World and Olympic coach Robert Tebby continues his discussion of single axel development. Part 1 offered a ton of detail, from the overall process he uses to the specifics of that process. In Part 2, Robert offered insights about entrances, drills, landings, and coaching awareness as tools for axel development. In this video, he begins by explaining how he transitions from standstill attempts to moving attempts. He begins this transition almost immediately after a skater starts landing axels from a standstill. To leverage a skater’s comfort with the standstill bell jump and standstill axels as described earlier in the series (Part 1, Part 2), Robert has skaters glide slowly backwards on two feet straight down the hockey line and step essentially the same way as from a standstill for the axel. He says, “The familiarity of that really benefits their confidence in trying the jump.”
When progressing to moving axels on a circle, Robert again uses a two-foot setup for stability and control. He says, “I make them go two feet, arms through, turn the head, then one foot, then hands touch. Then I tell them to step outside of the circle. So it’s like we’re stepping on a 45 degree angle outside of the circle so we’re achieving… shoulders and blade pointing the same direction.” The axis side has more of a rotational component (shoulder, arm, hip, leg) and the non-axis side helps create jump direction.
Robert explains that teaching a single axel this way is a result of looking at what actually happens (or needs to happen) on a double or triple axel. The process of “reverse engineering” those jumps and utilizing the important concepts as part of single axel development can help eventually speed the development of those more advanced jumps. He notes, “It is a little more detailed and it takes a little more time but it’s well worth it in the end because you get to those higher levels and these skills are already natural and in their muscle memory.” He reiterates the importance of keeping the axis shoulder back on the forward step, and notes that the hands are outside the circle and in line with the belly button.
After a skater can land an axel from a backward outside edge, Robert encourages them to immediately start to think about improving the jump to become a double axel. In essence he’s saying coaches should not wait to work on double axel concepts (by focusing exclusively on the other double jumps that typically come after learning an axel). These improvements include getting comfortable with more entry speed, getting a steeper angle of ascent on take-off, maintaining jump direction and flow, and minimizing the kick of the free leg (“free leg motion is timed with the jumping leg motion”). As in the previous video he reiterates, “The jumping leg is helping create the rotational hip motion of the right [axis/free] hip. In other words, the right [axis/free] hip basically stays back. When the left [non-axis/skating] one turns it makes the right [axis/free] one come forward.”
Robert says, ” So these are developmental things where you’re still doing single axel but you’re getting it ready to be a double.” He also suggest additional drills as part of double axel development, including single axel double loop, axel backspin (from standstill), and one foot axels. On a one foot axel “we’re trying to balance and jump and land on the same leg, and in order to do that we cannot have a big free leg (kick). So it really helps them get the feeling of keeping the free leg (kick) nice and small and letting the core turn with the toe pick. And landing on the same leg achieves that.”
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