International coach and jump specialist Nick Perna shares an important insight about jump landings, especially landings of triple and quad jumps. He calls this concept the “flipper foot” and he notes that you don’t hear it talked about a lot. He continues, “In a good proper landing a skater will do what they call the ‘eagle claw’ or the ‘trap’ position (or ‘brace’ position)” where the free leg is crossed to the axis side, initially moving backward and up the axis leg as the axis/landing leg starts to bend to absorb the landing forces. From this position the free leg shoots forward before pressing back to the final landing position. Nick explains, “The flipper foot happens between the front part and where the leg moves to the back.”
Depending on the skater, the forward kick of the free leg tends to be (slightly) open with the free foot flexed and turned outward. Nick shows how the free foot turns inward from this front kick position as the free leg is pressed back. This is the “flipper foot” concept. He says, “It’s not going to stay turned out” and he shows what would happen if the free hip was open throughout (wide swing with energy bleeding out to non-axis side). Most good skaters who have learned to control high energy landings thus go from slightly open foot to a slightly closed foot as the foot presses back and then back to a fully open position for the aesthetics of the final landing position. Nick notes that most good skaters don’t even know they are doing it. He explains that the free foot and hip turn-in helps keep the free hip up. He says, “So when they land, they may come off the free hip slightly as they’re doing the kick to the front, but then as they do that flipper foot turning in, it will help them lift up over top of their right (axis) side again… So it really facilitates staying over that right (axis) side on landing and not dumping off of it.”
Next Nick explains how this flipper foot concept helps with toe loop jump combinations. The flipper foot really helps by “squaring up the hips when you reset between the jumps (prior to the toe loop).” The flipper foot concept works with either the traditional free leg pressing back on a diagonal or the newer toe loop reset method where the free leg goes more around (in a relatively high position).
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