Skating Fridays

Grassroots to Champions Seminar, Part 2

I’m back again with some more information that I received from the Grassroots to Champions (G2C) adult seminar from Atlanta. Today, I’m going to share some of the more technical parts of jumping in particular (we did not cover spins).

The Flox
- Flox = Flex and Lock. The proper air position is to flex and lock your landing leg. When you cross your legs in the air, the leg underneath (the landing leg) should be fully locked so it’s parallel to the ice. Do not point this leg. You will not land flat footed. The other leg (free leg) should be pointed down. Your feet should form a “V” if you look down.
- All elite skaters do this. Brian Boitano has an excellent “Flox” but didn’t know it at the time. This is the most efficient way to rotate in the air.
Shoulder / Chin connection
- Don’t pre-rotate your head. Keep the shoulder and chin moving together. Once the head moves, the rest of the body will follow so try your best to keep it looking forward until the last second.
All jumps (single, doubles, triples, quads) have the same entry. The only difference is the timing on when to pull in (the moment of rotation).
Change your mental perspective. Rather than think negatively (“I can’t jump at 8:00am!”), think “Yes I can!” Michael Weiss was in Nagano and successfully landed a quad lutz during a warmup. He was in a completely different country across the world in an unfamiliar rink and time zone. Rather than think negatively, he thought positively and look what happened!

We also had the opportunity to work in the off-ice harness. This useful tool is used to help skaters train their bodies on the proper air position. It’s imperative to get a good takeoff from the ground and pull in tightly into the “flox” position we discussed above. The quicker you can get into the flox position, the better your chance of properly executing the jump.

Here I am in the off-ice harness and attempting to hit the “flox” position. Happy to report that Nick liked what he saw!