My Baby Lutz is Now a Toddler Lutz
My coach and I worked on developing the lutz from some basic exercises (if you recall, I avoided this jump for over a decade). That resulted in a baby lutz, which I was proud to finally have. Now that several weeks have passed, my baby lutz has grown to become a toddler!
I like to joke that my lutz is in its terrible two phase, but my coach seems to think it’s grown up past that point. He thinks we’re in the full-fledged teenaged phase, but I disagree.
One thing I need to continue to work on is the pressure on the toe pick of my picking foot (my left foot). I have a tendency to step down on the heel, which would turn this into a loop jump (that is very bad). I have to keep pivoting on my toe and keep the heel off the ice. Apparently, Shoma Uno and Evgenia Medvedeva were notorious for putting their heels down on the lutz.
I’m hopeful that one day I can skate this jump at full speed and consider adding it to my free skate program.