Video:Beginner Figure Skating Spins

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Transcript:Beginner Figure Skating Spins

Hi there - my name is Sean Bachand, I'm part of the management team here at Pickwick Ice, and I've been invited by About.com to talk to you today about ice skating, in particular: spinning. There're basically two types of spins: the two-foot spin and the one-foot spin, as far as what we're going to go over today.

Posture During Figure Skating Spins

The most important thing is to have good posture. We want to start with our feet parallel to each other, knees slightly bent, we're going to have our upper torso straight, and our chin up.

Two Foot Spins

So let's perform the move. We're going to give ourselves a little bit of momentum to start the turn. We're going to start with our hands in front of us, we're going to pretend like we have a big beach ball. We're going to start to move the beach call off to the side and we're going to pull ourselves around. As we pulling ourselves around, our palms are going to go down on the ice. As we make a rotation, we're going to pull our hands in. Keep in mind we want a symmetrical body form - if we're out, or extended, it's going to slow us down. My recommendation is to try to get a couple rotations in a counter-clockwise motion, with both feet on the ground. If you feel that you're losing balance, you can loosen up, and your hands at this point will slow you down.

One Foot Spins

Now once again with a one-foot spin, the principle is exactly the same thing. You're going to start - with the one-foot spin - with your good posture. The same way with your preparation for a one-foot spin - you're going to pretend like we have a beach ball. We're going to bring ourselves over, and then we're going to start the rotation, bringing your palms down. As you make a rotation you're going to draw in. At this point, what you'll wind up doing is you have the two, and you're going to draw up with only one skate. You'll actually get a much faster spin with only one skate because there's less gravity slowing you down, as opposed to with a two-foot spin.

Stay Centered During Spins

Things that you want to keep in mind, of course, when you practice them on your own - you want to try to stay as centered as possible. You want to work on staying in one place. You also want to work on spinning more rotations. You want to work on reducing dizziness - if you find that you do get dizzy from spinning, you can always come to a stop, and you can continue again.

Practicing Spins

That pretty much covers our topics on two-foot spins and one-foot spins. I highly recommend that you actually go to an ice rink, practice these moves on your own, or better yet, try to find an ice rink that has a skating academy such as ours here at Pickwick Ice, or hire a private coach to help you out with these moves.

If you do want more information on the art of ice skating, spinning or any other ice skating related topics, I encourage you to visit us on the Web at About.com.