International coach and jump specialist Chris Conte continues a lutz edge class at a seminar (see Part 1 here). He begins this video with skate balance and sliding drills. The first he refers to as a version of “walking or running man” with both feet moving front to back in opposition on the ice, and the second is an alternate version with one skate just grazing the ice as the feet pass. He continues by setting the toe pick into the ice and moving the non-axis knee out to force the non-picking foot onto an outside edge. In this position, there is very little weight on that skate (most weight is on the picking foot). On a great lutz with a foot pass as Chris is teaching here, the feet should pass extremely close (“fits in a shoebox”). [Editors note: For lutz technique where the skater picks up the non-axis foot and tries to keep it in front in an h-position during the entire toe pivot, this position essentially never happens.] Next Chris moves the non-axis foot forward and backward on the outside edge, where the axis arm is in front and the non-axis arm is behind (as opposed to a fully checked shoulder position which some of the skaters in the class are doing – incorrectly).
Chris demonstrates the arms and hip position and movement. He says, “I’m going to feel like my right (axis) elbow is collecting the left (non-axis) hip as it comes through. So I’m going to scoop right there and scoop up off the toe pick.” At the moment the non-axis foot passes the picking foot on the back outside edge, the hips are starting to turn through, and Chris describes this as “turn the duck to a diagonal” (not facing forward but not yet sideways either). He acknowledges that skaters can successfully do a double lutz with less hip turn at this moment or more hip turn, but diagonal is a good rule of thumb. He explains that the quarter turn (diagonal) helps both for rotation and lift. [Editors note: What Chris is implying here is that a more blocked hip position at this moment can help create more lift, and a more pivoted hip position can generate more rotation, while the diagonal is a good mix of the two.]
Next Chris does some lutz walk-throughs and he describes the full motion as “slide the puck (reach back close to the ice), turn the duck (turn the shoulders and hips).” He says, “If you do it right and just pick up your left (non-axis) foot it should cause a twizzle.” He refers to a “baby bear” which he uses to refer to a walk-through of the jump that includes a twizzle on the ice to simulate the rotation in the air.
When addressing one of the skaters in class, he explains the importance of reach direction. The reach has to be low and back behind the non-axis foot to keep the upper body aligned correctly and get a good pick placement that allows the non-axis foot to pass close to the picking foot. He then brings the class together and discusses the weight transfer, noting that many skaters struggle with lutz edge because they wait too long to transfer their weight to the picking foot.
For skaters who have formed strong edge change habits, Chris recommends using a back inside edge entry on the non-axis skate before ripping to the back outside take-off edge. This really helps some skaters improve the reach direction as well as the timing of the weight transfer when performing the rip. It forces the skater to be quicker with their movements. Chris calls this “an extreme fix” although many elite coaches use this entry as the baseline lutz entry for all of their skaters.
Chris offers some additional insights about why many skaters struggle with correcting the edge-change issue. Many skaters can land a “lutz” (or double or triple) if they do the edge change, and it is likely they will “lose the jump” at least temporarily while they correct it. For many skaters, this trade-off is not acceptable so they continue doing the same error(s). Chris says, “Sometimes you’ve got to break an egg to make an omelette. The new one will be a better lutz anyway. But that’s not a fun process to go through. You’ll be resistant to that.”
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