HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR AXEL: PLYOMETRIC WORKOUT || OFF-ICE TRAINING | Coach Michelle Hong

I'm Coach Michelle Hong. We are going to be working on skip jump for today's episode of Skip with Michelle. The focus is plyometrics of ski, and this is an excellent exercise for us to be able to gain that height that we need for both our axel and our loop, and the majority of all our jumps, because they require you to lift your hip up, right? So with that being said, let's get started. So for the first two days, I had exercises to warm up our ankles. Today's exercise will be very similar to the toe raises, so we're going to add an entrance and a takeoff. So we're going to bend ourselves, and then you're going to drive your knee up, and bend, and lift, bend, and lift. My left ankle is the one that is not as strong as my right, so I'm not able to elevate all the way onto the tippy top, where my heel is able to lift off my ground or the floor as high as my right side, but that's okay. We're strengthening it day by day, and getting better as we improve and work on our exercises, okay? We're going to go to the other side. Right foot on the ground, left arm back, drive the left side, and down. One, and two, and three, and four, and five, and six, and seven, eight, nine, and 10. Awesome. Now we're going to prepare our knees and quadriceps to lift up in that high H position. So let's just walk for one round, and then we're going to start the run. Shake it out, shake it out. So what we're going to do is practice a couple skips. We're going to do a skip jump by placing our left leg in front. I'm going to bring my arms back as if I'm taking off for an axle, and so then I go step, lift up, okay? And then I'm going to land on the same leg that I took off of. I'm going to do the same thing on the right. Right foot in front, and I step, bring my arms back, and then I'm going to pull both up. One, and two. Notice how my arms come to meet me in a little circle, and I make sure that I straighten that bottom leg, and I land on the same leg. Okay, so we're going to do that 10 times. So I'm going to start out with my left. One, and two, three, and four, and five, and six, seven, and eight, nine, and 10. Awesome. So normally what I would do is I would do these in a row. So I'll show you. It would be like this. But since I have a small space and I'm focusing on distance and height, I can only fit one skip jump in. So let's try it one more time to really focus on that height and that distance. That was a weird warmup. We're going to do 10 more. Ready? Begin. One, and two, three, and four, five, and six, seven, and eight, nine, and 10. Fantastic. So that was a skip jump that took off the same foot that you land on. All right? This next skip jump that we're going to do, you're going to actually land on two feet because I'm going to focus on lifting my free hip up, and I'm going to focus on snapping it back down before they hit the ground, right? So we want to develop that quick reaction time that's essential for that air position. All right? So I'll demonstrate two of them, and then we'll do two sets of 10. So this is my demonstration. Left foot, and notice how I snap my feet back together. And right foot. All right? So let's work on snapping those ankles together. One, two, three, four, five. Don't forget to alternate. Awesome. Let me know how those work for you in the comment section. So before we end today's workout, I'm going to add a little bonus. I'm going to combine the hop jumps that we did yesterday, also known as skater jumps, in addition with the new skip jump that we learned. So we're going to do this. I'm going to demonstrate. We're going to go hop across and skip, hop, skip, hop, skip, hop, skip. Combining the two, you're encouraged to think about your distance and your height. All right? So we're going to prepare our legs for all that explosiveness, agility, and power you need on the ice. So let's do 15 of those to end our workout. We're going to start on our left foot. I have my right arm in front, and I'm going to jump and leap. When I leap into the air, I alternate and land with my left arm in front, right? They switch like you're running. So when you run, you go like this. As soon as you transition to the other foot, your arm switches for balance. So you're going to do the same thing on this. You're going to hop, and then in the air, you treat it like a bunny hop. When you first learn bunny hops in learn to skate classes, you glide on your right with your opposite arm leaning in front. And then when you lift your knee up, you switch your arms. Again, for balance and coordination. So, one more time. We're going to go switch and switch. Switch and switch. All right? Okay, 15. Ready? Starting on your left. Begin. And two. And three. And four. And five. And six. And seven. And eight. 11. 14. And 15. There you have it, guys. That is the skip jump and a couple exercises that will help you with your height, quickness, and agility for those honest jumps. I'm out of breath. I hope you are too, because that was a great workout. Amazing HIIT workout. High-intensity interval training. And, of course, Plyometrics. Love you all so much, and I'll catch you in the next episode of Skate with Michelle. Bye!