Figure skating, do spinners help?

Question

For those of you who figure skate did/do you use spinners off the ice to help you learn how to spin? If so, did it help? And what brand do you think is best?

Answer 1

i've  never tried them, some people seem to get results and others dont, i guess it varies.

i'm going with the practice makes perfect approach. in the mean time i find wearing tights and spinning on carpet or woodden floors works really well lol! :D

good luck!

Answer 2

ummm... well im not really sure....but i do figure skate and i take lessons, im in intermediate and i have my own skates that i got 3 months ago. but i have never used spinners off ice or on ice! ive never even heard of them! my coach just shows us the right way of how to spin! and that just helps us do it easily! like 2 foot spins! but scratch spins, and camel spins, etc. are in higher levels and my rink barely requires you to use spinners, cuz we just learn how to like they teach you! and i think spinners are for people who can barely get what the coaches are trying to teach them! and if using spinners is easier for you, then go ahead, do it!

Answer 3

Honestly I've used one before and yes they are not the same feeling or anything, but I've found that the balance is completely different from what you are doing it on a spinner rather than when you are doing it on ice, and after doing several off ice sessions with a spinner I actually started to struggle with my spins on the ice because the ones on the spinner are so much different then actually doing them on the ice. I've found that there are better exercises that I can do off of the ice rather than using the spinner.

Answer 4

I had the plastic rectangle one:

http://www.rainbosports.com/shop/site/pr...

It did NOT help me - but that's me.  It gave me (sort of) the feeling of what a spin feels like . . . but it's totally different from the feeling of spinning on the ice.  I think spin entrances are crucial to getting good spins . . . and you can't do "entrances" on this spinner.  So, I put the spinner away (I think it made a great door stop!) and just practiced on the ice.  It took patience, but I eventually got the hang of spinning.  

Here's what this article has to say about it - it's interesting as it also gives you other exercises you can do with it.

http://stason.org/TULARC/sports/recreati...