Physics of an Apex Jump - Part One

Okay, so apex jumps.  I have never even considered trying one until last night.  I have noticed that successful ones are often a cute little hippity hop, not a mighty leap.  Why is this?  As it was explained to me, the hang time of the jump (generated by vertical explosiveness) and the speed of the skater as she leaves the ground allow the jump to be completed.  The full physics (ignoring friction for simplicity's sake) are slightly more complicated.  This is step 1 of "physics of an apex jump".

So the simple explanation is this: the speed of a skater can be expressed as a vector traveling parallel to the floor surface. By jumping she accelerates vertically and meets our old friend gravity, or "acceleration due to gravity", when the acceleration due to her beasty jump and the acceleration due to gravity create a vertical velocity of zero she comes back down to earth. During the jump, however, her skating speed vector continues to travel parallel to the floor, so she continue to travel in forward even if her jump was directed straight up. Imagine someone dropping a rubber ball out of a train window and how the path looks to the dropper versus an onlooker. Cool.