To my knowledge, no formal publication of jump minimum air times has yet been made. However, a large number of researchers including this author have compiled statistics on minimum air times that should provide helpful guidelines for those interested.

I have received a huge number of requests for this information so I hope this post addresses the interest in this topic.

Why Minimum Air Times Are Important

Knowledge of minimum air times is important to coaches because it provides a relatively clear way of assessing a skater’s athletic progress and technical progress with any given jump. If a skater is matching or exceeding the minimum air time for the jump and has solid technique and an appropriate body type, they should be able to get close to full rotation of the jump under ideal conditions.

Air time information serves two important and related purposes in the development of figure skating jumps.

1. It reduces the pressure on skaters to complete elements that they physically have no chance of completing, and

2. It dramatically minimizes injuries from attempting jumps a skater is not yet ready to attempt.

Skaters have historically been under extreme pressure to land more advanced jumps at younger and younger ages. As the sport progresses technically, this pressure is only continuing to grow.

How many skaters feel guilty about not landing their double axel (or any jump) after working on it for months or years? Skaters often feel that they are letting their parents and coaches down and they often experience extreme frustration at themselves for not learning a new jump sooner.

But minimum air time measurements can help to reduce this guilt and frustration. If a skater knows she or he is not jumping high enough to land a jump cleanly, the focus turns to solving that problem rather than remaining fixated on just landing the jump.

Similarly, coaches can help their skaters dramatically reduce injuries by knowing their skaters’ air times and not expecting or demanding that the skater stand up and land the jump when they are simply not ready. It then becomes the coach’s job to help the skater optimize jump technique and develop the necessary jump height through off-ice training.

The days of repeated futile jump attempts are over, or at least they should be. In this day and age, no coach should continue to apply the just-stand-up-and-land-it mentality without knowing air times.

How These Numbers Were Generated

The minimum air time numbers for each of the major figure skating jumps provided below were compiled from measurements of many jumps over a long period of time. By measuring air time on as many jumps as possible over a period of many years, certain air times stand out for each jump.

Some of the measurements were made on practice jumps videoed directly by a coach or skating parent while others are a result of digitizing televised broadcasts of competitions or other events of elite skaters. Historically, a televised skating competition or event could be recorded and then digitized to provide model jumps for analysis.

Caution With The Numbers

It should be noted that attaining minimum air time does not automatically mean a skater should be able to land a given jump. Minimum air times are typically only possible by skaters with extremely efficient technique and an optimal body type.

Skater body type plays a big role as smaller and thinner skaters typically have an advantage for faster rotation. Even this is an over-generalization because some tall skaters can rotate very fast, but as a general rule, it is small and thin skaters that these minimum air time numbers were generated from.

Thus, larger skaters or those that have a more substantial frame will almost always need more than the minimum air times listed below.

Rotation rates are obviously also affected by take-off mechanics. This means that a skater may jump higher than the minimum air time but lack the ability to create enough rotational energy on the take-off to spin fast enough in the air, even with a perfect air position and body type.

Coaches should strive to help their skaters optimize jump take-off technique and air position. Jump height is a result of jump technique as well, but overall skater athleticism appears to have a very strong influence on the ability to jump high. The development of athleticism is probably best attained through significant focus on off-ice training methods.

For more information about jump technique or off-ice training methods, please visit iCoachSkating.com. That website is committed to providing the best educational information on the nuts and bolts of how to figure skate.  It has literally hundreds of videos on jump technique from some of the world’s best coaches.

How to Measure Air Time

For accuracy, it’s important to maintain correct measurement methods. When analyzing jump air time, the measurement should be made from the first video frame a skater’s blade is in the air to the first frame the skater’s blade touches the ice.

It is NOT accurate to measure from the last frame on the ice to the first frame back on the ice. This measurement method will result in air time measurement that are too large. The details of this are beyond the scope of this article and will be provided elsewhere.

Simply use first-frame-off-the-ice to first-frame-on-the-ice and you’ll be fine. Most apps don’t have a way to reset the clock to zero on the first frame in the air, so record the time at the first frame in the air and the first frame back on the ice and subtract to get air time.

Shout Out to Christy Krall

At the 2011 PSA World Conference in Dallas, TX, World and Olympic figure skating coach and video analysis expert Christy Krall gave a presentation in which she provided insights about minimum air times for all the main jumps from double loop through triple lutz. To my knowledge, Christy has not published these findings elsewhere, partly since she uses these only as guidelines and there may be some skaters with successful jumps at lower air times.

I am publishing both Christy’s numbers and my own observations here for your reference. But remember, these numbers only represent our experience and are not absolute. Christy provided numbers for both male and female skaters (female/male). Air times are provided in seconds.

Jump                     Trevor                   Christy
Abbrev.               Air Time                Air Time

1A                           0.30

2S                           0.30

2T                           0.30

2Lo                         0.33                        0.35

2F                           0.35                        0.35

2Lz                          0.35                        0.35+/0.36

2A                           0.45                        0.45/0.47-0.51

3S                           0.47                        0.47/0.48-0.51

3T                           0.48                        0.47+/0.48-0.51

3Lo                         0.50                        0.51/0.52-0.53

3F                           0.53                        0.53+/0.56-0.58

3Lz                          0.53                        0.53+/0.56-0.58

3A                           0.60-0.62

4S                           0.63

4T                           0.63

These Minimums Are Not Absolute

Again, these numbers are not absolute. For example, I’ve seen 2 double axels with an air time of only 0.43 seconds. One was during practice sessions with a young skater in Korea with extremely efficient technique and a very thin body type and the other was off video taken by another coach of a similar Japanese skater who eventually became a World Champion. I do not consider 0.43 seconds to be a reasonable minimum air time for double axel because my experience shows that only an extremely rare and talented skater can pull it off.

Similarly, Sasha Cohen was capable of landing a quad salchow with just 0.60 seconds of air time. This astonishing feat of optimization may represent the absolute lowest possible air time for quad salchow, but most quad salchows are being landed with air times of 0.65 and higher. A significant number of skaters have landed the quad salchow at 0.63 seconds which is why it’s listed on the chart as the “reasonable” minimum.

When we use minimum air times with our skaters, we want them to target a reasonable number for their body type. So based on the skater’s body type and my experience, I may shift the numbers slightly so they have a more appropriate air time goal. We want skaters focused on meeting and exceeding air times that should provide success.

I hope this article is helpful. I did not ask Christy for permission to publish her air time numbers here but felt that her work deserves your awareness. Her groundbreaking research was a starting point for my own observations and this article would not be possible without her contributions.

Final Note

To get an idea of what these air times mean in regards to actual jump height, please see my previous post comparing air times with projectile height (Are Figure Skaters Projectiles?).  Sometimes it’s helpful for skaters to understand how much more jump height they need. Knowing that your double axel air time is 0.40 seconds and you need 0.45 seconds is somewhat abstract. But knowing you need to generate an additional 2 inches of jump height is very tangible to most skaters.

Please leave a comment and let me know if this article was beneficial.

As noted in Wikipedia, concussions are mild brain injuries caused by a blow to the head or by acceleration forces without direct head impact.  A concussion typically entails a loss of brain function with physiological changes. (Research has yet not been conclusive on whether structural damage also occurs.)

Concussions have an increased probability in athletes participating in sports with high acceleration impacts such as player collisions or hard falls.  Figure skaters certainly fall within this category of athletes.  Figure skaters potentially fall thousands of times each year on a very hard surface (ice) while practicing a variety of skills.  Most falls occur on practice sessions while working on multiple rotation jumps.

There are two primary potential dangers regarding concussions in figure skaters. One is the cumulative effects of multiple concussions over a long period of time.  This is poorly understood at this time, not only in figure skating, but in the greater medical community.  Available evidence suggests this is not a major problem in figure skating compared to other sports.

The most concerning danger regarding concussions in figure skaters is the potential for severe injury or even death in the event of a second injury.  A skater may suffer from what is called “second-impact syndrome” if the skater receives a concussive impact just days or weeks after an initial concussion, before the symptoms have gone away.  This condition is particularly dangerous and should be guarded against by all figure skating coaches and skating parents.

Figure skaters are some of the most driven athletes in the world, and it’s common for skaters to continuously skate with nagging, ongoing, and sometimes relatively serious injuries.  Figure skaters typically resume training as soon as the pain of an injury becomes bearable, rather than when the injury truly heals.

This is also true for skaters with concussive injuries.  Most skaters are more than willing to return to the ice and skate, even though they may be continuing to experience concussion symptoms such as mild or moderate headaches.  Simply put, this behavior is dangerous to the athlete.

One of the simplest ways to minimize the risk associated with re-injury while experiencing concussion symptoms is for the skater to take a cognitive baseline test.  These simple tests are available online for minimal cost.

Axon Sports offers a baseline test for just $7.50.  (There’s a great explanation on that page as well.)  Another popular testing program is ImPACT.

Baseline testing should be done once a year when the skater is healthy.  The skater’s test results are recorded and available for comparison later in the skating season if required.  When a skater receives an impact that coaches or parents may suspect has caused a concussion, the skater can then take the test again to determine if there was some loss of brain function by comparing with the baseline score.  When a concussion is evident in the test results, further testing can be done over a period of days or weeks until the skater’s brain returns to normal functioning.

It goes without saying that skaters with reduced brain function should not skate, for obvious skill reasons and also for the important health reasons discussed above concerning re-injury.  Additionally, research suggests that the effects of a concussive injury actually last longer than the outward symptoms, meaning skaters will almost certainly return to the ice too soon without some kind of formal testing.

The effectiveness of baseline testing of cognitive brain function is still being studied, but it does represent one of the latest tools available to those concerned about concussions in figure skating.  At this time there are very few other options available for helping determine when it’s appropriate to get back on the ice.

There are other tests, and some may be even more effective at determining loss of brain function after a concussion.  Many of these use brainwave detection and analysis but the cost of these tests is generally prohibitive.

Below are some helpful resources on

Baseline Concussion Testing For Figure Skaters

Here is a dull but informative video backed by the authority of the Mayo Clinic describing Baseline Concussion Testing.  Although this video is not directly targeting figure skaters, the information is appropriate for skaters and their coaches.

The next video discusses the very real issue of athletes purposely doing poorly on initial baseline concussion testing so that their post-concussion test scores do not show a concussion.  Skaters that do this in order to return to the ice sooner after a concussion are taking dangerous risks.  To be effective, concussion testing needs to be taken seriously the figure skating coaches, skating parents, and most importantly, figure skaters themselves.

All figure skating participants should take concussion detection and treatment very seriously.  The current and future health of our skaters depends on it.

As of this post, the site has only been online for 2 weeks but over 300 people have already signed up for the series of free videos.  Nearly 50 people have left comments about the videos and the website has been the topic of a number of online forum discussions.

The Purpose Of This New Website…

The purpose of the website is to raise awareness of proper jump mechanics.  After conducting a survey of skating coaches, I decided to share some extremely important information that all skaters, coaches and skating parents should know and understand.

The information is so important and so useful, many skaters and coaches see immediate results when applying the concepts.

The entire story, including the survey results and video proof, is available at Skating Jump Secrets. I encourage everyone involved in skating to sign up and see what all the fuss is about.

There’s nothing to buy. When you sign up, you can easily unsubscribe at any time and for any reason.  And I’ll never share your email address with anyone.  There’s absolutely no risk and no pressure.  It’s just critical skating knowledge that everyone should have.

You might be wondering why I’ve created this site. First and foremost, it’s a way to share this information, which can truly help nearly everyone.  But it’s also a way for all of us to better understand skaters, coaches and parents.

When you sign up you’ll have the chance to take a survey. Every survey is anonymous and I’ll share the results with you.  The comments   after the videos also provide helpful feedback so that we can all see exactly where there’s confusion or differences of opinion.

Some people have asked me why I require my visitors to sign up to get the information.  The simple reason is so that I can encourage all visitors to participate in the surveys and leave blog comments.

It also gives me a chance to separate skaters, coaches, and parents.  The survey results show that these 3 groups have very different perceptions about skating.  It’s truly fascinating.

Anyway, please check out Skating Jump Secrets.  As I said above, there’s no risk and it might really help you or your skater(s).

Trevor Laak

Both skaters skated very well with just a few minor mistakes and both won their events.  I was very proud of them.  But it was interesting that both of them were disappointed immediately after their performances, mostly due to “nervous lapses” that they virtually never have in practice.

Being nervous about competition seems to be nearly universal in our sport.  And this nervousness and anxiety is probably the number one cause of poor or sub-par performances by our skaters.

I would say the odds strongly favor skaters that minimize their nervous response during competition.  A small minority of skaters really love the experience of competing and step up their performance accordingly.  These are those rare “super performers” we love to coach.  But the vast majority of skaters have undesirable responses, as most coaches struggle to keep their skaters calm and collected.

All this brings up an important observation that almost nobody seems to address in the world of figure skating.  The observation is this:  Nervousness, anxiety, and worry are all basically fear-based emotions. 

What exactly are our skaters afraid of?

If we could address exactly what they’re afraid of, doesn’t it follow that they won’t be nervous?  And they’ll start having better and better performances?

It appears most coaches and sports psychologists believe that this nervousness and anxiety is normal.  Most sports psychologists tend to focus on tools and techniques to help the skater manage the nervousness, rather than address the underlying reasons behind it.  And most figure skating coaches are completely inequiped to deal with it, considering almost no coaches have formal training in this area.

Regardless, most coaches handle it the best they can based on their own experiences.  Obviously some coaches are better at managing their skaters’ emotions than others.  Many coaches recommend lots of competitions to nervous skaters to get them to naturally conquer their fear.

But what exactly are skaters nervous about?  Are they worried about embarrassing themselves?  Or embarrassing their parents, families, coaches or friends?

Embarrassment is a form of shame or a painful feeling arising from something perceived as dishonorable.  When stated in those terms, it’s hard to believe skaters think of their sub-par performances as “dishonorable.”  But it’s almost certainly the fear of embarrassment that causes them to be nervous.

From my own experience, very few skaters actually feel intense emotional pain after a poor performance.  Sure, they feel disappointment but they quickly realize they made a good effort (most of the time) and nobody’s opinion of them or those they care about was permanently damaged.

Instead they worry and fret ahead of time about the emotional pain they will suffer or will inflict on  someone they love or respect.  But even after their worst performances they don’t feel that much discomfort.  The worry about the feeling is much worse than the feeling!

If we’re truly interested in helping our skaters have outstanding performances and develop important life skills through skating, we really need to start addressing this.  How can we convince our skaters they have nothing to fear?  Coaches, skaters and parents, I’d love to know what you think about all this.  Please leave a comment below.

Trevor Laak

I made the trip mainly to promote my new website which will be revealed very soon.  The website will be a place for skating coaches to interact online.  It will also provide “featured content” much like the streaming video of Dartfish jump analyses at Skating Coach Quiz.

The trip was a great success in terms of meeting a lot of influential people in skating.  I got to meet Carol Rossignol, the Education and Accreditation Director of the PSA.  I also met and chatted with Nancy Kerrigan who was there doing live internet broadcasts for Ice Network.  Coach Peter Oppegard won the Vertical Jump Contest with a jump of 23.5 inches.  He also said he might be willing to provide some content for my website.

Getting back to the Vertical Jump Contest…  I was at Junior Nationals as a staff member of Audrey Weisiger’s Grassroots to Champions (G2C).  I spent most of the competition manning the G2C booth and hanging out with Sheila Thelen of Champion Cords.  Sheila’s a blast!  As part of G2C’s commitment to developing skaters and coaches, we held a Vertical Jump Contest for everyone at the competition.

The highest vertical jump off two feet by a lady was 18.5 inches by a 13 year old.  As I said above, Peter Oppegard won the guy’s title.  The most spectacular jump was an 18 inch vertical jump by a 10 year old girl.  It was incredible!  Probably less than 1 in 10,000 ten year old girls can jump that high.

On Sunday (12/2/07), I helped Audrey Weisiger with a G2C Seminar.  I’ve attended one of her seminars before but this was my first one as part of Audrey’s team.  I did pole harness and computer video analysis as well as helped with off-ice harness testing.  It was a great experience and I look forward to doing more seminars with Audrey.

When I got home to Wisconsin, it took me 30 minutes to dig my car out of an ice drift.  Ahh…winter.

Trevor

Whether you’re a spectator, a skater, a skater’s parent, or even a coach, I’ll bet you assume that the most critical aspect of our sport has very clear definitions and rules.  What is this critical aspect?  Jumping, of course.

It seems logical that everyone knows exactly what an axel is.  Or a toe loop or a lutz.  In fact, it seems logical that there would be legally binding definitions and rules regarding each of these elements.

But quite astonishingly, there aren’t!

How do I know?  Because I’ve been doing some surveys of coaches at SkatingCoachQuiz.com.  I’ve been asking the coaches there for precise definitions of “perfect” jumps. And the survey results are all over the place.

This really got me wondering:  Why do coaches disagree so universally regarding precise definitions of jumps?

I figured I could help clear up the confusion by digging out the formal, legal definitions and sharing them with the coaches.  But what I found, really surprised me.  And disappointed me.

There really are no formal rules.

Don’t believe me?

If you own an official US Figure Skating Rulebook, you can read it from cover to cover and you won’t find a formal written definition of any of the jump elements.  The best you’ll find is the amusing and childish “List Of Jumps” at the start of the Glossary.

You may say, “Well, all you need to define the jump is the entrance edge, the exit edge, the total rotations and whether there’s a toe assist or not.”  But I’ll immediately argue that that definition is really weak.  It says nothing about the critical moments just before, during and after lift-off.  It also says nothing about the critical moments just before, during, and after touch-down.

These critical moments remain blissfully undefined.

Not sure what I’m talking about?  Everyone agrees the entrace is a back inside edge because the rules say so.  But from there on, nobody seems to agree on anything…most likely because there are no rules!

• There are no rules to state whether it must be a clean edge take-off or whether the skater may push off the toe pick of the skating foot at lift-off.
• There are no rules to state whether the skater must take-off facing backwards or whether the skater can pivot forward before lifting off.
• And if a skater is allowed to pivot forward, either doing a very short three-turn or actually spinning on the toe pick or blade, how much pre-rotation is too much.
• If a short three-turn is allowed, can the three turn exit edge touch the ice or only the toe pick?

Due to it’s artistic nature, figure skating is a very subjective sport.  But are you starting to understand that even the technical aspects of figure skating are totally subjective?  There are no written rules!

Still don’t believe me?

• In a step sequence, exactly how long and how deep must the edges be for the skater to get credit for a rocker or a counter?  Don’t bother looking that up…there’s no rule for it.
• In a sit spin, the bottom of the seat must be below the top of the knee, but how exactly is the bottom of the seat defined?  Last time I checked (on video today, by the way) the seat is curved, making my estimate of “bottom of seat” totally different than someone else’s.  Again, there’s no rule for it.

The added complication of the new International Judging System was justified by claiming that it would be more fair.  But can you see how the lack of precise definitions means that even the technical aspects of skating are totally subjective.  We are now using frame-by-frame video analysis to judge our competitions.  Every aspect of take-off and landing can be reviewed.  But with no formal definitions, the results of those reviews will depend on the subjective opinion of the technical team.

It’s probably pretty clear from the tone of this post that I think this is completely unacceptable.  When I have some time, maybe I’ll submit some formal definitions to US Figure Skating and to the ISU.

My goal is to help coaches teach better.  But that’s close to impossible without formal definitions and rules for the elements we teach.  Today good technique and biomechanics for one coach are totally unacceptable to another.

If we can formalize the rules, we can also formalize the technique.  Of course, many coaches don’t want that.  Some don’t want to learn new technique.  And some successful coaches don’t want the technique they teach to be standardized…because their skaters will immediately have a lot more competition.

Whether you’re a coach, a skater, a parent, or a spectator, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this so please leave a comment by clicking the No Comment/Comments link below.

Trevor

As stated in previous posts, sufficient flight time is a critical component for figure skating jumps.  For example, in order to get enough rotation to land a clean double axel, the minimum flight time needs to be about 0.45 seconds.  Based on some physics calculations (basic projectile motion), I’ve been estimating the required height at 10.5 inches (0.467 seconds).

My ultimate goal is to see what percentage of the female population is physically capable of landing a double axel.  To do that I’ll need to correlate the flight times with standard vertical jump statistical data.

The first part of the test is as follows:
1. Skater stands next to wall and reaches up and makes a mark with one finger (using chalk or washable marker).
2. Skater stands on tip toes near the wall and makes another mark with same finger.
3. Then skater fully bends and jumps up off two feet as high as possible, slapping the wall and making another mark.
4. Step 3 is repeated until skater has a consistent pattern on the wall of maximum jump height.
5. The standing mark is considered the baseline.  The tip toe mark and the maximum jump height are measured from the baseline.

That gives us our “standard” vertical jump measurement.  This is the most common method used for measuring vertical jump.  Statistical data is available based on this measurement method as discussed in a recent post.  (The tip toe data is necessary for correlating with flight times and is not part of the standard test or available statistical data.)

Next, the video method is used.  For the video method, the capture software is turned on and:
1. The skater jumps multiple times facing sideways to the camera.
2. The skater jumps multiple times off one foot, using a natural “leg through and lift” technique.
3. The capture is stopped and the flight time for all the jumps is found.  (As discussed in post Are Figure Skater’s Projectiles?, the flight time is measured from the first frame the foot completely leaves the ground until the first frame when the foot touches the ground).

I performed this test with 2 skaters.

Skater A:
Baseline to tip toes:  2.9 inches
Maximum vertical jump off two feet at wall:  10.5 inches
Maximum flight time off two feel on video:  0.450 seconds (video shows flat footed landing)
  Corresponding jump height estimate from video:  9.8 inches
Maximum flight time off one foot on video:  0.351 seconds
  Corresponding jump height estimate from video:  5.9 inches

Skater B:
Baseline to tip toes:  3.1 inches
Maximum vertical jump off two feet at wall:  13.4 inches
Maximum flight time off two feel on video:  0.450 seconds (video shows flat footed landing)
  Corresponding jump height estimate from video:  9.8 inches
Maximum flight time off one foot on video:  0.450 seconds
  Corresponding jump height estimate from video:  9.8 inches

These results are clearly not conclusive.  Each skater only made three attempts for each measurement and the measurements were not always tightly clustered.  For example, Skater A had two foot flight times of 0.417, 0.451, and 0.433 seconds while Skater B had two foot flight times of 0.450, 0.434, and 0.451 seconds.  Skater A had one foot flight times of 0.317, 0.334, and 0.351 seconds while Skater B had two foot flight times of 0.400, and 0.450 seconds.

In future tests, each skater will perform more attempts to get a better estimate of the maximum.  When I have more data,  I’ll see if I can correlate the results and add in factors for take-off from tip toes and landing flat footed.

Also note, that some skaters will be able to jump just as high (or even higher) off one leg versus two, while other skaters clearly lose significant height jumping off only one leg.

I’m not sure this will be useful to you yet, but it just keeps you up to date on some of my testing.

Trevor

One of my goals is to understand what percentage of the female population has the athletic ability to do a double axel.  As I’ve shown before, the double axel is a huge dividing line for most skaters.

The next hardest jump, the double lutz only needs about 0.36 to 0.38 seconds of flight time based on video analysis (using Dartfish and simlar programs).  I’ve actually measured flight times on clean double lutzes as low as 0.34 seconds.  But using the 0.38 second number and using the table in a previous post on this blog (Are Figure Skaters Projectiles?), the double lutz needs to be about 6.5 inches high.

The double axel needs to have about 0.467 seconds of flight time, although I have measured ones with as little as 0.45 seconds.  Using 0.467 and the jump height chart gives about 10.5 inches as the minimum height for a double axel.

So why is this so important?

Mainly because based on my observations, most female figure skaters cannot jump 10.5 inches off the ice.  They just don’t have the physical ability to jump that high off one leg, regardless of technique.

To understand what I’m talking about, here’s an example.  Consider an ‘average’ 13 year old female skater.  According to the statistics, an average 13 year old female can jump 11.5 inches vertically off two feet.  This distance includes the ankle extension while still on the ground.  Estimating the distance of the ankle extension as 2.5 inches, that makes the true vertical “jump” or vertical distance in the air for the average 13 year old female only 9 inches.

And remember, that’s off two feet.

What are the statistics for one foot?  I’ve been unable to find any statistics on this so I’m running a study to determine this number so I can correlate it with the existing data.

But for the sake of argument, let’s say a skater can only jump 80% as high off one leg as off two.  That gives the average 13 year old female a potential jump height of 7.2 inches (0.8 x 9 inches = 7.2 inches).

And since a double lutz needs to be only 6.5 inches high, the average 13 year old lady skater clearly has the physical ability to do it.

So if the assumptions are reasonably close, we can see why most female skaters with average athletic ability or above can get through double lutz.  But we can also see why average female athletes have no chance at a double axel.  Their vertical jump off one leg is nowhere near the required 10.5 inches.

OK, just for illustration purposes, based on the assumptions above (2.5 inch ankle extension, 80% height off one leg), how good of an athlete does a 13 year old lady need to be for double axel?

If the jump needs to be 10.5 inches high and the ankle extension is 2.5 inches the skater needs a vertical jump off one leg from a standing position of 13 inches (10.5 + 2.5 = 13).  If the 13 inches are off one leg, then the skater needs to jump 16.2 inches off two legs (13 / 0.8 = 16.25).

According to available statistics, a 13 year old girl that can jump 16. 2 inches off two legs is in 97th percentile.  That means that only 3% of this age group can jump higher.

Wow!  Guess what that means?

If all the assumptions were reasonably close, only 3 percent of 13 year olds ladies have the athletic ability to jump high enough to do a double axel.  Now I’m sure this number is too low but it illustrates my point.

It should be clear why so few female skaters get a double axel.

OK, just for completeness I need to be very clear here.  I pulled the 80% number out of thin air.  And the 2.5 inch ankle extension number is a conservative estimate based on a handful of measurements ranging from 2.25 to 3.5 inches.  But these numbers need to be investigated.  And I plan to do that as part of my vertical jump study.

Also, the vertical jump numbers for 13 year old females was determined using an Online Vertical Jump Calculator.  And as elite skating coaches will confirm, a skater can actually jump higher on the ice with good technique due to the ability to use the speed of jump entry to vault the jump upward.

In other words, there’s a lot of assumptions here that need to be investigated further.

I hope you find this information useful.  As coaches, we need to stop having our skaters attempt jumps that they don’t have the vertical jump ability for and they simply have no chance of landing.

Trevor

Today I worked with a low-level skater on a her scratch spin.  I work with this skater in private lessons on a fairly regular basis.  This skater is currently in a basic skills program and is learning a scratch spin in her class.  But I’ve been very unhappy with the technique she’s been learning in class.

Unfortunately, she’d been having some success with the poor technique, spinning about 3 fairly centered rotations.  What I disliked about her technique was she was taught to simply twist into the spin, while I wanted her to glide on a long entrance edge to allow longer, faster spins.

This put me in an awkward position.  I had to convince her to try it my way without openly criticizing her basic skills instruction.  Not surprisingly, when she initially tried it my way the results were terrible because she could not control the entrance edge.  It took multiple lessons over several weeks of patiently and gently demanding the technique I wanted before she started to “get it.”

And today was the breakthrough!  Today she could finally control the edge as it got deeper and deeper until the edge naturally turned into a spin.  Her spins today were nearly centered and she was now getting 6 full revolutions.

With today’s success, I could see that she finally “bought into” the technique I was teaching her.  Up until today, she was merely humoring me.  She was willing to try what I asked, even though it wasn’t working, because I remained utterly unshakable in my requests.  This is the discipline I’m talking about.  We need the discipline to ask a skater to do the proper technique every single time.

Too often I see coaches throw away a valuable 15 minute lesson of technically improving drills by giving in to the skater’s desire to try the element when they’re still not ready.  Often coaches are giving in to their own curiosity or lack of patience.

I once took away a skater’s axel for 3 months.  At the time, she couldn’t get her free leg in front before jumping.  We used the three months working on exercises to slowly and persistently change her technique.  By the end of the three months, her new technique was totally ingrained in muscle memory.  Her technique was fixed from the very first axel she tried after the 3 months.  And it was permanently fixed!

As coaches, it’s our job to be patient and make sure the technique is good.  Skaters rarely have any patience.  And their parents are usually even worse.  As coaches, we’re the only voice of reason in the process.  The problem is, as coaches we’re likely to give in to our own curiosity, the skater’s pleading, and the parent’s pressure.

Stay strong!

Trevor

A large number of those coaches recently took a survey about the double axel.  The purpose of the survey was to determine how rare it is for a coach to teach a clean, consistent double axel.  I made the claim that “Most figure skating coaches never coach a skater to a consistent clean double axel.”

The survey results did not prove my claim, but they did provide food for thought.  60% of the responding coaches said they’ve never successfully taught a double axel to a female skater.  Of course, many of those will successfully teach a double axel at some time in the future.  But 60% is still a very sobering number!

71% of responding coaches worked with at least one female skater on double axel.  But only 40% have been successful teaching it.  These results confirm how rare it is to teach a double axel!  Some of the other survey results also suggest that most of the coaches that have successfully taught a double axel have been coaching for more than 20 years.

The other results of the survey were also very interesting.  The results can be viewed by signing up for updates from Skating Coach Quiz.  Those results include data on coaches’ experience levels and competitive success at the National level.

I’ve commented in this space before why so few ladies skaters get a double axel.  It largely comes down to physical ability.  Video analysis coaches with computer programs such as Dartfish have measured double axels with as little as 0.45 seconds of flight time.

Using projectile motion calculations, we can estimate the vertical jump from this flight time to be about 9.8 inches (see Flight Time versus Jump Height Table).  Actually the number is slightly greater due to ankle extension but 10 inches is a reasonable estimate of minimum height.  This assumes exceptional rotational speeds and jump control.

According to Audrey Weisiger and Chris Conte of Grassroots to Champions, the good minimum number for double axel flight time is 0.5 seconds which corresponds to a little over 12 inches of height.

Ultimately, that’s the challenge.  Most female skaters simply can’t jump that high off one leg.  Add to that the need for a proper axis and rotational control, and it’s clear why it’s so difficult.

I’m putting together a study of vertical jump height versus age for skaters.  The study will measure and correlate vertical jump height using multiple measurement methods, off one leg as well as both.  Ultimately, I’d like to correlate those measurements with on ice jump height as well.

I don’t really know what to expect.  What percentage of female skaters that skate for at least 3 years or more have the physical ability to do a double axel?  10%?  5%?  Even less?  It should be very interesting.

Trevor