Spin Notes

Since my spins have been so variable lately, first I could do them very well with my new blades and suddenly I'm having trouble, I decided that today would be spin lesson day. My coach is back at group today after being sick last week and we had a person missing from our adult group so we each got a 20 minute lesson today instead of the usual 10-15 minutes. Yeah!

We started with my scratch spin which has seriously deteriorated over the last two weeks as I have gotten used to my blades. Here is my list of corrections from my coach and things I remembered I'm supposed to do:

1. Go slow
2. Take time on entrance edge
3. Look slightly to the left
4. Step into the center of the circle
5. Turn 180 degrees in the three turn BEFORE starting the spin
6. Look straight ahead
7. Keep everything lined up over the skating foot (no sticking the hip out)
8. Keep skating foot turned in (which in my case makes it straight: I have a wicked turn out)
9. Lift knee up, cross legs keeping knee forward
10. Slide the free foot down the skating leg
11. Exit gracefully

After much practice I finally managed a tight centered spin.

Camel spins:

1. Same entrance as above
2. Keep low with leg behind until I make the 180 degree turn
3. Come up quickly on skating leg

After a few tries I did a couple of three revolution turns. They aren't fast yet but they have much better form than they used to and more importantly I stopped skidding on the entrance three turn.

Sit spins:

1. Same entrance as above
2. Sit, pull free leg and arm around at the same time (don't fall on your butt)
3. Sit more and pull leg around more
4. Turn free foot parallel to ice and bring heel over the center line of the supporting leg
5. Hold, hold, hold
6. Stand up and finish with a scratch spin

I'm still getting used to the feeling of this one. I am always shocked when I manage to do this spin without sitting down on my butt. When I was a kid I fractured my tailbone trying to learn this spin because I didn't have the strength in my quad to sit and hold the spin and my coach would yell at me to do it over and over again. Now that I am an adult I must be much stronger and I also don't have someone yelling at me to get lower than I am comfortable with. I have no idea what it looks like. I am sure I am up higher than I should be and my legs aren't close enough together but I am just happy that I am actually spinning in a position that loosely resembles a sit spin. My coach was happy with it as well. She didn't have many corrections to it at all. At least not yet.

Back spin:

1. Take a left forward inside edge with the free foot in front
2. Step into a right forward inside three turn
3. Turn and set the back edge
4. During the turn snap the free foot in front of the body and the arm around
5. Once the edge is set bring the arms in and the knee up to start spinning on the back outside edge

This was my very first lesson on the back spin. So far I have been only futzing with it on the ice copying one of the other adult skaters which it turns out wasn't doing it quite right. My coach had me do the entrance one step at a time. First just the three turn, then the three turn and the back edge and then everything in my list. My last spin actually had a revolution in it before my toe pick caught and stopped me in my tracks. The whole thing felt much better than what I had been doing on my own.

A very happy skating day. I feel well enough to start double sessions next week. There were only four people on the ice after our group lesson. I am finding that one hour isn't enough time to practice everything I want to do. I hope my blades get fixed soon so I can do better edges. My spread eagles suck right now due to the right blade being in the wrong place. Patience!!!