Get it, then lose it...

[kimberley801]

After warming up, I finally got decent, downright amazing scratch spins! And I did several in a row - I was on top of the world. I've been struggling with centering my spins and FINALLY I'm getting this spinning thing!!!!!!

I practiced them more and more, only to see me lose it again. I couldn't center it, fell out of a couple spins, and kept rushed the entry. By the end of 1.5 hours of skating my spins were gone!!!! ARGH!!!! I blame it on being tired and my brain overthinking things.

Anyone else expereince this, where you have a eureka moment, finally get an element, and then lose it completely a half hour later??? I only hope my spins return next session, even if just for a few minutes.

[phoenix]

Spins definitely will degrade the more you do them in a single practice. Once they start to fall apart, you need to move on to other elements. This is very common, & you'll probably find that they're better again the next time you skate.

[Skittl1321]

I've had a pretty awesome scratch spin for years. Now that it's strong my coach picked apart my entry. I haven't done a decent scratch spin in months. Yesterday I ALMOST centered one, so I have hope they are going to come back. I lost both my speed and my centering ability with the new entrance, that is supposedly "right"

[katz in boots]

Anyone else expereince this, where you have a eureka moment, finally get an element, and then lose it completely a half hour later??? I only hope my spins return next session, even if just for a few minutes.

Yes, having this experience a lot lately, especially with backspins!

Spins definitely will degrade the more you do them in a single practice. Once they start to fall apart, you need to move on to other elements. This is very common, & you'll probably find that they're better again the next time you skate.

I hope you are right, it gives me hope!

[niupartyangel]

Spins definitely will degrade the more you do them in a single practice. Once they start to fall apart, you need to move on to other elements. This is very common, & you'll probably find that they're better again the next time you skate.

Thanks for bringing this up, now I know I'm not alone! My spins would be good for the first few times I practice them during my lesson with coach watching...then when i go off to practice on my own, they degrade and i get more frustrated, or panic that I'm losing my progress.... and ruin it even more and by the end of the half hour practice i am frustrated as heck!

However for jumps, for me they do improve the more I do them in a single session.

[londonicechamp]

Hi guys

I sometimes have this problems too during practice. What I will do then, is to practise on some other elements that I am capable of doing, and go back to the spins again later on, say maybe 20 minutes before my lesson. They almost usually always come back, and do always come back during my lesson.

I believe that this is very much something to do with your mind. For me, when I think too much, I just cannot do the jumps and spins properly.

londonicechamp

[Skate@Delaware]

Years ago, I had very amazing spins (10-15 revs and very fast) but then I lost a ton of weight and my spins went crapola. They are finally coming back but it's been a long slow road.

I don't spend any longer than 15 minutes per session working on spins, and when they start falling apart, I move on to something else. If they are bad at the get-go I don't spin. No sense working on bad-to-worse technique!

So you are NOT alone in this! don't let it bother you just work with what you have and don't over-work them!

[Morgail]

It happens to me with the camel and with combination spins. I can only do so many a session, before they just fall apart. It's frustrating! I've learned to stop once I hit that point. I've had it happen with jumps too, especially the axel. It's like I lose the energy to put into the jump or spin.

[kander]

Anyone else expereince this, where you have a eureka moment, finally get an element, and then lose it completely a half hour later???

This happens on a daily basis. Spins in particular are touch and go.

[katz in boots]

Wow, this is so re-assuring! I always thought that there was something wrong if spins went off during a session, and felt I had to keep working to get them back before the session ended!

Same with jumps. Although my 1st or 2nd attempt at a jump is often my best of the session, I feel I have to be able to do them well over & over (not that I flog myself) to have them right.

Hearing from others will help me be more laid back when things stop working.

[Mel On Ice]

I did a flip in 2000 that were so shocking, that I managed to land a flip a year until 2005 when I finally got it "consistently". I landed a lutz in 1999 when I thought I was doing a half lutz, and wasn't able to repeat the feat until '05.

[tazsk8s]

I hate that! Three years ago I landed one axel. Exactly one. The following week, I found myself unexpectedly jobless. No income = no skate, so I had to pretty much quit cold turkey. It took me a couple of months to get another job and another several months after that to get back into a lesson/practice routine, and had to re-learn a bunch of stuff and build back up to the axel.

This past spring, landed another axel. That same afternoon, my new boots arrived and it was farewell axel for awhile. Took a few weeks to really feel comfortable in them and get close again...only to crash on the @#&! 8 step mohawk in mid-July and break my wrist. I expect to be back on the ice around the end of September...and back to square 1 1/2 again. :frus:

Somehow I suspect there is a message for me in there and I'm just too thick to get it. :??

[kayskate]

Yes!

When it happens to me, I think through the move first then do it in slow mo so I can feel every bit of what I am doing. This eliminates the rushing. When I speed it up, I continue to concentrate. IMO, we often rely too much on muscle memory and don't think about technique. Just engaging my brain usually eliminates the problem.

Joke solution:
Tell your coach where you are having a prob. Then demo it for him. You will most likely do the element perfectly. The broken appliance that works for the repairman. I have had this exp a few times.


Kay

[kimberley801]

Joke solution:
Tell your coach where you are having a prob. Then demo it for him. You will most likely do the element perfectly. The broken appliance that works for the repairman. I have had this exp a few times.


So true! During my lesson today, after a couple of not-so-good spins, I did a nearly perfect scratch spin that neither of us were expecting!!