I have recently started working on my double loop, and both my coach and I are frustrated. No matter how she explains it to me, I still can't wrap my head around the idea of getting high enough and rotating enough without having another leg to "kick through" like on my axel and double salchow. It feels like I'm trying to jump without doing anything to help get me into the air.

I was wondering if anyone had this problem when learning the double loop and how they overcame it.

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Being on the ice has always been the one place I can truly express my emotions. The ice is like home. ~Kristi Yamaguchi

My coach tells me this is the easiest jump, but I must respectfully disagree. I also struggle with it and wish it would go away. I haven't worked on it in several months and prefer not to offer advice over the internet without seeing the problem.

Long live Mapes! Down with Rittberger!

(Sorry I'm not actually helpful!)

The height on any jump mostly comes from bending your knee and ankle deeply before takeoff, then fully extending the takeoff leg and pointing your toes as you take off (picture a frog's legs before and during a jump). Have you been focusing on that with your double loop?
For me, the hardest part of the double loop was always the challenge of keeping my right shoulder back instead of releasing it too early (that, and my own fear of the jump). By the time I stopped working on it a couple years ago, I was landing it fully rotated on the floor and on the ice, but still slipping off the landing edge on the ice.

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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

I definately get the momentum from the deep edge (coupled with the knee bend) right before taking off. It is interesting that you mention that a leg kicking through helps the double sal because I have noticed that my height on the jump comes more from the edge and less from the leg swinging through. If I have a good enough edge I can just step right up into the jump with minimal effort.

However, double loop was the first double I landed and I learned it from double 3 turns. I now do the traditional entrance, but the double 3 entrance helped me get the motion of bending and then really coming out of the knee.

Make sure you're not letting your free foot uncross at all during any point in the takeoff. I had a bad habit of doing this on double loops, from many years of not-so-precise technique on my single. It's really difficult to get your legs back together again!

Agreed with all above that the right shoulder back and deep knee bend are the critical pieces for the double loop. Your left leg is the equivalent to the right leg in a salchow (CCW), but it goes UP rather than around to achieve height. Learning to drive my left knee up for the double without opening the left hip helped mine quite a bit.

I second that. Not that I can do double loops , but my last coach made a real point that lifting the free leg knee up and pointing slightly out towards the barrier was essential for the double loop.

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

2 loop turns up "all together quickly." You need to keep that shoulder check (as posters have been saying), but also the hook into the air needs to be done "quickly" in the sense that once you commit it needs to hook and jump. (Your whole body needs to turn into the jump, not just your shoulders or hips so that is what I mean by "all together." The whole body must turn together into the jump.)

So although it is true that the shoulder must stay checked, you cannot leave your upper body forward while the rest of you hooks into the jump. Your whole body hooks into the jump together so the upper body (with checked shoulder) is turning into the hook with you. (Do you understand?) This messed me up for a long time. I kept trying to keep my upper body forward (thinking I was holding my check) while my lower body hooked into the jump. This twists you and makes you short of rotation/fall. So remember: Yes, it is checked, but the upper body turns with you into the jump on the hook.

Also, jump quickly. Don't "hang out" on that back edge too long or it will get too deep and cause the shoulder check to give away and you will slip on the take off. What is different about this jump is that there is no weight transfer in the air. It is the only jump (besides inside axel) where the weight stays over the take off side. That is why it feels weird to a lot of people.
(btw, Yes, I can do 2 loops.)