World and Olympic coach Robert Tebby continues his discussion of some aspects of the process he uses to move from a single axel to the double axel. In Part 1 he outlined a general process with recommended drills and in Part 2 he discussed the important question of when to start working on the double axel. In this video, Robert focuses on common errors for double axel.
The errors Robert initially mentions are the head turning too soon, the axis arm going around too wide, and the free leg coming through too soon and too big. He explains that the goal is to “build in strategies (during the development process) that take away those possibilities right away.” He continues, “We want to work on the head right from the waltz jump.” He then introduces the idea of a “square” made by the arms to help keep the arms moving in the direction of the jump. He then shows how the body goes to the arms which he describes as the body staying “contained within that space” made by the square of the arms.
Robert says, “If you’re working on double axel and you land it, no one’s going to judge you too harshly on how you did it, so don’t be afraid to try new things.” Another common error is jumping into the circle, and Robert suggests addressing this by stepping with the non-axis arm in front and leaving it there throughout the take-off. Another strategy for fixing head turn issues is to “try keeping your head more towards your right (axis) shoulder on the take-off. Exaggerate your correction. Think of it as though you’re trying to jump out of the circle. If you’re trying to go straight and you go in, try to go out and maybe you’ll end up straight.”
He continues, “The difficulty in a double axel is not so much getting your right (axis) leg to do the jump, but it’s getting your left (non-axis, take-off) leg to turn.” To help get this turn Robert tells his skaters to “feel like you keep the base of the back and top of your butt nice and tight and let the left leg do the work. The left one is going to do the turning.” He then demonstrates a great control exercise he commentates as “quarter turn on the toe (with) knees apart, quarter turn knees together (representing first quarter turn in the air).”
Video is a tool Robert believes everyone should be using because so many skaters learn visually and it’s so important to understand the details of what is happening in the jump. He cautions against too much video analysis but recommends taking a more careful look at roughly 1 out of every 3 attempts. Too much time spent analyzing video usually means a lack of valuable repetition/attempts.
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