My daughter is trying to land her axel. Her take off is wonderful but she falls apart in the air. She has practiced waltz-loop combinations and waltz-backspin combinations but can't get back spin in air. She can do wonderful axels in the harness. She has been working at this for about six months. How long does it usually take. Oh, she can land it off ice fully rotated. Some advice....?????
Axel problems
- Thread starter SK8LUVR
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2005
In terms of how long it takes? Man, do a lot of people wish there was an answer to that. My older sister spent FIVE YEARS working on axel, and never got it. I, on the other hand got it in a few months. It depends on the skaters body type, their technique, etc. but I would say the majority of people work on it for about a year before getting just from my experience with my peers. I would say just keep working on it with her coach, and hopefully it will come along. Sometimes that's just how these things work.
Has she become reliant on the harness? It's a great tool, but sometimes skaters rely on it too much and are afraid to translate what they feel in the harness to what it should feel like unassisted. Especially if she is getting a height boost from her coach.
The axel is a serious mind game jump.
The axel is a serious mind game jump.
I really don't think that she is as she only gets a chance to use the harness at summer and fall schools. Now that we are back at our local arena we have no harness and she has great speed and great height into it. I keep telling her to stay tight. She is basically flinging herself around the ice to do this jump and she is not scared at all. It will be beautiful when she does get it as she is not timid at all. She is only eight.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
SK8LUVR said:
My own axel attempts (which have been put on a back burner for now since i appear to have inexplicably lost my lutz and loop) were constantly marred by the fact that fear kept me too open through the jump. My coach was impressed with the height i achieved on my attempts since they often got loud "wow" type reactions from him but regardless of the height my brain refuses to allow me to keep tight once i'm in the air and my arms either never come fully in or they open out right away looking for the fall! I have no problems getting a good clean one off ice but i think that's more to do with easliy getting the rotation off ice and being able to keep my arms more open off ice than i need on ice to get fully around.
It is a mind game jump...i had simlar problems learning the flip and lutz - my brain didn't allow me to pull my arms in and cross my legs...still having that problem with those jumps now only i can muscle a flip with my feet side my side but have no joy with the loop or lutz...two steps forward and mile back!
Ant
SK8LUVR said:
That's good, then. When she "flings" herself around, do you notice her going around with the right arm/side, like a circle? (I'm assuming she's CCW). Skaters learning this jump will often do this subconsiously because they are trying to help the rotation. Unfortunately, it actually hurts the rotation. When my axel goes wonky, that's almost always what I'm doing. So, when it happens, my coach really emphasizes bringing the arms and leg straight through, and when I concentrate on that, the jump becomes easy for me again.
Good luck to your daughter. Eight is a wonderfully confident age for skaters - my 10 year old son is fearless on ice (hockey, unfortunately, not figure skating).
That is exactly what she is doing but I noticed the other day that her coach said to take off one of her gloves and so that she would feel the two hands coming together to stay tucked. But I also think that her problem is that she does not want to place her free leg on top of the other one long enough to get the complete 1 1/2 rotation. What do you think?
