Figure skating spin specialist Charyl Brusch begins a multi-part series of videos on centering spins. In this video she begins by explaining that she uses a “process” to teach centering, and she uses basically the same process for both beginners and more advanced skaters. She starts by drawing an entire circle on the ice, using a hockey line to bisect it down the middle. Then she returns to the “top” of the circle (where is returns to the hockey line) and draws a “loop” as if the skater were performing a forward outside loop. She then marks a spot about halfway up the loop edge, and this spot is where she wants the skater to perform the forward outside three turn that initiates the spin.
Next Charyl demonstrates how to start on the hockey line with the inside arm in front, pushing with a pump from the outside foot and gliding around the circle on two feet in a kind of side or hockey lunge. Most of the skater’s weight is on the inside foot or forward foot in the lunge. The next phase of her process is repeating this glide but now trying to follow the loop entrance, still remaining on two feet. She says, “As that edge is diminishing into the circle I’m getting a little more pressure on my ankle and I’m rolling to the ball of my foot a little bit more.”
Although Charyl next demonstrates a two foot loop, most beginner skaters will not have enough control for this and it isn’t necessary. Instead, she has them use the entry while remaining on two feet to create the three turn on the inside foot and start to spin. Notice how this looks similar to a forward pivot, although she is not on her toe pick. Charyl emphasizes that the back inside edge of the spinning foot is not a “heavy” inside edge, but rather a “subtle” inside edge. She says, “Now I started to spin without even trying by just knowing how to do a forward outside three turn.”
Once a skater can do this, Charyl turns it into a two foot spin by focusing on bringing the “outside” arm and leg around and in. The outside foot “goes out (and then) pigeon toe.” In the video Charyl mispeaks about where the weight is on each blade in a two foot spin. She means to say her weight is on the front of her left foot and back of her right foot (for CCW spinners). [Left foot is gliding backwards near the ball of the foot, while the right foot is gliding forward further back on the blade.] She then finishes with a simple one foot spin by following the same progression but lifting the right foot after the two foot spin starts.
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