Bobbe Shire Spin Clinic
I had the distinct privilege of working with Bobbe Shire again recently, as she traveled to our club’s sister rink. Bobbe’s seminar was very similar to one that I attended last summer (here are the recaps from Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).
In addition to Bobbe’s lecture and on-ice seminar, we also had separate breakout sessions for yoga, IJS and competition preparation. We even had our own adult group so we could get specialized attention for our needs. I found the IJS breakout session the most helpful since it was led by a technical specialist. She explained how IJS works and spent a lot of time answering our questions and how certain spins would get called under the system.
After chatting with the tech specialist, I realized why I have never gotten one of my spins called. My coach had been under the impression that the difficult spin variations were available for each foot (assuming you are changing feet and doing a change foot spin). Apparently, the rule is that the variations are only available once per program, and not once per foot. This is a big deal because once you ‘use up’ a variation, you cannot repeat it again. While I did not repeat a variation, the IJS code for the difficult elements was the same for both. And because I couldn’t repeat a variation, the 2nd one never got called. Cue light bulb and frustration.
All in all, the seminar was a great refresher. We mostly worked on forward scratch spins, back spins, sit spins and camel spins. We ran out of time and did not have the opportunity to work on any additional spins or spin variations. I would have loved to have had the opportunity to get Bobbe’s thoughts and expertise on some of the new spins I am trying to work on (coming soon!).
I did ask her a fun question and inquired about her favorite spin to teach. She said that she enjoys teaching layback spins and playing with arm positions.
