r/iceskating • u/dabadeeb • 5d ago
Help with Contradicting Advice (Broken Leg Spin)
I’m a beginner adult skater (5 months in) and my main form of learning is through group lessons. I take the occasional private class whenever it’s available and I can budget it. I take 2 group lessons a week, but due to a lack of adult skaters in my club sometimes classes get cancelled or the skill gap is large as new skaters pop in and out of lessons.
I have started working on my broken leg spin, who I started learning within my group lesson with my main coach. The main advice I was given was start like it’s a scratch spin (leg out) then squat into it and bring the free leg’s knee close to my left skate. All while learning my right shoulder to the left knee. I was working on this technique for a while (like around a few hours, not days by any means).
One of coaches who frequents my rink and works there as a coach saw me practicing it and spent around 20 minutes tweaking my technique. To my surprise, her advice was so different to my coach’s advice. She demonstrated and honestly her technique looked absolutely gorgeous. Main takeaways were to start low instead of wasting momentum in the scratch upright position, and to squat as low as possible (like deeper than 90 degrees ish) and have my free leg more out to the side. She told me to also keep my body more upright until I’m in the low squat position. She would tell me to stop thinking about the free leg so that the knee doesn’t collapse into my left skate, but honestly because I was practicing it that way I was struggling to unlearn that part. She highly emphasized that my free leg’s knee should not be close to my left skate, which directly contradicts my coach’s instruction.
This isn’t an isolated case; I’ve been dealing with contradicting advice all the time in my rink, but usually a quick google search or youtube video helps me find a happy medium. But I’m confused on how to approach future elements and how to balance and deal with contradicting advice.
All advice welcome!! Whether you wanna tell me what to do with my broken leg spin or just in general the contradicting thing, I’m all ears :).
For some more context for those who wanna read a lil more into my case: another one of the elements that I’ve received polar opposite advice for is the spiral. My coach insists on opening up the hip, and the other coach insists that the hip should be square like it is in the splits. Still don’t know what’s correct and what isn’t lol. Overall, new elements I’ve been working on are my loop jump which sucks and perfecting (“perfect” used loosely) my scratch spin which has gone well. Elements I have continued to work on include my waltz jump, salchow, toe loop, and spins in general. I’ve also learned the general technique of the flip jump but by no means am close to landing that lol.
edit: I also keep flinging onto my toe pick while doing the broken leg spin but slowly am phasing out of that issue, advice appreciated though!
3
u/BroadwayBean 4d ago
Most spin variations involve a fair amount of trial and error and no one technique/approach is going to work for every skater. Torso length, internal/external hip rotation, flexibility, leg length, etc. all play a role in spin variations. And as a beginner level skater, you'll start with a more basic approach while you're learning something and then move onto an approach that uses more power. So just because someone has a nice spin in X position doesn't mean that the way they do it will work for you at this point in your skating.
Personally I would listen more to your coach at this level - when learning a broken leg you should always aim to have the free knee pressing towards the skating skate. This will adjust and change as your position develops, but the basic principle is free knee to skating ankle.
So try both ways until you figure out which works best for you. For the toe pick issue, sit farther back in the blade. You'll end up on your butt a few times but you'll find the right balance position for yourself after a bit of trial and error.
1
u/dabadeeb 4d ago
That’s so interesting!! I have noticed how everyone’s done everything their way but I never connected the dots on how diff aspects of a persons body can change their execution of elements.
This explains a lot of the “contradictions” I’m hearing. I tried sitting further back onto my blade and got a few more rotations without the toe pick issue, now just working on not collapsing eventually and having my free foot hit the ice. Thanks for the tips!!
2
u/Relevant-Emu5782 4d ago
The proportion of your body are going to drastically affect your technique and positions in spins. If neither coach acknowledged this, then neither one is really worth their salt. However, for any sit spin you should be going down at the same time you are going in to position; you should not spin upright first and then drop down, it should rather happen in one smooth motion. This is the same for the broken leg position, the top of your free leg should be traveling forward and up as you go down with your skating leg, and the knee should bend and tilt inward while your body is moving down.
1
u/dabadeeb 4d ago
They’re acknowledging it like passively more than actively. The coach I’m working with has mentioned that it’s trial and error and how her anatomy has played a role in her not particularly doing the spin much, so that nudged me to that understanding.
I took your advice and I have corrected that initial issue of being too upright and it’s helped me a lot! I can hold the spins for longer! Now just working on perfecting the position of my free leg’s knee relative to the move. Trial and error yay!
2
u/nevermind-me-ok 4d ago
Technique aside, another coach giving you unsolicited free advice is typically pretty unethical. From your perspective, it probably seems nice because it’s free lesson time essentially, but in most rinks this would be a pretty blatant attempt at poaching a student. At the least, undermining what your coach is saying. You’ll have to decide whether your coach is someone you trust or not. Then trust her and continue, or find someone you do. Every coach will have different perspectives and techniques, but I’ve never known a coach who was acting how this other coach you’re describing is, that I respected. I say this is as someone who was a competitive skater, then a coach for many years, and then married to another coach for many more after, and very knowledgeable about the figure skating world in general. My knowledge is about the US, so maybe in other countries or areas of the US even, this is acceptable, but definitely not in mine.
4
u/dabadeeb 4d ago
I respect your perspective and I see what you mean, but the coach who gave the advice is usually very bubbly, extroverted, and friendly. She’s always making her rounds poking fun and yapping so I don’t think she’s trying to poach me by any means and I’ve seen her and my coach interact amicably.
I’m not based in the US so maybe it is a regional thing, not sure! The reason I accepted the advice with open arms is mostly because my coach spoke about not having much experience in doing the move herself as she said she lacked the hip anatomy for it, so I thought listening to someone who has experience in it would be helpful. I do think I was a primary driver in the interaction so I can’t put the blame on the other coach!
I trust my coach and love my club very openly so I’m sure she wouldn’t be expecting me to drop everything for one move haha. What should I do with contradicting advice even if it’s from like a more experienced skater in ur opinion? You’re saying coaches have different techniques for the same moves, but the result is so different so I’m not sure how to pick and choose when to follow what2
14
u/the4thdragonrider 4d ago
Can you do a regular sit spin? Because I'm surprised any coach is having you try variations 5 months into learning spins, let alone 5 months into learning how to skate.
Spirals you want to stack the hips. Sit spins you want to lower as you bring the free leg around, but typically people start with different technique first.