Figure skating specialist coach Sheila Thelen beings a series of videos discussing the ins and outs of the technology and practical usage of stationary off-ice harnesses and electric spinners. Sheila is the President of Champion Skating Harnesses, LLC and has a vast knowledge of this technology and it’s uses, with additional emphasis on the non-skating benefits of this technology through her company Vestibular Training Services, LLC. This series of videos was taken in Sheila’s off-ice training space at the Shakopee Ice Arena in Minnesota where she works with skaters of the Go4Gold Skating Academy.
Sheila begins this video by discussing the importance of a good fit for the body harness or belt part of the stationary harness system. She shows a tip for certain body harness designs where it’s possible to fold in the flaps of the body harness to allow it to fit smaller skaters, thereby reducing the need for keeping multiple body harnesses on hand. She also shows a smaller body harness designed specifically for smaller skaters (as light as 20 pounds), and again emphasizes the need for a good fit.
After getting her demonstrating skater up on the electric spinner platter (already being in the overhead harness), Sheila talks about safety and how not everyone using these tools is using them safely. She cautions coaches and parents against having skaters spin on the electric spinner without the added safety feature of the overhead harness. She acknowledges the Instagram videos showing this usage of the spinner, but notes that it’s a very small number of athletes in those videos who have mastered this without injury, while there are lots of other athletes who have been injured, sometimes severely, by falling off the spinner. She suggests taking safety seriously and not trying to get too creative about how to use this equipment.
Finally she talks about some of the training benefits and practical considerations of using this equipment. She explains, “What we want to do is… get her (the skater) to organize herself, get her core strength, get her vestibular system inside her ears, get her brain going” when using the electric spinner. This all happens even before the skater is lifted in the stationary harness to work on skating jump air position. Sheila also says, “I like to compare the abs or abdominal muscles to wearing a big old belt buckle… and as you go up you’re going to feel like you’re pulling that belt buckle into your body.”
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