Tips on the lutz?

[MKIce9]

Hi. I'm learning the lutz and would really appreciate any pointers. The whole entrance feels funny and I can't get my feet to cross. I keep landing on two feet after 3/4 of a revolution.

On a side note, I am always so nervous about getting my skates sharpened. What if the blades get messed up? What if they don't need sharpening? Thanks for listening.

[TashaKat]

[quote:8e49fd1b5b="MKIce9"]Hi. I'm learning the lutz and would really appreciate any pointers. The whole entrance feels funny and I can't get my feet to cross. I keep landing on two feet after 3/4 of a revolution.

On a side note, I am always so nervous about getting my skates sharpened. What if the blades get messed up? What if they don't need sharpening? Thanks for listening.[/quote:8e49fd1b5b]

Firstly re your blades, ask around for recommendations at your rink. There's nothing worse than a bad sk8 grind. Don't be tempted to just take them along to the rink shop without checking them out first. Some rink shops are good, some are dreadful. If the worst does ever come to the worst and they really mess your blades up then they should replace them with new ones.

Re the Lutz. The entrance DOES feel funny as you are rotating in the 'opposite' direct to what feels natural (eg the natural rotation when going in on a LBO edge would be to jump clockwise but you have to jump anticlockwise in the Lutz - this is called 'counter rotation') - a lot of people try and rotate in the opposite direction!

I'll just run through the entrance as I was taught it and some of the problems I've had, I'm sure that other people have other experiences!

Make sure that when you come in on the LBO edge (I'm doing this CCW as I get confused thinking the other way!) make sure that you try and relax, you will have changed your arms so that your left arm in front and your right arm to the side and slightly back, at this point your right leg will be extended to the front.

When you bring your right leg back you need to try and not disturb your body position at all, some people look to the back at this point, others don't , wherever you look make sure that you're looking forwards when you do the jump. I got into the habit of tucking my right foot behind my left! It was something that we tried once and I found it comfortable, most people seem to just bring the right foot in beside the left.

When you're ready to pick think about crossing the picking foot behind! This will ensure that you keep on the outside edge, if you try and pick too wide you will drop onto an inside edge and do a 'flutz'. Picking wide will also throw your weight off and is one reason that you could be landing on two feet. Thinking of crossing the picking foot also makes it easier for you to cross your legs in the air (if your legs are crossed it isn't as easy to land two-footed).

When you put your toe in you then need to think about 'drawing back' to the picking foot so that your legs are crossed as you take off. My coach has me thinking about really bending onto the picking foot to get the 'lift' .

When you jump DON'T think about rotating!!!! I KNOW that this sounds crazy BUT if you think about rotating the most likely thing that will happen is that your shoulders will precede your hips and may throw the jump off axis.

The arms are quite important in all of this and there are different schools of thought! I was taught the following way which makes sense to me!

When you come to take off you need to pull your arms in, I was taught to keep the left (for CCW) arm in front and bring the right arm in horizontally, rolling my body into the left arm. This method ensures that you don't pre-rotate the shoulders and gives you a solid line (ie no twisting). Bringing the arm in on the horizontal stops you from dropping your right shoulder which again can pull you off the outside edge - some people are taught to 'scoop' the right arm in and up but you need to be very careful not to drop the shoulder when doing this, that's why I prefer the 'horizontal' method ;)

When you're in the jump you need to think of lifting the left hip, this helps to get the weight over onto the right leg for landing, if your weight is to the left or distributed evenly then you're almost BOUND to land on two feet!

If you're landing after 3/4 turn it's probably that you've not quite got the timing right yet or that you're pulling your arms out slightly too early. Try and CONSCIOUSLY think about keeping pulled in right until you actually hit the ice (I'm trying to think about that in my axel at the moment!!!!).

Hope that some of that helps you :)

Of course, the two-footed thing can be your safety blanket! I just couldn't get out of the habit of tapping my left foot down, even a tiny tap that wouldn't affect my balance at all. In the end my coach said to me "look, you're wasting my time, you're wasting your time and your money every time you land on two feet, you don't need that silly little tap that you do, now go out there and land it on one foot" ........ erm, it worked! He was, of course, sure by that point that I was CAPABLE of landing it on one foot but I was using that little tap as my safety net!! Stupid but true ;)

One day the damn thing will just happen and you'll wonder what the fuss was all about!

Good luck

L x

[kayskate]

I became comfortable w/ the entrance by doing 1/2 lutzes. If you find those too easy, do split or stag 1/2 lutzes. In general, stags are easier than splits. I love the stag 1/2 lutz and always do it for a lutz warm-up. Half jumps allow you to concentrate on your preparation and vault w/o worrying about rotation or landing. The good thing about doing a stag or split, is once you perfect it you have something really credible to add to your repertoire that is even required on certain tests.

Good luck.

Kay

[figurebabe]

[quote:20b8e96af1="kayskate"]I became comfortable w/ the entrance by doing 1/2 lutzes. If you find those too easy, do split or stag 1/2 lutzes. In general, stags are easier than splits. I love the stag 1/2 lutz and always do it for a lutz warm-up. [/quote:20b8e96af1]

But the lutz, :lol: you pick with your right foot, considering that i do my stag CCW I wouldnt be able to do it from a lutz entrance, because doing a CCW stag, you have to check with your left foot...? how does that work then, would i have to do a CW stag with a lutz? :?:

[melanieuk]

[quote:33ff131eea="MKIce9"] I keep landing on two feet after 3/4 of a revolution.

[/quote:33ff131eea]

[color=red:33ff131eea]I had the same problem when I was trying to get the lutz.
I kept having to say to myself, "keep that free foot UP!"
My weight wasn't over the landing foot, partly because I wasn't bringing my forward leg back to meet the picking leg before I jumped.
Also I found that by keeping lots of tension down the picking side of the body, ie CCW your right arm back, right leg extended back, that it helped the jump along.
:) Keep at it - it'll come! ;)
[/color:33ff131eea]

[kar5162]

[quote:84ea531f2e="figurebabe"]But the lutz, :lol: you pick with your right foot, considering that i do my stag CCW I wouldnt be able to do it from a lutz entrance, because doing a CCW stag, you have to check with your left foot...? how does that work then, would i have to do a CW stag with a lutz? :?:[/quote:84ea531f2e]

Huh? For the stag jump (for a CCW jumper), you would pick in with your right toe and rotate 1/2 turn towards your left. After you leave the ice, your legs achieve the "stag" position, left bent, right extended behind you. You could do this from a flip type set up (3 turn or mohawk) and take off from the LBI edge, from a lutz type set up and take off from a LBO edge, or from a loop (falling leaf) type setup and take off from a RBO edge. What Kay is describing is just a big 1/2 lutz going into stag position (very difficult to do really well).

[figurebabe]

I KNOW I KNOW DUUH IM SO STUPID! :x Just after I posted that I realised how stupid I was...I totttttttally misunderstood and yes I DOO UNDERSTAND NOW im sorry sorry sorry...i was really confused but then...RGRGH :oops: , im not really that stupid, I just thought something else..yess, lol but im surprised because I have actually done the stag via the lutz entrance..I dont know why I thought something completely different.. :roll: sorrrryy....(for wasting your time too lol) :!:

[kar5162]

[quote:e7dc143c9d="figurebabe"]I KNOW I KNOW DUUH IM SO STUPID! :x Just after I posted that I realised how stupid I was...I totttttttally misunderstood and yes I DOO UNDERSTAND NOW im sorry sorry sorry...i was really confused but then...RGRGH :oops: , im not really that stupid, I just thought something else..yess, lol but im surprised because I have actually done the stag via the lutz entrance..I dont know why I thought something completely different.. :roll: sorrrryy....(for wasting your time too lol) :!:[/quote:e7dc143c9d]

No, you're not stupid :). Sometimes I read a description and it seems totally backwards to me and I keep thinking of my feet all tangled up...then I realize it's easy. But what you see in written words can be quite hard to translate to what you can do on the ice.