Hey all,

I purchased and received one of the square spinners, and will have to send it back. Seems not to spin well, almost grinding at times.

Question is: Do most people use that kind anyway, or have a lot of people had success with the insole-looking one? My coach didn't recommend the insole looking one, but i was wondering...my main goal is to use it for back camel and backspin.

Thanks for any help!

Yeah, I trash mine after a couple of times and one near disaster in the living room. Dang hubby insists that we have a SOFA and a TV in the living!!! (Seriously, I have no room anywhere for this spinner and in the end, it's not the same for me as being on the FO edge of the spin anyway.

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Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Personally, I prefer the plastic ('insole') one to the larger square metal one. Here's why---for me, the plastic one mimics the actual feel & technique that happens on the ice. It can travel if your weight shifts, and it matters whether you're on the ball of your foot while you're spinning because it's rockered on the bottom.

The metal one can't travel, so you are working with a fixed axis of rotation. If you get off that axis, it spits you out. The plastic one will move with you, just like your skate will. So it's much closer to the real thing, so you can learn adjustments/balance as you work with it. The metal one just teaches you to spin (flat footed, btw) on a fixed axis, which isn't the same as spinning on skates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bXAL-U72sw

I had the same problem. It was the square one and did not spin well. At the end I gave up with the spinner. The problem is also the space. (It is VERY unpleasant if you don't have enough space to fall and are falling on all the furniture...) I wish I could do it with some huge space around me and put all around some pillows and cushions... Unfortunately there is no such space at my place.

So, can you all do back spin and back camel on the insole type? I will order that instead if i know you can do that on it!

The plastic one looks great on youtube - where can I order them? I found the German site on the youtube comments but can't read German ... then googled to find spinners sold by Rainbo Sports online but I didn't know whether they are selling the same thing. I imagine that they would need to be made pretty carefully to mimic a skate blade rocker etc and I don't know whether you could trust a knock-off?

I have one of the square spinners. It spins well, but I don't spin well on it. I totally agree about the comments that it doesn't replicate real spinning, especially about finding the right part of the foot.

I love the look of the one on Youtube! I want one !!! The one on Rainbow looks like it is flat on top, whereas the Youtube one looks dished, like a skate innersole. Does anyone know where you can buy these?

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Katz

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Rainbowsports.com has them, i believe.

We've had a few threads on this - they vary a lot from within a single brand and model. So don't mail order. Go to many stores to find one that spins (and keeps spinning) without resistance. Based on in-store tests, I found that most of the top brand name/model do not. (Then keep it clean.)

One of the many threads:

http://skatingforums.com/showthread....562#post377562

Ice Dancer suggested the same things are sold cheaper as "twist boards".

I recall reading those threads with great interest and Query's advice to try the spinner before you buy sounded sensible. But I thought those threads referred to the "two-plate" spinner style? (I don't own a spinner and have never used one, so I might be wrong?)

Katz and I are not in the US and can't just "pop into a pro store" to try things out. We have no option but to buy mail order. For me, that's partly why I'm so interested in the youtube one in Phoenix's link - it has no moving parts to spin against each other, and hopefully fewer moving parts mean that there will not be the quality issues of the two-plate versions. (Unless the threads Query cited above were referring to this type - then I'm really stuck!)

Miraclegro, as Katz said, the Rainbo one looks different to the youtube one - the youtube one has a moulded footplate, while the Rainbo one has a flat plate. I'd like the moulded one - I think it will be easier to feel when I've got the foot properly centred on the plate before you try to centre the spinner on the floor. (Since in skates, your feet are centred in the skate before you start trying to centre the skate on the ice!)

Here's the spinner from the youtube video, it's a german site:
http://www.eiskunstlauf-shop.de/96-skate-spinner.html

Here's the one from Rainbo:
http://www.rainbosports.com/shop/sit...1FDB10BFB76925

They do look a little different; not sure how they compare. The one I played w/ was like the one at Rainbo. I'm not sure that little indentation on the other would make that much difference.

Or maybe someone here speaks German & could place a group order for all of us. What's that cost translate to in US dollars?

I AM in the US and I certainly don't have that option. I can't pop into a single store much less "go to many stores"

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Seriously, what is he THINKING?! Everybody knows the living room is for practicing off-ice jumps, spins and spirals!

Thanks for posting the link Phoenix. I have emailed the shop asking if they have an English translation, whether they ship internationally, and what shipping would be to my location.
I'll let y'all know if I get a reply.

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Katz

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Well I received a very nice reply from the place from the link.

"thank you for your request. For us it is no problem to ship orders to
Australia or other countries. With DHL insured shipping costs EUR 10.90
for 1 or 2 Skate Spinners.

With the Spinner you will get a short english manual.

For payment you can use money transfer to our german bank account or
paypal. With paypal you can use credit cards."


Which is nice, but having worked out the conversion from Euros to Aussie Dollars, including postage it would cost around $70 AUD. Still considering it though.

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Katz

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Thanks for finding that out Katz ... $70 sure is expensive but like you, I'm still thinking ... *something* has to help my pathetic spins!! Is the euro 10.90 for just the postage? Did they say how much is the spinner itself?

As someone mentioned in another thread, Ebay merchants sell a similar "twist board" for 1/10th the price of a "spinner" or "spin trainer". Maybe you can find them in exercise and sports equipment retail shops too.

Is it really true that American skate pro shops have more selection than in Europe, even in the big cities? If so, why?

I bought a clanky metal one about a decade ago. It's been sitting on a shelf in one of my closets ever since.

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

Wow, I would REALLY like to try that insole one from the youtube video.

For camels...but there's no doing a camel in the 3 areas that aren't carpeted here...

I guess it wouldn't work on carpet, huh...

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I have ordered the one from the german web page. I hope this spinner is not going to sit at home on the shelf next the the metalic one that I ordered 2 years ago and never learned to use. Though the fact that this one replicate better the spinning action (because it can travel when it is not centred, as opposed to throwing you off) seems to be great idea. I will let you know how it works for me when I get it.

Let me know how the german one works, PLEASE. I had already returned my defective metal one and ordered the insole-looking one from the U.S., so perhaps we can compare notes. I think it it much harder for adults to do the metal ones b/c the center of gravity is not as short as childrens. Those who learned the metal ones as kids can probably stay on them forever as they grow. But that's just my opinion.

Unless you put something over TOP of the carpet like a piece of board? (like a 4x4 piece of plywood, then you could just plop it down when you needed it?)
Yeah, I stopped using mine, even after I figured out that only a little push was needed...got tired of getting thrown off!!!! hehehe! it was fun seeing other people get tossed tho ("oh yeah, don't give yourself more than a little nudge" )

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Oh yeah! I might do that...the dog can sit in the crate and watch the wacky lady fly into the fireplace

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

I've got the "drehscheibe" rotational disk from that first, eiskunstlauf, website. They shipped very promptly and correctly. Thought you might wanna know. Did you get your translation yet? If not I'm happy to translate for you anything you don't understand, just link it or pm it or whatever. I'm supposedly fluent at German, better live up to it, lol.

The website quotes the cost of the spinner at 25.90 euros.

some sources say they work on low pile carpets. I doubt it'd be satisfactory though.

did you buy one of the flat ones? they are slightly different. I know Phoenix commented the indentations might not make much difference. For my way of thinking though, the indentations, especially at the ball of the foot, might help grip better and feel more like a boot than a flat surface.

On Ebay there are wooden ones which look similar but are cheaper. I don't plan to get one, but they might be a cheaper alternative.

It'll be interesting to read comments from people who have already bought this style of spinner, and from those who are buying, once they've had the chance to check them out.

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Katz

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I was over it, now I'm into it again !