Nick Perna and Sheila Thelen conduct a spin class for advanced skaters. This is a long video and it’s filled with many tidbits of helpful information.
Nick and Sheila start off with the layback spin. You’ll see some fantastic layback positions to model. Nick also talks about the “sweet spot” for spinning to have nearly silent and frictionless spins. After layback, they go on to sit spin and camel spin as well.
Nick brings up an important concept that can be copied at every rink. By keeping a record of the longest spins and the longest jumps in distance, it’s very motivational for skaters to work on these aspects of spinning and jumping. Here’s some of the numbers he shares throughout the video:
Layback spin at Fairfax: 35 revolutions Upright scratch/back spin at Fairfax: 70 revolutions World record upright spin: 102 revolutions (see video below) Camel spin at Fairfax: 25 revolutions (15 year old record) Back camel spin at Fairfax: 25 revolutions Camel spin in US: 32 revolutions Outside camel spin at Fairfax: 10 revolutions (one of the demonstrators below gets 15!) Nick makes a great point that working on spin speed and total duration is a great exercise because it helps a skater get IJS features faster (to save precious program time). It also conserves speed which makes changing positions that much easier. Not to mention the fact that fast spins get higher GOE scores.
Nick and Sheila also talk about the forward outside camel. There are some great demonstrations in the video! Most skaters move well back on blade to do a forward outside camel but Nick notices that one of the demonstrators stays more forward on the blade. He notes that this allows her to spin on a smaller circle which is more efficient. Nick compares it to staying forward on the blade during a forward outside figure loop. (Bobbe Shire echoes the idea of moving forward on the blade to get a smaller and faster forward outside spin elsewhere on this website.)
WARNING: I’ve heard stories of skaters that had fabulous forward outside camel spins in IJS competitions, but they didn’t get any credit for it because they were spinning so fast and so far forward on the blade and the circles were so small that the technical panel missed the call. Ouch!
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2 responses to “Figure Skating Spins: Advanced Spins (Nick Perna and Sheila Thelen)”
Enjoyed the video but was disappointed in lack of instruction. Talked too much about breaking records. Loved the first layback with leg position.
Layback at 3:30 looked like 31 revs! Awesome! Would love to see a brain scan right after that! 🙂