I have seen this many times with a lot of the novice and pre-novice skaters at my club and I thought it was really ugly... then I began to learn doubles and my coach says that I am doing it too (it looks like when you jump your free leg died or something and everything below the knee is not tucked in and flying out away from your other leg) ... How can I get rid of it! I don't want my jumps to look funny!

I would like to know too. I'm starting doubles soon and I don't want my bad habits with singles to carry on up to doubles.

When I jump up, especially with the loop, my free leg goes up and my free foot slides up about my knee and the part of my free leg below the knee with parallel with the ice. Really bad.

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I have leg issues (with both legs) when I jump. For example with the loop, I bend the takeoff/landing leg during the jump, and the free leg tends to be all wonky.

But a couple tips that I've been working on recently with the loop:
* Flex the foot of the takeoff leg (opposite of pointing).
* Turn the free leg's foot in, so that it's pointing across the other leg. I had that backwards for ages...

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

I just finished up a seminar with a guest coach and we talked about this.
what he said was to try a backspin and tap your ankles together then go into the backspin position and it will be perfect..then you have to feel that in the air..it's hard to explain but ask your coaches about it and they might know.

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dont eat me

At last year's ISI National Seminar, Audrey Weisiger had demonstrated an ankle buzzer tool that was specifically designed to teach skaters the correct in-air crossed position. Her Grassroots to Champions site shows the buzzer, but not its proper use.

It was very interesting to see the skaters work to snap into the proper position with the ankles crossed. When they succeeded, the buzzer made a noise: a chime, cow moo or monkey sound. Reminded me of the old commercial where they asked if you would "Make monkey sounds?" for a Klondike Bar. (Ice Cream)

Some things to practice:

Singles off-ice in the proper crossed-ankle position.
Singles with feet TOGETHER in the air.

Short, fast backspins, pulling together quickly then opening up and checking out.

Back outside twizzles (or fast back double threes), pulling up into the proper backspin position, then "checking out" at the end.

Concentrate on that "backspin" position in the air; it really is the key.

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I'm not doing doubles yet, but the way my free leg is with my singles is worrying my coach.

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Yeah! My club has one of these... my friend was using it the other day... it was funny... anyway I was talking to some people and they believe it is because your hips are really flexible (like you have a good turn out and you are good at ina bauers and spread eagles and stuff) So that may be the reason that the leg wrap thing happens ... but i dunno... my sources aren't all that reliable... LOL

Is that correct? So for a CCW skater taking off a loop from my right leg, I would point the toe of my left foot (free leg) to the right, instead of to the left? Is that true for single loops too?

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

That's the way the gals who do double axels at our club seem to do it. At least, those that don't have a wrap. Most do. LOL.

Yeah, I don't do any doubles yet... But just as you describe it is what my coach wanted me to do (among other things) to fix my single loop.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

It really is a bit like patting yourself on the head and rubbing your tummy....

Arms IN, Foot DOWN on doubles.

NOT Arms IN, Foot IN

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Keep Evolving. "From this moment forward, every voice that told you - You Can't - , has been silenced." - Freedom Writers

LOL, I thought you meant that you had your free leg turned towards the take off leg. I didn't get it it until later in the evening when I tried it.
I am now thinking that what you meant is that you point the toe of your free leg so that it is pointing the way, but the blade is sort of on top, rather than flexing your free leg which would make the toe point the opposite way.

Which is why I queried it originally. I couldn't recall seeing someone jump with their free leg turned knee in towards the skating leg.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Make sure that you are not rotating your shoulders before your hips. This is a common recipe for wraps.

Ok! I'll try and do that... I actually know that I do this ... it is one of my frusterations in skating! LOL
Dani

When my skater was starting to wrap her double loop, her coach made her land it on two feet for a couple of months. This made her keep her feet down. It helped.

I dont know if this was mentioned above, but one of the main causes of a wrapped jump is the upper body rotating before the legs. If you breakdown a wrapped double on film, you can understand how the upperbody rotates too quickly and the lower half has to "catch up" creating the wrapped position. Have someone film you- or better yet- do dartfish. This will help you analyze at what point you are beginning the rotation. With my kids, I will work on singles to correct the arm action first and then move to the doubles with an audio aide. I bought a small squeeky ball for a puppy and have the kids put it in their tights right near the eyelets of their skates (to the outside of the right boot). I then ask them to jump straight up away from the boards with the rotating position and "squeek the ball". When they are able to squeek the ball, they have a better understanding of where the rotating position needs to be. The squeek tells them that they rotated with their feet together. The ball obviously can be moved to accomodate a more open rotating position. Its also fun for them to do sit spins with so they can feel it squeeze between their calf and hamstring (to get lower positioning).

LOL that does sound fun! I'll have to try that... Thanks for that suggestion... I hope it'll help...

Dani