World and Olympic coach Robert Tebby explains the value of split jumps for flip and lutz development and shows how he teaches this relatively basic skill. He begins by discussing, “I don’t think a split jump is considered a jump anymore – it’s a decoration in your program. But a split jump is a really useful jump for helping especially flips and lutzes” because it helps the skater focus on height and proper timing.
When describing how to do a split jump Robert uses a high entry speed while encouraging a “relatively” straight picking leg with a pick placement very close to the heel of the gliding foot. He says, “Because of the speed there’s no time for any bending of the picking leg. We pick on a relatively straight leg. Our (picking) toe hits close to our (gliding) heel, and our free hip goes past our toe pick into the initiation of the split.” These are characteristics of good flips and lutzes. He emphasizes this point, “We really want to have that skill of learning to have the free hip to go past the toe pick to release the hips. Your hips (core) are your biggest muscle group. If you can get them turning, we’re off to the races.”
Robert then talks about how “back in the day” coaches would use a split jump rather than an h-position to initiate flip and lutz take-offs to learn the process of “picking closer, releasing the hip,” and climbing into the jump. He continues, “Now we’ve realized that by doing an ‘h’ we get the same thing but we also get a steeper angle of ascent because of the ‘h’ and it helps with our body (power) angle.” The h-position also allows the skater to get into a tight rotational position more quickly because the non-axis foot and lower leg are not as far away from the rotational axis.
When discussing more split jump technical details, Robert again emphasizes the benefits of a high entry speed. He also describes a common error of bending the picking leg too much which dramatically reduces power in the picking motion. Another common error is not coming “up enough in our jumping (gliding) leg before the toe hits” which tends to take the energy down into the ice and “blocks” the jump rather than allowing it to soar upward. Doing the split jump with speed and a (nearly) straight picking leg automatically tends to minimize these errors. Robert says, “If you skate fast and you keep your picking leg straight, in order to pick (close to the heel of the other skate) you have to come up in the (gliding) knee (before the pick hits).”
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