The last few sessions I've rediscovered something that I had forgotten. I had forgot how important having confidence is when jumping. When you're not sure if you can do something even the slightest hesitation causes your brain to shut down. When you can jump with a clear and confident mind it becomes soooo much easier. I've been working on re-tooling my axel for the last 6 months or so and I pretty much popped everything everytime. Suddenly I hit a few and my confidence came back. Jumping with a clear mind it's suddenly become easy (well, sort of) again. Compared to what I was doing two weeks ago, all of a sudden I don't have any trouble with it and basically the only difference between now and then is my confidence. I'm not really doing anything different.

Kevin

That is so true! But in reality, the confidence actually does make you do something different on the axel: It makes you pull up taller in the air, which makes it so much easier to get full rotation, stay level in the air and land it!

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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 think you need confidence for pretty much everything you do on the ice. One of the worst falls I've ever taken was due to lack of confidence, which led to hesitation and indecision and ....crash! OTOH, too much confidence is what broke my wrist .

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i find confidence especially important for axels. the take-off is so scary, and the slightest mistake can cause a major wipe-out (just ask mao!). i also find the axel one of the easiest jumps to pop...

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Youtube Videos

Not that I'm working on axels seriously yet, but I agree confidence makes a difference.

Before my first comp back after a 20 year break, in the official practise I tried being super-cautious. Needless to say, it was a disaster. I realised then that I either had to do it all-out, or not at all.

For me, there can be no half measures, especially with jumps, but also with spin entries, I find I have to attack them.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am