So I have to say in skating I have a pet peeve. It's not a huge deal, just a matter of technicality. But gosh darn, it just drives me crazy! lol!

Have you ever met anyone who uses the term "scratch spin" to refer to a backspin? Not only do they use it to refer to the backspin but they use it to replace the meaning of backspin (i.e. I can do my one foot spin but I can't do a scratch spin). Correct me if I'm wrong but a scratch spin can be performed either forwards or backwards. I think the technicality is unclear. We refer to a one foot spin (which most people assume is a forward upright scratch spin). However, a backspin is most certainly performed on one foot as well.

Another thing is that most people can't explain to you the difference between a forward and a backward spin. Most people will say the forward spin is performed on the left leg (assuming that you are CCW) while the backward spin is performed on the right backward outside edge. However, in both the forward and the backward spin the edge is travelling backwards. So what makes a forward spin "forward" and what makes a backwards spin "backwards"? Most people don't know that a forward spin is called forward due to the free hip travelling forward and the backspin is called backward because the free hip is travelling in a backward motion.

Ok, so that's my pet peeve. Has anyone else encountered this?

yeh, blame the ISU scoring system for the sudden push (my coach especially!) to work on your "foreward back scratch from outside backspin"
One thing I've learned with coaches is to repeat back what they say using your personal terminology because often you are talking about 2 different things. I'm sure there is some sort of an official nomenclature for these, I bet that we just haven't learned it all yet.
Lyle

It doesn't bother me that much. I just confirm what they're talking about. I guess it's my IT and training background. Sometimes I say "Oh I usually call that a ()" but otherwise I let it go. That's how I learn new terms and descriptions.

An "Upright Spin" to me (as an instructor) is just a simple one-foot spin without the crossed legs and push up/down arms. Yet, some people call the forward scratch spin an "upright spin." Technically, we're both right. (My first coach called it a "Pique Spin."

To me, a "scratch spin" is always forward. I refer to a "back scratch spin," not a "scratch spin."

I've never heard of that definition of forward/backward spin as it relates to the free hip direction. Was it in one of the handbooks or manuals? I always thought it had to do with the skating leg and the rotational direction. Where did you learn that definition?

There are a lot of terminology differences in skating:
Parallel vs. Camel Spin
Side Toe Hops (USFSA) and Toe Taps (ISI)
Spirals vs. Arabesques

Just last month, I referred to a "Chinese Spiral." Another coach looked at me like I was crazy. It's an ISI term for a Catch-Foot Spiral. I also learned "Heel Stretch" from Flippet - I never knew that it was called that; it's not in the ISI or USFSA teaching curriculum; and the term is the same in Cheerleading.

I wouldn't let it drive me crazy. That said, I have one skating friend with whom I avoid conversations about skating maneuvers. If you say one word wrong, that person will start a time-wasting dissertation that will make you feel ignorant and THIS SMALL. It takes too much effort to be that precise and correct with every word during an informal conversation. A PSA oral exam is a different story.

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My pet peeve is when people call spins "twirls" or "turns", and jumps "tricks". But I guess that terminology is common in the roller world...

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Not in competitive artistic roller.

Kelton

I have a hard time not calling a spin a turn, because in dance turning continuously in one spot (like a pirouette) - or a set of moving turns (like chaines or piques) are called turns. I'm trying real hard to retrain my brain. I wouldn't call either a twirl!

It doesn't bother me, but I always laugh when my sister calls a spiral a scale, or my husband calls it an arabesque (he got used to me dancing!). It especially cracks me up when I come home telling my husband I learned a "half flip" and he looks at me genuinely confused asking if that means I end up landing on my head!

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