Scratch spin traveling?

Hi ~ my first time posting in this subforum.

I'm an adult skater who started recently after being inspired by some awesome competitive skaters

I am trying a scratch spin -- and it's sooooooooo hard to center.

(Video: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkd1Q2Jnc58/?taken-by=jenikooooooo - the second video in this link. It looks more centered in the video but on the ice it's not very centered at all.)

Rewatching the video in slow mo shows me that my hips look quite open especially compared to this instructional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1l74crJTSU.

Also, my knee seems to stick out quite a lot. And I seem to be dropping my right side a bit (I do try to fix it and I think it helps.) And I seem to get noticeably less centered as I pull my legs down.

I tried bringing my knee up and forward before crossing but that just twists my hips because I have to use my hips to pronate my knees and ... well any little bit of force on my hips makes them twist like crazy. I have no idea how to close my hips...other than bringing my free leg forward more but it often leads to me losing my balance. I really need to fix this :sad21:

Does anyone have any advice? :sad21::sad21: Thank you~

What corrections has your coach tried?

karne said:

What corrections has your coach tried?

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A lot. Well we tried not turning out the free leg as much but whenever I try to turn it in or adjust it, it causes my hips to really twist from under me. We also tried standing up straighter in the entry, lifting the right side, and really reaching to the left with both arms. And straightening my free leg and swing around wide and to the side.

It sounds like your coach is on the right track. In skating in general you want to be able to turn out your leg without opening up your hip. You also want to have your free leg a lot higher, and straighten your skating leg sooner. All that will make it easier to center. However it’s not bad as is, especially for a beginner, and all that will come with time if you keep working on it! Upright scratch is actually one of the hardest spins to center.

I would say "push down" and lower your crossed leg sooner than you do in the video and squeeze your legs together. I have open hips and my coach reminds me to squeeze the air out between my thighs...

make sure your shoulders are even (not one a little higher than the other) and pull up through your center of gravity--imagine a pole going up the center of your body right up through the top of your head.

Everyone here has made good suggestions. I'd like to add, scratch spins are way harder than anyone gives them credit for. Looking at your video, your scratch spin is excellent and quite well centered for someone at your level. That doesn't mean it can't get better, but don't lose sight of what you have achieved.

Looking at your video, it looks like your are dropping your right hip ever so slightly, which can cause traveling. I also notice that the opening few rotatiations are on a larger circle, which is extremely difficult to centre. Try rocking forward to your toe pick a little more on your entry to make sure you're spinning on the ball of your foot instead of the heel to create smaller circles.

silver.blades said:

I'd like to add, scratch spins are way harder than anyone gives them credit for.

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100% agreed, centring them is an ongoing battle for me even though my backspin, sit/back sit, camel/back camel all pretty much naturally centre themselves as long as nothing goes drastically wrong. But being the tiniest bit off on my scratch spin sends me traveling across the world, and I've yet to figure out what actually goes wrong most of the time.

Lovely spin!! Just to add on to the advice from jf12 and others about the height and timing of the free leg... You might try thinking of the free leg coming up and over from the thigh, crossing the skating leg in front (a little earlier than in the video), shortly after the edge turns over to start the spin. Once crossed over at knee level, try pushing down through the heel with the free foot flexed and turned slightly out - this helps speed up the spin until the click at the bottom. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Thanks for the responses! Sorry I kind of forgot about this subforum and didn't respond for a while. But all of these responses are super helpful and I can't wait to try them out.

jf12 said:

It sounds like your coach is on the right track. In skating in general you want to be able to turn out your leg without opening up your hip. You also want to have your free leg a lot higher, and straighten your skating leg sooner. All that will make it easier to center. However it’s not bad as is, especially for a beginner, and all that will come with time if you keep working on it! Upright scratch is actually one of the hardest spins to center.

Click to expand...

Thank you! I totally agree. I can try 5 sit spins and they'll all have beautifully centered marks on the ice but my upright spin centering rate is like 30% on a good day and less than 10% on a bad day!

MiraiFan said:

I would say "push down" and lower your crossed leg sooner than you do in the video and squeeze your legs together. I have open hips and my coach reminds me to squeeze the air out between my thighs...

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I have suuuper open hips too! Thanks for your advice. I think when I try to close my knee (so it's not like sticking out) it makes the spin faster but it's hit or miss because sometimes I twist my hips by accident in order to close it.

macy said:

make sure your shoulders are even (not one a little higher than the other) and pull up through your center of gravity--imagine a pole going up the center of your body right up through the top of your head.

Click to expand...

silver.blades said:

Everyone here has made good suggestions. I'd like to add, scratch spins are way harder than anyone gives them credit for. Looking at your video, your scratch spin is excellent and quite well centered for someone at your level. That doesn't mean it can't get better, but don't lose sight of what you have achieved.

Looking at your video, it looks like your are dropping your right hip ever so slightly, which can cause traveling. I also notice that the opening few rotatiations are on a larger circle, which is extremely difficult to centre. Try rocking forward to your toe pick a little more on your entry to make sure you're spinning on the ball of your foot instead of the heel to create smaller circles.

Click to expand...

Yeah I can see where I drop my right side, mostly my shoulder but you're right, the hip is probably actually more relevant to the spin. I keep trying to lift my right shoulder but I should probably actually be focusing on my hips instead. I'll try lifting my hip instead and maybe the shoulder will go with it too haha.

kelliusmaximus said:

100% agreed, centring them is an ongoing battle for me even though my backspin, sit/back sit, camel/back camel all pretty much naturally centre themselves as long as nothing goes drastically wrong. But being the tiniest bit off on my scratch spin sends me traveling across the world, and I've yet to figure out what actually goes wrong most of the time.

Click to expand...

I know, it drives me crazy!

goji said:

Lovely spin!! Just to add on to the advice from jf12 and others about the height and timing of the free leg... You might try thinking of the free leg coming up and over from the thigh, crossing the skating leg in front (a little earlier than in the video), shortly after the edge turns over to start the spin. Once crossed over at knee level, try pushing down through the heel with the free foot flexed and turned slightly out - this helps speed up the spin until the click at the bottom. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Click to expand...

Thank you for your advice! :luv17:

I don’t have anything to add that hasn’t already been said but just remember- scratch spins are way harder than people think. If I had a dollar for every uncentered scratch spin I’d ever done I could probably pay for my skating...