Hey!

I've been practicing my axel lately...and I'm having a lot of trouble getting enough height and then getting into the backspin position fast enough! Does anyone know anything that I can practice to improve? Thanks!!

-Jenna

do a waltz jump back spin... that always helps me.... then right after i do one i can pertty much land my axel...

ok I'll be sure to try that! Thanks~

you could try doing them off-ice with 1 or 2 pound weights on, i also did the waltz jump backspin and it helped me ,my coach had me perfect my waltz jump loop. That helped me get the feel of snapping into the loop postion in the axel
~cutie

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Find a bench that is firmly attached to a wall. Stand about 1-2 feet in front of the bench, facing the bench, and take off straight up, like a waltz jump but with a bent right knee (I'm assuming you take off from your left foot and land on your right).
Do 1/2 turn in the air and land backward on your right foot, with your left foot in front of your right shin (just like the loop position in the air) and your arms open and rounded in front of you. This will teach you to jump straight up, get lots of height, and then shift your weight over to your right hip.
Once you can do this exercise with good control, do the same thing on the floor (or the ice), but after the first 1/2 turn, pull your arms and free leg in and you'll have a nice big axel.

Heh, heh... make sure the bench isn't too high. I managed to catch my toe on the corner of one I was practicing on, and ended up sprawling! It was a good drill, though.

One more tip that helped me (if you are a CCW jumper): as you get into that backspin position, make sure you are rotating with your arms over your right side. Many skaters (myself included) make the mistake of trying to force the rotation by getting their arms over their left shoulder. What happens then is that your axis of rotation is tilted, you can't really get into a proper backspin position, and the speed of rotation slows down. And...you fall.

Waltz-loops, waltz-backspins, backspin-loops...all these drills were helpful to me.

I can just see myself crashing into the wall with a spectacular smack! Or worse, missing entirely and wiping out on the bench.

Work on height and "stepping up" -- it'll give you more time to get the position.

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To get height and distance remeber rememeber rember to let your free leg go through first as if you are stppeing up onto a chair. Take your tiem on your back edge on on your front. Also dont try to pull back through your body....you'll forsure land on your bum, always be moving your body forward FOLLOWINg your free leg.

Hope this Helps

A great skating mystery was revealed to me this morning when I was watching a video of Michelle Kwan and playing back a combination jump over and over again, and that was the bit about shifting the weight over to the right hip. I'm nowhere near an axel so this might not fit in this thread exactly, but figuring this out seems to be a requirement for getting the loop and flip correct...this whole time I've been afraid to cross the leg over because without any weight shift, it means a catastrophe. I worked on it a bit at the rink today, and though I made little progress, I know what needs to be done now. I think this is a very important point for all jumps...maybe I'll have to try this axel exercise to help learn the loop and flip properly...

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Yes, the weight shift from left to right is key to the axel, and it'll definitely help your flip. The loop, however, is another matter -- there is no weight shift on the loop. Your weight should already be over your right hip when you take off. Perhaps you're not committing to the right side on take off.

Wow thanks everyone! As soon as I'm back on the ice again ( my rink is closed and the rink I skate at during the summer isn't open yet ) ,I'm going to try using these tips!

While you're waiting for ice time it's a great opportunity for you to do off-ice axel exercises to get more heigh on it. I was landing axels on the floor for a year before I finally landed a clean one on the ice, but there is no way I could have done it on the ice without perfecting it on the floor first. And because I started with the bench exercise, my axel was huge when I finally started landing it!

By the way, the double toeloop is another jump that works really well on the floor and translates well to the ice once you get it on the floor, so you might want to try that, too!