I am Michael Weiss; three-time U.S. National Figure Skating Champion and we are looking at the six basic figure skating jumps. We have already looked at the first of the edge jumps the Salchow. Now, we are going to look at the second of the edge jumps, the loop jump. What differentiates the loop jump from the Salchow and all the others is the take off.
A Salchow, remember was the left back inside edge take off. Now, we are going to be on our loop jump, the right back outside edge. So, I am not on the inside edge, I am on the outside edge of the right foot.
Now, when this take off is performed, the thing that makes it a little easier, is the fact that I am open to the rotation. On the Salchow my body is slightly blocked to the rotation, on the loop slightly open to the rotation.
Now remember, some skaters rotate to the left, like myself, some skater rotate to the right, so it can be confusing. Where the loop jump takes off on the right foot, rotates once and lands on the right foot, a skater jumping the other way will take off on the left foot, rotate once and land backwards on the left foot, that's where it can be a little complicated. Let's take a look at the single loop jump, the double loop jump and the triple loop jump.
A common mistake on the loop jumps are the fact that as you take off, some skaters will pre-rotate with their shoulders. When you do that you don't have anywhere to create energy. On the loop jump, you are almost like a rubber band, if you pull a rubber band back this far, it's not going to go very far, if you pull it this far, it's going to shoot much further. So, on the loop jump, you must create the energy in the opposite rotating direction and then spring it back the other way to create tension and torque as you jump up into the jump. So, do not pre-rotate with your shoulders, try and keep them solid, rotate in the opposite direction to create some momentum and get you maximum spring into the air of the triple loop, double loop and single loop.
Now, we have taken a look at both edge jumps, we have one more edge jump to learn. Let's take a look now at the most difficult edge jump, the Axel.
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