International coach and jump specialist Chris Conte begins a jump lesson with one of his skaters, focusing on triples. He has the skater do a double axel just to get the feeling of air position and landing which will be necessary for the triples. (He had previously given this skater a harness lesson for triple axel.) Chris notes that this skater struggles with downward toe point on the axis/landing foot which means she has to jump higher to get a technically clean jump. He explains that short landings can become an unnecessary habit if a skater repeats them enough (especially for those who point their toes). He says, “She points the toe so hard it impacts before it should.”
Notice the mental aspects of these attempts throughout the lesson. Sometimes it’s helpful to pause the jump attempts to have a skater recenter and calm down and Chris says, “Take a breath, let your heart rate go down a little bit.” He wants her to stop thinking so hard, and just do the jump without a big pause between the entry mohawk and the take-off. The skater fully rotates a pretty good one but falls, and to help with the landing Chris says, “I want you to think of putting a toe (loop) on it so you have to go to reset afterwards.” This is a classic tip to help change landing mindset and movement. After the skater lands a triple salchow, Chris notes, “A lot of times she needs to calm herself down.” He then asks for waltz jump-Euler-triple salchow which the skater lands on the first attempt, and the take-away here is some skaters simply need the rhythm this kind of jump sequence provides.
Moving on to triple toe loop, Chris explains this skater is “one of these people who didn’t do toe loops.” After an attempt with a fall, Chris wants the skater to “lengthen the reach” and initiate the rotation a moment sooner with the core and upper body so as not to block the rotation at take-off. He talks about this as the “sideways position” and he says, “It’s one of the things I wish I’d been taught when I was young. To pay attention to when you’re sideways on a take-off.” He laments the focus on being backward or forward without recognizing the important point where the body is sideways to the take-off direction. He then explains that because she’s “stuck” she is “pulling around the take-off and it’s bleeding energy because it could go up and through much easier.” He likens it to a golf swing. Chris and the skater both recognize the need to increase the entry speed and accelerate through the take-off. He says, “For the full amount of acceleration she doesn’t quite have the full extension back, so she taps a little short (and) her upper body will pass her lower body a little too much.”
Chris then talks about a salt-and-pepper concept. He wants the skater to “throw salt” with the axis hand over the non-axis shoulder (get the axis arm through to help generate rotation) which typically places the shoulders neutral or ahead of the hips rotationally. The skater then twists the shoulders against the rotation like using a “pepper grinder to grind out the pepper.” Chris says, “Salt on the up, pepper on the down.”
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