(no subject)
I'm really not anywhere near enough of a figure skating expert to be writing this primer, but I was making the gifs anyway while trying to teach myself the jumps, so I figured I might as well share with the fandom.
I'm a total n00b to jumps myself, so if you see any mistakes here, please do tell me. There's a really helpful series of videos by Michael Weiss where he explains and shows all the basic jumps, but I wanted gifs, because that way you can easily watch the jump over and over, which helped me get a feel for what they look like. I'm using Mirai's 2010 Nationals LP, because her jumps are comparatively easy to tell apart.
I've illustrated all explanations with gifs, but I'm also including the timestamps for the youtube video I took them from, so you can see the bigger version there. All explanations assume a counter-clockwise/left-spinning skater. If you want to apply this to Johnny Weir, just replace left with right and right with left.
There are six basic jumps: Three toe jumps, where the skaters use their toe picks to launch themselves up, and three edge jumps, where they don't.
The three toe jumps are the toe loop, the lutz and the flip.
The toe loop is the easiest to tell apart, because it's the only jump where the skaters use their left toe pick to launch themselves up. It starts with a 3-turn, which means the skaters start out skating forwards, do a half turn where they swing their left leg around, and then launch themselves up with their left toe pick.
(3:36)
The lutz and the flip both use the right toe pick, so they're a little trickier to tell apart. The official difference is that with the lutz, the skaters take off from their right outside edge, while with the flip, they take off from their right inside edge. But you usually can't see the edges properly, and half the time the skaters cheat and don't properly take off from the right edge anyway, so honestly I find that a completely useless criterion.
More helpful: For the lutz, the skaters usually skate straight backwards on their left foot for a fairly long time before launching themselves up, while the flip usually starts with a 3-turn. Mirai's jumps are pretty easy to tell apart.
Lutz, taking off backwards in a long straight line:
(0:43)
(2:48)
Flip, starting with a 3-turn:
(1:28)
Sadly, that trick doesn't work with everyone either. There are a couple of skaters who do enough twists and turns before their jumps that it's almost impossible to recognize their lutz. If anyone has any additional tips and tricks, let me know, because the edge-watching just doesn't work for me.
The three edge jumps are the axel, the loop and the salchow, and I still can't tell the salchow and the loop apart, so someone else is going to have to make a primer on those. The axel is the only jump where the skaters take off while going forward, so it's easy to tell apart, and I probably don't have to explain that one to anyone in the fandom at this point.
(1:09)
For the salchow, the skaters take off from their left inside edge. For the loop, they take off from their right outside edge. Usually, they move fast enough that I can't tell what edge they're taking off from at all without slow motion replay. This is Mirai doing a loop, which I know because I looked it up in the score sheet.
(3:04)
Combinations: If the second jump in a combination directly follows the first one, it's either a toe loop or a loop, because the skaters land on their right outside edge, and those two jumps are the only ones that take off from there. If you want to do a different jump as a second in a combination, you have to change your edge with a half loop first.
I'm a total n00b to jumps myself, so if you see any mistakes here, please do tell me. There's a really helpful series of videos by Michael Weiss where he explains and shows all the basic jumps, but I wanted gifs, because that way you can easily watch the jump over and over, which helped me get a feel for what they look like. I'm using Mirai's 2010 Nationals LP, because her jumps are comparatively easy to tell apart.
I've illustrated all explanations with gifs, but I'm also including the timestamps for the youtube video I took them from, so you can see the bigger version there. All explanations assume a counter-clockwise/left-spinning skater. If you want to apply this to Johnny Weir, just replace left with right and right with left.
There are six basic jumps: Three toe jumps, where the skaters use their toe picks to launch themselves up, and three edge jumps, where they don't.
The three toe jumps are the toe loop, the lutz and the flip.
The toe loop is the easiest to tell apart, because it's the only jump where the skaters use their left toe pick to launch themselves up. It starts with a 3-turn, which means the skaters start out skating forwards, do a half turn where they swing their left leg around, and then launch themselves up with their left toe pick.
(3:36)
The lutz and the flip both use the right toe pick, so they're a little trickier to tell apart. The official difference is that with the lutz, the skaters take off from their right outside edge, while with the flip, they take off from their right inside edge. But you usually can't see the edges properly, and half the time the skaters cheat and don't properly take off from the right edge anyway, so honestly I find that a completely useless criterion.
More helpful: For the lutz, the skaters usually skate straight backwards on their left foot for a fairly long time before launching themselves up, while the flip usually starts with a 3-turn. Mirai's jumps are pretty easy to tell apart.
Lutz, taking off backwards in a long straight line:
(0:43)
(2:48)
Flip, starting with a 3-turn:
(1:28)
Sadly, that trick doesn't work with everyone either. There are a couple of skaters who do enough twists and turns before their jumps that it's almost impossible to recognize their lutz. If anyone has any additional tips and tricks, let me know, because the edge-watching just doesn't work for me.
The three edge jumps are the axel, the loop and the salchow, and I still can't tell the salchow and the loop apart, so someone else is going to have to make a primer on those. The axel is the only jump where the skaters take off while going forward, so it's easy to tell apart, and I probably don't have to explain that one to anyone in the fandom at this point.
(1:09)
For the salchow, the skaters take off from their left inside edge. For the loop, they take off from their right outside edge. Usually, they move fast enough that I can't tell what edge they're taking off from at all without slow motion replay. This is Mirai doing a loop, which I know because I looked it up in the score sheet.
(3:04)
Combinations: If the second jump in a combination directly follows the first one, it's either a toe loop or a loop, because the skaters land on their right outside edge, and those two jumps are the only ones that take off from there. If you want to do a different jump as a second in a combination, you have to change your edge with a half loop first.