waltz jump!

[kittie067]

my coach says i dont have any"spring" in my jump, and that im not getting up off my toe far enough.
i have a competition coming up so please help me!!!!!!!!
~kittie

[AnnM]

Some tips are: 1) get a good knee bend on your left leg (assuming you jump CCW); 2) make sure your free leg is firm & straight as it kicks through the jump (no floppy free legs) and 3) think of kicing your free leg "out" towards the wall rather than kicking "up" towards the ceiling. A good practice move is to do consecutive waltz jumps,making an effort to make each jump bigger than the previous one.

[TashaKat]

This is the one jump that I found it beneficial to do on 'the ground'. We did it in ballet as grande jete en tournant and I found that it helped me a lot.

You can work on it anywhere depending how mad you want to look ;) In the supermarket, at the bus stop, at home, in the garden ;)

[Raine]

Think of pressing your left toe pick (assuming ccw) into the ice before lift-off. This helps you to get full extension of your skating leg and provides a little security before you take off.

[Isk8NYC]

Make sure you start the jump from a bent knee. If you start with a stiff, straight knee, you're not getting any spring. Try this, on or off the ice:

Start with a forward "glide" on a bent knee. Your hands are stretched behind you, but not behind your back.

Come up on the knee to jump, bringing your hands forward and starting to kick through with the free leg at the same time.

Pretend that there's a log or hurdle in front of you and you have to jump OVER it. And really STRETCH your legs - don't keep them together or you'll trip on our imaginary log.

When you've left the "ice", your hands are in front of you at the peak of the jump.

Rotate in the air, and let your landing foot reach for the ice with the toe pick.

When you've touched down, bring your free leg around to the back to get you on a clean back outside edge. Your arms should also come to a "check" position, which is one in front, one out to the back. This also supports the clean BO edge.

[slusher]

You have to really pop off the toepick. It's a commitment thing. If you hold back a little bit, you can bail on the jump if you haven't hit the pick, but if you hit the pick and it doesn't feel right, then you're in the air figuring out which foot is going to hit first - landing sideways is quite do-able as I've discovered.

So, you have to commit to -wait - bend knee- arms back then up and push into the ice with the leg (L leg for CCW jumpers). Push into the ice. The rest of the jump will happen, don't worry about it too much. It is so important to get the pick feeling because you will need it on every other jump so fix it on the waltz.

The tracings will show you. There should be a good pick mark at the end of the take off edge.

[russiet]

These are helping me, too. I've wanted to make my Waltz jump bigger, and I think all the responses will help.

Wouldn't it be nice to make it THIS big:

http://oasis.dit.upm.es/~jantonio/personal/patinaje/images/swaltz1.avi

Now THAT'S a Waltz Jump, eh?

This Video-file of Scott Hamilton is from http://oasis.dit.upm.es/~jantonio/personal/patinaje/index.htm

Lots of other videos there. I downloaded them all off of our fast connection at work and burned them onto a CD.

Jon

[Petlover]

The way I got my waltz jump bigger was to think "step UP!!!!" when kicking through with the free leg. One of my skating kid buddies and I practice by pretending to see how many pretend stair steps we can jump up when kicking through and up on the waltz jump. I "stepped up" so high by doing this I startled myself!

Good luck and keep jumping!

Marcia

[skateflo]

In rapid succession, from the good knee bend, I focus first on my thigh muscle to push upward, secondly I focus on my torso/ribs to stretch upward and think "lift." Finally, I 'think' to keep my arms rounded like holding a big beach ball and no higher than my shoulders. So my mental image/talk is 'thigh push up, ribs stretch up, hold the ball.' Frequently our minds race ahead and we focus on sections ahead of us and miss the beginning. With the waltz jump I too have to go back to focusing on my thigh push and keeping my back straight (not bending at the waist) and suddenly I am higher in my jump.

Everyone has their own 'imagery.' Someone once said think of it as wanting to jump up to get onto a horse.....whatever works for you.

[kayskate]

Wouldn't it be nice to make it THIS big:

http://oasis.dit.upm.es/~jantonio/personal/patinaje/images/swaltz1.avi

Now THAT'S a Waltz Jump, eh?

Jon

One of my goals is to make my waltz as big as possible. My coach wants me to jump straight. I think many people have a problem (even w/ a 1/2 rotation jump) of kicking around.

Kay

[fadedstardust]

Well there's really two kinds of waltz jumps. There is the waltz jump, and the waltz jump in preparation for axel. The waltz jump shouldn't have a bent "kick up" leg, it should be more of a split, where the leg goes up relatively straight, completely straightens out in the air, and then the weight is shifted and land. But the axel-preparation waltz jump should have a bent kick up leg and really kick UP and not be concerned with distance. The big floaty waltz jumps think up then out, with straight legs. The axel-prep waltz jumps think kick UP switch weight then land. Sorting these two out can be confusing at first. Figure out which one your coach wants from you, and go from there. Either way though, if your coach says you aren't going off the toe enough, it means you're kicking around instead of through. Bring your arms back in the set up, then bring them forward as you bring your leg UP towards your stomach (whether it's bent or not). Don't try to bring your arms or your leg around- bring them through. The toe take-off will follow naturally.

[kittie067]

thank you guys for all the advice. im skating on sunday so i'll try eveything then.
wish me luck!
~kittie