On Thursday I got the mildly enchanting idea to learn the bunny hop. Should be simple enough for someone who can do a rather fabu waltz jump and now and then uncorks a passable toe loop, right? Those 6-year-old punks make it look so easy. They bunny hop from one end of the rink to the next. Tra, la, la, bunny hop! Tra, la, la!

My experience?

This little number is evil. OK? It's Beelzebub's signature move.

Kick, hop, switch legs! Kick, hop, switch legs! MY EYE.

WHY would I EVER want to learn this thing? Do I want to wind up in traction? Do I really want to get that familiar with massive head injury? Do I want to be known around the rink as, "Oh, you remember her! She's the woman who was paralyzed from the eyebrows down on that triple-triple bunny hop combination."

We now return to your regularly scheduled forum.

I feel you. I've fallen backwards onto my head quite a few times from this little atrocity.

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My most embarrassing skating moment was due to the Evil Bunny Hop. I had to do 2 in a row in an artistic number, and wiped out on the second one during the competition. Total swan dive into the ice. There was an audible gasp from the audience. Luckily, nothing was hurt except my pride. To make it worse, the President of the USFSA was on my judging panel. Sigh. I still hate the stupid things. So, of course, I put one into my current artistic!

I'm a new adult skater and I was jazzed this week to actually learn the bunny hop. It's my only jump!

But as my friend said as she was watching me, "You can really bite it on a bunny hop."

I am soooo stealing that quote from you the second any coach tries to make me do that thing again!

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When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

Hmm. . . I've only tried it a handful of times taking off from the right foot and landing on the left toe. I would think the dangerous part would be alternating between the left foot takeoff and right foot takeoff, since your feet could get confused with the rhythm, making you trip and fall. If you just take off from the left and land on the right toe for awhile, then do it the other way for awhile, I would think it would be less dangerous. . . I have to admit, they are a good basis for learning 1/2 and 1 revolution jumps.

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I think the problem with it is that if you miss the timing of the actual jump you end up swinging the free foot through, but instead of landing on the toe pick for a moment, you have lifted yourself right off the tail of your skating blade. At least that's what happened to me once. Fortunately, I didn't fall, but have never felt much like trying the bunny hop again. I shouldn't be jumping anyway, with my knees and hips. I teach the thing on the wall.

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BTW, welcome to the forums hepcat
LOL. I actually like bunny hops. I have found they are helpful in practicing the "kick-through" in waltz jumps.

Falldown, Try a waltz jump tap-toe, or even a Mazurka and then you will have a bit of an appreciation for these evil little devils.

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"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm a bunny hop-hater myself. Been doing them for years, still do when the younger skaters make me feel I ought to, but I still hate them. I think it goes back to the occasions where I didn't make it up onto the toe-pick and my skating blade sort of slipped instead.

Ugh! Nightmares just thinking about it.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

You set me on "High Troll Alert" with that title-LOL!

Yep, the bunny hop is a scary thing, but the entrance is what you need for the Waltz jump and the landing is needed for the half-or-less jump. (BTW, did you know that the USFSA allows a half-flip and half-lutz to land on either foot? The ISI dictates that it must be on the non-picking foot.)

Make sure you land on your toepick, please. I have one student who REFUSES to do that and I know she's going down on her head one of these days. I try to avoid working on the jump by substituting other things to make her use those toepicks. I can always revisit it later before she's ready for the waltz jump.

The Bunny Hop: Why, Oh Why?

Welcome, hepcat !

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I like bunny hops - it's the only jump where I dare leave the ice for more than about half a millisecond!

Try practicing on the floor.

LMAO. I totally sympathize. I also am a bunny hop hater. But then I am not a fan of anything that has me moving forward on my toepicks. Bad forward toepicks...bad.

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I'm another bunny hop hater. But I do like the mazurka. I think it's that forward take off thing.

Once I forgot to turn backwards and tried to do a mazurka and ended up doing kind of a sideways bunny hop and darn near killed myself.

I'd rather jump going backwards, then I can't see what's coming for me.


j

LOL, kids are always so excited to learn the bunny hop, but every adult I've ever taught or talked to hates it. A lot of my adult students say they don't plan to ever jump anyway, so unless I have a student who plans to do a waltz jump someday it's not something I spend a lot of time on, if any.

I personally taught myself to do a bunny hop long before I actually started lessons. Of course, I was all of ten years old and maybe 90 pounds at the time

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I'm still a little scared of the bunny hop till date everytime I think about doing one, I remember the big splat I did long time back when I attempted a bunny hop but didnt really quite jump and basically launched my knee at the ice.

So I have to always remind myself to do it properly and JUMP... lol

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Tidesong

I agree...BUNNY HOP is EVILLE!!! I've had one of my worst knee bashing doing alterating bunny hops down the length of the rink... going at FAST SPEEDS!!!

But yes, it's a necessary evil for a waltz jump. Of course, I have one bunny hop in my program that is with the OTHER LEG (not my waltz jump kick thru leg...) And of course, now that I have a pretty decent waltz jump, I have no excuse NOT to try to apply those tips towards the other leg huh?

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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!!!

Glad to know it is not just me that hates this jump, and more so at seeing the little ones filling the ice with hops ... I need to do this for the passport Bronze though (bunny hop + drag)

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I don't like bunny hops at all if I try to alternate between the two feet. I don't mind them if I do a bunch on the same feet in a row.

If you want to get used to hopping on your toe picks, try waltz jump- side toe hop- waltz jump. Tons of fun!

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I like bunny hops But I can only do them with the right foot kicking and landing. I learned them when I was but a teeny-tiny little thing, so maybe that's why I like them.

I hate the darn things. I can never get my coordination just right and end up with arms flailing all over the place. Grrrrrrrrrrr

I do them with the wrong leg, which is crazy because it's no preparation at all for the waltz kick through, unless I want to learn to jump the other way. They are evil, and make spectacular accidents. My adult learn to skate group won't do them, I don't make them try, but the other coach (young thing) does.

I ran into this last week. I did a nasty flip jump and landed forward on my picking foot, my coach called it a half flip. My old coach said half flip was a split jump without the split, ie landing on the other foot. I *was* rather confused but didn't question it. Thanks.

Interesting about the 1/2 flip thing. When I learned it, I had to land initially on the pick of the non-picking foot, into a glide on the inside edge of the picking foot. These days it is taught (around here anyway) with landing on the pick of the picking foot, into the glide on the non-picking foot.
Coach said it is to get people used to landing on the same foot as they will land on in the full flip.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Our half-loop (you can't really call that a half loop, since a half loop is a full revolution and I literally mean a half revolution from a loop takeoff) does that. We call it a spreid rittberger. Spreid means split. It's just footwork if you do it in your programme though.

I usually use a bunny hop either to link steps or get a little speed before a jump, I never ever fall on it.....famous last words, however last week I toe-picked on the way up and fell heavily forward hitting my left elbow, my left hip and both of my knees , I have some wonderful bruises and a cut on my elbow to prove it and becuase I wasn't expecting it I came off shaking, I will never under-estimate the bunny hop again.