International coach Page Lipe explains and demonstrates the take-offs for the weight transfer jumps, axel, salchow, and toe loop using drawings on the ice. These drawings help skaters (and coaches) understand how to create a take-off with flow and get to the desired air position.
Page begins by drawing a tracing for an axel take-off and walking through a take-off. She says, “They need to keep their legs on their own side of the mid-line.” This concept is particularly important for axel since so many skaters have a tendency to swing the free leg around and into the circle rather than maintaining the flow of the jump by jumping outward as Page demonstrates.
[Editor’s comment: Look carefully at the drawing that Page made for the axel. Notice that at the moment of take-off the skating foot does not point directly at the jump landing so a skater cannot physically create a standard h-position with the hips closed on the take-off of an axel.]
Next Page draws and describes the take-off of the salchow. Most skaters and coaches don’t think about the take-off foot “kicking forward” as Page describes. But even if the foot does not kick-forward in practice, it moves forward along the path she shows in order to efficiently get into the proper air position. She makes the concept even more clear by showing the “box drill” for salchow and for toe loop.
[Editor’s comment: Note that Page’s right foot comes off the heel of the blade at the corner of the box and the leg is straight. There is no h-position which would add inefficiency to the toe loop.]
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