|
Football and baseball are the two most popular television spectator sports in the United States. Is basketball number three? Hockey? No, it's figure skating. Yet as popular as figure skating is most fans who watch on TV don't know how to identify the common jumps. They may know the words: loop, toeloop and half-loop; flip, Lutz and Salchow and the Axel; but those words have no meaning attached. The television commentators never explain so the watching public assumes that it is rocket science and beyond their ability to understand or discern.
This is not true.
Figure skating jumps are not that difficult to understand. Any fan with a quick eye, who knows her right from her left and forwards from backwards can identify the common jumps in figure skating. Each jump has three parts: take-off, rotation and landing. Let's look at the toeloop.
For most skaters, the toeloop is the easiest jump, though a few skaters are known to prefer the flip or loop, or even the Lutz. The toeloop, along with the loop, is the most common jump for the second jump in a combination. A combination is when a second jump is performed immediately upon landing the first with no steps or turns between them. If you see a jump with a toe assist as the second jump of a combination, chances are, it is a toeloop.
For a counter-clockwise jumper, the toeloop takes off on the right foot with an assist from the left toe pick. The jump rotates in the counterclockwise direction, an even number of times, and lands on the right foot. For a clockwise jumper, the toeloop takes off on the left foot. The right toepick is used as an assist. The jump rotates clockwise and lands on the left foot. But let's look at the process more closely.
The toeloop takes off from a back outside edge, more simply, the skater is skating backwards on one foot and leaning to the outside of the skate. This takeoff edge can often look like a flat (no edge at all) or the toeloop can be done out of a series of turns or from another jump (the combination).
The skater will "pick" or "toe-off" the jump, using the toepick to stop the momentum and the bent knee so she can vault into the air somewhat like a pole vaulter. The picking foot should remain low rather than rising high into the air. The pick should hit the ice firmly and should not be jammed into the ice with too much force otherwise it will throw the skater's balance off. Good picking technique is very important in achieving a good landing. As knowledgeable spectator can tell whether a jump will succeed or fail based on the take off, without ever seeing the landing.
The toeloop rotates an even number of times: once for a single, twice for a double, three times for a triple and four times for a quadruple or "quad." The toeloop was the first quad ever performed (by Kurt Browning) and is the most common quad seen in competition.
For both clockwise and counterclockwise skaters, the toeloop lands on a back outside edge. This means that the skater is skating backwards on one foot with the lean towards the outside of the foot. However, just landing the jump is not an indication of quality.
A good quality jump has good speed going and coming out. The skater is supposed to flow out of the jump smoothly, with no wobbling, no touching the ice with her hands and no hopping. Moreover, the skater should have a strong, upright carriage, a gracefully held leg and turned out toes. A badly performed toeloop will take off from a crawl and land at a dead stop... Or in a fall.
| 
