Excercises for getting a good sit spin position?

[JessicaLynn]

Hi everyone, I just passed into freestyle 4 (yay!) and was shown a sit spin.. Yea right, I cannot even get close to the "sit" position!

My instructor said to practice at home, but I tried and it was a funny joke! If I got down to a good position, I couldn't get back up.

So what are some good tips? Thanks! :)

[NoVa Sk8r]

Work those quad muscles!!! And I found that doing shoot-the-ducks and lunges helped me out A LOT. (Of course, if you can't attain the sit position, then maybe the shoot-the-duck position is a non-starter.)

Actually, one of my first group lessons instructors said it best: "If you're working on the sit spin and going home without a wet bottom, then you're not practicing enough!"

She was right. I always thought a sit spin was too impossible--especially for me, being ~6 feet tall. But I practiced hundreds of them and finally figured out the breaking point, or how low I could get without falling.

The nice thing about the sit spin is that you're already close to the ice so if you fall, you're not likely to get hurt.

Good luck!

[JessicaLynn]

She was right. I always thought a sit spin was too impossible--especially for me, being ~6 feet tall. But I practiced hundreds of them and finally figured out the breaking point, or how low I could get without falling.

I am 5'11, so that is encouraging to hear that at 6', you got it! I could never do a shoot-the-duck at all very well. When I practice on the floor, I can only get down if I stand on the ball of my foot (which you obviously can't do in skates!) When my foot is flat on the ground I can't do it for some reason.

Thanks for your tips! I have a lot of work to do! :)

[NickiT]

Lots of squats!!!

It worked for me.

Nicki

[climbsk8]

Keep in mind that the centrifugal force you generate when you spin will actually make it EASIER to get down...and back up, as long as you keep some speed. I can sit very low on a sit spin but can't do a shoot the duck at all.

Having said that, doing squats ... both two-legged and one-legged ... will help you tremendously. My sit spin got a LOT better after physical therapy last year just by doing exercises. And I would recommend going ahead and doing squats on both legs ... that way you'll be ahead of the game on your sit-back sit combo!

[KatieC]

I have yet to get the proper position in shoes - but I'm close when on skates. One thing I always do is a two foot sit spin - just to get the creakiness out of my knees and make sure they're in working order. I sure can get low on a two foot sit spin. I also do some excercises at home for my right leg - CW spinner. My left knee doesn't like me doing sit spins CCW. I was also told to do shoot the ducks - and that it's not too far to fall. Trouble was, the fall jarred my spine the whole way up - so I won't try them anymore. Guess I'm just a chicken - but my sit spins aren't bad - especially compared to when I first tried them. Then you could have fit a yard stick between my knees, and a chair under me!! :)

Practise, Practise, Practise - and those excercises at home and pretty soon you'll be amazed.

[Casey]

I tried the shoot-the-duck activity at home at first, and found it very difficult to get down without falling, and getting up was nigh impossible. It's easier on the ice (truly), and I got to where I could do it well on one foot on the old skates, but it's harder on the new ones (I think because they are more stiff, and the blade is positioned differently).

Wear nylon sports pants and gloves when you learn it...then it doesn't jar you so much when you fall because you just slide along on your behind and can catch yourself with your gloved hands if you start to tip.

I won't be trying to relearn these right away, because my hip is in pain and I don't want to aggravate it... :(

[Andie]

I too haven't had much success with the sit spin and I can barely do a shoot-the-duck. I'm never low enough. I'm 5'3 or 5'4 so maybe the shorter height is an advantage, but my spine is partly fused (thanks to surgery for scoliosis) which makes it more difficult to bend down into a proper sit.

Knee problems run in my family (on mother's side anyway), which also makes shoot-the-ducks, sit spins and any squats harder. Under stress, my knees sometimes pop and feel momentarily out of joint! :evil:

[Casey]

I'm 5'3 or 5'4 so maybe the shorter height is an advantage
I'm not so sure about that. I'm 5'11", but can squat all the way down while skating, and on the old skates, could do shoot-the-duck very well (backwards even), but only when skating on the left foot, I never got the right under control.

[JessicaLynn]

Thanks for all your tips! I worked on squats and going down a lot while holding on to a wall, and today I am SO SORE! One thing I noticed, I can do a much better shoot-the-duck when I put my left leg in front. I think that since my right leg is used to land more jumps, and when I do my spirals my left leg goes up, that my right leg is stronger. For a forward sit, I need my right leg up (so my left leg is on the ice) and that is hard!

So I am going to continue these exercises and work up to (hopefully) a great sit spin position! (Then the challenge will be actually having to SPIN in that position on the ice.. 8O )

Thanks again!

[AshBugg44]

Wall sits. They are no fun, but they sure do work those quads!

[doubletoe]

[QUOTE=JessicaLynn]I am 5'11, so that is encouraging to hear that at 6', you got it! I could never do a shoot-the-duck at all very well. When I practice on the floor, I can only get down if I stand on the ball of my foot (which you obviously can't do in skates!) When my foot is flat on the ground I can't do it for some reason. QUOTE]

That's just it! In skates, you ARE supposed to be on the ball of your foot during a sitspin! You need to have your knee over your toe, and be on the ball of the blade, right behind your bottom toepick. Unless you have your heel lifted up and are on the ball of your foot, you'll get on your heel and fall on your butt. Here are all my best sitspin secrets:

1. Off ice, practice getting into and out of the sitspin position, but do it in a shoe with a 2-3 inch heel, so that you are on the ball of your foot. Remember to get low by lowering your seat, not by bending forward with your upper body.

2. There's only one way to know when you're low enough ("low enough" meaning your skating thigh is parallel to the ice). You need to feel the calf of your skating leg pressing against the inside of your free thigh. If you don't feel this, keep lowering your seat until you do.

3. On ice, practice the proper position by doing a BACKWARD shoot-the duck. Never forward. Make sure your heel stays off the ice and you are on the ball of the blade, right behind the toepick.

4. On the entrance edge to the sitspin, keep your chin up, and keep your back really rigid and arched . Keep it that way throughout the spin (practice this body position off-ice). If you hunch, you'll lose the spin.

5. Extend your free leg way behind you as you push off onto the entrance edge, and get down very low on the skating knee. When you bring the free leg around, swing it wide and powerfully, but keep it low and smooth (and keep your back rigid and arched as you're doing this).

6. Turn the free foot out once it's at 2:00 (or if your free leg is your left let, it will be 10:00) and bring it all the way in until it locks into the skating leg.

7. Now sink your seat down a little more until you feel the top of your skating calf pressing against the inside of your free thigh. Hold it as long as you can and keep your heel off the ice.

Good luck and have fun!

[flo]

Hmm. Not sure about the duck-spin association. I could do pretty good ducks but ot sit spins. The thing that helped me the most was going into it from a camel. The sit then snapped into the correct position.

[NoVa Sk8r]

Hmm. Not sure about the duck-spin association. I could do pretty good ducks but not sit spins. The thing that helped me the most was going into it from a camel. The sit then snapped into the correct position.The association is that the duck--if you do it on the left leg of course--helps build up your quad muscle. While working on the sit spin, I learned the forward duck concomitantly.

[flo]

Hi Nova,
I think it's probably because I was an early duck. Forward ducks, edge ducks, backward ducks, side by side ducks. I could do them far before a spin of any kind. The sit was pretty slow for me, but actually before a scratch! My recognizable decent spin order was layback, camel, sit, scratch. It's those open hips.
Quack.

[NoVa Sk8r]

It took me forever to learn a scratch spin.
When I first took up skating (at the tender age of 22), I remember seeing someone do a forward duck and I thought to myself, "That is impossible--I'll never be able to get my body in that position!"