National level coach Jackie Brenner shares insights and drills for double axel development. She begins by asking the skater to walk through a double axel. Notice that there is no ‘rotation’ in this walkthrough, as the skater instead focuses on specific positions and movements. To emphasize take-off edge pressure, Jackie has the skater “pulse” the edge (like little forward outside edge power pulls). [See Nick Perna’s Bread Drill] Notice that the skater remains aligned over the the skating foot, and does not pop out the skating hip (common error for this exercise).
Next Jackie explains two different ideas about how to go from the moment of take-off to a tight air position. One method is “step over and close to conversion” and the other Jackie calls “the shove-down technique” where the skater tucks the axis foot behind the non-axis leg and pushes it down to the desired air position. She notes that the shove-down technique has the advantage of helping the skater get to rotation a little quicker, but the other method is not wrong and works fine with extra air time and the ultimate choice depends on skater preferences and tendencies.
Jackie then asks for a single axel “on pattern.” She says, “I call it ‘on pattern’ because I really want them trying to jump across the midline of the rink. It really highlights the jump… and it sets the line of travel (flight) or the direction of the jump.”
Jackie notes that transferring the weight properly on the step from the preparation circle to the take-off edge is one of the biggest challenges for double axel. To address this she uses a drill at the wall where the skater starts leaning against the boards at a standstill and then pushes the hip off the wall to step. This is a good exercise also for ingraining head anchoring on the axel and getting the step direction correct. Jackie mentions getting the head set for 3 seconds on the preparation edge before the step and although this is not required, it does help with consistency because it reduces instability. Jackie also “gathers the left arm to the right” (non-axis arm to axis arm) as she pushes her hip off the wall.
Notice that Jackie wants the skater to step off the circle made by the preparation edge and she thinks of this step as making a 120 degree angle (rather than 180 degrees back onto the circle). Doing the drill with a 90 degree step is OK because Jackie explains this will never happen in practice while moving. Like many coaches she describes the step position as being like an Ina Bauer. She continues, “I think one of the common mistakes we see is that the athlete steps… directly square (and on the same circle) and then they have nowhere to go except around.” This often causes axis errors and very nasty falls. Jackie finishes by saying, “I don’t truly care where they go in rotation (air position variations) as long as they find themselves over their right side again for landing.”
