b.russell paradox

One of my goals for this coming season is to put more work on change-foot
spins - I want them before I am 100!
On the change sit, I started working on the "pivot" foot change
transition; although I think this works somewhat better
consistency-wise than just hopping from one foot to the other I
tend to get too far back on the blade (and then trying to compensate by
leaning forwards too much -not pretty)

Has anyone tips on the transition? I have a video
http://smb.slac.stanford.edu/~ana/FILMS/changesit.mpg

Ana
--
Maintainer of the recreational skating FAQ: http://home.pacbell.net/anamga

jmdjeanne

<< Subject: Need change sit spin help >>

<< Has anyone tips on the transition? >>

I like the control of the forward sit, that's nicely done. On the transition
it's recommended that a compulsory figure or MITF push is used. You may like
the ISU spin tape, not too expensive. I know when I push into my 3 turns in the
field I have better control of the edges. Probably easier said than done for
the sit spin change, however.

Jeanne

kay

Worked on this for years. Here are things that helped me. First, forward sit
could be faster. This will help your b-sit. Get into the sit position during
the first rotation of your spin. Investing in this skill will be very
valuable to any sit combo you learn and will make your forward sit very
fast, plus you will be able to get down lower.

Next, transition is too prolonged. Your movements seem fine, but it is too
slow. You have to get that wide sweep to happen very quickly and powerfully.
IMO, I see too much hesitiation. This decreases the speed of the b-sit and
ultimately causes you to rotate on a FI edge. If your bsit is weak, try
doing it from a back camel. This transition preserves speed and allows a
good straight free leg position in the bsit. The flip-over of the hip from
camel to sit gives a good snap into the bsit. You will gain speed through
this transition whether you want to or not.

Kay
http://www.skatejournal.com

b.russell paradox

Thanks for the help!

About the push into the backspin, I think that it is supposed to be one
advantage to use the "pivot" change, but it is true that usually I'm more
concerned about keeping my balance than pushing (can only think about one
thing at one time :-( . I will try concentrating on the push itself and
see how it works!

Improving the forward spin: Yep, I'm working on snapping into position
faster. On the other hand, when I work on the change spin I find that I
can work more efficiently on the backsit part if I keep the forward spin
conservative (although I don't think so far I can get a lot faster than in
the video, I can get it lower, but then I usually end up literally
spinning on my back on the backspin :-(.
I'm hoping that the "trickle down" theory will work here and as the
gung-ho forward spin gets better and more consistent in isolation, the
improvement will start to show up in the combinations.

Accelerating the transition: That also sounds like a good suggestion.
Probably also ties up with thinking more about pushing and less about where my
weight is...

Starting from the back camel: Mmmm...not great hopes there, but I'll try
it just for fun :-) I usually struggle with the back camel exit and only
manage to snap into a backspin about 30% of the times (which is pretty
good because not so long ago it used to be close to 0...). Trying the back
sit instead may make the difficult easier by trying the impossible
:-)

Ana
--
Maintainer of the recreational skating FAQ: http://home.pacbell.net/anamga

sal_chow

Ana,

Great! I'm sure you'll get it waaay before you are 100!

The change, as Kay pointed out, needs to be quicker and more powerful.
Also, in the clip the push to the backspin ended with your free leg
too high, and seemed to throw you off. (wonder if you also think about
keeping the knee of the free leg below the skating knee) Nevertheless,
looks like you got the concept right.

I also noticed that in the clip, you held your free leg very
straight... My coach would say that my free leg is "too straight" in
my back-sit. Her point is not to wrap it around, but to keep the free
boot straight in front of the skating boot (and that certainly cannot
be done with a locked knee). This helps hold the center and stabilize
the spin. Apparently I do it for the forward sit, but not for the
back-sit.

Question for all: I'm also curious, how far away should one step for
the change? I have tried wide-step, as well as narrow step, but now I
just, uh, step... (no thinking involved!)

Cheers,
Chow

kay

JMO, but when you get to the point that no thinking is involved, you have
the skill down, assuming you are getting good results.

Kay
http://www.skatejournal.com