World and Olympic coach Michelle Leigh begins a lesson with a young male skater by reviewing his single jumps. This is a great chance to see what an elite coach like Michelle looks for on single jumps after a skater has learned them and is beginning to work on doubles. On the single salchow Michelle shows how she likes the edge to flatten after the 3-turn when using the forward outside 3-turn entrance. Many elite coaches prefer this flattening or “straightening motion” and some even like it to be exaggerated by switching to a shallow outside edge. This is the “blurb” that Nick Perna talks about elsewhere on this website.
On the single toe loop, the skater struggles with the landing, but Michelle addresses this by changing the skater’s entry. The rounded entry she uses helps the skater place the jump correctly and get the correct jump direction. Also notice the toe up and the locked leg on the toe loop walk through (no h-position!) and see how Michelle wants the skater to keep the body leaned backward as the skater pivots through to forward. This backward lean creates the necessary power angle to allow the skater to drive the jump up with the hips. For nearly all skaters and coaches that struggle with toe loops with a straight leg, this body lean is the answer.
On the loop jump, the skater tucks the axis leg. Just focusing on keeping the leg straight in the air dramatically improved this skater’s loop jump. The skater also tends to tuck on the flip jump as well. Michelle uses video to provide visual feedback to help the skater make the correction faster. She also talks about where she’d like the non-axis leg as the skater lifts into the air on these two jumps.
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