Ice Skating - How to Perform the Six Basic Jumps

Hi! I am Michael Weiss three times US national champion, two times world medalist and two times US Olympian. Today I am going to talk to you a little bit about the six basic figure skating jumps. The six basic ice skating jumps, in order of difficulty are the Salchow, the Toe Loop, the Loop Jump, Flip Jump, the Lutz Jump and the hardest the Axel Jump. The only difference between these jumps is the takeoff, how the skater gets up into the air. There are two different kinds of figure skating jumps, there are edge jumps and there are toe jumps. The edge jumps you use one foot with no assistant on the other foot to spring up into the air for the jump. The toe jumps you use the toe pick to toe into the ice and vaults you up on the takeoff of the jump.

There are three edge jumps and there are three toe jumps, seems pretty easy. Now, here's where it gets a little bit complicated. The difference is that make these ice skating jumps separate are the entrances. You can enter the jump skating forward, skating backward, on the right foot, on the left foot, on the inside edge of the blade or on the outside edge of the blade. Now, although the takeoffs are all different for these jumps, the landings are always the same. I will always land on my right back outside edge. The only times this gets complicated is when there's a skater who rotates the other direction. I rotate to the left. I do all my jumps my spins to the left as most skaters do. Some skaters rotate to the right and they land on there left back outside edge. So, that be little bit complicated when you get all the takeoffs understood, you get the skater who jumps the other direction. There are probably only fifteen percent of the skaters out there, but they are out there. Now, when doing these jumps the number one and the most important thing is safety. You got to have a pair of skates that has good solid support in ankle, a blade that is sharp, a toe pick that is big enough to be able to withstand the pounding of the toe jumps and you need to have professional supervision. A professional coach and a professional facility to make sure you are doing these with safety. Its also doesn't hurt to wear a helmet when learning these new elements. Now, to get started with these six basic figure skating jumps, we are going to start with the Edge jumps, the easiest of edge jumps is the Salchow.