Coach Karen Olson gives a double toe loop lesson to a skater, with the emphasis on developing good combination jumps. In Part 1, Karen shared two valuable toe loop exercises. In this video, Karen offers additional insights and exercises.
A big focus here is keeping the hips moving throughout the jump. As with this demonstrator, many skaters stop the hips and leave them drift backwards during the reach and pivot and take-off for double toe. Instead, the goal should be to drive the hips strongly forward and through the jump. This is awkward for skaters who feel the jump coming from the shoulders and the feet. Karen explains the error as swinging the upper body (outside the circle) to help create the rotation, which puts the body and hips out of position for a good powerful take-off and makes it hard to get to an efficient air position.
The first exercise in this video is a walk through of the double toe loop where the skater stays over the hips and works to get the hips to lead the movements. Many skaters are not aware of their hip movements and they tend to break at the waist and allow the hips to drift backwards as soon as the initial reach. The walk-through can be a great way to build awareness of this.
The next exercise is a LBI figures loop followed by a step and reach back for toe loop. The purpose of this exercise is to control entry rotation and work on alignment. When Karen demonstrates the “straight” glide during the reach, you can easily see the desired free leg position on the initial reach which feels well to the left for most skaters. She also explains the importance of head anchoring on the toe loop. It can be very effective to keeping the upper body moving over the hips and not swing outside the circle.
The final exercise is the double toe followed immediately by a BO counter. The purpose of the counter is to get the hips underneath the body. In other words, the counter is a great way for skaters to learn proper alignment after the initial jump of a combination. This is also a great exercise to improve all jump landings.
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