Coaching Figure Skating Jumping

Although figure skating is an Olympic Sport, it is not taught as well as it should be. The rules of the mechanics are confusing and at best, vague on many aspects in particular, figure skating jumping. If you look at the history of figure skating, the elite athletes are leaps and bounds away from what the Olympians of 50 years ago were doing.


One of the most difficult of the skating routines are the jumps. There is a lot of off ice and on ice preparation to complete a perfect jump. Unfortunatly, it is often difficult to get a coach who really knows how to coach jumping properly. As a matter of fact, many coaches totally disagree on the fundamental mechanics of skating jumps.

A lot of figure skating coaching is passed on from older coach to younger coach and the to the skater. There is not very much written about jumping, and the books that are out there often disagree with each other! There is a problem getting the written word into a physical form also.
So we know that most coaches teach very much the same methods and techniques that thier coach has taught them. Unfortunatly, in today's uber-elite athletic world, figure skating seems to be caught up in the past and does not seem to be going forward in North America. New knowledge and techniques are out there, but still, old outdated teachings are still the norm at the regular skating arena.

The problem is not only the coaches fault though, it is the rules themselves that are confusing. They are out dated and vague, and more a hindrance than a help in most cases. Most coaches agree with this, but often it is too felt too hard to break the past history of figure skating instruction if one has been coaching the same way for 20 years.

When you go to the arena and watch a coach, most often they will not be using the newly developed jump mechanics developed by elite coaches for their skaters. The sad thing is, that some of these techniques are really not even that new, some of these mechanics have actually been used for decades. The elite coaches only now are allowing these techniques to become public, and so they are now becoming available for all figure skating coaches to learn from, if they so choose. Often they do not choose.
Instead, the same old routines that they used as a child will be brought out and used again and again. It is really a shame that this continues to happen. The worst thing is, that it will continue to happen again and again until something is done about it.

Many coaches are thinking that without a common fundamental starting point, the confusion and lack of
focus within figure skating will continue. What is needed is to get the coaches to agree what the basics are, or at least that would be a good start. In most other sports, there is a consistent improvement in teaching methods, but not so in figure skating. There is no consistent teaching of techniques in our sport. Coupled with the fact that the actual rules of Ice skating are so confusing, it is no wonder that coaches continue to do the same thing that they have done for years.
What is needed is a starting point for all coaches to agree to and go forward from there.