Ah, back to the great bunny hop debate! My daughter fell on one today, landed on her front, and has a huge graze on her tummy, very painful!

Give me toe loops any day! The only reason that waltz jumps aren't as freaky as bunny hops is that the landing is backwards. Although personally I have never liked the take off either.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

You know... I have gotten seriously hurt by both waltz jumps and bunny hops. (Those bunnies are EVILLE when going at extremely fast speeds down the length of the rink and having to alternate between legs. As for waltz jumps, well, okay it's not the waltz jumps fault...it was the boots' fault... but I've had my very worse shin/achilles tendon pulls from landing on a waltz jump.)

BTW: SkatingOnClouds - both jumps can be trained at the wall barrier so that it wouldn't be as scary. I've relearned waltz jumps and bunny hops that way. (Yeah, I know! You and that wall, jazzpants! But I swear I learn a lot of stuff I usually too chicken to try unless I tried it at the wall.)

As for the original post, secondary coach has me undo the toeloop cheat using the BO pivot method. Sadly, so far the only thing she's gotten me to do is a nice BO pivot. (Nice choreography footwork stuff, buuuut... that's not the intent!!!)

Cheers,
jazzpants

(Who is very tired, but can't seemed to sleep... A certain "relative" is visiting...)

I like both bunny hops and mazurka's, but the falling leaf is evil.

Oh, yes, I agree. I like doing them, but I have trouble getting a good air position. When I do them, they always look really wussy...

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I learned bunny hops (and toe-loops) over 20 years ago. Toe-loops remain a firm favourite, whereas bunny hops still scare me just as much today.

I do think the Doubletoes's advice helped my toe-loops better than anything since my return to skating. Even my coach has commented how much better they have been - except today. After a week off due to a work-related back strain, my toe-loops had reverted, but she quickly pulled me up on them and I remembered to "float" my right leg across in the jump.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

I opinionated this in past threads....I think the Mazurka has hurt more than helped my toe loop efforts.

A Mazurka has given me a strong pick, but the upper body is all wrong.

When doing a Mazurka your upper body is already rotated in the direction of the landing. When you pop-up, the upper body will momentarily snap back to counter the legs scissoring. When the pick touches down, then the body unwinds and you push out to glide forward on the other foot.

The upper body movement is all backward to a Toe Loop.

Worst thing I ever did was learn a great Mazurka before ever attempting a TL.

I'm scared of the ballet jump! That jump is evil!

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Jessica

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So if I understand correctly, for the tighter position you neew for a double toe (which I'm not up to yet at all, just trying to conceptualize this), you take-off with the right (CCW jump) thigh sweeping in front of the picking leg, but then switch leg position in the air to get into the backspin position (left crossed over right)?

To answer the Q about rotating the jump on ice: I recently found out that arms help tremendously. By winding up on the check and then very deliberately scooping up-and-in, the jump pretty much took care of itself. First few times I did this it felt like I was propelling the jump with my arms, not my legs. It whips you around just like pulling in your arms in a spin does.

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I had a hard time with ballet jumps until my coach finally got me to "see the light" and realize...if you jump UP instead of OUT they are much easier, less wicked, and look so nice!

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

I teach it as a popup jump and it works well. From a standstill, toe in, jump up in place, come down on the same toe pick, now skate off on the other foot. I also explain that you jump up FACING the audience. The arms and free leg lifts come later, after they're comfortable with the popup and landing.

The hardest part is teaching them to use their toepicks. They're terrified that any use of the toepick will make them fall, yet it terrifies me to see them using the rocker instead of the toepick for a toe jump. I'm sure one of them is going to flip backward and hit their head. (Plus, they're not using the picks for the half-rotation jump landings. "I'll just come down on this curvey part and she won't notice." ) I've added a bunch of "toe walking" to my lesson plans so the students are introduced to it earlier and start actually breaking in their skates. (Half can't point their toes, half can't bend their ankles. Sheesh.)

As for the toe loop, I played with turning the picking foot out to the side instead of picking straight down. It's different, but I don't dislike it - I'll try it some more. It definitely changes the way you sweep the free foot around. I really, really like it for the mazurka jump!

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Introducing toe walking early sounds like a good idea. My first coach never encouraged it, and I notice I am really scared of doing it, and not good at it. On the other hand, my 9 yo daughter can do it really well, as can most of her class because it is taught. It is something I have to force myself to do, even though I love toe-assisted jumps. And I love big toe-picks (I'm on Phantoms, though my skating level isn't).

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

wouldn't you know, the evil demons of Bunnie Hops and Mazurkas saw my last post re hating Mazurkas and Poof! coach now wants to put Mazurkas into my new program - HELP!
Lyle