I've been working on my lutz again (up to my enforced 2 weeks off due to concussion). I don't seem able to get the jump taking off from an outside edge.

There is at least one change of edge in my entry, and often 2-3. Watching another skater last weekend who has consistent lutzes, she was clearly changing edge and taking of from an inside edge, and her tracings looked like mine.

I've tried the long back outside edge glide (- which I hate, cos there is no "jumping moment") LFI mohawk followed by a scissor step into the edge, and even LFO mohawk the same. As soon as I lift my free leg prior to picking, I am changing edge. On a good day I do get a 2nd change back onto the outside edge, but not lately.

Any ideas on how to stay on the outside edge, or why I might be changing edge when I take my free leg back to pick?

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

I tend to hit a flat on my entry when I don't pull the picking side all the way back into the circle. I am a CW skater so I will describe what my coach tells ME to do to make a more definitive RBO edge:
When I set up my Lutz, I use a spread eagle with L foot leading and L shoulder pulled far back. As I pick up the left foot out of the OSE, she has me pull the L shoulder back even further into the circle to pull the RBO edge deeper. THEN I am allowed to pick. When I look at my tracing when I do it like that, the edge is clearly a RBO edge all the way to the take off. I also tend to get higher in the air and the jump hangs a moment before rotating.

The thing that has helped me the most has been rather counter-intuitive: Flatten out the entrance edge instead of trying to emphasize the outside edge. The more you try to go onto a deep outside edge, the more you will swerve onto an inside edge to compensate as you start to reach back. Think of staying on a flat diagonal and reaching straight back.

Another thing that has helped a lot of skaters is going into it from the mohawk-crossover. That gives you a shorter edge and sort of forces your picking side shoulder to go back as you reach back to pick. That picking side shoulder is key. Another thing you can do to keep that shoulder back is to raise the picking side arm and rotate it back to the back with the shoulder opened out rather than pulling it back at waist or shoulder level.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics