Lutz In Ice Skating: Correcting A Flutz

Lutz In Ice Skating: Correcting A Flutz – Part 3 (Nick Perna)

Nick Perna continues with Part 3 of his lutz lesson with Emily. In Part 1 of the lutz lesson, Nick did some preliminary analysis of Emily’s other jumps and her backspin and then started to address the flutz with backward power pulls. In Part 2 of the lutz lesson Nick focused mainly on an important wall drill to develop the proper movement and awareness of the jump. If you have not seen Part 2, please view it before continuing with this video.

In this video, Nick and Emily progress to half lutzes. Note that Nick is only interested in the correct take-off and really doesn’t care how much rotation is generated, at least initially. He says to Emily, “You didn’t quite do the flick because you were worried about the rotation. All we care about is the take-off.” Notice that Emily simply cannot do the drill correctly at this point and Nick returns to the wall to rebuild the proper movement and feeling. This is extremely common when fixing flutz problems.

Next, Nick has Emily do the half-lutz at the wall. He wants her to balance on the toe pick and pivot on it. Again, this is extremely difficult for Emily while maintaining the correct edge and is typical of skaters with flutz problems as well as skaters that have never built up the proper feeling through the use of drills. Nick claims he can tell a good lutz take-off from a poor one based on the sound it makes. This is something that is probably beyond most skaters and coaches but is a good goal. It’s difficult to hear the sounds in the video since Nick is wearing the microphone and it’s not near Emily’s feet.

Nick tells Emily, “I would have you do a lot of these.” What he means is that in the short lesson he has with Emily, it’s hard to progress all the way from an ingrained muscle memory flutz back to a proper lutz take-off. It takes time to develop the correct motion and feeling and there’s no substitute for precise and focused practice. Nick says it can take months of dedicated practice to fix a flutz (or double or triple flutz). The prescription is: Do the drills correctly, and do a lot of them.

Stay tuned for the continuation of this lesson…