62. Spins: Scratch Spin with Guest Skater Narumi Takahashi (高橋 成美)

We're Kisenian O-Link, four-time U.S. national competitors whose goal is to make Team USA and represent the U.S. at international competitions. We'll share with you what we learned along the way, so let's make this journey together! Hi everyone! Today we have a special guest for you, seven-time Japanese national champion and 2014 Olympic competitor, Narumi Takahashi. Hi everyone! Today we're going to be showing you a new skating element. What are we showing them today? Forward scratch spin. All right, let's do it! After you learn the two-foot to one-foot spin, it's time to learn the one-foot spin entry from a three-turn. You enter the scratch spin from a forward outside three-turn. You have to skate nearly 180 degrees before turning your three-turn. If you turn your three-turn too soon, your spin will travel. However, don't wait too long and force the three-turn. Instead, you should feel your skate going for the turn at the end of your entry edge. Then rise and turn. When doing a spin, you have to have a lot of tension and control in your core, legs, and arms. If you are loose in your body, it will make your spin travel. Tension and control are vital in spins. Establish your spin. Don't pull your arms in right away. You should be centered and spinning before you bring your arms in. You spin over the rocker of your skate, the part that corresponds to where your toes join the foot, the ball of your foot. Don't rock on your blade. Once you feel that you have stabilized your spin, slowly bring your arms and free leg in. Make sure that you're comfortable with doing the forward outside three-turn. If you can't control the three-turn, the spin will fail. It may take a rotation or two to center the spin. When first learning to do the scratch spin, focus on centering the spin from the three-turn entry. It can be difficult to keep the spin centered as you bring your free leg across. Frequently, this is due to the free knee sticking out to the side. Check your hip so that your free leg is angled about 45 degrees between being directly in front or to the side. Keep your hips closed and bring your knee up and in front instead of to the side. Bring your free leg out, knee up, across above the knee, then bring your free leg down tightly. Feel your spin. Is it centered or is it traveling? Keep your shoulders and hips square. That is, don't twist your upper body around your hips. Common mistakes are leaning back, dropping a hip in, dropping a shoulder in, and sticking your hips out. Remember, control and tension are vital in a spin. When you are comfortable with centering the spin, work on bringing the leg across and above the knee. Spins need regular practice. Ideally, you will go over the spins you need every day. When working on a new spin, you may notice that after a while, it starts to get worse. Leave it for that day. Spins can't be gained through brute force. They require focus, control, and finesse. Avoid rocking on the blade as this will end your spin. Avoid getting up on your toe picks as this will make you travel wildly. While these corrections are pretty straightforward and sound relatively simple, there's a catch. Unlike, say, a one-foot glide, where you can do it somewhat correctly and still do a one-foot, albeit shaky glide, a spin has to be done correctly or it will fail. Put simply, there's very little margin for error. Every little mistake seriously affects the spin. Try your hardest to do the spin with the proper technique. Because it isn't the number of times you do it, it's the number of times you do it correctly that count. Another thing to mention is that when learning to spin, you may get really dizzy. This is normal. With regular practice, your body will develop a tolerance to the spinning motion and you won't get dizzy anymore. To find out more about Narumi Takahashi and her Paris partner Ryo Shibata, find them in the description below. We really hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, hit the LIKE button and click on the SUBSCRIBE to subscribe for more videos. Alright, see you next time!