Lutz jump

The Lutz is a figure skating jump, named after Alois Lutz, an Austrian skater who performed it in 1913. It is a toepick-assisted jump with an entrance from a back outside edge and landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot. It is the most difficult jump and the second-most famous jump after the Axel.

History

The Lutz jump is the second-most difficult jump in figure skating and "probably the second-most famous jump after the Axel". It is named after figure skater Alois Lutz from Vienna, Austria, who first performed it in 1913. In competitions, points are awarded based on the number of rotations completed during the jump. The base value of a successful single Lutz is 0.60, a double Lutz 2.10, a triple Lutz 5.90; and a quadruple Lutz 11.50.

Firsts

Abbr.	Jump Element	Skater	Nation	Event	References
2Lz	Double Lutz (women's)	Alena Vrzáňová	Czechoslovakia	1949 World Championships
3Lz	Triple Lutz (men's)	Donald Jackson	Canada	1962 World Championships
	Triple Lutz (women's)	Denise Biellman	Switzerland	1978 European Championships
4Lz	Quadruple Lutz (men's)	Brandon Mroz	United States	2011 Colorado Springs Invitational 2011 NHK Trophy
	Quadruple Lutz (women's)	Alexandra Trusova	Russia	2018 ISU Junior Grand Prix Armenia Cup
4Lz+3T	Quadruple Lutz-triple toe loop combination	Boyang Jin	China	2015 Cup of China
	Side-by-side triple Lutz (pairs)	Meagan Duhamel and Ryan Arnold	Canada	2005 Canadian Championships

Execution

The ISU defines the Lutz jump as "a toe-pick assisted jump with an entrance from a back outside edge and landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot". Skaters tend to go into it with a long, diagonal take-off into one of the corners of the rink. It is a difficult jump because it is counter-rotational, which means that the skater sets it up by twisting in one way and jumping in the other. Many skaters "cheat" the jump because they are not strong enough to maintain the counter-rotational edge, resulting in taking off from the wrong edge. A "cheated" Lutz jump without an outside edge is called a "flutz".

Works cited

• * "ISU Figure Skating Media Guide 2018/19" (22 September 2022). (Media Guide) International Skating Union. Retrieved 9 October 2022.