5 Positions To Help You Learn Your Axel Jump!

Hey skaters, welcome back. I'm so glad you're here. I am coach Julia and today we are going to be working on axles out here on the ice. Now we're not going to be doing a full teach you from start to finish landing an axle jump because I don't think that that's how most people are going to be able to learn an axle. Most people do not start out with the beginning and land it within a few days. We usually have to go through a process of helping our muscles understand what the axle jump is before we take off and do it. So today we're going to be doing five different positions on a circle. I usually use one of these hockey circles that I want you to memorize within your muscles. So we're going to start with position number one. This is our backward setup for the jump. Okay so we're doing on a circle because axles generally are done on a curve once you have any sort of comfortable feeling with them. If you're doing them on a cable harness you're probably learning them on a line but we're going to be doing this on a curve. If you think about taking off for a waltz jump, which is the preliminary to an axle, those are usually done from back crossovers. So what we're going to do and I'm going to be starting out demonstrating this right-handed or counterclockwise. I will briefly show you the clockwise version as well because I know that visual is helpful for you left-handed learners. Okay so I'm going to be starting out doing it counterclockwise. So I'm going to be going backwards counterclockwise around my circle. That means my left foot is on the inside and my right shoulder sorry left shoulder is to the outside. So we're going to get into our first position. I want you to put your back to the circle. All right as if your back was to the glass. I want to be leading with my left shoulder so do not put the left shoulder on the glass otherwise it's behind you. Okay we want to be leading with it so we're going to keep that left shoulder off the glass. Okay so I'm here, my back is to the glass. I'm going to slightly bend my right knee so I can be on my outside edge and I'm going to put my left toe pick into the circle but with my legs very close. Okay so my left toe pick is not outside of the circle, it's not way out behind me. I'm bending my knee and putting it inside the circle almost as if I was going to do a pivot. Okay so it's behind me on the circle. So this is a position we're going to hit on the circle in just a moment. So again on the circle we're going to mimic that position we just did on the wall. So I have my left hand out, my left shoulder is in front of me, my right hand behind. I've got my weight on my right foot. Okay my knee is slightly bent. Okay my posture is as tall as I can keep it while being pressed down into that right foot and I'm going to take my toe pick and put it just behind me so my legs are nice and close but inside the circle. So when you first start each of these positions you're probably going to wobble a bit. That's okay. You want to practice that position until you can hold it at least for a count of four with zero wobbles. So one, two, three, four. Until you can do that you have not mastered that position. So here on the position number two. Okay so we're going to take our hands and we're going to put them behind us. Now I want you to keep that left shoulder in front so you're slightly facing outside so that left shoulder is still leading. Okay and your hands you're going to be bent. All right we want to have like think barbie, old-fashioned barbie I guess. I think nowadays they can bend their elbows but when I was a kid they were bent. So we want to bring those barbie hands behind us. Okay and they're just behind our hips. I don't want them way out and I don't want them like touching our hips. We just want them to be able to move past our hips just freely but close by. Okay they need to be like a hinge from the shoulder but not a round hinge if that makes sense. Okay just like a pendulum. If you guys know what a pendulum is you want that pendulum motion with your arms. Okay so we are going to put our weight on our left forward outside edge. We are going to have a good pressure through the outside through the quads. We're going to keep those shoulders up so that we are not leaning forward into our takeoff. If you lean forward into the takeoff you're going to swing back down on the landing and that's going to not end in a nice jump. So we're going to keep those shoulders up hands back. Okay and then this free leg we want to practice that pendulum as well. Think of it like a letter H that you're bringing behind you. Okay so it's not a big round motion. Okay it's not going to swing around. You're going to give close to 90 degrees and then put that 90 degrees behind you slightly inside the circle. So it's going to go here slightly inside the circle here. Okay so this second position I'll do it moving in just a moment but it's going to be about here. So you have your left arm left shoulder in front both your hands behind your hips 90 degrees upright body pressure into that left forward outside edge really engaging those quads. So now we're going to practice that position two moving on the circle. So we're going to be here left shoulder in front. Okay so the left shoulder is important here. We are going to put those hands bent behind us. Remember those barbie hands. So this elbow is bent close to your hips but not touching the hips. Okay and then we are going to be low into our left knee but upright with our shoulders so when we jump our shoulder seams are still facing the ceiling. If you think about a shirt that has a shoulder seam I want you to always keep those shoulder seams facing the ceiling. Okay and then we're going to take our free leg bend it into 90 degrees and keep that toe inside the circle. So you're slightly facing outside the circle your shoulders and your hips are facing at a slight angle out of the circle. All right so that's position number two. Again you want to be able to practice it until you can hold it for one two three and four. All right once you can hold it without your body swinging around then you know you've mastered that position. So now we're moving on to position number three the center one and this is going to be our takeoff position. Okay now if you were practicing this in your tennis shoes I would allow you to go up on your toe but for now since we're going to be moving on the circle I don't want you rising up onto your toe. We're just practicing what we're doing within our body. Okay so we we've come from position two what we're going to do is bring our arms forward. Okay so they've been back here they're going to come forward now you're still leading with your left shoulder. Okay you want to keep the left shoulder in control at all times you want to keep it in front of you. Okay so your left shoulder is forward your right arm is up but still the shoulder behind the left. Okay that way we will still be facing outside the circle so they're going to come up. All right now they're not coming above my shoulders you see how they're kind of almost even with my shoulders with those elbows still bent here. Okay now I'm going to keep my left leg oh no this is my right leg I'm doing this right-handed. Okay my right leg is bent and I'm going to keep that bend and I'm going to bring it so that it's right between my hands. Okay so I'm using the wall here to help me balance. Okay so it's right between my hands. Okay so it's coming through together those that you want that motion to be working together so we're going to have that knee 90 degrees right between your hands. Okay and when we do this we can stand up through our left leg. So we're going to practice that position number three moving on the circle. All right again if you were in your tennis shoes you could go up onto your toes but for now we're going to keep that hand that that foot flat. So we're going to put your hands up facing outside the circle your left shoulder is still going to be forward. Okay so you cannot let that left shoulder drop back and your knee is going to stay 90 degrees. Okay and we're going to have those hands out. Okay this is the simplest but very important because it's going to direct where your jump goes. We don't want your jump hooking in. Okay it creates a very unpredictable jump and as pre-rotated jump so we want it to be like a spoke going away from our circle. So you want to direct it with your hands and with your knee and once you can hold it to go one two three four then you've mastered position number three. Back at the wall let me show you position number four. This is going to be your in air rotating position. Okay so we have jumped all right we're imagining we're in the air. What I want you to do we're going to be on our right side if we're right handed. Okay so what I want you to do is put your right hip up against the wall so you can balance a little bit. You're going to close your ankles as tight as you can. Okay so that you really are practicing that tight air position. Okay well there's a number of different techniques for your arms so if your coach has a specific arm technique go with it. Some people will just close their hands over their right side to keep that axis on the right side. Another technique that I really like is to take your left hand put it across your rib cage and your right hand up to your shoulders. You're kind of in a wrapped position but the main thing you want to focus on here is keeping your weight fully over on your right side. So if you come over here you can see I'm really over on my right side. My left hip is slightly elevated and that is helping me keep my weight over on that right side. So this is your in air position and it's position number four. Okay we're going to put all of our weight on our right side really engage those abs on that side. We're going to cross those ankles as tight as possible. We're going to cross that left hand to our rib cage and our right hand up and I like to have you practice looking over your right shoulder. You still have your left shoulder in front so if you notice my left shoulder has led this entire time and by keeping my left hip up and my left shoulder in front it's helping me stay on my axis on my right side and since we're standing on the right side we need to keep that axis strong. So this is position number five it's our air position. You want to be able to hold this position nice and calm. I train my skaters to be able to go all the way around the circle without moving but you want to be able to at least hold it for a count of one two three and four and now we're on to our fifth position. This is the reward. This is the landing. If you've done everything else well you'll get a landing and that's when the jump feels really good but we're going to practice this position on the wall as well. So since I am imagining I'm doing this right-handed I'm going to put my right hand on the wall and I'm going to imagine I've just landed on that right leg so my pressure is down through the center of my skate engaging those quads. I still want to keep my upper body really nice and tall so think about those shoulder seams facing the ceiling. I'm going to point my left toe out keep those quads really nice and engaged and that left shoulder in front so the left arm and shoulder are going to be in front of you this whole time. Okay you should be noticing a theme here with that left shoulder. So you should be very familiar with this landing position if you've learned all your jumps and you're working on your axle but if not come over here and practice this landing position because it's the same one you're going to use for every other jump. So let's do that landing position position number five going backwards. We're going to have our left shoulder in front strong hands strong left leg point it out all that weight on the right back outside edge shoulders high engage the muscles in your back so you don't collapse on your landing. Okay so that is position number five you definitely want to be able to hold that at least for a count of one two three and four so you can know you control that jump once you've achieved it. Okay so that is all five positions we're going to do them now strung together so once you can do each position the next challenge is to put them together in a string. All right so let's do all five of those positions around the circle with some speed so I'm going to take a couple crossovers because I need that speed to be able to hold all of these and we're going to get into position one one two three and four position two one two three and four position three one two three and four position four one two three and four one two three and four. Okay so you want to be able to do an exercise like that you can do it over and over and over around this circle until you can do it with control without wiggling and those positions are memorized within your body. All right so to give you a visual for your left-handed skaters I will do this on a circle going the other way. I do have to say this is not my direction so I don't think I'll be able to do it with as much control as I'd like but I want you to be able to see what this looks like the the clockwise rotating version. Okay so we're going to start with our crossovers going clockwise around the circle and we're going to hit position number one which is our starting position. Okay keep that keep that right shoulder in front left toe right toe pick behind my goodness my brain is having a hard time knowing my rights and my lefts. Okay so we have position number one our starting position then we're going to move on we're going to go to position number two our takeoff. Okay keep that right shoulder in front hands behind left leg is dipped inside the circle slightly we're going to keep those shoulders up nice and tall we're going to be down nice and deep in that right outside edge. Now we're going to move on to position number three we're going to keep that right shoulder out okay that right shoulder leaving leading hands forward your knee is like a spoke going outside of the circle. Okay so here is our takeoff position position number three we're going to move from there to our air position this is what I'm worried about. Okay so I'm on my right side I've closed my sorry I'm on my left side I'm on my left side I've closed my right over okay I'm going to wrap my right hand and close my left and I'm still keeping that right shoulder in front. This is difficult going your way you guys I don't practice it that this way but I'm trying to give you the best content I can. So here is our air position nice and tall keep those shoulders tall Julia air position for you left-handed skaters and then we have our landing position we're going to keep that right hand that right shoulder nice and strong in front extend the right leg get nice and deep down onto that left back outside edge. All right skaters I hope you find this axle walk through exercise useful. I know there's so much axle content on the internet but I think if you really take the time to break down each of these steps memorize them within your muscles and practice them it's really going to help you get to that axle jump a little bit faster. If you enjoyed this video please do give us that thumbs up and as always I look forward to reading all your comments in that section down below. If you haven't done so yet then hit that subscribe button and the little notification bell down in the corner so you can see all my videos when they come out. Happy skating and I'll see you next time!