Hi,

I was talking to a skater at my rink and they said that when you enter a spin e.g. forward upright CCW, you should be looking to the left, and that you have to keep looking to the left i.e. chin in line with left shoulder, throughout the spin otherwise the spin will not work.

I havent heard this before, and was wondering if anyone else had?

Once you have mastery, the spin will work regardless of where you put your head (think "headless" variations). When you are learning though, coaches want heads in specific places.

When I spin (clockwise) my head is on my left shoulder for my wind up, follows my right hand to my right shoulder while I step into the spin, and then I hold it center - not to the right- during the actual spin (for scratch spin). So I'd disagree that you have to keep looking during the spin. For my camel, I do TRY to keep looking, though often I forget. That's the only spin where I've specifically been told to keep my head looking to the direction of the spin.

During my "layback" attempts a major detractor from getting the spin is that I'm looking left and down (towards my free leg). That does mess my balance up. Looking center, or possibly to the right, would definetly help.

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-Jessi
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I've never heard of keeping your head to the side while you spin. I do look over my left shoulder a bit as I push into a scratch spin, but I spin looking straight ahead.

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Me, too. I start off looking over the left shoulder (assuming CCW rotation) but once I have snapped into the spin, my body catches up to my head and I am looking straight ahead and can see my arms coming together in front of me. I can't imagine being able to stay squared if I kept looking over my left shoulder for the whole spin; I think I'd unconsciously drop my left shoulder and start traveling. . . You may want to play back a video of an elite skater doing a scratch spin frame by frame so you see whether the skater keeps looking over the left shoulder or looks straight ahead once he/she is in the spin.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I've seen people perform spins with their head deliberately turned one way or another for choreography effect.

I sometimes tell my students to keep their heads to the left during their spins if they have a tendency to twist/drop their free leg/shoulder. They can't actually KEEP it on the left side, so they end up in the middle where I really want it, lol.

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I am spin challenged but I am told to keep my head to the right (I spin CW) because I always end up dropping a hip and shoulder and centering my weight over my left. Like ISK8NY, it is my coach's way of trying to keep me balanced.

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I had a session with a former Olympian in September and she suggested bringing my hands to my right shoulder instead of centre (I spin CW) - faster! Then she suggested looking over my right shoulder - faster yet!

The idea seems to be that hand position and head position influence where your weight is on your spinning foot and the height of your free hip.

It sure improved my spins!

Thanks Liz!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

I remember once, over 10 years ago, a coach had come to our rink to give a master class on MITF. Another adult skater and I were talking with him off ice, and in the course of the conversation he asked us which part of the body led the rotation in spins. I think we said shoulders. He claimed that the eyes should lead.

OK, THAT makes sense. Sometimes our bodies lie to us and we think we're level and squared when we really aren't, so it's necessary to sort over-correct. I was getting a little worried that everyone was going to go back to the rink and try looking over the leading shoulder for the entire spin (rather than just the entry) even if they don't have that particular problem. I was just imagining all of us traveling out of control like little tornadoes across the rink, LOL!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Thanks for your replies everyone.

Sounds like the important thing is to look left while entering the spin, and then your head will be in the center when you are spinning.