International coach and jump specialist Nick Perna discusses the incredibly important and overlooked concept in figure skating that good jumps are actually vaults. He begins by noting that this topic is “vastly misunderstood” and “not talked about much at all.” He then discusses how most off ice jumps are “true jumps” because the athlete is usually stationary (or mostly stationary) and there is no vaulting mechanism available. He describes it as “bending and jumping straight up in the air.”
To explain the concept of vaulting, Nick describes basically what happens during a pole vault attempt at a track and field event (or practice). The pole vaulter runs down the “runway” with the pole on their shoulder toward the bar. As the vaulter approaches the bar they place the end of the pole into the “box” in the ground and as Nick describes it, “the runner continues to run up into the air.” He says, “At no point does the runner bend and jump. He literally is running and is carried up into the air by the pole.”
Nick notes that the pole used by modern pole vaulters is flexible. He describes it as the pole flexing and throwing the vaulter up over the pole. Nick finally relates this back to figure skating when he says, “If you use your edges and your leg correctly on take-off, all of our skating jumps become vaults to some degree.” A good skating jump does not bend straight down and jump straight up. He continues, “The really top level skaters doing the triples and quads are all vaulting into the air, with very little actual bending and jumping from their skating knee. It’s more the timing of the leg catching them as they’re going up into the air.”
In practical skating terms, Nick next discusses what happens on a good loop jump. He explains that the edge on a loop jump take-off doesn’t stay directly under the skater so the skater can push off straight up. Instead it presses on the ice and the “edge goes way back around you” in a position that creates the vaulting movement while the skater pivots to forward. Nick recommends Michelle Leigh’s loop jump video here to understand, or you might also consider this loop jump analysis video by Trevor Laak. Nick explains how the take-off leg on a great triple or quad loop is nearly straight and definitely not bent deeply, and the leg moves “out and around.”
Some other vaulting videos on iCoachSkating:
Loop Jump Tips – Creating Edge Pressure Properly (Michelle Leigh)
Does Loop Jump Use Pole Vaulting Technique? (Trevor Laak)
Axel Edge Pressure – Part 1 (Nick Perna)
Axel Theory – Pole Vault and Edge Pressure Concepts (Trevor Laak)
Jump Theory: How Elite Skaters Create Lift (Chris Conte)
Salchow Theory – Creating Rotational Energy and Height (Michelle Leigh)
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