International coach and jump specialist Nick Perna teaches a double/triple lutz class to advanced skaters at a seminar. Rather than starting immediately with the lutz, Nick begins by discussing the edge for the flip jump. For those struggling with the proper inside edge on the flip, he recommends thinking about it like a salchow. He says, “Doing the edge first and actually listening for an edge and trying toe feel that edge cut before the toe goes in, it can really help.”
For the lutz, Nick begins by talking about steps into the jump. Here he gives some history, explaining that way back in time before IJS and before the lutz edge was scrutinized so much, very few skaters used steps into the lutz. But at some point when the edge became more important in 6.0 judging, rather than actually fix the edge, many coaches elected to camouflage the inside edge with entry steps. This worked for a while until the judges caught on, and then entry steps essentially vanished again. But with the introduction of IJS, entry steps became important again, and now it’s important to have entry steps and the correct take-off edge.
Nick has the class perform entry steps into double lutzes. Nick’s primary focus on these attempts is the pick placement, which affects the take-off edge. He spends some time discussing the idea of a “forced edge” which is still the correct edge but a “change of curve.” Like an actual change of edge, this can happen from having a pick placement that is too wide. When analyzing the tracing left by the lutz, Nick wants the toe pick mark to be a blade length or less from the take-off edge. He says, “Most of the really top lutzes in the world are about 3 to 4 inches apart.” He also shows the class how a skater is only on the outside take-off edge briefly just before take-off.
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