International coach and jump specialist Chris Conte begins a group lesson covering drills and concepts for double toe loop development. He starts by showing a video of a typical “triangle position that we use in landings coming out to get a reach.” He is talking about the movement of the free leg on elite level jump landings, where the free leg doesn’t go directly back close to the skating foot, but rather presses backwards at an angle/diagonal to create the “triangle position.” Chris demonstrates this position from a forward inside three turn, where the free leg is somewhat to the side and slightly in front of the skating leg. To finish the reach for the toe, the free leg then goes back from this position.
Next Chris acknowledges there are many teaching methods for toe loop, and he mentions a “short tap” and “drop tap.” He continues, “I teach just a regular toe as if it’s off a combination.” In the final reach position there is a stretch from the non-axis foot all the way through the non-axis arm, with the alignment directly over the axis hip. This maximum reach or stretch position is the “lowest point” of the preparation, meaning this is the point where the skating leg is bent the most. As the free leg drops to initiate the tap, the skater already starts coming up out of the skating knee. A common error is “people start to drift out of position at the lowest point.”
From this maximum reach position at the lowest point, the skater initiates the downward movement of the picking leg while “turning to sideways.” Chris describes this as “pushing up out of the back of the (axis) skate, come up and tap sideways.” The timing is important, and he notes that the goal is to begin coming up out of the skating knee as the picking leg drops to the ice and the body turns to the sideways position. He continues, “I start to jump out of that skating leg on the reach and the toe pick just bops the jump up into the air – so it’s light when it goes in the ice. I like to couple full extension of the reach with the lowest point.” He then describes coming “about halfway up to the tap.” He then has the class demonstrate with double toe walkthroughs.
Chris notes a common error of not getting the “right side all the way forward” during the pivot to forward at take-off. In an effort to get in early, many skaters simply don’t get the right arm and shoulder through properly. He notes this is sometimes caused by coaches telling skaters to “stay on the axis side as they take off” which is an old-school technique to prevent “spinning” through take-offs or pulling take-offs out to the non-axis side (or trying to get into a checked rotational position too soon). Modern jumping requires the axis side to come through and Chris says, “You don’t want to stop rotation at the moment you’re supposed to be producing rotation.” He clarifies, “I don’t want it to go out of control to the left (non-axis side) either, but at least to the middle.”
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