Steps To Learn A Double Lutz Jump - Off The Ice | Figure Skating

Hi and welcome to Next Edge Tutorials. In today's lesson I'm going to show you the simple steps that you can do to start landing double lutzes off the ice. So if you're anything like me, lutz jumps are your least favourite jump. They feel stark, they feel tricky, they feel awkward. Off the ice they're just really uncomfortable. However, today the steps that I've got for you is going to take that lutz and turn it into your favourite jump to do. These simple steps are going to build your confidence, build that progression nicely and naturally and in no time at all you're going to start doing doubles and think what was I so upset about, what was I so annoyed about. I love these lutz jumps. So let's jump in and see what that looks like. Okay step one when learning a double lutz. Now with most skaters that I get or I start to coach, I usually like to start them off with something really simple, very basic but it's so fundamentally important when doing a lutz jump. So for me, I like to bring the skater into a nice big space. I like to set them up facing one direction. They're going to extend their kicking foot back like you would on the ice. They're going to jump off that leg and then transfer their weight backwards. So let me show you what that looks like. I'm here facing this direction, I stretch that leg out, I transfer my weight onto it. It looks really simple, maybe too simple but the reason why it's so important is that on the ice if I'm going to kick here, I want to land on this leg. So at the beginning my weight's all on the left leg but eventually I want to transfer that weight onto my landing leg. So let's have a look one more time. So I'm here, I step back, I kick in and jump up. Now as you notice, as I get more comfortable, I can even transfer it further. So maybe this time I start a little bit further up, I step back and transfer. Now while it does look pretty simple, you will find at the beginning you'll have some mistakes. Maybe you're transferring too much to the back and you feel like you're leaning a little bit backwards or maybe you don't transfer enough and you're leaning too far forwards. On the ice you may start to do some single lutzes or double lutzes and you'll feel on the landing you're really grinding that toe pick leaning far forwards or you're falling on your bottom because you're too far back and you can't catch that landing. So you really need to nail this first, feel confident with it and once that confidence builds then you can take it to the ice and you can let it flourish there. Alright, step number two. Now let's assume that you've already got that first step down pat, you feel very confident transferring your weight from one spot to another spot. Now we can start to think about some rotation. Now for me when I start to teach the rotation on lutz, I'm really not concerned about how much rotation I have. I'm really thinking about the ideas that I want to get consistently so that eventually when we are doing lutzes and we're worried about the rotation, everything's just locked in, it's muscle memory, I don't have to focus on the finer details. So in this exercise what I'm going to do is very very similar to the first one, extremely similar. It's all about stretching behind, picking in and then jumping. But now we're going to add that small little bit of rotation. So let's have a look at the first exercise again. I step back, I pick in, I jump. Now for this exercise I'm going to do the same thing but with some rotation. I'm going to step back and from here I want to twist my picking leg a little bit inwards, kind of like a bit of pre-rotation. So I pre-rotate, you can see that foot twist, that knee twist and that hip just drops a little bit. Then I'm going to push off it and then work on maybe half revolution, something very simple. And jump. And as simple as that, a small half revolution, transferring the weight from one foot onto two feet. And you'll notice on the landing, I'm not shaking, I'm not moving, I'm just staying on that one spot. So let's have a look one more time. This time I'm going to face this direction. So again, I start here, still just two arms in front, nice and simple. I pick, I twist that foot in a little bit pre-rotation and then I push off that left leg into the jump. So I'm here, I push off and I turn. There you go, something really, really simple and it's such a natural progression from step one to step two. And as you can see, if I can work on that and I can increase that, the double lutz doesn't look that far away. It looks actually quite close. I can feel the jump, I can feel the rotation. Then it just needs more numbers, more practice, more confidence until I can finally achieve that. Okay, so we've got it down, we're feeling confident. Now let's do it one more time. So I'm facing here, making sure that I'm in line. I pick back, arms, then I twist that foot a little bit. You can definitely see it there, it's twisting in. So I've twisted, I push off and jump and half rotation. Very, very simple. Okay, now let's do it facing away from you. I extend that foot back, arms in front, put them out to the side so you can see them. I twist that right foot. Now I push off that left foot, push off and jump. So there you have it, really, really simple. Nothing too spicy yet, nothing too crazy. Not a lot of energy or power going into the jump just yet. But you will notice in the third step, that's where we start to increase everything and everything becomes more interesting. Okay, the third step. Very similar, obviously, to the first, the second, third. Very natural progression. But this time we're going to start to use arms and you're going to notice this time, it doesn't look so much like an exercise. It looks more like a jump that you would recognise on the ice. So when I teach lutz, usually some skaters will have either one entry or another. Either they want to have a nice, beautiful outside edge going into a lutz, and that's fine. And some skaters have an inside change outside into a lutz jump, and that's completely fine too. It's really just your preference. So left-handed, right-handed, there's no right or wrong. It's just one's different than the other. But you need to find what's comfortable for you first and then you can start to practise it here. And that's where you can get it really comfortable. So today we're going to do both entries, just to give you a different idea. So the first entry I'm going to do is a long back outside, a right arm behind and two feet. Very, very simple. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to pick my right foot up and then I'm going to go for that pick. And as I go for that pick in, I'm going to turn that foot in a little bit like we did on the second step, working on that pre-rotation into the lutz jump. So let's have a look. I'm going to walk you through it very slowly. Left arm, right arm, and I stretch back, stretch. I pick in as I turn, I turn, and then I'm going to rotate using my arms into a single lutz. Single lutz. Let's have a look one more time. Maybe we'll quicken it up a little bit this time, make it a little bit smoother. So again, left arm, right arm, got balance. I stretch, I pre-rotate, use arms and landing. Okay. And you can see that natural progression. I've got my balance. I know how to transfer my weight from step one. I know how to use that pre-rotation with my body from step two. And then step three is really just putting it together with a bit more speed and a bit more power. So I know you're thinking, you didn't really work on the rotation. That's true. I didn't. But hopefully you already have an idea about rotating and landing on one foot. Now let's have a look at this inside outside edge lutz takeoff. Very tricky to see off the ice. Obviously, we don't have the edges. We don't have boots or blades or ice, but you'll just have to use your imagination and follow that if you can and see how that would work. So for me, what I like to do, I like to have my right arm coming forwards a little bit, imitating that inside change to outside and then take off. So let's have a look. Make sure I've got lots of space. Okay. As I step, I step on my left leg inside, change outside. Arms are back. I start to pre-rotate with that right leg and landing. There you have it. Very, very easy. And for me, that's way more comfortable. I just like that momentum of from one side, other side, jump as opposed to that static position into the jump. Again, it's not right or wrong. It's just what your preference is. So for me, my preference is a little bit more momentum. For you, you might love that nice static, powerful position into the jump. Find what works for you and you'll have so much more success. Okay. Double lutz. Now I know what you're thinking. What's the secret? How do I do it? Please tell me. I need help in my double lutz. But honestly, there is no secret. I wish there was. I would tell you, if you get your double lutz like that, wouldn't that be nice? But that's not the way it happens. The way it happens is the same way we've spoken about today. Those steps plus more reps plus a bit more quickness. That quickness in your movements, in your rotation, in everything is how you basically add those more rotations on. It isn't different technique. It isn't something special. Yes, it's a little bit higher. Yes, it's a little bit this, a little bit that. But overall, it's the same jump as the single. Now, when you're trying doubles off the ice, I don't want you to just focus on doubles. If you focus on doubles, you're going to throw your technique away. Focus on the little things that will help you get a little bit more rotation. Straighter body, a little bit tighter arms, a little bit nicer legs, tight legs. If you can focus on those things, your rotation will slowly chip away. So you go from one to one and a quarter to maybe one and a half. But eventually, you will find rotation slowly comes more and more around until you're doing a clean double lutz. That's what I want you to focus on. That's how you're going to get it. And when you can get it, it will feel amazing. Trust the process. That's how you're going to get your double lutz. Okay, there you have it. Those three simple steps that will progress you from really not understanding how to do a lutz off the ice all the way to feeling confident that you can start to pull in on some more doubles. Now, the double lutzes that I showed you are definitely not clean. 100% agree with you, but you can see that progression that if I did more of them, they would start to clean up even more, even more. And what you can see if I start to just pull in and worry about the rotation, I start to get a lot more uncomfortable. I start to force it. I put my other foot down. Not comfortable at all. So stick with the right technique. Stick with the right ideas and trust the process that eventually, if you keep doing those things right, the double lutz will slowly come and it will feel fantastic. So really hope you enjoyed today's lesson and can't wait to see you again soon.