- Joined
- Nov 12, 2011
Its not unintuitive, in fact many young skaters will jump this way when they first begin, I'd say its more intuitive than a normal toeloop. Its just drilled out of skaters at a young age, because coaches know how big of a no-no it is. Toe-axels are what the ISU has in mind when using the term pre-rotation. Because the skater is literally rotating pre placing their blade on the ice.
i was actually taught a toe axel when i was learning a 2T at a young age, and it ruined a lot of stuff down the road for me. i had to fix the entire jump which took MONTHS of drilling it day in and day out because i had such a bad habit. a toe loop when done correctly is an entirely different jump than what i was taught. also as a result, i could not ever for the life of me do toe combos. it really speaks volumes what learning wrong technique can do to a skater and how it creates so many more problems down the road. toe loop combos are the easier combo vs a loop, and it was the complete opposite for me because i was taught wrong.
PSA: coaches, please don't be lazy with your young skaters. take the time to teach them the correct way when they first learn.