Difference between tap toe and mazurka

[Bunny_Hop]

I'm totally confused about the difference between a tap toe and a mazurka! I've started doing what I think are RBO tap toes (including rolling my ankle while off-ice practising them ), but from the description the takeoff and landing are the same as a mazurka. Does anyone know what the difference is between these?

Thanks!

[Aussie Willy]

The mazurka is the fancy version of the tap toe, where you kick the back foot forward to create like a scissor action and get a lot more lift in the air. Looks really cool when done well.

[gkelly]

Tap toe can also be done from a back inside edge, i.e., a half (or less) revolution toe walley instead of half toe loop.

[Skittl1321]

I was taught a mazurka as a scissoring kick, where a toe tap is just a side hop on the toe picks.

I'd explain better, but I couldn't do a mazurka to save my life, so I really can't explain better

[Aussie Willy]

Tap toe can also be done from a back inside edge, i.e., a half (or less) revolution toe walley instead of half toe loop.

Those are tricky little suckers to do.

[FigureSpins]

"Tap Toe" (ISI) is the same thing as a "Side Toe Hop" (USFSA) or "Toe Tap." The skater picks in to the side, jumps, brings feet together in the air, landing forward on the toe opposite the picking foot and pushing off onto an edge on the other foot. Most people learn this as a standstill jump, then learn to do it from a three turn/BI edge. Either is correct and it's a cute feature to use in footwork since it moves sideways with minimal rotation.

A Mazurka is, as someone else said, a "Half Toe Loop." The pick-in is comparable to the Ballet Jump: pick in behind the skating foot, not to the side. Both are stepping-stones towards the Toe Loop / Cherry Flip.

For a CCW skater, a Mazurka would be:

. RBO edge (Most people use a RFI3, but any RBO edge entry will do.)
. Pick in with the left toe [u]behind[/b] the skating foot
. Transfer weight to the pick and bring the right foot across in front
. Cross the feet in the air - I teach it as a soccer-ball kick
. Turn to land on the "kicking" foot toepick
. Immediately push off onto the inside edge of the opposite foot, cross-checking the shoulders.

The "kick across" in the Mazurka is the same technique that helps prevent pre-rotation on the toe loop, which turns it into a "toe waltz" jump.

The Mazurka is often called a "Scissors Jump." Tenley Albright's variation was to cross the kicking foot BEHIND the picking foot in the air.

This skater does a nice little Mazurka at the 1:20 mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SmNFYFIosM&t=1m20s

The PSGA's 1970's-era training/demonstration video has a beautifully-executed Mazurka at the 5:50 mark:
http://www.dartfish.tv/Presenter.asp...I2MQAAAA%3d%3d
(You may have to register/log in to view this video)
The entrance he uses is a LFO3-step down onto RBI edge, then toe and jump.

[Diane Mars]

@FigureSpins : Wow ! I love that link : http://www.dartfish.tv/Presenter.asp...I2MQAAAA%3d%3d

You're my hero of the day \o/ !

*loves FigureSpins*

[FigureSpins]

I like that video a lot. I wish they had credited the demonstration skaters.

[Bunny_Hop]

Thanks everyone! It feels like I'm picking from behind, but I don't have the scissoring motion, so I guess I'm doing some weird mix of both, probably closer to tap toe. I do it from a LFO three turn (my only good three turn), and then stepping onto RBO edge.

[Doubletoe]

The PSGA's 1970's-era training/demonstration video has a beautifully-executed Mazurka at the 5:50 mark:
http://www.dartfish.tv/Presenter.asp...I2MQAAAA%3d%3d
(You may have to register/log in to view this video)
The entrance he uses is a LFO3-step down onto RBI edge, then toe and jump.

That is a *gorgeous* mazurka! The really hard thing about the mazurka is keeping the right leg turned out as you scissor it in front of the left and stay sideways in the air (and this is from someone with good turnout!). That's what makes it so much harder than a true "half toe loop", where you just let the right leg/foot aim forward, both in the air and on the right toe landing.

[Aussie Willy]

Thanks for posting that clip of all those jumps. It actually was a really good demonstration of some of those nice transitional jumps you just don't see anymore.