begins this video by demonstrating a poor lutz entry with a big free leg raise and a forward lunging body. He calls this tipping the duck forward, meaning the hips tip forward. Instead he wants the skater to keep the upper body more upright and slide the free leg back low to the ice. Here’s an important tip: “Especially if you’re having an edge problem, don’t reach so far at first. Just reach half way (or) two thirds out.”
Next Chris shares another drill that improves hip rotation and helps skaters get lots of opportunities and repetitions for working on the correct edge. The exercise is a forward mohawk followed by a cross in front to a back inside edge on the non-axis skate followed by “slide the puck, spin the duck” (lutz jump) followed by a standard jump landing with a cross under and repeat the entire movement starting with another mohawk. For this class, he wants 3 double lutzes using this repeating pattern. The cross under after the landing is the best place to “regain speed” for the next jump setup and jump. Chris offers tips, “Shorter reaches if necessary just to work the spinning of the hips.” He discusses the idea of less hip rotation, but notes that a lutz with less hip rotation requires more upper body pre-rotation and more flight time.
Chris offers another way to “feel” the desired movement by using the arms and hands in kind of a sliding “walking” motion. Notice how this naturally engages the hips and shoulders. With this simple movement he also focuses on the outside take-off edge, while keeping the movement small and precise. As Chris demonstrates, this can be done repeatedly in a rhythmical manner to get lots of repetitions of the correct movements.
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