I am watching the nationals on tv and I have a question. How come never ever anybody falls on spins? To my understanding spins are as hard as jumps and they score big points so you would think somebody has a bad day and would fall but no, never happens. Just wondering especially since spins are the only elements that my dd falls. She has hard time to learn them to begin with and then if her body is slightly off she falls. Thanks!

Spins are not as hard as jumps, especially after one gets to the higher competitive levels where triples are required. I have seen elite skaters fall on spins, most notably, Sasha Cohen. She fell out of a camel when she leaned too far over.

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A good spin is just as hard as any jumps, especially if you have to sustain the spin and in good positions.

Spins are usually almost second nature for the elite skaters but occcasionally one does see a fall on the spin entrance, especially on the forward camel. It's always a cringe worthy moment when you see a skater slip off that forward outside entrance edge and flies into the air. Claudia Leistner did it in the SP at the 84 Olympic. Arakawa fell on the camel entrance at the 2003 Worlds SP.

I am wondering if with experience is easier to save a bad spin than a bad jump. I guess when you are jumping in the air and make a mistake falling is natural (dha!) while if you do a bad spin it is just that : a bad spin, you do not really need to fall. Does experience and maturity count more on the spins than the jumps? Do you get a better spinner with "age" but not necessary a better jumper?

I think my dd will quit skating when she will face the camel spin....LOL

I think you hit the nail on the head. Spins are more tolerant of errors than jumps. A bad spin can travel but the skater won't fall from that. The desired position may not be achieved on a spin, but again, no fall. Jumps are much more demanding of precision to be successfully landed without a fall. In that sense, I believe they are harder.

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Beginning spinners have not yet developed the ability to keep adjusting their balance during the spin and that's why they can fall on a spin. More experienced skaters have the ability not only to go into the spin in a smooth, controlled way, but also to keep adjusting their balance during the spin to get back onto the sweet spot of the blade. And since they're already on the ice and in the spin, it's highly unlikely that they will catch their blade or suddenly be thrown off balance in such an extreme way that they couldn't save it. But on a triple jump, you're spinning very fast in the air when your blade touches down on the ice, so if you're even a little off when the blade first meets the ice, the error is magnified and it's very hard to avoid a fall.

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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 always wondered why they hardly ever fall on spins too - not that I can spin anyway but...

I'm just starting to get a one foot spin back after losing it more than a year ago, and that balance adjustment is something I have been feeling and loving as my spins improve. Thanks for illuminating the process!

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Spins aren't easy, especially with all of the changes in position required today. They also require a lot of strength and endurance to control, perhaps more so than jumps. Dick Button pointed that out during one of the Grand Prix events, but I haven't decided if I agree with him yet.

Add well-groomed ice at a competition, and you have a recipe for success. If there are few holes or deep grooves, you're less likely to have something go wrong unexpectedly. I have a lovely scar on my wrist from falling out of a back sit spin during a change-foot when caught an edge. Sliced off a dime-sliced piece of flesh that didn't bleed for ten minutes, when it finally warmed up.

As others have said, it is easier to adjust something when you're on solid ice than when you're in the air. It's like comparing swimming and diving; both are challenging, but one is more easily corrected.

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I've never fallen from a scratch spin since I got up to maybe 5 revolutions...I stopped falling on backspin practices not too long ago and that's right around there. I haven't ever fallen on a camel spin I don't think, and when I fall on sit spin practices it's only when I try to push myself lower than is comfortable (and then I don't have far to go). Spins go bad sometimes, but it's easy to step out of them or simply stop. If a spin isn't right you know immediately on the entrance - sometimes you can fix it even then.

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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

They don't fall, but it happened on the last olympics - I think, might've been europeans or world's too - that one of the girls didn't get the required minimum of 6 revolutions on her spin. Basically, if figure skaters were doing only single jumps in their programmes, nobody would ever fall either. If they feel the spin destabilizing, and they can't fix it, they come out of the spin before they can fall.
It also sometimes happens that a figure skater in a big competition travels really badly on their spin (this is also a big mistake) - because it isn't centered. One time, I saw one travel on tv so badly that they had to follow her with the camera or else she would've spun out of the image!

I've fallen on every single kind of spin. Even backspins. Like it has been said upthread, more experienced skaters develop good balance to save a spin if the entrance is mucked up. Forward camels are notoriously difficult and you will see the most falls or errors on that spin.