Arm position problems on jumps | Golden Skate

Arm position problems on jumps

Gekoladie

Spectator
Joined
Mar 22, 2019
I've been skating for about a year and I can pretty reliably land single salchows, toe loops and half loops...but my arms are all wrong!

I do this strange unconscious 'flap' with my arms right before actually jumping. I can't even feel myself doing it - I only realised it when I finally got a private coach and she filmed me to point it out. After the flap, my arms are pretty okay but I have no idea how to iron out this weird issue.

Another skater suggested tying a resistance band to one of my arms and to the running belt I skate in (for my phone and bank card so I don't have to bring a handbag) but I'm not sure how safe this would be. Is this actually a thing?
 

jf12

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
This is quite a common error so don't stress too much. Try to learn to control your arms from your back muscles and core muscles, instead of thinking of them separately from your body. Coaches sometimes will also make you hold a skate guard while jumping, one end in each hand, with tension, to make you feel your 'frame' of arms and body. I wouldn't at this point tie any parts of your body together unless a coach is watching you, you could get injured. At least with the skate guard you can drop it if it goes wrong.
 

Nimyue

On the Ice
Joined
May 15, 2018
This is my issue on almost all my jumps and my primary issue in not landing my dbl sal and axel consistently. I have been really working on tightening the back and core but relaxing the shoulders and keeping my arms relaxed. But I also struggle with weird arms. Something super annoying is when I shrug my shoulders up in jump... just ugh. So you're not alone!
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
Joined
May 19, 2018
Definitely ask your coach before tying your body parts, I doubt that's safe. I'd ask your coach about the belt with your phone, too. That might or might not be safe as well.

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by flapping your arms, but I watched this documentary where Miki Ando taught the skaters she was coaching to pull their arms in over their upper right chest area (or upper left for clockwise jumpers) to help with rotation and axis. It definitely works (and looks really nice and polished :biggrin:). Maybe that would help for your problem, too? I'm pretty sure your arms should be pulled in before you actually jump.
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
I've been skating for about a year and I can pretty reliably land single salchows, toe loops and half loops...but my arms are all wrong!

I do this strange unconscious 'flap' with my arms right before actually jumping. I can't even feel myself doing it - I only realised it when I finally got a private coach and she filmed me to point it out. After the flap, my arms are pretty okay but I have no idea how to iron out this weird issue.

Another skater suggested tying a resistance band to one of my arms and to the running belt I skate in (for my phone and bank card so I don't have to bring a handbag) but I'm not sure how safe this would be. Is this actually a thing?

Yeah don't be tying off your body parts to jump, you'll hurt yourself.
 

bostonskaterguy86

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 3, 2018
Country
United-States
I’m not quite doing single jumps yet, but what helped me a lot with improving arm position for waltz jumps was to practice just the arm movements repeatedly off the ice, while just stepping through the rotation of the jump. You can do this anywhere, without even having to leave the ground, and it really helped to get the rhythm of the jump into my body. Then when I was back on the ice, I had the arms a bit more ingrained.

I haven’t tried this myself, because I’m without a coach at present and I don’t want to try to teach myself anything, but a friend told me she uses her off-ice spin trainer to practice salchows - that way she can mimic the feeling of the three-turn, check, and entry edge more easily so that she can focus on the air position and arm movements. Maybe that’d be helpful for you?
 

silver.blades

Medalist
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Country
Canada
While I agree that you should only be tying things with the supervision of a coach, you could try holding a resistance band while you jump. I have my skaters use the band to keep tension in the arms going into their jumps so they can feel the stretch and release. No tying involved, just hold it in your hands through the whole jump.
 
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