loop jumps

treesprite · Mar 22, 2012

Well, I finally started trying to do loop jumps after all the years of not doing them.

Is it just the fact that they are cheated and tiny that I feel like I'm not jumping, or do other people also feel like they aren't jumping when doing loops? I can see from the ice marks that I am definitely jumping. I'm turning on my toe before lift off, so I guess it's more of a lootz, but still, if I am jumping I should feel like I am. Maybe they are just easier than I remember them being?

dlkksk8fan · Mar 22, 2012

I feel like I'm jumping when doing the loop jump. Just ride the edge then up! It took me a while to learn one.

treesprite · Mar 22, 2012

I just watched a video of Boitano doing a loop jump and he rotated on his toe before jumping. Then I watched some other jump videos and saw the same thing. I think it all goes along with the website that explains the specifics of jump requirements.... most single jumps are really 3/4 or 1/2 rev and most doubles are 1.5 or 1.75 revs. Maybe I shouldn't be so hung up about the toe turning issue?

mskater93 · Mar 22, 2012

It should have a little "flag" on the take off to get the entirety of the jumping leg to work.

gkelly · Mar 22, 2012

If I do it right I feel like I'm jumping. Sometimes I'm too cautious and not balanced correctly so I barely get off the ice and barely get around, landing just a couple inches from where I took off, or even in the exact same spot or behind the takeoff. Those I consider my badly cheated attempts.

If I do them right, for me, with some speed, I'll have maybe 6-14 inches between takeoff and landing tracings, with the angle of the curves indicating at least 3/4 of a full rotation in the air.

Then occasionally I do get off the ice but don't get my weight properly centered over the right side (CCW jumper), so I don't get around and land on two feet. That's a popped single jump type of failure.

When I did this jump as a teenager my takeoff edge was often skidded. Now it's usually a clean edge -- maybe in part because I'm traveling more slowly. I'll have to check to see if there's a "flag" at the end of the takeoff tracing.

mskater93 · Mar 22, 2012

Salchow, too, should have the little "flag" on the take off. It means you are hitting your toe pick completely on the take off. FWIW, loops are my "smallest" jumps at 3.5-4 blade lengths. Flips and Axels are typically 5-6.

herro · Mar 22, 2012

treesprite said:
I just watched a video of Boitano doing a loop jump and he rotated on his toe before jumping. Then I watched some other jump videos and saw the same thing. I think it all goes along with the website that explains the specifics of jump requirements.... most single jumps are really 3/4 or 1/2 rev and most doubles are 1.5 or 1.75 revs. Maybe I shouldn't be so hung up about the toe turning issue?

I personally don't think too much about rotation that occurs before the jump.

For the loop to takeoff properly (with nice snap and spring), you have to really sit on that edge and let the physics of skating work. I thankfully had a good coach who knew how to teach edge jumps, so I didn't have too much trouble going from single to double to triple loops.

treesprite · Mar 23, 2012

Today they felt a little better. Still not more than 2 blade lengths, but better than before.

How are other people entering them?

gkelly · Mar 23, 2012

Ha, yesterday I spent my practice session focusing on loop jumps, largely because of this thread. I tried every entry that I usually use and a couple others as well.

My favorite is landing of another jump, preferably salchow.

Inside three turn is most consistent but I don't do that with much speed so the jump is small.

All the other approaches I tried are basically stepping from LBI onto RBO to jump. But there are different ways of getting onto that LBI:
*LFO three
*back crossovers (I don't like this approach, so I sit on the LBI for a while and telegraph before changing feet to jump, instead of doing it from the normal wide step part of the crossover)
*RBO three followed by RFI mohawk (I don't like this one either)
*Just plain backward changes of foot: RBI, LBI, RBO -- yesterday was the first time I tried this approach, and it worked at least as well as the previous two for me

The closest I came to covering a whole blade length in the air was from the landing of a salchow, done with speed. I'm not exactly a big jumper.

sarahspins · Mar 24, 2012

treesprite said:
Maybe they are just easier than I remember them being?

I think they are easy, however I've had to work to improve mine a lot over the past year to get ready for doubles. This time last year I was barely getting a blade length in distance, sometimes 1 1/2, and if I got 2, that was a huge one. I've done some recently with a 6-7 blade length span (one day my coach had me doing them over and over to see how big I could get them)... even the small ones are easily 4 now. The difference is mainly in the spring on the take-off, only a little bit in speed (I hate doing jumps slow).

All edge jumps take off from the toe, not clean edges, so don't worry that you are doing it "wrong" if you see the little flag on the ice from the pick digging in right when you take off.

mskater93 · Mar 26, 2012

treesprite said:
How are other people entering them?

It's either the backend of a combo (or on an exercise for double jumps as the back end of a combo as tight as I can make it or out of a backspin from the jump we are working on) or from an inside mohawk step down.

Like Sara, my coaches have spent a lot of time working on the technical details of the take off so that my double loop will not be scary looking (and feeling) and more consistent. Right now, I am typically between a quarter and a 1/2 turn short of rotation but in the right air position.

loop jumps

treesprite

dlkksk8fan

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mskater93

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