Silly question-ish...

I've been wanting to do 1-foot spin but my coach told me that I have to be able to do two-foot spin and personally I find it more difficult. I tried spinning 1-foot spin several times and I did it better than 2-foot.

A lot of people find the 2-foot spin helps to get the feeling of rotation. I learned the 1-foot spin first and find the 2-foot spin really uncomfortable and really difficult to do especially when you do it with your feet parallel. The only way that I can do a 2-foot spin is if I do it in 3rd position (from ballet).

I suppose that the answer to your question, then, is that you don't have to be able to do a 2-foot spin to be able to do a 1-foot spin

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The best whisper is a click

the two foot spin is the base for all future spins. Just be patient and try to get that spin right. before you know it you'll be moving onto more spins! If you move on to other spins, it might not meet the full potential. Good luck to you!!

(modelled after the 'purple cow' poem)

I've never done a two foot spin,
I never hope to do one,
but from the spins I'm doing now,
it's certainly not necessary......... (Rats! That doesnt' scan nor rhyme!!)

OK I couldnt make it rhyme but basically while it may be desirable it isn't necessary. I never could get the hang of a 2 foot spin and still can't do one now - well a couple of rotations at best and that's very forced.

My scratch spin from back crossovers is pretty good though - I can do quite fast, centred 10+ revolutions. Would persevering at the two foot spin (it's not something that's particularly pushed in the UK I dont think nor is it on tests here) have helped my spinning? I dont' know.

If your coach wants you to do them though, she/he probably has a reason (if you find out what it is please let me know) so it's probably worth following their advice.

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

Hiya

One of my coaches (Level 5) got me to do the '3rd position' 2-foot spin in preparation for the back spin. The idea was to start to weight my right foot until I could actually stand on it AND spin To be honest this didn't help at all and just doing them 1-footed was how I finally 'got' it (after a fashion).

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The best whisper is a click

I never learned to do a two-foot spin before doing a one-foot. I don't think it really matters. Perhaps it helps get the feeling of spinning, but it's not absolutely necessary.

Nicki

Hmm. Well, the USFSA never requires a 2 foot spin in their tests, the first spin is a one foot. I could not do a two foot spin for the LIFE of me when I was little. I have one of the best scratch spins of anyone I know though, and I got it pretty soon after I stopped working on two foot spins. The two foot spins really just always confused me about where the weight was supposed to be on the blade.

I STILL to this day cannot do a two foot spin, so I just cheat it, spin on one foot, and keep the other so close to the ground that you can't see it's not actually spinning whenever I have to demonstrate one for somebody. You really don't need two foot spins in skating though so if it's not helping you with your one foot spin, I think it's a royal waste of time. A good coach is one who is able to see what will help you and what won't, and wasting time on a skill you won't actually ever need to master by "principle" because it's "supposed" to be learned first when you might have more success with the one foot spin is really unnecessary.

NOT for the adults... the Adult Pre-Bronze FS test has BOTH a two foot spin and a one-foot spin. (I should know... it's the very first USFSA test I've ever taken...)

I definitely couldn't do a two foot spin as well as the one foot spin for a while, but one of my old secondary coaches (whose coach was THE Ronnie Robertson...) changed all that...

Given that, my two foot spin still sucks... but not as bad...

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

You don't have to be able to do a 2-foot spin to do a 1-foot spin.

I learned a one-foot spin in my first year of skating and there were no Adult tests then. (It was one of the only things I ever learned easily!)

When I went back to take the Pre-Bronze FS test*, I still couldn't do a two-foot spin -- so I just kept my right foot very, very close to the ice... and it was marked as "nice two foot spin" on my test papers. My coach and I laughed about that, but I KNOW there was only one foot on the ice.

*I decided I needed to get out and test in front of the judges on something I felt good about before taking my next (and more difficult) test. I also went back and took the Pre-Bronze and Bronze moves when I started trial judging, even though I didn't need to for competitions... but because I thought I should know what the tests felt like from a skater's point of view.

According to my coach, the two foot spin, besides teaching rotation and momentum, is also the basis for learning to change feet in complex spins. I learned my two-foot spin in CCW direction but my 1-foot in CW so this is a challenge for me. My pivots also suck for the same reason. Two foot spins serve as more than just a prep for one-foot spins, so I'd say learn them anyway.

I know quite a few coaches, including myself, who initially teach the backspin by having the skater do a two-foot spin and then pick up the foot. For most of the freestyle-level skaters I've taught, this works best, althought I'm personally open to other ways of teaching it if a skater has trouble with this approach.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

I've been wondering how backspin works from a 2-foot spin... do you mind explaining to me? I'm just confused, as in 2-foot (CCW) one should be on LBI and RFI (please correct me if I'm wrong). How do I get to RBO?

backspin challenged - Renata

Thanks for the replies - they really help.

It'll take me ages to do a 2-foot spin and some (if not most) people here in Indonesia spend a year at this one level which includes the 2-foot spin. It is included in the test but not when I'm back in London and to be honest, I've seen much more better spins up in Ally Pally than down here so I'm thinking of begging my coach to teach me 1-foot instead. I've tried to do some 1-foot and I found it easier to do.

I tend to use the toepick though - quite badly. With them spins, I tend to lean in and use my inside edge which stops me from spinning. Spins are the hardest to learn. I hope it won't take me months and months just to get the hang of it.

When I was in learn-to-skate, the 2-foot spin wasn't a requirement, and I've never learnt it. I spin extremely badly anyway, but far better on one foot than on 2! And best of all on the wrong foot, in the wrong direction, with a really weird entry..... go figure, as they say!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

The ISI requires a 2-foot spin before the 1-foot spin in their testing progression. I think a lot of adults learn the 1-foot and get pretty good at it before they formally "test" the 2-foot. You sort of re-learn it when you do that.

The keys to a 2-foot spin are: start with a bent-knee, let the arms/upper body create the rotation, keep the arms/upper body "toward" the spin direction (CW/CCW), and KEEP YOUR KNEES TOGETHER!

Re: The knees: If you spread your feet apart, you're not spinning - you're gliding in a tight circle that will eventually slow you down to a stop. If you think of keeping your knees together, it'll be just close enough for a tight spin.

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Hi,
Iv skated for years and I was never taught a two foot spin, I went straight on to one foot and learned how to do loads of positions.
Recently though as my mum has been learning to skate and iv been helping her Iv tried a two foot spin which she has been taught (same coach just ten years of a difference from what was taught when I started to what is being taught now) I at first found a two foot spin quite hard as it just didnt have the same momentum as I was used to but once I dont it a few times it was easier, I think alot of that was down to jumps. If I had learned it all those years ago I cant imagine it would have been too sucessful but after years of spinning and jumping it seemed easy enough!
sorry got bit side tracked their..................basically I didnt need to learn a two foot spin to do a one foot and I think my two foot spin is probably better now than if I had learned it first!
Belle

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Keep Smiling!

Seriously?! That's not fair to you guys at all. I think the two foot spin should be banished to skating Hell. I mean, LOGICALLY speaking, managing to spin on TWO blades and finding TWO sweet spots should be harder than on one, right? I move that the two foot spin be moved to the Senior FS/Gold FS tests. That would be hilarious.

Hmmm I completely disagree with that. In change foot spins, you have to learn to shift your weight from one axis to another in a snap second. In two foot spins, you have to learn to keep your weight straight down the middle. If anything, that'd confuse me more than anything else.

Who knows... I think I also did what Thin Ice did and cheated that two foot spin. My ex-secondary coach (Yes, Thin Ice... that secondary coach I told you about...) told me when I did my two foot spin in front of her that I wasn't doing them correctly. Had no idea too... I did the test over a year before and passed it.TRULY EVIL!!! MUHAHAHAHAHA...

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Very very useful tip - I will surely keep that in mind! I'll be skating on monday I hope I will progress. *sigh* There's no getting out of 2-foot for the test so I'll just have to learn it.

Ta chuck!

call me nuts but what's a one foot spin??????

I expect you've seen skaters do it without realising that's what you're watching - when they stand on the ice on one foot and spin round rapidly, ideally on the spot. You will soon be learning how.....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Some people can spin easily, but some people take years to learn. Favourite quote: "you have to enjoy the JOURNEY".

If you find one -foot spins easier, then stick to those for a while.

IMO these are the differences with a two-foot spin, compared to one-foot:

- weight is more evenly distributed in two-foot spin
- blades are flatter on the ice, almost a complete flat
- more feeling of lightness on the blades
- spinning point is still on front of blade, but further back than one-foot spin
- the outside foot doesn't technically do a spin, it is really a sort of forward pivot; but if you just focus on your upper body rotation, relaxed slightly bent knees, and evenly balanced feet you don't even need to think about that

However, the rotational elements regarding arms, shoulders, torso etc., are about the same. That's why it works for some people to focus on rotation, do two-foot spins, then lift one foot to get one-foot spin.

I never learned a two foot spin either. Recently my coach wanted me to do a two fit spin for something, can't remember why, and I two footed myself right onto my tush. =-0 I have a good scratch most of the time, so ...no.

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"I truly believe, when God created skating, he patted himself on the back."

Hmm, I think my husband does, judging by how far his spins travel.....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!