How to Get PERFECT Landings Every Time | Figure Skating

Hey skaters, it's Stacey here from Next Edge Tutorials. In today's lesson, I am gonna transform your landing position. Let's jump in and transform your landing position. So the very first thing I'm gonna show you is what I normally see skaters do in a landing position. So they land a jump or they exit out of a spin and it's gonna look like this. All right. So we're going to start with the very first thing, our upper body. So I want you to think about a very neutral position with arms and shoulders here. That's not too far back behind our body here. It's not too far in front of our body here. It's just this neutral position. What I like to say is if you're looking straight, you should be able to see your hands here. If you look straight and you can't see them anymore, your arms are probably too far back behind your body. So I want you to be able to look straight and see your hands. So I want you to practice after you feel that position. I want you to get a little bit of speed and you're just going to take a circle and you're just going to hold here. Now, because I jumped counterclockwise, you're going to hold it with the arms, I'm going to look to my right hand. If you jump the other way, you're going to look towards your left hand. So we're adding this little bit of looking where we're going. It's also going to help keep you safe on the ice. Now, the next thing that we're going to do is talk about our free let. With the free leg, I want you to think about, if we had a clock here, it's between like seven or eight, the free leg. So you're going to take that hip from this position. You're going to open it up. So a lot of skaters push back and they land their jump and their hip is rolled in. If your hip is rolled in, it's very hard to lift it nice and high. So I want you to think about toes out to the side and lifting. So you can even put it on the ice. Draw it back and just hold this position to the toe. Feeling this nice open position through here, not rolling that hip in. So nice and open, and then you're going to lift it up. You're going to feel your tushy muscle work a little bit. And we're going to have a slightly soft knee. I don't want you to lock your leg. I would just want a nice little bend so that you're stable over that right leg, or if you land the other way, over your left. Now, you're going to get on a circle, and we're going to put it together with the upper body and the free leg. So, I'm going to go, okay, my shoulders are right where it needs to be, looking to the right, push back, and hold that. One, two, three feet together, and then you can get a little bit of speed again, and then practice it again. Push back, hold it, one, two, three, and then pull it up. Fixing your landing position is going to help your overall skating because when you compete, what are the judges looking at? Jumps and spins and in between. So you can really fix that position and stretch it out. Now, this is my favorite part. We are going to make it gorgeous. Now, how do we do that? You're just going to hold on to the barrier first. Come to the barrier. You're going to get your arms in that neutral position and I like to lift my left arm slightly higher and I like to stretch it out through here holding. I do a little press of my wrist. So I'm going to show you how it transforms. So you land in this neutral position here. Now I'm going to look more to the right, lift my left arm up and stretch through my wrist. And hold and that's like that extra little like sparkle to your landing position is from here this neutral head Just stretching it out and then finishing through the wrist and holding this position here Why I like to lift my left arm slightly higher it helps me stay on a curve Look what happens if I open my left shoulder up. So if you land a jump and then this opens I can't hold that jump because that left arm is moving around too much. You want to stop that left arm so that you have nice balance. You want to think about that left arm kind of at your head and then right out to the side here, so that when you land a jump, You're holding and stretching out and I'm able to maintain this beautiful curve without my shoulder pulling me around. That's the only reason why I like to lift it. I also like to do this special little thing, now you don't have to try it, but I like to land and then press it open so that it has this like smooth transition. So if I go waltz jump through here, for a split second I like to land arms in front and then stretch it out. It's a personal thing, but definitely give it a try. Thanks for watching NextEd Tutorials, and like always, happy skating. So if you've enjoyed this lesson on fixing your landing positions, you're going to definitely want to check out our free PDF guide on the competition checklist. This is everything that I wish I had written down as a skater because I'd sometimes go to competitions and I would need hair clips, hairspray, extra pair of tights because somehow I snagged my tights warming up. It just helps all skaters go over everything that way when they go the rink they don't have to worry about anything except getting themselves there getting ready to compete and if something happens they have backup stuff so when you're ready definitely give it a click.