My coach has been after me to start working my jumps off ice and I've started today.
Since I do not have room in my house to do this, I'm doing all of my off ice in the backyard, which with spring coming should be nice, but there is one problem, and this may sound silly trying not to land in any of the dog's "landmines".
So if you do work your jumps off ice, where do you do it?

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

I'm a teacher so I practice after school in the gym. My coach has me jumping up onto benches to work on axels. I can do that and I put the floor mats all around the bench in case I go for a splat.

My other option is the gym in my apt building. The room adjoining is empty with mats for people to stretch. If I'm in there by myself I'll work on jumps, if not, its stretching as I got a couple of weird looks one time.

The very tentative off-ice jumps I do, I do anywhere I have room. In my daughter's playground while we're waiting for the classroom to open, nice soft bark chips to land on. In the living room, in the backyard. At the park. On the beach isn't bad, because the damp sand has some give, although it isn't great for the pushing up.

I say I do tentative off-ice jumps, because I am worried about wrenching my landing knee. When you land jumps on the ice, your momentum keeps you going backwards and around, but off ice, you're just landing and stopping dead. I worry this is going to wrench my landing knee too much. Am I doing it wrong, how do others protect their landing knee when practising off-ice?

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

You're not supposed to stop dead when you do it off ice. You should hop out of the landings so as to avoid knee damage.

I usually do them on the common floor of my dorm. There's 5 different rooms, and one is usually always empty. Otherwise, I go to the gym into the stretching/yoga room if nobody is in there. Although then I get strange looks from the people on the treadmills which looks into the room.

I do my jumps either in my living room, at work we have a gym room, and sometimes at the rink b/f on ice practice. When I land I hop my landings off ice and land with a bent knee also b/f jumpings I do a few landing "poses" just to get a feel of the correct position.

I'm not doing any jumps yet but I just wanted to say "I hear ya" on the landmine thing!! I have 2 big Weimaraners, and cleaning up after them is a never ending job - so most of the time it's just watch where you step!

We used to hose them away into the lawn but since we have water restrictions we're not allowed to hose the lawn anymore

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AW1
mum to Miss Lil (6yrs old)
mum to be to #2 due in March 08

My secondary coach has been after me to do off ice jumps, but I had specifically told her that I have to limit my jump practices b/c of my lower back problems. When I DO do them though, I do them at the rink, as part of my warmup. The floor area is big enough that I could do them easily. The other place is probably at my gym. Again, the hallways are matted and there's enough floor space to practice those jumps.

But for now, I'll have to do them only ON ICE and only a handful of those jumps too.

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

The gym I belonged to often had empty exercise rooms set up for jazzercise and aerobics. Just check with the staff first - otherwise they'll interrupt you.

The abundance of mirrors on the walls was really helpful, even for stretching and practicing spiral positions. No barre, I just brought in a chair to use.

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I jump off ice at the rink, because of the squishy floor, helps you out you know!

Also we have carpet downstairs in the basement, so Ill do off ice there too. To bother my mom we jump and spin in kitchen while dinners getting ready!

Love you Mom!!

~kittie

After both husband and daughter barged into the furniture (back in the days when they both did figure skating), I firmly banned any off-ice jump practice indoors! It was done in the garden, or not at all.

Neither of us jumps much - I have a tiny 3-jump and even smaller cherry, and Husband is trying to get his loop jump back, but doesn't work it much off-ice because of his knees) - but the same rule still applies!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I use the aerobics room at the gym-lots of mirrors! When it's nice outside, I use my trampoline! Funny how I manage to get all the way around on that....

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

I don't have room at home so I only do off-ice jumping at the rink, either on the black mats or on the shallow carpet in the ballet/party room. Both work just fine, but be careful if you have the kind of mats or flooring that grabs the bottoms of your sneakers. Your foot needs to be able to keep moving once it hits the floor, so your body doesn't keep rotating while your foot is stopped (twisted ankle waiting to happen). Also, if you're going to do off-ice jumping, invest in some basketball shoes with good heel and ankle support. Boys' basketball shoes are sturdy and cheaper than women's, but you pretty much need to be a women's size 8 or smaller to fit into them.

My daughter uses our living room, the kitchen, the tramp we have, at the rink, at Sams club, Fred meyers, outside in the grass, and today even outside in the snow.....

Funny we should be talking about this! I've jumped off ice for as long as I've skated. Last night I killed my ankle working on a double. It hurt so bad I thought I had broken it. No joke. I was pretty swollen this morning and I HURT. I did skate today although it wasn't a pleasent experience. This experience has made me think twice about jumping on the floor. I don't like floor jumping enough to break my leg. I think jumping might need to stay on the ice after this. I had a lesson today, of course, and I was finding it very difficult to pay attention. Pain is a poor listener. Taking my boot off almost killed me after my skate. Anyway, floor jumpers beware.

Chico

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"I truly believe, when God created skating, he patted himself on the back."

At some point in my life I used to do them in the client's office toilet - plenty of space, big mirror, noone around. Now I work for another client with less generous sanitary facilities, so it's a bit of an issue again.

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My other car is a Zamboni

I don't have a backyard - I live in an apartment. I off-ice at the local park and around the rink before I skate.

It's interesting but I hear of far more people injuring themselves seriously OFF ice rather than on. A lot of people don't believe in off ice jumping.

I personally keep mine to a minimum. And I just do it at the rink as part of warm up.

At the swimming pool - only if you have your own pool or understanding lifeguards(or on holidays). You can do all the set up and then land in the water - great fun and absolutely no foot/ankle/knee strain on landing

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

I'm with Batikat. The only time I off-ice jump is in water - at the pool, at the beach, wherever... and I never worry about who's watching

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.