The lutz is a jump in figure skating, named after Alois Lutz, an Austrian skater who performed it in 1913. What makes the lutz one of the hardest skating jumps is the difficult entrance. Figure skating is an ice skating sporting event where individuals, mixed couples, or groups perform spins, jumps, and other moves on the ice, often to music. ...

(The following description assumes a counter-clockwise jumper; for a clockwise jumper, reverse left and right.) The skater, after building up speed with right back cross cuts, typically does a long backward glide on the left foot. Just prior to jumping the skater reaches back with the right arm and the right foot and uses the right toepick to vault into the air, before performing a full turn in the air and landing on the right back outside edge. The lutz is often done in double, triple or even (only by male skaters so far) quadruple versions.

What makes the jump difficult is that the skater after gliding must take off from the outside edge, yet the jump itself is in the opposite direction; the body's natural impulse is to cheat the jump by veering off at the last minute onto the inside edge, which really makes the cheated jump a flip. For this reason, the cheated lutz is often called a flutz. The flip jump (usually just flip) is a jump in figure skating in which the counter-clockwise jumper takes off from the left back inside edge and lands on the right back outside edge (reverse feet for the clockwise jumper). ...