National level coach Jackie Brenner continues a lesson with a skater who is moving from the Preliminary level all the way to Intermediate competition level. (See Part 1 and Part 2 of the lesson.) After the skater does a double loop, Jackie discusses the concept of jump skill performance level expectation at these different competitive levels. In particular she’s looking for “increasing her skating skills… and her ability to float those doubles in preparation for triples.” Jackie continues, “When we prepare for your triple loop, we want the double done by the top.”
Switching to double salchow, Jackie notes that this skater has an excessively wide swing to the free leg. She says, “I think for her, her free leg is too far away, so she feels like she can’t get all the way through her toe pick because her stance it too wide.” Jackie then shows how she wants the skater’s upper body to be positioned and move to reduce the free leg swing. Notice the arm and hand position with the thumbs up (to keep the shoulders open and elbows down). She wants a “quiet upper body” and explains the focus needs to be on edge pressure. As the skater sets up the jump, Jackie says, “As far as thumbs up I’m really looking for the tension through the bicep and pec muscle (pectoral) so she can feel more of a sense of collection. I feel like the elbows need to come in first before the wrists collect for triples.” The thumbs up position allows the elbows to come in close to the core and transition seamlessly to the desire air position. Jackie finishes explaining the OWL concept, where O stands for Olympic position on the take-off (hands through), W stands for arm position when pulled in for fastest rotation, and L stands for landing.
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