International coach and jump specialist Nick Perna continues a seminar class on building axels. In Part 1 he began by describing and demonstrating aspects of good and bad waltz jumps and began analyzing some waltz jump examples in the class. In Part 2 he continued analyzing waltz jumps, commenting on a variety of errors and corrections. In this video he has the class do axels, and he watches a handful and comments on the good and bad.
Nick begins by noting that most of the desirable characteristics of a good waltz jump apply to the axel. These include keeping the head up, stepping forward with a butt kick, gliding and not scratching on the preparation edge, and similar arm and leg action.
Next he explains the importance of making corrections at this level. He likens certain problems to inherited traits that you can’t get rid of. He says, “You want to make sure that these things, right when you first learn them, that you’re doing them correctly.” Two errors that he notes as being major problems are turning the head excessively and swinging the free arm around. He also says, “Remember the old saying ‘practice makes perfect?’ Well it’s not, it’s ‘practice makes permanent.’ So if you’re practicing something wrong it’s going to become permanently wrong. If you’re practicing something right, it’s going to become permanently right.”
Rather than reviewing all the axels in the class, Nick has a handful of skaters do axels for the entire class so he can comment on them. The first skater initially scratches on the preparation edge and corrects it on a second attempt. Nick likes the axel basics of the second skater, and he encourages her to work on making the jump bigger (more height and distance). The third skater swings the free arm around, and the fourth skater drags her kick through foot on the ice and lands on two feet (which Nick notes is probably harder than just doing a real axel). The final skater turns his head quite strongly into the circle and Nick shows how this affects the jump axis and landing.
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