Fixing a Double Toe Loop (Sheila Thelen)

Sheila Thelen works with a skater to correct a double toe loop take-off. This video addresses a relatively common double toe loop take-off problem in which the jump pivots “too far” and jumps around rather than straight through. You can see the jump at1:04 in the video.

First and foremost, a skater must “buy in” to the fact that the jump is wrong and needs to be corrected. Obviously Sheila has done a good job of that with this skater and the skater looks eager to work on the drills and make difficult changes. Sheila’s first fix was to take the jump off the forward-inside-three-turn entrance and switch to a forward-inside-mohawk-step entrance. Changing the entrance is a way to remove the skater’s natural tendency to simply repeat a movement pattern. And in many cases, a change like this helps the skater who may have specific weak skills. For example, a skater may have a weak forward inside three turn. If so, doing a double toe loop from it will likely be disastrous.

Sheila uses a drill at the boards to build the correct timing, movement, and feeling. Notice the discussion on h-position (no h-position on a toe loop!). Away from the boards, Sheila wants the skater to walk through the jump with an extremely slow tempo, again to develop the correct timing, movement and feeling. For skaters that spin through their toe loop take-off, an awareness of jump direction is very important. With this skater, Sheila does another drill alongside the boards to help the skater get a sense of how straight the jump really is.

The “new” double toe at 5:23 in the video is vastly improved in terms of technique but clearly the skater is still working on the landing and feeling of rotation. The landing is “late” which is very common for skaters that are working on straightening out a jump (since it typically doesn’t feel like it’s rotating enough, even though it is).

This is great in-the-trenches coaching with fantastic information.