re: What the hell is the difference

Jumps are one of the most important elements of figure skating.

Jumps involve the skater leaping into the air and rotating rapidly to land after completing one or more rotations. There are many types of jump, identified by the way the skater takes off and lands, as well as by the number of rotations that are completed.

Jumps can be rotated in clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Most skaters are counterclockwise jumpers. For clarity, all jumps will be described for a skater jumping counter-clockwise.

There are six jumps in figure skating that count as jump elements. All six are landed on one foot on the right back outside edge (with counterclockwise rotation, for single and multi-revolution jumps), but have different takeoffs, by which they may be distinguished. The two categories of jumps are toe jumps and edge jumps.
[edit] Toe jumps

Toe jumps are launched by tapping the toe pick of one skate into the ice, and include (in order of difficulty from easiest to hardest):

1. Toe loops take off from the back outside edge of the right foot and are launched by the left toe pick (toe walleys are similar, but take off from the back inside edge of the right foot);
2. Flips, which take off from the back inside edge of the left foot and are launched by the right toe pick;
3. Lutzes, which take off from the back outside edge of the left foot and are launched by the right toe pick.

[edit] Edge jumps

Edge jumps use no toe assist, and include:

1. Salchows, which take off from a left back inside edge. Allowing the edge to come round, the opposite leg helps launch the jump into the air and land on one foot;
2. Loops (also known as Rittberger jumps) take off from a right back outside edge and land on the same edge;
3. Axels, which are the only rotating jump to take off from a forward edge (the left outside edge). Because they take off from a forward edge, they include one-half extra rotations and are usually considered the hardest jump of the six.