Loop help please

[The Ice Demon]

Anyone a loop expert ??? My loop is all twisty (ie my body is all twisty) and i feel like the jump is stuck as i take off of the ice. I use "rfi to lbi mohawk, step onto rbo" entry and it has never been a great jump for me. My free leg always looks ugly, i have trouble keeping it pointed and turned out and close to my skating leg. Any help would be welcome, even just a description of how you enter it and tips you use to perfect it.
Thx in advance.

The Ice Demon

[Aussie Willy]

Well I will try to help.

You want to try and keep your left shoulder forward and don't let it get pull back before you jump.

As for the free leg, for a single loop you don't need to bring it close to the skating leg or even try for a cross foot position in the air. Use the knee of the free leg to help give some lift to your jump by raising it as you take off.

You could also try taking off from a RFI3 and just do the jump after the 3turn (however you might have also been doing this so).

Also with the arms, think that you are hugging a tree or holding a giant egg which you are not allowed to break. My coach and I used to use the egg thing quite a bit when doing loops. You can also practise RBO3turns doing this. To get the arm thing pass a glove from one hand to the other as you do the turn to get the arm position.

Hope that helps and good luck. It took me such a long time to get a loop years ago (about 5 months) but now I really like doing them.

[MissIndigo]

On the takeoff, you will want to feel as if your shoulders and hips are all in one square plane. If I don't feel this before I attempt a loop, the jump just doesn't happen.

I also keep in mind to bring my right arm up and through instead of swinging it around when I am ready to pull them in. My coach often tells me to think about socking myself in the chin! :lol: Keep in mind too that you don't have to bring your arms in too close to your body for a single, just enough to aid with the rotation. I would say that I bring my hands together a good 10 inches to a foot away from my chest and that's enough to get me around.

Good luck. I have been able to do this jump for a while now but it's my least favorite. http://www.gamers-forums.com/smilies/contrib/sarge/Icky_anim.gif Blame that on some nasty falls with it.

[Chico]

This is my personal best jump. So, I'm no expert but I can give basic help on what works for me. I enter the jump on a straight and not a curve. My coach is firm on this and says it contributes to twisty/ cheated jumps. (curve) I enter my jump like you by the way. You need to really check your free side before and during the jump. The shoulder is checked but your upper bod should be square. You should think spring up and then rotate. Your arms should pull in to a beachball for the rotation. Be sure to keep your arms low. Keep your right side long on the takeoff. You should feel like your being pulled up on this side. Keep your shoulders down and level though. Alot to worry about huh? Work on one step at a time. Skating is a process of tiny little steps. Good luck. Oh...speed helps.

Chico

[The Ice Demon]

Thanks for replies so far. Sorry I should have explained my situation. My single loop is pretty reasonable according to my coach as a jump by itself and I can do loop-loop combinations and up to 1lutz-1loop combinations etc. But I am wanting to get really good technique in order to start working on doubles. I am working on 2 sal, 2toe and 2flip at the moment and axel is there but the landing is often 2 footed. Sal and flip are my best jumps, but I have put off working on 2loop as i don't like this jump because the jump never really feels that great. So I figure the better the technique on the single the more likely i am to want to attempt and actually get double, i figure that you can get away with dodgy technique in a single jump but I will be in real trouble if my technique is bad when trying a double.

Actually you've made me think about it a bit... May be it is just because I don't like the feel of loop that I think it needs work and I am just chickening out. I hate toe loops but my coach says there's nothing wrong with them. My favourite jumps are flip and sal and I land REALLY big singles of them and feel more confident trying double flip and sal over 2toes!! :roll: :roll:

Any further help will still be appreciated tho, thanks. Also in what order did you start learning doubles and in what order did you start landing them consistently would be of help to me.

[Aussie Willy]

Ice Demon - I hate toe loops too!!!:) Thanks for explaining what level you are at.

You are so right about getting the technique on the single right though. I have no desire to do doubles, but I see a couple of people at our rink (one guy in particular) who doesn't have a good technique on any of his single jumps and still tries to do doubles. Any wonder he can't do them in competition. He just thinks he has a bad skate - doesn't stop and think if he only worked on the basics then he could get the doubles.

Anyway it does pay to go back to basics. Hope it all goes well.

As another suggestion, do you practise landing in a backspin after a loop? That should help you with the cross-legged position.