National level coach Jackie Brenner continues sharing insights and drills for double axel development. In Part 1 she offered many general axel insights and focused on single axel attempts. In this video, she finishes adding thoughts about the single before focusing on the double.
When analyzing a single axel for the double, Jackie says, “For the double axel what we’re looking for is enough air time. We’re looking for proper alignment as she converts into her loop position. And ideally we’re trying to see that loop go to the ceiling.” Next she addresses the idea of the shoulders being over the top of the blade at landing, with the shoulders twisted to be parallel to the blade.
Jackie continues, “Right now I’m OK with overchecking with that left side in front, because a common error is to land square (shoulders and arms) and go off axis.” She then shows a landing exercise where the right hand is left of the left arm tricep to ensure the left arm is in front and even across on landing.
When a single axel is done well, there’s a lot of similarities to the double. Mistakes on the single tend to be magnified when attempting the double axel. A pretty good timing check on a new double axel is to see if the single axel portion is done by the top or apex of the jump. To improve the jump Jackie wants more entry speed (to convert to height and rotation and flow) and notes, “We talk about stepping forward with the energy of like a 4 on a (scale of) 1 to 10. Just comfortable. Relaxed, lift, and then work a 10 in the air so the she can really feel the intensity on the way up.”
After the next double, Jackie explains she wants the skater to step more strongly “outside the curve (or the preparation edge) with the left side in front.” She explains this helps with the process of creating rotation naturally (like a baseball swing – see this fun video and this one) and getting to the desired air position more quickly. Jackie talks about the details of what she calls position 1 (forward step as in Part 1), position 2 (neutral position as axis side comes through) and position 3 (getting on the horse sideways position as the skater leaves the ice).
