Emanuel Sandhu Needs a New Coach

[Mafke]

To me, Sandhu's problem is that he pops the axel so much, even in practice, that his 'muscle memory' is now to pop the jump rather than to rotate it. [/B]

I think this is the key factor. I remember on the British announcers on Eurosport pointed out the danger of popping jumps in practice. Skaters differ in how they approach jumps-going-wrong. One camp tries to go through with it and save it on the landing (or at least not injure themselves in the fall) and the other pops at the least provocation. Under the stress of public performance almost all jumps feel off and the latter group pops or doubles while the former group toughs it out and either fall or save the jump.
In the case ES's SP, it almost looked as if the pop was choreographed into the program as what he intended to do.

 

[Sk8n Mama]

Exactly. How many times have we seen him pop the axel this season? When I saw him in practice at Canadians 05, he was popping it there. I fully expect he'll pop it again the LP today. It'll be pretty similar to the SP, clean quad-triple followed by a big single axel. If he gets in the first axel, he'll definitely pop the second one. You know, I can't remember the last time I saw him rotate both axels in competition.

 

[lotusland]

The problem with the Axel is habitual, but IMHO it doesn't stem from popping the jump. The popped jump is instead the result of the habitual technical problem.

Looking at Emmanual's skating/jumping from a dancer's perspective (my background is primarily ballet and secondarily skating), the problem I see in the Axel stems from his years of serious ballet training. In dance we are drilled on opening the hips to achieve proper turnout. After a period of time opening the hips becomes second nature to a dancer, they don't even have to think about it, they just automatically do it. While it is true, turnout is fabulous for (properly done) spirals, Ina Bauers, and spread eagles, it is nevertheless murder on the Axel. When everything is done to technical perfection Emmanual's Axel is gorgeous because he takes off from a clean edge (no skid). But when everything isn't absolutely perfect, which is the majority of the time, he has no hope of saving the jump. Why not? Because when Emmanual sets up for his Axel he automatically "opens his hips" forcing him to bring around the free leg rather than squaring the hips and pushing through and pushing up the free leg. The problem has persisted for so long now (hence the popped jumps) that he has now developed another habit ... he rides the edge past the top of his circle and beyond the take off point.

In practice Emmanual can land gorgeous triple Axels. Out of the program and in isolation. But in competition when adrenaline, nerves and his body's auto control and muscle memory take over, that is a whole different story ...