HOW TO DO A LUTZ JUMP || OFF-ICE TRAINING | Coach Michelle Hong

Hi, welcome back to my channel. It's Coach Michelle Hong. Thank you so much for tuning in for the last day of Jump Technique Horse Skate with Michelle. So, thank you so much for all your positive comments on the previous videos and I hope that you have been enjoying them and learning something new every day. So, with that being said, we are going to be working on the lutz. So, the biggest thing that you want to remember about the lutz is that you're taking off of a back outside edge and we're going to use the same tapping foot that we used for our flip. So, let's practice by utilizing the wall so I can show you how you can angle your foot when you're practicing for your tap. So, I'm going to place my hands on my wall and I'm going to bend my knees as so. And now, I'm just going to reach back for my tap like I normally do when I'm reaching for a flip. I'm going to tap back as so. So, the difference between that and how we're going to do it for the lutz is simple. What I'm going to do is that I'm going to turn out my skating foot because when I teach the lutz, I start on a circle because I want my students to make it so that they're visualizing a curve and they're illustrating a curve with their skating foot, right? So, the curve is going to be on an outside edge. So, for us to simulate that on the ground, I'm going to be turning my skating foot in a minorly diagonal position and I'm going to place my free leg right behind my ankle. So, I'm doing a minor pique with my free leg. So, in ballet, we call this pique where your ankles are close together and my hip is turned out. So, I'm going to turn out my skating foot minorly and I'm going to place my free leg behind my skating ankle and I'm going to practice bending and reaching back for my tap. So, different to the flip where I told you to tap parallel to the skating foot, I actually like to use the circle idea and when I tell my students, I tell them to think about tapping towards the inside of the circle as opposed to outside. So, they can really think about feeling an outside edge when they're tapping their toe as opposed to here. I want them to think about tapping here, okay? So, we're going to do that five times. Pique, bend, tap. Pique, bend, tap. Pique, bend, tap. Pique, bend, tap. Fantastic. So, that's the tapping mechanism. As you can see, my shoulders are very square on the wall. However, I do not want my shoulders to be square like that when I'm preparing and taking off for the jump. So, I'm actually going to visualize how I'm going to skate into my lutz to show you a better understanding of how it is supposed to be on the ice. So, just to clarify, if you're jumping towards your left for the lutz jump where I rotate towards my left, I'm going to do crossovers with my left hand moving and the opposite for those who are jumping towards their right, you're going to do crossovers towards your right. Okay? So, now that we've gotten that down, I'm going to do push, cross, push, cross. And what I like to do is I like to glide on two feet as I check into the corner of where I'm going to jump. So, feet together. I look at the direction of where I want to jump and now I actually scissor my arms very narrowly, right? Because if we start to twerk and move our shoulders, then we're going to have misalignment with our body. So, I'm here and as I scissor my arms, I bring my ankle in that pique position. Okay? And now my skating arm is directly in front and my free arm is behind me, as so. And then I bend and I reach back for my tap, like this. So, let's review that one more time. Okay? So, I'm going to go push, cross, push, cross. Glide in a diagonal line because I like to jump in the left corner and eventually you'll be able to do it in a straight line, but I tend to think about either the left corner or teaching it on a circle. So, I'm here. I'm going to scissor my arms. I'm going to place my ankle behind me, as so, and I'm going to reach back for my tap. Okay? And you can see my skating leg is minorly angled like we did on the wall. And now what we're going to do is that we're going to pull our heel and try to simulate a curve, right? You want to try to simulate an outside edge curve to have your heel come meet your toe. So, we're going to go over that tap mechanism one more time, but this time we're going to do it on the wall for support. So, I'm going to angle my foot as if I'm on a curve and I'm going to reach back for my tap and I'm going to pull my heel towards my toe and try your best to simulate a curve. Reach back, heel, towards my toe. Angle, reach back, heel, towards my toe. Angle, reach back, heel, towards my toe. Angle, reach back, heel, towards my toe. Awesome. And from this point, I'm going to do the same thing that I did on my flip jump and I'm going to bring my tapping arm, the arm that is aligned with my foot, the tapping foot, to be precise. I'm going to drive that side to meet my left as I'm pushing through an outside edge, right? It's hard to simulate an outside edge. If I do this personally, I'm going to hurt my ankle because I have a very weak ankle, but if you really want to emphasize and try to push through just one side of the foot, then put more pressure towards the outside right here. So, you can feel what that feels like. So, we're going to practice just pushing up and putting pressure on the outside foot. Don't tweak too much like this. You might hurt yourself, okay? So, I'm going to push through right here, I'm going to think about an outside edge, and I'm going to drive up. One, two, three, drive up. One, two, three, drive up. One, two, three, drive up. Now, we're going to do the backward crossovers one more time and we're going to turn. We're going to pivot halfway to pull our heel together. We're going to pivot forward like we did with the flip jump yesterday. So, I'm going to go backward crossovers. This is a circular pattern, right? And then, I'm going to set up my two feet together, scissor my arms, I reach back for my tap, I pull my heel on a curve, and I'm going to pivot and drive my tapping side through and stay still. Awesome. Let's do that again. Backward crossovers, feet together, tap, heel, and through. Fantastic. Okay, so now let's try to incorporate a tap jump. I'm going to reach back for my tap and lift up, S up, pushing off two feet so we can feel what it feels like when we're reaching back for a tap or a lutz. Ankle, reach back, pull, jump through. Ankle, reach back, tap, jump through. Ankle, reach back, pull, jump through. Ankle, reach back, pull, jump up. I want you to recognize that on the ground, it's pretty difficult to distinguish an outside edge from an inside edge, but if you start visualizing and you really think about what you're intentionally doing, you're going to change the way things happen on the ice, right? So, in this case, these are adaptive exercises, and so if you can't necessarily showcase that outside edge, don't worry too much about it. We're not going to be critical about the technique of how you're doing it on the ground to the ice as long as you acknowledge it. Now that we've practiced pushing off two feet, I want us to try lifting up our left foot prior to pushing off through our right toe. So, once again, our right toe is the last thing to leave. We want to push through our left side if I'm going towards my left, and opposite, so you want to push through your right side if you're going towards your right as your first initial thing to take off, right? Your tapping foot is the last to leave, so we're going to practice that by jumping and lifting through. We're going to have our feet together, ankle, reach back, tap, pull. Notice how I'm lifting up my left hip, okay? So, let's just do this from here. Reach back, pull, up, out. Again. One, two, pull, up, out. Let's just practice a couple half turns before we do the full. So, we're going to go backward crossovers, feet together, reach back, tap, and from this point, we're going to land forward towards the closet. I'm going to push up and hold. Okay? Feet together, reach back, pull, think about the outside edge, up, hold. Feet together, reach back for the tap, up, hold. Now, let's incorporate all those steps together so we can do that full, complete lutz, and we'll try it three times. And remember, even though we're not necessarily showcasing that we're on an outside edge, we're thinking about it consciously as we go through the jump, okay? We're going to go backward crossovers, feet together, reach back for the tap, pull, up, push, cross, push, cross, feet together, reach back for my tap, pull. Remember, my right side comes to meet my left, and opposite for those going towards their right, left side comes to meet their right, okay? Backward crossovers, backward crossovers, feet together, scissor, reach back, pull, up, out. So, for me, as you notice, my skating side is in front. Once I scissor my arms from the backward crossovers into the setup to glide on my back outside edge, I am lining up my shoulders with my hips, okay? So, I'm opening up this hip so I can reach back for my tap, so my new hip that's leading is my skating hip, okay? So, then your skating shoulder is in front, your free shoulder is behind you, you reach back for the tap, and you're going to drive your new tapping side to align the shoulders up again. As you rotate with your hips, and you check out, okay? So, first, you're feeling as though you're pulling your shoulders back, and there's a wall right here that is stopping you from rotating. And once you tap, you can release all of that tension, right? You're having tension here. If you didn't have tension, then you'd be loosening your seat. Now, somebody's pulling your front arm and your back arm so you can reach as so. Then, when you reach back for your tap, you can release as if somebody released your pull, right? They're no longer pulling, so then you have this rotation happen. And I think that will really help on your rotation. We're going to scissor your arms, you're going to reach back for your tap, somebody's pulling your arm, and release, and out. Fantastic. Well, there you have it, you guys. That is the breakdown of the Let's Jump. Remember that it's not completely the same as when you're on the ice, but we got to do what we got to do to stimulate for this time in our world. I love you all so much, and I'll see you in the next episode of Skate With Michelle. Bye!