How To Learn The Toe Spin On Roller Skates

So let's talk about the TOTO SPIN. This is a really fun one and it's actually one of the very few times in skating that the wheels want to spin. But before we start you need to make sure that you have a really good TOTO manual. So we'll cover those quickly and don't forget you need your helmet and your knee pads because it's quite easy to fall forwards on this one and you also need your... ah hang on a second... wrist guards. So I have got an entire video on manuals. Link. But I am going to cover just a couple of points. So now I'm going to cover a couple of points. I'm wearing no toe stops however you can do this spin with toe stops as well. So it's really really important to get this TOTO manual. So for one you know how far you can balance before you tip onto your toe and even more importantly when you've got toe stops in you need to know how far you can tip forward before your toe stop touches. You need to know muscle memory where that toe stop is. Once you've unlocked a really solid TOTO manual then we can look at doing a spin. Let's spin. If you're here it probably means that you've spun before but if you haven't do go and check out the two foot spin video which is a heel toe manual because it's a good place to start. Link. As with everything it's all about the shoulders. So first of all you need to decide which direction you want to rotate in. So if you're going to rotate to the right this shoulder is going to be pushing pushing and this is going to be pushing like that and the other way vice versa. So this is pushing and this is pushing like that. And don't forget bring your arms in as well will really help to tighten that spin up. When I'm going for the TOTO spin I tend to start off on the two feet flat and then as I gain a little bit momentum I then go up. Now as you get better you can just start from the TOTO if you want to but I do find that this gives me a little bit of security and gives me time to balance myself and get up onto the TOTO manual position. I'm going to spin clockwise so this shoulder is going to push me around and so is this one so this movement is going to take me round. I'm going to start with my arms out my feet wide and remember when spinning what gives you that momentum is pulling everything in. So I'm going to pull my feet together and I'm going to pull my shoulders and my arms in like this. So I normally do about one rotation and then once I start to feel the spin happening I then go up into the TOTO position. So at the beginning I'd explain why this actually wants to happen. My theory is you're going up on your toe and you're focusing the weight like a ballerina down onto just your toes and it feels like there's almost less weight, less contact with the floor and that spin just wants to happen. So we can use the fact that the wheels want to spin and there's a bit of a cheat with this one so let me show you. As I've said when you spin you start wide and pull in which is a pump so you can do that to spin round and round. You can do the same thing in the TOTO manual and it just kind of happens. How cool is that? You have to keep a lot of tension in your legs, in your calves and then I'm balancing with my arms, I'm pushing my shoulders. The whole thing is an incredibly delicate balancing act so don't get too frustrated with yourself. This takes a lot of confidence and a lot of strength. It will take time to get this. Although you can do this with your toe stops in, I actually find it a little bit harder because there's less margin for error. You have to really balance and there's a very small bit of wheel you can use. Without the toe stops you've got a lot more space to manoeuvre and room to save it. I'm Dizzy, you've been watching Skatey and I'll see you next time!