I saw someone doing a spin that is somewhat like a bielmann spin, except the non-skating leg is pulled down with both arms (hands) so that the skate ends up just on top of the head (almost touching the top of the head). Is that really a variation of the bielmann spin? Or it is called something else?

You mean like Caroline Zhang?

Gosh that girl is flexible- so a layback biellman?

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Actually, her layback is here (prepare to have your eyes crawl on top of your forehead) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSadv0tuj9s
Time index 1:59

My God! The child has no bones, only cartilage. I'm sure of it.

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Haha! That's exactly what my teammates and I were thinking when we walked into a hotel at SynchroEast and saw that playing on TV in the lobby. We all said that she definitely does not have a backbone! Wow! She's definitely going to be the next big thing!

Oh, i've seen her do a layback- it's insane. Isn't that position the spin she's trying to get called "The Pearl"? Except that if no one else can do a spin- the name probably won't happen?

Then again, probably not many people were able to do Beillman's for a few years after Denise Beillman used it a lot (although, I've been told she wasn't the first to do it?)

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oh gee ....yeah!! Just like that one!! It looks like Caroline Zhang's one is way more spectacular, since Caroline's back is arched and eyes are pointing upward toward the sky. The spin that I saw was straight back, and head straight up. I wonder what Caroline Zhang's spin is called.

skittl mentioned 'pearl' spin. At least I have a name to follow up.

Anyway, so if somebody does a spin like Caroline Zhang's, but not in a layback position, and with head straight up, and the free skate just sitting on top of the head (nearly touching head), then that's a variant of bielmann spin, maybe, right?

Oh gee!..... I just saw that clip before. That was extremely impressive...the whole performance.

The pearl isn't like the first picture (the pseudo bielmann, sort of layback) it's like a layback to an extreme- http://reinventingthewheel.files.wor...line-zhang.jpg like the one in the video. This isn't a bielman at all, though it is a layback.

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Why isn't she trying to call it the Zhang? The Pearl sounds so... Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-ish.

I dunno, she's still not got any boobs or hips, that might mess things up pretty bad.

Actually the Beilman was a move used by show skaters long before Beilman - she was the first to put it in competition.

j

From what i've read around the internet a Korean skater did it first- Zhang just mad it "known" (I wouldn't say popular- cause it certainly isn't done a lot). No idea if this is true or not. Maybe she just likes that name- or thinks her body looks like it's folded like an oyster?

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A tv reporter made the mistake of calling the move the oyster. Caroline corrected him, told him oysters were yucky.

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I heard some people calling this the sword spin...

I saw Caroline compete last night. She skated a clean program that opened with a triple flip- triple toe (I think maybe her first triple-triple in competition). She also did this spin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQhf7WSUsGE

It's sick.

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The girl is made of rubber band. Which kinda explains why she's all bouncy in her jumps.

True. She is a tiny little thing!

Last night her mother told me she has just grown another inch and is now actually over 5' tall. (True, no boobs or hips yet, but I don't have any either and I'm all grown up, LOL!)

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Hey I've seen video's of you, that's not true.

I love her skating.
That said, its very hard to compete or compare a skater to someone that was born like a gumby.

This is Kayla doig at Australian Nationals this year with her new spin (which was acctually done at one of the state championships but she didnt hold it for long enough to be counted).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKGC63cLZYA

She got extra points in both programs but im not sure where, even though i looked at the judges scores.

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Very pretty- the position looks the same as what was described in the original post- except she is starting there and then extending to a biellman, an interesting variation- where the others I've seen have started in a biellman and pulled down to the foot on head position.

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COP has a rule that completely new elements can be awarded two bonus points each time they're done by the skater who "invented" them, for the duration of a season. I'm assuming this is why she got extra points?