Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I have recently started taking up skating again and am now taking lessons. During my free ice time, I love to practice my spins, but lately I’ve been getting really dizzy after about 5 revolutions. Does anyone have any suggestions to combat the dizziness? I’ve heard you should focus on one object, but that doesn’t seem to be working. I also on my high school swim team and have water in my ears almost all the time. Do you think this could be making my dizziness worse?

I don't really know, but it seems it might make sense.

the other possibility is, if you haven't been skating for a long time, your body isn't used to spinning. When people are first learning to spin it tends to make them dizzy to the point of nautiousness, but the body adjusts & after awhile you don't get so dizzy. Maybe you're just going through that adjustment phase again.

Dizziness will eventually go away with practice. You should NOT focus on one object ('spotting')---that's for dance, not skating. You'll only give yourself a headache trying. When I was learning spins, I would try to keep my vision 'on a level'...i.e., pick out a row of seats in the arena, and be sure that I wasn't looking above or below them on each revolution, but otherwise, let my focus go blurry.

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Boy you sure like water sports - frozen or liquid... If I were you, I'd suggest getting some earplugs for when you swim. Inner ear problems can definately throw you off balance.

Yep, water in your ears can apply a bit of pressure to your ear drum, changing your equilibrium and making you feel off-balance even if you're just fine. Something you might try after swimming is putting a couple of drops of rubbing alcohol in your ear canal.. it helps evaporate the water. I know it sounds counter-intuitive... but it works.

I've had ear problems since I was a kid (I even burst an ear drum -- so no deep-sea diving for me!),. This advice from an Ear, Nose & Throat specialist has made my life easier, because I have narrow ear canals that seem to hold on to water, when all I do is wash my hair! So now I routinely put a couple of drop of alcohol in each ear after water gets anywhere near my ears... and voila! no more ear problems! (Except at AN this year, when I developed an ear infection.. but that was from a cold that moved into my ears and throat! I think a different kind of alcohol might have fixed that -- or at least fixed it so I wouldn't have cared! )

If you have problems getting the alcohol in your ears, you can use a cotton swab or a wad of cotton.

It may just be a matter of getting used to it - everybody says you do, and I'm beginning to think that's true. I don't get dizzy when the Husband and I do our "normal" spin, but I still get dreadfully dizzy on a backspin!

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