Figure Skating: From Transportation to Axels

Ice skating has been around as a form of transportation since before 1300 AD. Skates were made of animal bones or walrus tusks that were then attached to the feet with leather straps. The evolution of the skate from blades of and wooden platforms to blades of steel and wooden boots has also shaped the purpose of the skate. First used for transportation and hunting, ice skating developed into a pastime for making patterns on the ice before the mid-1800s. Jackson Haines changed figure skating from a pastime of patterns to a pastime that included jumps, spins, and dance movements, much like the figure skating we know today.

When learning figure skating jumps, there is a progression of difficulty; waltz, salchow, toe loop, loop, flip, lutz, and finally axel. The progression may be modified to fit a skater’s abilities,  but it holds close to this pattern. The axel jump is at the end of the progression, and landing the axel is a sort of right of passage for skaters. The axel is a much more difficult variant of the waltz jump. Both jumps take off forward, unlike the other five jumps, and land backwards. A waltz jump is simply a one half rotation, whereas the axel is a one and one half revolution.Timing, positioning, and fear get in the way of the axel more so than any of the other jumps because the skater will take off forward and complete an additional half rotation from any other jumps the skater has completed previously.

I have been ice skating since the age of five. Because of the seasonality of the Palouse Ice Rink, I have been unable to skate consistently. One could say I have been working on my axel for over three years, but that would not be very accurate. It is true I have been completing axel exercises for that length of time, but not consistently. Each year I have had to backtrack in the progression to improve my skills to an adequate level, giving me very little time to actually practice my axel. It has been a dream of mine to land an axel before I graduate high school, just to validate my long time skating involvement. Getting through the progression of jumps will allow me to reach a point of content in my figure skating career.

~Tegan