Firsts axels, alleluia !

[La Versaillaise]

Hi guys !
I’ve been reading you all for quite a long time now.
Today is a great day as I did my first axels, so I decided to celebrate by subscribing to the forum.

I haven’t been trying a lot. The norm here is group classes, not private lessons, and there’s a huge gap between my group that does loop jumps maximum and the next one that does axels and doubles like it’s a normal thing.
Due to this situation, I got used to experimenting a lot of things on my own using tiki tube videos and get proper technique later when I reach the next group or when these elements finally get taught to my group.

I could already do all the single jumps (the lutz landing on two feet though), most of the preparatory exercises for the axel too. My waltz jump was huge, and I feel my salchow is powerful enough to even try a double sal.
So I just went for it.

On the first day, I jumped like a frog, with arms and legs everywhere in the air, and did one turn consistently, landing on two feet.
On the second day, I tried to pull my arms and legs to gain that extra half turn and managed twice, still on two feet.
Today, I was too tired to skate, even more to jump, so I just pretended to do the axel without leaving the ice. At some point, the rotations were so quick it felt like I could almost jump without trying. So I jumped a bit, just enough to leave the ground, and was all surprised to land on one foot with one and a half rotations. I repeated the jump a few times before starting underrotating it.

So yay ! My axel is there !
Next goal : using proper strength to get a real, beautiful, truly jumped axel.

What have you guys been acheiving recently ? What are you working on ?

 

[iceskating21]

Congratulations! I can see your passion and talent through the words!

But seriously, I never see anyone learned doubles just by group lesson and video. It's better to get a private coach.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Hi guys !
I’ve been reading you all for quite a long time now.
Today is a great day as I did my first axels, so I decided to celebrate by subscribing to the forum.

I haven’t been trying a lot. The norm here is group classes, not private lessons, and there’s a huge gap between my group that does loop jumps maximum and the next one that does axels and doubles like it’s a normal thing.
Due to this situation, I got used to experimenting a lot of things on my own using tiki tube videos and get proper technique later when I reach the next group or when these elements finally get taught to my group.

I could already do all the single jumps (the lutz landing on two feet though), most of the preparatory exercises for the axel too. My waltz jump was huge, and I feel my salchow is powerful enough to even try a double sal.
So I just went for it.

On the first day, I jumped like a frog, with arms and legs everywhere in the air, and did one turn consistently, landing on two feet.
On the second day, I tried to pull my arms and legs to gain that extra half turn and managed twice, still on two feet.
Today, I was too tired to skate, even more to jump, so I just pretended to do the axel without leaving the ice. At some point, the rotations were so quick it felt like I could almost jump without trying. So I jumped a bit, just enough to leave the ground, and was all surprised to land on one foot with one and a half rotations. I repeated the jump a few times before starting underrotating it.

So yay ! My axel is there !
Next goal : using proper strength to get a real, beautiful, truly jumped axel.

What have you guys been acheiving recently ? What are you working on ?

Hi and welcome. A little advice from a professional figure skater: Do not try to teach yourself with videos, you will never ever be able to correct the things you are teaching yourself wrong with a group lesson. The damage will already be done. And you can also injure yourself.

I am glad you love skating so much and have alot of enthusiasm about it!

 

[La Versaillaise]

Thank you for your kind answers.

I completely understand your professional and well-informed point of view.

Group classes are a little bit different in France, as this is pretty much all we have. We lack rinks and coaches. As a consequence, there’s no ice time and few coaches.
Even serious competitive skaters have to train in group classes and learn their jumps that way.
The good side of this situation, at my rink, is that we get the same coaches as the elite and serious competitive skaters (except for two coaches that do only elite and serious competitors).
Some of the Olympians who train here also give a hand and teach classes when coaches are missing.
A former Olympian has also just joined the coaching team.
So, group classes are what we have but they’re pretty good.

Now, we are also very lucky that some of our coaches give private lessons during (crowded, haha ) public session.
So I’ll follow your advice and book one or two to get the proper technique for my axel and double sal.

 

[La Versaillaise]

Some of the Olympians who train here also give a hand and teach classes when coaches are missing.

I’ve just checked and Pavel Kovalev is actually not an Olympian, he’s the current French champion in pairs skating with his wife Camille. That’s still great to have him as an occasional coach.

 

[el henry]

I’ve just checked and Pavel Kovalev is actually not an Olympian, he’s the current French champion in pairs skating with his wife Camille. That’s still great to have him as an occasional coach.

I am not a skater, so I cannot answer your original question and leave that to others more knowledgeable than I.

But I am going slightly off topic to say I very much enjoyed Camille and Pavel's skates at Worlds, where they did compete. I have no idea if they are good coaches, but if they skate at your home rink, that's pretty cool.

Also, bienvenue à Goldenskate! Post long and post often.

 

[La Versaillaise]

I am not a skater, so I cannot answer your original question and leave that to others more knowledgeable than I.

But I am going slightly off topic to say I very much enjoyed Camille and Pavel's skates at Worlds, where they did compete. I have no idea if they are good coaches, but if they skate at your home rink, that's pretty cool.

Also, bienvenue à Goldenskate! Post long and post often.

Thank you for your warm welcome !

I don’t know Camille personally but Pavel is great. He’s super humble too. I didn’t know he was an elite skater until I googled his name after hearing his family name which sounded familiar.

 

[La Versaillaise]

Update : my axel has temporarily escaped to the world of uncompleted jumps. I’m too tired to jump and I try to land it before jumping, so it lands perfectly but never leaves the ice.