I skate 5 hours a day per week, and I've been trying to get my 1- foot spin for over a month now. I can't ever seem to start spinning! Also, I can't hold my 2- foot spin. Any tips? Thanks.

Oh yeah, I have boots with plastic soles right now. Would wooden heels help?

The heels are actually pressed leather, not wood... just a little note. I had no idea till my coach told me that... a month ago?

Wait... do you skate 5 hrs every day or 5 hrs ONE day every week? sorry, I'm easily confused.

I'm like you though... Ijust can't seem to get it right! It's coming, but taking forever. I dont' know if the change in soles will help, though plastic soles generally indicate a lower quality boot/blade and a boot with leather soles would be a better skate in general. Are you sure that your skates fit properly? Just wondering, because I know my 1st pair of skates was completely huge for me and that sure didnt' help my spin any!

You want ot be spinning on the ball of your foot... my coach tells me to think of lifting my heels AND my toes. I have a problem with getting on my toes and traveling all the way to the other side of the country What exactly is the problem with your spin? (traveling, etc)

[QUOTE=*IceDancer1419*]Wait... do you skate 5 hrs every day or 5 hrs ONE day every week? sorry, I'm easily confused.

5 hours a week.

Now that you mention it, my boots may be a bit too big.

And yeah... I probably should try spinning on the ball of my foot. Right now, I spin on my toes.

Well, sometimes I can't start spinning. Other times, I can't gain speed. And other times, I can't hold the spin.

I am right there with you Skippyjoy. I have been trying to do the same for almost 4 -5 months. I end up either on my toe pick, or I catch my inside edge (instead of the outside edge to "hook" the spin) and completely stop spinning. My coach had me bend my knee on my skating foot slightly to try and get more on the ball of my foot and it seemed to help a little. I still cannot coordinate lifting my free leg and gaining my center of balance. I put my free leg down and it ends up being a 2 foot spin. I could travel first class around the whole rink still too. grrr.

For me it was a long slow process of just practice practice practice, the position of your head can make a huge difference at this stage, dont look down and keep looking forward, keep your arms out and shoulders down, any movement of your head at this stage will just tilt you off centre.

[QUOTE=skippyjoy_207]If you are not wearing the correct size boot you do not have the correct length blade and therefore you won't be able to spin. Believe me, this is exactly what happened to me. The boots and blades I had were too long so my big toe was on the sweet spot, not the ball of my foot. Once I got fitted up with the correct size skates I found my blade size went down and I had no problems spinning because my weight was over the correct part of the blade.

Nicki

I would also point out that a month is a very short time. It can take several months to learn a new skating skill, so don't be too hard on yourself and try to be patient!

Nicki

To add to NickiT, get your sharpening checked to make sure that the rocker is in the right place. Sometimes they get moved back inadvertendly by the sharpener.

Check with your coach about the boot size.

Or, if you want to do it yourself, loosen up your boot and slide your foot as FAR as possible (to the front) and see how many fingers you can fit behind your heel. My coach could fit 4 on my old ones. When i got new boots, the blades were a full inch shorter Needless to say, it helped

And yeah, I have almost the exact same problem. I was getting it at one point, but it's leaving me again... I spin sorta but I travel SO much I should get frequent flier miles (ha. haha. hahahahaha. that was lame )

For me, just practicing helped a lot. Also, I dont' know how you were taught to spin, but the way my coach teaches is to stand on one foot, and use your toepick to push you around, touching the toepick to the ice 3 times then lifting your foot into a brief spin and coming down. This is how she INITIALLY teaches it, of course...

i dont have new skates yet. but i've been able to do my sit spin, but i travel and spin on my toe.
i dont think you need to get new blades until you start your scratch spin.
um.. when you do your two foot spin, try turning your toes in.
like / \ <-- that that will help you spin on the ball of your blade. And then just lift your left up, with your arms square , and you're set!

What helped me with the 2-foot spin was keeping the weight on the ball of the left foot, but more on the heel of the right foot (assuming CCW spinning).

And make sure your shoulders are square with your hips (for me this meant turning the shoulders more to the left into the direction of the spin than initially felt correct), and your arms even and brought in at the same time.

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[QUOTE=NickiT] Thank you Nicki, your post got me thinking.... hmmm...as I have been experiencing the exact situation. I have been working with my pro shop adjusting my blades (not getting on an outside edge, struggling with spinning, constantly on my toe picks even during bw crossovers etc...) and thought, well, maybe my boot is not the right size after all. The guy in the pro shop pulled out my insole and by the markings inside, found that I have been skating in boots 3/4 size too large since the start of my skating addiction a year 1/2 ago. He fitted me for smaller size boots and put my blades on them. WOW it already makes such a difference. Live and learn

[QUOTE=Sk8pdx]
That's great news. It really does make a big difference as you are now finding. You will be doing fantastic spins in no time at all now! I'm glad to have been of help!

Nicki

Hi skippyjoy_207. Are you trying to skate clockwise(towards your right shoulder) or counterclockwise? Are you trying to spin on your left or right leg? I believe the edge makes a difference. If you are trying to do a one-legged outer-edge spin (spinning to the outside of your body), you will probably have a harder time. -I take that back- You will have a SIGNIFICANTLY harder time. I think the inside edge comes first for most folks. During your skate session figure out which way you are spinning and then lift the leg that will allow your standing foot to keep turning towards the inside of your body. Oh! and lift the leg slowly, don't bring it up real fast. When you do it slow you should feel your body slowly center. I hope this makes sense.

I thought we were supposed to do spins on the outer edge? Hmm..

No, a forward spin is naturally done on an BI edge, and a backspin is done on a BO edge.

It's pretty much impossible to spin on the wrong edge on a forward spin unless you're really REALLY trying to do it. I've never seen beginning skaters spin on the wrong edge on a one-foot spin. I do see tons and tons of skaters learning how to backspin on a FI edge though...

Try doing the position while just gliding backwards on a slight BI edge. Sometimes I have serious travelling troubles because I tend to lean over to my right when I pull in, and you have to make sure everything's over your left side (if you're a CCW spinner) instead. I tend to drop my right shoulder and hip during the spin, which is a definite no-no.

My coach has me holding the right shoulder and hip back until the very last second, then releasing the arm and leg as I'm going around. I think my right shoulder is still pulled back a little bit. It seems to help the dropping problem. He also has me bending my skating leg A LOT until I hit the right position and I'm centered.

I think the trick is knowing how it feels if you're centered and NOT MOVING A MUSCLE when you hit it, LOL.

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Well, for all the talk about blades that we've had around here lately, it's also absolutely feasable that you have the right size boots and blades, and that they are good enough for your level, and that your only problem is that the technique just isn't there yet- don't go and obsess over your blades or over adjusting them this and that way or getting different sharpenings just cause you're stuck on a spin; if the rest of your technique hasn't gone downhill, chances are you're just struggling with a move, not your skates. I mean, think about it...some people take a year to learn an axel. It doesn't mean they have bad equipment- some things just take FOREVER. And sometimes that's all there is to it.

I would ask your coach what he/she thinks of your equipment and if it is appropriate for your level. He/she should be able to correct whatever you are doing wrong in the spin, too. If you don't have a coach, that's probably largely the reason why you are getting stuck for 4-5 months on the same move, especially since you are skating a very adequate number of hours for a beginner. The trick might not be better equipment, but just a little bit more coaching time. Or just patience. Bottom line is that at the beginning levels...better blades and boots don't really make THAT much difference. I mean, I know I could do a one foot spin on rental skates if I had to. If you've learned it right, you can do it on almost anything; you should see some of the terrible recreational skates some Basic skills kids skate on- they can still learn a spin though. So if you cannot spin at all, and never really have, chances are it hasn't come to you yet. BUT IT WILL.

I agree. I learned my one-foot spin and was attempting salchows and loops on skates waaay too big for me. My blades were too big as well and the rocker was sharpened down, to add insult to injury, LOL. Of course, my spins improved once I was properly fitted, but believe me, if there's something wrong with my skating, I usually blame my technique rather than my equipment. It's just the way I am...

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"The ice is finer when the zombie goes over it!" - said by an excited 5-year-old at the rink

"The life you've led is in fact not the totality of what is possible for you." - John Partridge of Wheaton College (and a Matrix philosopher )

I actually had a problem with the 2 foot spin, my feet would go in opposite directions. One foot seemed easier somehow. Of course, I can't jump for anything, but spins are going good so far.

Anyway, what I keep getting reminded of every lesson is my posture. YOu have to squeeze your stomach and tush and pull it all up, I guess like a string keeping you up. Also, do not spin on your toes. When you find that sweet spot, you'll know. I found it accidently once, and it was amazing. There was an exercise I read somewhere about how to find the sweet spot, but I don't remember it, maybe somebody else knows it? Also, you want to try to keep yourself sqaure, with your hips over your feet.

Just keep practicing. You'll get it eventually. It took me about 6 months to get a waltz jump that would leave the ice, and consistently too. One day, before I was to leave for a 3 week trip without an ice rink, it just clicked. Don't know what I did differently, but that's the way practice works. Each time you do something a bit different, until one day it all falls together. Everyone has certain elements that just come easier to them, but it's only a matter of time before you get the spin.

And don't keep your legs 'stick straight,' your legs should be slightly relaxed (not bent!) as this will help center you. Straightening will come later.... And don't hunch over, don't bring your arms in too quickly...etc etc etc

Sometimes getting instruction from a second person helps! Maybe that 2nd person can phrase things in a way that you understand better-it clicks. This happened with my husband. I was explaining the 2-foot spin heel/toe thing and it wasn't clicking. Daughter explained it to him and he got it....

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Not to my knowledge. As Anita18 said, it should be an inside edge. If you are doing a backspin it's different. Which leg are trying to spin on? Of course, eventually you want to spin on both legs, but usually you'll probably take to one leg faster than the other. Choosing the "easier" leg isn't necessarily based on strength either. Many people have a right leg that is stronger, but they still prefer to do a one leg spin on their left. I suspect it has more to do with the direction you a comfortable spinning in. An outside edge appears to be the harder one for most people. For example, on a sit spin, most people can go really low on the inside edge with little trouble. In contrast, most people can't get as low on a backwards sit spin outside edge.


I also agree with Anita18 about not moving a muscle once you hit the centered position. To roughly use Flippet's words, "You should be listening to yourself" while you spin. In other words, you should constantly be logging your body position strength, and speed for every attempt. After awhile you build a library of what absolutely does not work and what gets you fairly close to your goal. You've probably noticed that after 50 attempts one of the spins works miraculously well. That's the one that you need to catalog in your memory. Unfortunately, after attempt number 50, you usually aren't paying attention to what you're doing. This is why you must be focused at all times. By the same token, your focus shouldn't be too rigid/intense because you don't want that to manifest as tightness when your body goes through the motions. (Now I'm starting to feel like philosophy teacher )

I would echo the others in this forum about coaching. It's really hard to explain spins in writing. In terms of jumps and spins, a coach will help you reach your goals faster than roughing it out on your own. I'm not trying to say self-taught skaters are poorer skaters. In a sense, learning on your own may give you an extra bit of self-sufficiency that would allow for more innovation. With a coach, you run the risk of depending on the coach for everything. You believe that if the coach can't teach it then it can't be done. At some point, you have to believe that you can do it regardless of whether someone is available to teach the technique.

You don't have to fall into this coach-reliant attitude. The whole idea is that you get a strong foundation through a coach and then build upon that with your own discoveries. Even Newton said, "I stand on the shoulders of giants". Einstein said he would not have made his discoveries on relativity without Newton's work.

Ok. Now I'm just babbling. Just keep trying. You'll get it eventually, but always have fun with it.

Here's the best tip. PATIENCE and PRACTICE. And then more of the same.

Five months is nothing. It took me three years before I had an upright one-foot spin that I could say was truly spinning the way it ought to, and not traveling to China or simply not working at all.

Some people are natural spinners, some are natural jumpers. I'm definitely better at jumping. Spinning is hard. It looks so easy when someone who knows what they're doing does it. But for every easy-looking spin you see, there's hours, and hours, and often months and years of practice backing that up. There are so many little, tiny details that go into a spin--and you've got to get nearly all of them nearly exactly right for the thing to work at all. For jumps, there aren't as many details, and you can flub quite a few of them to a larger degree before the whole thing falls apart beyond recovery.

How often do you have a lesson? Make sure your coach is watching you spin, and is giving you specific things to work on in your practices. One of the biggest things is to keep your body square--shoulders over hips, and nothing twisted around, or 'dropping'. This is for both two-foot spins and one-foot spins. For a two-foot, your feet should be slightly pigeon-toed, and your weight should be on the ball of your left foot, and just slightly more toward the heel of your right foot (assuming CCW). If your feet are placed properly, you should be able to spin with a simple, gently wind-up. You don't even need to pull your arms in. Some coaches teach a two-foot spin from a pivot. I hated doing them this way, but it works for some people. Have your coach show you.

If you still don't have a consistent two-foot spin, don't worry about getting a one-foot spin yet. Your spin attempts should be 90% two-foot attempts until you've that down consistently. Then when you start trying one-foot attempts, start with a two-foot spin, and lift your free foot to about calf-level (a 'stork spin'). Don't worry about using a three-turn entry for your one-foot spin until you're starting to get the idea (in body memory) of what a spinning one-foot spin ought to feel like. You don't want to complicate things too much at the outset--because you can get your mistakes ingrained into body memory first, and make it really hard to break those habits and mistakes.

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You're supposed to spin on the Back edge? I always thought it was more the Forward part, since it's the ball of your foot? I must be crazy...

As flippet said, some people are better at spins, others better at jumps. I've done better with waltz jumps and bunny hops than on 1-foot spins, so maybe jumping comes more naturally to me for now.

I find that when I actually do a 1-ft spin, I just cannot KEEP spinning. I'll usually do only about 3 revolutions, maybe 4. Other times I just can't spin because my shoulders aren't right, my extended leg is too low or my standing leg is too straight.

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Andrea