2011 US Men’s Champion Ryan Bradley teaches a class on how to improve the quickness of jump landings. In the US this is usually talked about as “checking out” of jumps. The context of this video is: the class is really about the toe loop (double toe, triple toe) so the initial discussions revolve around that. As Ryan says, toe loops are especially important for ladies because “the best ladies in the world do triple toe on the end of everything. If you want to do well in competition you got to do the triple toe.”
But the meat of the presentation and demonstrations is related to checking out. Ryan makes a great point that the reach back for the toe loop is similar to the jump landing position. When discussing landings, Ryan notes that “a bad take-off with a good landing beats a good take-off with a bad landing every day of the week.” Strong landings not only improve jump scores, but also component scores as well.
Ryan talks about “4 Points to a Good Landing.” First the free leg checks back quickly, the left arm punches forward, the landing knee is soft, and finally the body pulls up. He also talks about turning the head to the axis side. The first exercise has the skaters gliding backwards in their air position, then checking out into the landing position as quickly as possible. Notice the different speeds of this movement in the class. Ryan says, “As you’re going from the rotation (position) to the landing, keep your core strong.”
The next exercise has the skaters do a backspin in various upright positions with the free leg before checking out. Ryan says, “We go single, triple, double, quad, out strong.” For the single, the free leg is in an h-position, for the triple the legs are crossed and feet tight, the double between the single and triple, and the quad has the legs and feet very tight before checking out. Ryan again reminds the class how important it is to keep the core strong throughout this drill.
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