Hello Everyone:

I am an adult skater trying to learn the Axel. I have tried learning this jump on and off for years, but it's the best it's ever been. Anyway, I am landing on one foot with legs crossed and decent height. However, I still need another 1/2 revolution.

I have been landing my Axel in this way for a while. I just can't seem to get any additional rotation.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

I am in that exact situation. Landing two-footed frontwards. Keep trying to get all rotations off the ice to get the feel. That's what I am doing right now. LOL.

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Sarah

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Force yourself to stay tight longer. And I mean force, because your body will fight you. When your brain says "check out", stay in that extra split second.

This is because your body has been trained to open up at one revolution. It wants to open up at one revolution. I am having the same problem with my doubles - I open up at 1 and 1/2.

To try to combat the problem, I am doing the following exercises (in my case for the double sal): salchow jumping into a backspin, spin for three revolutions, and jump/check out of the spin. The idea is to get your body used to that extra revolution. You could adapt it with a waltz jump.

Does it work? I don't know. I've just started it in the last week or so. I think it will work, though, because in the end it's all about timing.

Good luck!

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Do 1000 reverse spins! After the first 1/2 turn on the axel, you need to feel like you are pulling yourself around backward with your right hip (assuming you turn CCW). The reverse spin will give you the body/leg position and the feeling you need to attain for the axel.

I think for most people, it works best to master this jump on the floor first. Jump straight up (not forward or around) and keep your body pulled up really tall and straight in the air. Don't turn at all until you are all the way up. When you get to the top of the jump, turn your right hip in really hard, and then pull your arms and free leg in. Once you can do it on the floor, you can go for it on the ice.

Are you sure you don't mean left hip? Pulling your right hip backwards would initiate CW rotation.

Thanks for all of the quick replies. I am, in fact, a CW skater.

After reading the suggestions, I think I probably am pulling out/checking out too soon. Some of it is probably habit from single jumps and some of it is no doubt the fear factor....I have been comfortably landing the one rev. for some time now.

Thanks again and I'll let you all know how it goes.

Is an Axel like a 3 jump (waltz jump?) but with 1 and a half revolutions? It seems to take off and land on the same edges...

If you are a CCW skater, you take off on the left forward outside edge, rotate one and one half times in the air, and land on the right back outside edge. So, yes, it is like a 3 jump, but on steroids!

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Melzorina,

An axel is a waltz jump with a loop tacked on in the air.

Chico

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Yes! That exercise works. It not only gets you used to staying backwards and continuing to rotate, but it also helps you get over your landing hip and stay in one place as you rotate in the air (very important).

Yes, if you can do a 3-jump you have 1/3 of an axel!

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wow, I have 1.3 of an Axel!!!!!

Most likely your problem stems from being "loose" in the air (as my coach calls it when we work on double flips with my right leg hanging where it doesn't belong). I am also a CW skater, so I can explain it that way to you. Probably your right leg is hanging out in space, even though it's up and away from your left so you are able to land on one foot. The thing that works (and has helped me get my double toe and loop in the last couple months mostly consistent and helped me last year on the double sal) it to jump up into it and think "squeeze thighs". You squeeze the top of your thighs together once you have stepped over into the rotation position which gets your right leg crossed and tighter to the left so you can rotate more quickly. At the same time, make sure you don't break at the waist because that will ruin the rotation speed just as quickly as being "loose". I hope this makes sense and helps!

Squeezing the thighs together after the first 1/2 turn sounds like a great tip! That reminds me, we often think of "crossing" the free leg over the landing leg in the air, but I've seen people try to cross it over, and it cuts their rotation short. That's because they are actually moving the free leg in the opposite direction from the jump rotation in their attempts to "cross it over" the other one. Instead, think of pulling yourself around backwards with the landing hip until it catches up with the free leg, which is has not moved, just like a reverse spin. At that point, if your landing hip keeps turning and the free hip stays closed, the free leg will end up crossed in front of the landing leg. But it takes a revolution to end up in that position, so make sure you stay backwards and keep both hips turned in.

Oh, one more thing: Your upper body should be checked in the opposite direction as rotation. I.e., for a CCW skater, the right shoulder should be pulled back so the upper body can't turn to the left. For a CW skater, the left shoulder must be checked hard to the left so the upper body doesn't turn to the right. It's just the hip that turns; the upper body will follow. If you turn your upper body in the direction of rotation, you will never get around.