I am not sure about Yu-na's technique being the textbook case. She does lip and doesn't have a triple loop or axel. Her lutz seems shaky with a forward lean as well. Her lack of triples will hamper her career at some point. I must admit that she has developed her presentation over the last two years, however, she hasn't made any improvements in jumps. Just compare her elements in her junior programs back in 2005/2006 and her senior programs in 2006/2007. It is the same old, same old story.
She is one of the most overrated skaters in women's skating IMHO. I just don't get why she is considered a rival of Mao Asada.
I am very hesitant to get into this again. I think this has been resolved for once and for all, but apparently it has not. I will tell you Yu-na Kim simply does not lip, and in fact she has the best flip among all the women currently in competition. Here is why:
I posted several articles in response to the thread concerning the recent ISU rule changes in this site regarding Flip and Lip, some of which are obviously intended to crack down the illegal jumps such as Flutz and Lip. If some of you are interested in finding out what went on this site, please take a look at them at (
http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/sho...t=16562&page=8 ).
The definition of Lip refers to an improperly executed Flip where an inside take-off edge is mistakenly changed to an outside edge, making it somewhat Lutz. Flip is one of the easiest jumps in figure skating, and so skaters are expected to properly execute it. Apparently they do not for some reason.
Skaters use two entries for Flip. One is LFO-3 and the other is Mohawk entry. LFO-3 is an entry where the skater tracks a curve with a slight (shallow) inside edge to get to the position to take off, and most skaters probably try to use this entry. Also, most coaches probably teach LFO-3 entry first until the skater is found to be incapable of executing it before they switch to Mohawk because LFO-3 entry maximizes the reaction force off the ice, and also is better looking. The reaction force is created when the skater exerts a force on the ice, and that reaction force is used to take off from the ice.
In a properly executed LFO-3, it is impossible to lip because the pivot (axis) leg is the skater’s right leg for a counter-clockwise rotation, and the left leg tracks a curve to get to the point where the skater can take off. Also, in figure skating mechanics’ point of view, the smaller the angle between the inside take-off edge and the imaginary vertical line drawn from the ice, the better (It has to do with cos x, where x is the aforementioned angle in trigonometry)
With that said, Yu-na has the best Flip among all the women currently in competition. She uses the classic LFO-3 entry that forces her to use a slight inside edge as expected, and she is optimizing her left foot position with respect to the ice to create a maximum reaction force off the ice by making the angle as small as possible.
The following is a YouTube that shows LFO-3 entry for Yu-na's Flip and obviously some Lips by other skaters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSrJx1XR1IE
