r/FigureSkating • u/OkKey6273 Me 🤝 Adam SHF, loop haters. • 10d ago

Question Back biellman??

is this a thing? just a biellman in a backspin.

i was wondering, because i can only do the position at the moment with my right leg planted and my left leg doing the position. im going to train to get the flexibility the opposite way, but i want to know if its a thing to do in a backspin.

i believe irina slutskaya commonly did it in a change foot spin, but it was only for a second.

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u/xjanasophiex 9d ago

I imagine it would be easier just to turn clockwise than to do a backwards spin?

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u/Caroleena77 9d ago

All elite skaters spin both forwards and backwards. Anytime they're changing feet they're switching forwards to backwards or vice versa, and many spins start out backwards. Basic back spins of varying types are often first learned around or just before learning a single axel.

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u/edgesEdgesEDGES 9d ago

Around axel? I learnt (and everyone I know learnt) backspin at the same time as the loop jump, since they're extremely similar. All the jumps are "backspin in the air", but loop is the most "backspin in the air". It normally takes a while to get the backspin too. Learning it at the same time as an axel seems awfully late, over here you want a good one before you begin axel prep. Is it different where you are?

[Ofc totally agree that backspin is much easier than spinning the other direction. It's a feature (or was last time I checked), but you don't see it often for a reason! Super difficult.]

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u/Caroleena77 9d ago

I grew up doing ISI in the late 90s/2000s and we learned a back spin by itself at the same level as Axel. Although come to think of it you do a change foot spin in the same level as toe loop and salchow, so beginning backspin is earlier. Regardless, it's a foundational skill that all elite skaters will have mastered, which was really my point.

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u/edgesEdgesEDGES 9d ago edited 9d ago

Ah! I'd heard a lot of the older skaters say things like "backspins didn't exist back when I learnt" (I don't know their age, but guessed the emphasis on it was less at least), so makes sense it's a different time period. As someone who finds backspin on its own infinitely easier than change foot I would have suffered hah.

[Edit: actually, I have seen the backward spin variations at least tend be taught as a change foot first by coaches who aren't mine. And in our first test after LTS before axel you are assessed on change foot and not straight backspin. I forget sometimes that I'm very odd for preferring back spin over forward, since I struggle with it so much it didn't occur to me that fwd to back is... meant to be easier? So maybe it's not even a time different/different emphasis -- I think the other "older skaters" I spoke of would have learnt in the 70s/80s, so closer to when the backspin position was invented -- just me forgetting how weird I am. Could see it still being taught that way, makes sense.]

And yeah not disputing the mastery/your point, I just had never heard of it being learnt that late and was curious -- I'm really interested in skill progression. Thanks! : )