Home | Sports & Leisure | Ice Skating - How to Perform the Six Basic Jumps

Ice Skating - The Single Salchow

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

To properly view this site, javascript must be enabled and Flash version 9 or higher must be installed.
Get the latest Flash player

View All Videos In This Series

View Comments (Add Comment)

ariellem Flag

need to see his feet!
These videos are to show skaters how to jump. The "which jump is it" banner obscures Michael Weiss' feet during his jumps, making it difficult to see exactly what he's doing :-<

Transcripts

Michael Weiss: Hi! I am Michael Weiss; three-time U.S. National Figure Skating Champion.

We're talking about the six basic figure skating jumps. Of those jumps you have the edge jumps and the toe jumps. First, we are going to discuss the edge jumps. The easiest of the edge jumps being the Salchow. What differentiates the salchow from the other jumps is the take off. You take off skating backwards with a left back inside edge of the blade, no assistance from the other foot, springing yourself up into the air, one rotation, two rotations or three rotations, always landing on the right back outside edge.

Now, where this can get complicated is when you have a skater who rotates the opposite direction. I rotate like many skaters, all of my jumps and spins to the left.

Some skaters, about 15% rotate to the right. In that case, they won't be taking off on the left back inside edge; they will be taking off on the right back inside edge, turning the other direction and landing on the left back outside edge. They will always land on the left back outside edge, rotating this way will always land on the right back outside edge.

So, let's take a look at the single salchow, the double salchow and the triple salchow. Now, a common mistake on the salchow is that skaters will jump into the ice, as opposed to bending the knees, stretching the arms and using them altogether in unison to spring out of the ice together. They will spin the three turn and jump into the ice. That energy goes down. We want energy going up into the take off. Another thing that is noticeable about the salchow that you will notice, is you have a three turn on the take off. This three turn is a half rotation that allows the skater to create momentum in the direction of the jump. Now, that three turn can really assist you in getting extra height and extra rotation on the salchow.

Now, we've taken a look at the easiest of the ice skating edge jumps. Let's take a look at the next most difficult figure skating jump which is the loop jump.

Expert: Michael Weiss

www.MichaelWeiss.org

P: (212) 489-5400

Michael is a Three-time U.S. Men’s Champion, Two-time World Bronze Medalist,Two-time Olympian,World Junior Champion, and World University Champion. He was the first U.S. man to land a quadruple toe loop in competition. In 2002, he debuted a new skate blade, the “Freedom Blade,” which enabled him to perform tricky maneuvers that no one else could copy. He also originated a showy and gymnastic-like move More »