I am sooo excited - today was the first day I was actually able to so a real scratch spin. My coach showed me how to do it Tuesday (Ive been trying on my own for a bit with no luck) and I spent 2 hours today working it - finally I got the leg to cross! woo hoo! I had to tell you here since none of my friends or family get my excitement haha

Question: As I get the leg to cross at the top and bring it down - I definately start to spin faster but right when I go to put my feet together I fly out of the spin (which is a bit scary haha). Is that normal at first? Is it maybe that I dont have the feet positioned correctly (I think it should be heel to toe?) - any way to solve this or just keep practicing? The spins were actually really centered (which is amazing for me), so I dont think I am dropping my shoulder like usual

Good for you! It's a great feeling when you finally 'get' an element.

IMHO it is quite normal to kinda go abit out of control at first. But the more you practise and get used to the speed, the easier it gets.

S xxx

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good for you! i recently over the past few days have really been starting to get the hang of the scratch spin, are'nt they awesome!!! what a rush! I know exactly what you mean about your free leg and I've been doing that a lot too. to help, as an excercise i would just glide a little bit and place my leg in the positions they would be in the spin, on the knee and then slide it down the leg-to get that in my muscle memory. I did 2 spins (out of about 20+)today where i actually kept in slideing down and didn't pop out of the spin! commit yourself in your head that (considering your ccw) your left side is strong, keep that hip up and yur right leg is like a a string with rock attached, its going around your left leg "the pole", around and wrap. dare yourself to just keep it there and keep giving yourself these pep talks -that and visioning myself in my mind helps me with my practice.

cheers to the stratch spin!!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UdQCCjQNg8Q

this lady does a great scratch spin.

my coach s/t tells me to think of a good skater doing a certain element i'm working on and then try to place myself in that skaters shoes. there is prob some type of sport psychology term for that, since that is what her sport psych. taught her many years ago.

I wish mine were that good. I have problems with holding the free leg out for long enough, as well as sliding it down the skating leg...I don't always bring it in high enough either... :/

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I agree - bringing the leg in high enough is hard - because it feel like I am lifting it way too high when it really is just high enough - just takes a lot of practice I guess. I did mostly spins straight for 2 hours today I was just really determined to get it right (and I was very dizzy by the end haha), but it feels so cool when its correct!

That works for me, sometimes, too. I've been working on getting my waltz jump higher, more edgy, and without making the free shoulder too square or too forward going into the entry. The other day, I saw one of my coach's other students doing an absolutely huge waltz jump in relation to her size (she's a kid), and she had such good knee bend and a deep outside edge into the jump, and just seeing that made something click. When I try to reproduce that feeling, my results have been better....

I agree with the others who have said it's hard to bring the leg in high enough. Often when I try for a higher leg, I think I'm pulling in or pushing the leg down wrong, because then my hips go awry and the spin is not centered and/or loses speed. Dorothy Hamill always had a nice high leg on her scratch spin entry. (There might be something on YouTube, and I think one of Bob Ogilvie's figure skating books has a picture of her entering a spin with that high leg position.)

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