Olympic coach Tom Zakrajsek teaches an axel class at the Grassroots to Champions Supercamp held in Faribault, MN in July/August 2013.  This video is the seventh and final video in a multi-part series by Tom sharing the information he covered in his classes at camp.  In the first video of the axel class, he discussed warming up properly and shared details of the forward take-off edge.  In the second video of the axel class, Tom focused on the standstill axel and he shared more details of the forward take-off edge, including very important timing information.  In the third how to do an axel video, Tom talked more about the movements of the forward take-off edge and he shared a drill he calls the pogo stick exercise.  In the fourth axel jump video, Tom discussed the process of learning a new jump and shares a few additional insights about arms and positions and posture.  In the fifth axel jump video, Tom shared the concept of the “3 ups” in every jump and in the sixth axel video, he explained more about head and arm position and movement.

All parts of this series:
Axel Class – Part 1
Axel Class – Part 2
Axel Class – Part 3
Axel Class – Part 4
Axel Class – Part 5
Axel Class – Part 6
Axel Class – Part 7

In this video, Tom talks more about jump axis and how it affects landings.  He also discusses the importance of “walk throughs” or “rehearsals” when learning, refining, and maintaining jumps.  He notes that skaters typically don’t do walk throughs with enough focus or attention to detail.  This is an important reminder and lesson for all coaches and skaters.  Tom also shares  an exercise to improve the third up and the landing movements.  (The class blocks Tom’s demonstration of this buy you can see what he’s talking about in how the class tried to imitate  him.  At the very end of the video, Tom shares a drill he learned from legendary coach Doug Leigh from Canada.  The drill is called “hop hop stick” and you can see an example of a skater doing the hop-hop-stick drill here.

NOTE: This is the last video in this series from Tom.  Please take a moment to leave a comment for Tom below thanking him for sharing all this great information.  You can (and should) follow Tom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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