World and Olympic coach Tom Zakrajsek discusses the important of head anchoring on jumps, as well as a great way to describe it to skaters. He begins by saying, “If your head is not anchored over your jumping side it’s going to be really hard to straighten that leg on the take-off.” Tom’s favorite description of head anchoring for skaters is, “Head straight, eyes on the horizon.” He explains that to feel balanced “it’s natural that skaters will want to look at their surroundings which in this case is the ice” but looking down at the ice causes major problems. Skaters can get the desired feeling of balance by keeping the head straight with eyes on the horizon.
By keeping the head straight, Tom means keeping it essentially fixed with respect to the rink so the shoulders turn underneath the head. This is different than thinking about it as the head turning to the axis side (or coaches saying “Get your head over the axis [right] side”), and Tom suggests such a description is less effective for most skaters because the head tends to swing back in the other direction and cause more problems.
Next, Tom explains why head anchoring on jump take-offs is so important. Without it, the head tends to go back and to the non-axis side, causing the head to “swirl” and the jump to be top heavy. Tom recommends looking at video to diagnose and correct head anchoring issues.
Here are some additional insights (not included in the video below) from Tom:
“First and foremost, I teach the basic rule that your head (because it is the heaviest part of your body) should generally always be aligned over your standing foot while skating for balance purposes, with certain exceptions of course. Secondly, while jumping I teach the head should be straight, stacked above the core body and evenly between both shoulders and stay straight while the body (shoulders and hips and also the blade) move/pivot underneath it. I like the skaters to look out 6-8 feet to the horizon. This applies either forward (Axel) or backwards (Salchow and Toe Loop). On the change axis jumps, as the skaters use their free side for what I call the hidden power and torque, the head should be anchored straight in the loading zone prior to the pivot and toe press off the left foot into the take-off. On video, it will appear that as the skater takes off, it is over the landing side. This is very similar to spotting but not totally.”
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