Spins on Quads and with spin-trainer plates. Tips?
I started spinning in November of 2019. I've made major progress, now. I do them from the upright position almost all the time, though. Right now I can nail 10-20 revolutions with the first 5 in the first 1-second of my spin (so with some speed, but not pro-level). I feel a bit plateaued right now on my spins. Anyone want to relate how they worked into Camel spins or how I can perfect my balance while doing 1-foot spins? I can't seem to get more than two revs on one foot and they are sloppy. However, I can't really figure out how to practice it safely, either.
I can tell those who haven't spun yet how I figure them out (keep in mind I'm just a loner with no coaches etc.. my only advantage is 10-14 hours a week on skates). What I did was to start by doing front-to-back transitions but then allowing my skate to continue to travel around in a circle. At first I did this just standing, with no roll. Once I could go past the 180' around to about 220' I gave myself a tiny bit of forward roll. Then I'd do a front-to-back transition and use the outside edge of my skate to brake some of the forward momentum and convert the rest into angular momentum. That was a bit scary. It took a minute to get over that fear of tipping backwards and to trust my balance.
Once I could that I found that the "circular transition" as I thought of it could be slowed down a bit more and allow me to just rotate. As I slowed it down almost to a stop again, I found out, yep, that works. So, I practiced that a lot just focused on increasing the speed and fluidity of the motion. After I started spinning for real, then went through the same process reversing directions (clockwise vs counterclockwise rotation). That also took me longer than it should.
I laugh when n00bs tell me I am a good skater. The only difference between them and myself is that I know enough to know what a good skater actually is (ie... not me). They just think it's cool to see someone spin and dance on skates at all.
Comments
I almost forgot to mention that I also got some Edea trainer plates and I can spin on them, but I'm not so sure it's translating to skating for me. Any tips with those or are they only for ice skaters?
Oh those spinners are great. I used them to learn spinning on inline, quad and ice skates. My son and I call it the human hamster wheel, because it's so much fun.
It really does help
Since I do freestyle this is where I may be able to help a lot. For transitioning into camel spins or sit spins, it's important to have the strength to hold those positions while standing (impossible to spin if you don't have the strength to hold them without skates). I actually made a whole video series on exercises and also stuff with the spinner for my artistic club to use during quarantine, I'll link it to you.
As for the spinning trainers, I have one and use it occasionally. They are great for training air position in jumps, as well as the spin axis and spin features. The Edea ones are not perfect but the bottom is shaped such that you can SLIGHTLY press the desired edge. It's too small for my foot though, and I'm only a 9 in Riedell (280 Edea).
Overall in order to give any corrections I would absolutely have to see what you're currently doing in both the uprights and when you attempt any other position, there are so many things that can potentially go wrong which is why it's better just to see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im9fjS7wL30&list=PLscS-OpqW8Tu-1MLVMsreSLxOxVrcM_ua