Half Lutz

[sk8tegirl06]

Any tips for the half lutz? I want to test pre-pre in the end of October but the application deadline is in a week and a half. I don't want to test if I 'm not ready, but this seems to be the only thing left. I have gotten more jump lately, but it still doesn't feel natural....don't know if it ever will. When I first started I would pick in and then just kind of stop, now I'm getting better with the timing of picking in and jumping up, but I don't know. The counter rotation aspect is what really freaks me out. It is almost as if I am just walking on my toe picks if that makes sense. I don't really feel like both feet are where they are supposed to be. Anybody?:frus:

[Sessy]

I never did the half lutz, we started with just the normal lutz, but I imagine the takeoff is much the same, right?
What REALLY helped me was to actually, while on the outside edge of my left foot (I'm ccw), to look over my right shoulder briefly, then just tell myself "CHECK this bugger" and take off without thinking about it further. Would be the right outside edge and left shoulder for clockwisies.
I really, really needed to keep my shoulders checked till the very last millisecond, if I pre-rotated even just a bit, I wasn't getting enough rotation to land it safely.

It's like... I always thought of it as a weird mirror universe version of the toeloop, I don't know why. I don't know if that's any help. The lutz is just weird in a way, I'm not sure it's supposed to feel right.

Oh yeah, I also used to lay the lutzes on the red lines in the length of the short side of the rink, instead of into the corners. This had the practical advantage that I could actually see the height of my arms in the reflection of the boardings after I checked (before looking over the shoulder, making sure the check was still there and taking off). Cuz I tended to drop the right arm (left for cw) and that messes up the rotation.
The red line is still about the area where people expect to see lutzes (at least in class) so it's not that dangerous to do it. Basically you just adjust the approach angle a little, not much.

[SynchroSk8r114]

I have gotten more jump lately, but it still doesn't feel natural....don't know if it ever will. When I first started I would pick in and then just kind of stop, now I'm getting better with the timing of picking in and jumping up, but I don't know.

I tell my students to think of "pole vaulting" themselves backwards and jumping from a bent skating knee (the one you're not picking with) to totally straight legs while pointing your toes in the air. By pole vaulting backwards, you should gain momentum needed to lift you in the air and provide enough time to rotate.

Also, make sure you're using your arms, but don't overrotate the jump before you take off or while you're picking in. You need to pull in strong mid-air by allowing your right arm, which should be behind you when you pick in, to meet with your left arm, which should be in front of you on your set up.

Good luck!

[doubletoe]

For the lutz or half lutz, here's the "wall exercise" my coach gave me:
- Stand on the ice right next to the boards. Lean against the wall with your left hip against the wall (assuming you pick with your right toe and rotate to the left)
- Get into lutz takeoff position, reaching way back with your right foot so that your left knee is at almost 90 degree angle.
- Twist your torso to the right and reach way back behind you with your right hand. Face front, with your left hand extended in front of you and lined up with the center of your chest.
- When you are correctly lined up over your left hip, these parts of your body will be touching the wall: (1) your left hip, (2) your right foot, (3) your right hand. Your left shoulder and left foot will NOT be touching the wall.
- Now get onto a left back outside edge tracing one of the hockey circles on the ice. Get into the lutz takeoff position and stick your right toe into the ice like you're picking for the lutz. Now look back and see where you picked. If you're in the correct position, your pick will have been right on the circle. If your pick was inside of the circle, you need to reach back more with your right shoulder and pick farther to the left with your right foot so that you actually pick behind the left foot.
- Now try a flip or half flip takeoff on the same circle, on a counter clockwise LBI edge. Notice that for the flip, all you have to do to pick on your circle is to reach straight back with your right foot; you don't have to bring it behind the left foot like you did on the lutz. That's because the circle created by the back inside edge requires that you pick a little to the right. Your right leg is already to the right of your left leg, so all you have to do is reach straight back.
- When you do the lutz or half lutz, two things that will help you are speed on entry and a big reach back for the pick. But make sure your back is arched and you are pulling your shoulders back (think of squeezing your shoulder blades together and imagine something is pulling you back from the space between your shoulder blades). The power for this jump comes from having a rigid, arched back.
- Make sure you hold your picking foot just slightly above the ice and pointed directly down toward the ice as you prepare to pick. Your picking leg should be locked out straight, so that if someone were to come up behind you and hit the back of your leg right behind the knee, it wouldn't bend. Then dig the pick into the ice and pull. Do not bang it into the ice and do not lift the foot before picking.
- Once your pick is in the ice, pull yourself back and up in one sweeping motion, and as you pull yourself back, your right hip will gradually come forward to square up with your left hip by the time you leave the ice. This little twist of the hips will help give you the rotation you need.

[cherriee]

(think of squeezing your shoulder blades together and imagine something is pulling you back from the space between your shoulder blades). The power for this jump comes from having a rigid, arched back.

I owe you a big thank you doubletoe. :bow: I lost my single flip jump for 2 weeks. My problem was that with a RFI mohawk entrance, I failed to stay on my LBI long enough to create tension before toe-picking.

This past weekend I brought your post above to the rink. Even though your post was about lutz jump and for some reason I used your shoulder blades squeezing trick when flip jumping, and it worked!

[doubletoe]

I owe you a big thank you doubletoe. :bow: I lost my single flip jump for 2 weeks. My problem was that with a RFI mohawk entrance, I failed to stay on my LBI long enough to create tension before toe-picking.

This past weekend I brought your post above to the rink. Even though your post was about lutz jump and for some reason I used your shoulder blades squeezing trick when flip jumping, and it worked!

Cool! :D Yes, the exact same tension is needed in the back for lutzes, flips, and even toeloops (when done right). As a matter of fact, I had the same problem on the flip from a mohawk entrance. I had to really tell myself to pull back and also to get onto the heel of the skating foot before picking. I try to imagine someone is pulling me back by the bra strap, LOL!