Progress on the Back Sit Spin With a Twist
I mentioned in a recent post that my coach has me going back to basics on the three base spins (upright, sit and camel). I have been practicing these spins each and every time I am on the ice and can say that my basic spin positions have made slight improvements. The back camel is still the worst spin for me, so I have been focusing on that one quite a bit.
Those who have been reading Skating Fridays for a while (thank you!) know that I had a knee injury last summer. I partially tore my meniscus and was unable to spin on my right leg. The centrifugal force caused pain so I wasn’t able to do any forward spins.
Most of you would call that an inconvenience. In my mind, it was actually a blessing in disguise.
My back sit spin was pretty much non-existent prior to my injury last year. I practiced it a lot since I couldn’t do any forward spins. As a result, my back sit spin improved immensely. Coach B and I tried to learn the twist variation but it wasn’t going that well. Occasionally, I’d get a good one, but it wasn’t low enough.
We have not worked on the back twist variation in months – maybe even closer to a full year. When discussing my program for this upcoming season, my coach and I talked specifically about what spins to include. Just for fun, she asked me to show her the sit-back sit. I executed it and she seemed pretty happy.
Then she asked me to try the sit-back sit but then add a twist to see what would happen. And here is what she captured on video:
As you can see (turn the volume on), my coach was very excited about what she saw. It is definitely going in the program, and she believes that the technical controller will call this as a back sit variation. If I am lucky, this will get called a Level 1 change sit spin. I would be thrilled with that. All those hours practicing basic spin positions are really starting to pay off. As coach says, once you have the basics (spin positions) down, adding variations is easy.
Next step – figure out my remaining program elements and where to place them. Stamina is definitely an issue right now. Must stop eating ice cream…
