My old way of doing it in Freestyle group class was from a short forward inside pivot-pump lift the right foot to the left ankle (so forward spin) and hold 3 revolutions, put the free (right) foot down on the toe pick and do a quick back inside pivot style pump, lift the left foot at the ankle of the right foot and hold 3 revolutions, then again forward inside pivot to forward spin. Here is my video:
As I was saying in my previous post, there are some tricks for these spins, both forward and back.
- finish the pivot bringing the foot that pumps to the ankle of the spinning foot, before lifting it (so you won't throw yourself off center)
- the spinning is happening on the middle of the blade not on the ball of the foot (as the forward spin)
- keep the weight over the spinning foot
- keep the upper body square over your hips
- press into the ice
- lift the upper body (that would hopefully help keep it straight)
My private coach wants me to start with a forward spin from winding up from back crossovers, hold 3 rotations, put the free (right) foot down for a short 2 foot spin and pick up the left leg for the back spin for 3 revolutions, and same again for another forward spin. This last spin should be held as long as comfortable to give the impression you are in control. I cannot do it... Firstly, starting with winding up from back crossovers, I have too much speed to control the change of foot. But even with my regular slow pivot entrance, I'm off balance on that 2 foot spin in between the first forward spin and the back spin. Then, I often allow the left side to go back, instead of holding it square. He also says I'm not pressing into the ice, that's probably why I like using the pivot, because I press into that and I re balance. Also I'm still rocking back and forth on my blade, the coach says I'm too forward on my blade. I do occasionally hit the sweet spot that is more towards the middle of the blade... As I start the spin (I'm still talking about the back spin) from the pivot, I have the toe pick in the ice, and I think it is quite impossible to hit that sweet spot and balance of it going from the toe pick over the place where the blade is most curved. And that is why I rock back and forth...
My coach from the summer group class said to hold the arms out laterally for the whole first forward spin and during the transition to the back spin, maybe even on the backspin and bring them in just for the last forward spin. That's actually helping a little. I spent few month on this on group classes, few years ago, then stopped doing it and it was lost. So I had to spent again, few months to get it but this time with more awareness of what I was doing.
Despite all the "challenges" I was having, my private coach wanted me to stick with this back spin without the free foot crossed, until I've got comfortable, so the fear was almost gone. I don't know if you can read the frustration between the lines. Just in case you cannot not, I'll say it... Learning the back spin and the change foot spin as describe in these 2 last posts, must have been the most frustrating time in my skating. And it took me between 6 months and a year to get to the point described here. But then, when I started to do the back spin from an inside 3-turn (that gets you on the sweet spots more smoothly, plus it's crossing the free foot by itself, literally), everything got on a path that made sense. I will describe this intermediate back spin with the free foot crossed, so the back scratch spin, after I describe some more beginner stuff, plus I progress a little more, so I'll be able to describe it a little better.
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