Ice Skating - The Toe Loop

Michael Weiss: Hi! I am Michael Weiss, three-time US National Figure Skating Champion and we are discussing the six basic figure skating jumps. We've already discussed the first category the Edge Jumps which use one foot with no assistance from the other ones to jump and spring yourself up into the air.

Now, we're going to focus on ice skating Toe Jumps where you use the toe pick, the toe into the ice and vault the skater up into the jump.

Now the easiest of the toe jumps is the Toe Loop. It takes off on a right back outside edge, toeing in with the left foot behind reaching and vaulting up into the air using this toe pick.

Now, when you do this jump it's the easiest because as you take off and rotate in this direction, your hips are open to the rotation in some of the other jumps that we will see later, your hips will be close to the rotation.

Being open to the rotation as about an extra half-turn at the beginning of the jump that will assist you in getting up into the one, two and three rotations of the double, triple and single toe loop.

Third difference is the fact that at the beginning you get a half-turn on the ice before the entrance. This half-turn is called a Three Turn; it creates momentum going in the direction of the rotation, that's the free turn toeing in and vaulting the skater up into the jump.

Now remember, I am a left rotating jump which is the majority of figure skaters. There are some skaters who rotate to the right, so small number of skaters but some of them rotate to the right. In that case, I will take off with my left foot toe picked into the ice, they will take off with their right foot toe picked into the ice and turning the other direction landing on the other foot.

So, that's where it gets a little bit complicated when you come across a skater who jumps the opposite direction, but the majority will take off left foot in the ice, right edge, right back outside edge on the take off.

So, lets take a look at the single, the double and the triple toe loop.

A common mistake on the toe loop is to spin the take off, what you want to do is focus on turning the three turn, and bending the skating leg, reaching the arms, toeing into the left foot and vaulting yourself up into the air.

Now, when doing this you don't want to spin the take off because you won't give yourself enough time to spring out of the ice. So, take your time, bend the skating leg, reach the arms, vault yourself up into the air, don't be in such a hurry to get the rotation done.

Now, when performing the triple toe loop and all of these ice skating jumps safety is the number one issue. Make sure you have a good solid pair of figure skates that have lots of support. Make sure you have professional supervision like a professional figure skating coach.

Now, we've discussed the Toe Loop which is the easiest of the ice skating toe jumps, now let's move on to the Flip Jump.