A friend of ours finally landed her axel this morning! She had been working on it fairly obsessively all week, having managed to land several in the harness before our coach went on holiday, and she is/was determined to land it before he comes back.

Yesterday morning she was 2-footing it all over the place, and you could tell she didn't believe in her ability to land it. But today, while we were watching, she landed it. Badly, and she had to really struggle to hold it, but it was definitely landed.

So we clapped and cheered. And then Husband said "Go and do it again!" and I said "Leave it now, and go and do something else!" at the same moment.... and laughed. She actually left it, I think, but what would you have advised her to do?

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Mrs Redboots
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I agree with "Leave it!" I'm an adult who's somewhere between LTS and beginner freestyle, and for me it's enough to nail the thing once, bask in the positive, and go work on something else. Next time on the ice, though, I'd want to push it a bit, making sure to do the movement correctly at least three or four times.

Good advice Mrs Redboots, If I have difficulty with a jump and end up eventually landing it, I always make it the last one of it's kind for that session, espeically if I am about to leave the ice, nothing worse than fluffing it and leaving feeling negative about it.

Yeah, I'm with FDGB and Samba, best to leave on a high note today and try afresh again tomorrow.

S xx

i picked the other advice because i would say to do it again, then if it didn't work to leave it

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dont eat me

I say leave it to tomorrow. My little one has been working on her flip. She finally landed a nice one the other day and I noticed her coach ended her lesson a couple of minutes early right after the jump. I think she wanted my dd to have that very positive end to a lot of hard work. DD was absolutely thrilled and came right off the ice to tell me about it!

Everytime one of us lands a difficult something.... our coaches have them go back and do it again to ensure preservation of muscle memory.
To wit: One little girl at my rink has actually been struggling to get a axel for well over a year now. She finally landed several clean on Friday morning. After her lesson, I saw her doing axels over and over again!

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It would depend on whether the skater was tired or not when she landed it. Since her coach is away, I would agree with the "Leave it!" advice. If she was having trouble with it the day before, it's good to have her coach there to fix it, rather than reinforcing whatever the bad habit was that got her landing 2 footed the day before and then having her coach go and fix it! And since her coach is on vacation, I'd rather not have the oppty. to establish any bad habits and then have her coach come back to fix that bad habit!

I'm all for "Leave it and go on to something else!!!" And enjoy the glory of landing that axel!

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Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Leave it! Too many things start going through your head when you land the first one of something and it tends not to be repeatable that day which deflates the euphoria of doing it if you can't do it again after.

well when i learn a new jump i usually keep doing it and doing it over and over again to try and get it in to my muscle memory. Once i land a few in a row i usually take a break and work on a similar type of move. In a few dyas attempt again and usually its better.

so i kinda do it in cycles of endless attemps and then a short break(several days) then more endless attempts and another break and continue untill its consistent.

I always found that it was better to leave it and come back to it afresh another time. I'm sure that we all know that jumps are just like that. One day they're here and the next, pfoooph, they've gone again.

I'm of the nature to keep on going which just gets me wound up which gets me nowhere at all. All that happens is that whatever I'm obsessing about just gets worse and worse and worse. If I leave it and come back to it things are usually better the next time. PLUS, of course, you're not practising your mistakes!!!

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The best whisper is a click

Other.

I would trust the skater to know what is best for her.

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

I said "leave it". Bask in the glory. If you did it once, you can and will do it again, but there is no reason to miss it the second time and have to deal w/ the disappointment and psychological consequences if wondering if you will *ever* land it again, if it was a fluke. Leave it on a +ve note.

Kay

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I would say it's up to the individual skater. Personally I would want to try it again at least once more to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

The worse thing I ever did to myself when I was beginning to learn skating, "leave it alone and do something else". I was inexperienced and struggling to learn my doubles back in 96 when I was 16. I finally landed my double toe, I was so exited and figured, ahh, now move on to another double and do something else. And that was that. After moving on to the double sal and loop, I never was able to return to my double toe.
I know this is different. Yes if she was on her last practice before competition, yes sure, leave it alone and move on. But when youre learning something, it is best to repeat it. Muscle Memory my friend

{But don't obsess, one more axel will be good to call it a day}

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But if it's not good aren't you just learning how to do it wrong? Wouldn't it be better to leave it, come back to it or even get a coach to have a look at why you're not getting it?


But that's the problem with humans, we don't always know what is best As I said in my post I would obsess about it and keep on, keep on, keep on, usually to my detriment. I KNOW that the best way for me is to stop, regroup, do something else and then come back to it. Put me in the same position as Annabel's friend and all reason goes out of the window

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The best whisper is a click

For me if I got it right I'd keep going just to see how many more I can pull out of that hat. I'm not sure what advice I'd give another skater if I was asked, I guess I'm likely to say continue unless they looked really tired and it was after a long session that they landed it?

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Tidesong

I would definitely have said the same thing as your husband "Go and do it again!". In my mind you haven't done it unless you can duplicate it.

I actually had a very similar situation with my lutz today. We don't have a harness but I have been working on it just before my coach went on holiday and I am trying to land it before she comes back. I was 2footing it a lot today but for me that's an improvement as its a full revolution, last week I could only get half of the way around!

I always need to land a new jump a few times otherwise my logical thinking puts it down to luck, I need to know its there for sure.

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The hardest thing about ice skating is the ice.

I have been learning my axel for the last 6 weeks and have been getting them here and there, my coach says, just do 5 if you can, if the first one is really bad and then it gets worse, stop it. Try it for tomorrow instead, but if I am double footing on the landing, he says to continue. Basically if I am falling on my butt on the time really badly, quit while your ahead is the basic rule, but if your close, keep on practicing it. But like for me now, I've have just gotten over the honeymoon period for this jump. Btw you should tell your friend to practice axels on land more also. It helps with muscle memory for when you do it on ice :-)

Axels are a different beast than other jumps. The timing and feel is much different, and needs to be much more precise. When you get the feel for one (which may happen one day and not the next), I say think about how the jump felt, and then go try again.

Yes, that's what my coach had me do when I landed my first double toe, and for the exact same reason. Before I had time to bask in the glory or think too much, he said, "Okay, now quick, do one more."

If it's at the beginning of practicing them, then do another. But if it's at the end, after many falls, leave it for the next day. That's when injuries happen -like on the slopes when you're trying to squeeze in that last run. You're tired and if your timing is off - splat.

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Oh, I doubt I'd have said anything, LOL! Except 'way to go', of course!

But if it had been me....it all depends on how the attempts were feeling prior to that. If they felt good--like each time, you're building on the last attempt, and edging it slightly better, then I'd definitely go for another one. If, however, the attempts were all over the place, and the successful one felt 'flukey', then I'd probably leave it at that.

I don't mind trying again and again, because I don't tend to get overly psychological about my skating. It is what it is.

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LEAVE IT! Whenever I'm struggling with something and I get it, I leave it at that. I want to leave it on a good note. Same with my students - if they finally get something, I have them leave it.

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- Ashley