How long did it take you/your child from beginning to learn an axel to first competing with one? What timeline do you think is "typical" from what you've observed at your rink?
I think each skater is different and alot expens on the skater's personality.
Some kids at my rink seem to land a new jump one week and then have it in a program a week later.
My skater is at the exact opposite. She has to have a jump for a couple of months before the coach will consider adding it to a program.
If one skater trains 10 hours a week vs another skater trains 20 hours a week, the actual number of days/months it needs for one to land the axel consistently would be quite different, not to say that young skaters are all different in terms of their capability and athleticism. So just be patient.
Also it will depend on the timing of when a skater first lands it. For non-qualifying skaters here, the "season" tends to be from April/May until Regionals (early October). So if the skater first lands the axel in mid-October, there will be no program with it until the Spring unless they have a chance to perform in an ice show.
I took about a year to a year and a half to land my axel with enough constancy to put it in my program. I didn't start formal lessons until 9, and wasn't jumping until I was 10, so that was a factor. I started training my axel at 12. As other have mentioned, it varies from person to person, although in my experience, the learning curve from start to in the program is usually about a year for most test level skaters, but there are tones of outliers.
Took me longer than everybody else. 3years. I know that’s bad, but since then I’ve got all doubles, and triples are happening much quicker and I’m starting to gain momentum. Normal for our ice rink is 7months-3years. Once I got it it was solid and went in program instantly - I hate the forward takeoff when learning, and we weren’t allowed to work doubles till we had single axel. Now I have couple triples, no double axel. Good luck!
There are tons of factors from what I see. Some coaches at our rink put them in programs right away. Some have a benchmark like ours wants 8/10 landed cleanly before putting them into a program. Our coach lets them jump 10 times in any session with her and there has to be 8 consistently landed to include it. So there’s that. Plus temperament of the skater.
I have two skaters. My older is approx the same level as my younger one and she’s more methodical. The other will throw herself at everything and fix it later. Lol. My younger skater will have her axel in her program next month, after starting her pre axel exercises about 6 months ago. Hers will always be less consistent. My other skater will have hers in her program next season and solid. She barely works on them but will do it very deliberately. By contrast, there’s also a young lady who has trouble still after 3 years. She is an absolutely beautiful skater in all ways and it barely affects her programs.