Sit Spin In Ice Skating Tips – Part 1 (Charyl Brusch)

Spin specialist Charyl Brusch explains how she teaches a sit spin. Right from the beginning, Charyl focuses on the position and she uses a 4 step process: press down on the hands, stick out the butt, press on the toes, and drop straight down on two feet with the hands really close to the knees, head up, and back arched. Charyl demonstrates this with two skaters to make it clear.

Charyl says, “When you’re doing a sit spin, it’s really important that you get your shoulders over your skating knee.” This is a valuable tip as many skaters don’t press forward enough with their upper body so they can never balance properly in the desired position. Charyl draws a picture of what she wants.

Note that she wants the skaters bottom to be level with their knee, and she wants the back arched and hands down. She notes that sit spin position is somewhat dependent on body type. She feels the sit spin is harder for skaters with longer legs and easier for those with shorter legs.

Next she discusses the entrance. She uses the same entrance as on the scratch spin. She demonstrates the gliding entrance position with her skater. Charyl wants the free leg to come around high. She likes the skater to bring the free leg in front and then drop it.

Charyl notes that many coaches teach the skater to start sitting while they are bringing the leg around. But Charyl prefers bringing the leg around first and then sitting quicker as she feels it reduces traveling. (Note that she does not want the skater to come up out of the skating knee. She simply wants them to keep their knee bend until the foot comes in front before pressing down. Charyl clarifies this in a future video.) She wants the free leg to come around with the leg straight at the knee, and then a slight knee bend when the free foots in front to help get a nice turn-out. Charyls says, “I want your right foot on your left side” for skaters that spin to the left.

Charyl wants the hands right in front of the skating knee and not between the knees. She discusses another helpful tip with her skater to keep the free leg behind longer to prevent the shoulders from releasing early.

When teaching skaters to come up out of a sit spin, Charyl wants them to bring their elbows up and their free knee up at the same time. She doesn’t want them to “stand up” but rather she says, “I want them to come up sitting forward. So they’re kind of coming up at an angle. It lifts them right up off their toe.”

At the end of the video, Charyl discusses the desired relative position of the legs and whether the knees should be together or apart. Charyl wants the free knee slightly below the skating knee and the thighs squeezing together. Charyl notes that it’s extremely important that the free hip does not drop.