HOW TO DO A SCRATCH SPIN || OFF-ICE TRAINING | Coach Michelle Hong

Hey guys, it's Coach Michelle Hong. This week we are going to be working on spin technique for Skate with Michelle. And today's spin of the day is going to be the scratch spin. So before we get into the nitty gritty of how to do this spin, we're going to start out with the four main key positions that you need to nail before actually executing the spin. So, step one. The key position is your entrance. I'm going to place my feet in a T position with my skating foot leading. And then I'm going to place my skating arm in front with my right arm to the side. And then I'm going to step as if I'm going to stroke into an outside edge and hold this position as done. So this is our entrance. You're pretending you're going on an outside edge. But when we're doing it on the ground, you want to stabilize your frame, right? My left shoulder is leading. My free arm is back. And my extension is at a 45-ish degree angle so that my leg is an extension of my ear as I hold this edge. Step two. I'm going to paint a circle. I'm going to paint a half circle with my free leg as if there's paint on the tip of my toes. And I'm going to paint a circle as I'm standing on a bent knee. And then I'm going to go straight into my V position. Now, why is this called a V position? Because if I place my arms out like this, I'm creating a V with my frame. And as you can see, my free arm and my free leg are in one line as if there's a string pulling my free leg up with my hand. So let's do those two steps together once again. T-position. Skating arm in front. And I'm going to glide on an outside edge. Hold. Paint a picture as I lift into my V. And once I'm in my V, I'm going to place my free foot. The heel is going to touch the top of my kneecap. And as I slide down to have my ankles touch, my arms come together as so. Okay? So now I'm going to face you and try that all again. Step one. Entrance. Step two. V. Step three. Knee. And you should be spinning rapidly at this place. And now you're going to accelerate by pulling everything together. So when you spin, you are able to activate your muscles because the resistance from the air is pushing against your arms. And you have to snap and pull against the centrifugal force for you to stand tall. And that's when you accelerate into the spin. Okay? And you want to make sure that your knee doesn't open up as so. You want to keep your heels close together so you can create an airtight position with your legs. No open hips. No gap between your thighs. No gap between your calves. Try to squeeze tight. Okay? And then I'm going to show you what it's like to do the entrance from a backward crossover. We're going to pretend we're going in a circle as so. Push. Cross. Push. Cross. So let's review. For those that are spinning towards the left, you're going to do backward crossovers with your left arm leading. And for those of you who are spinning towards the right, you're going to do backward crossovers with your right arm leading. So with that out of the way, we're going to go push. Cross extension. Push. Cross. And on my last crossover for my setup, I'm going to create a twist with my upper body and I'm going to wind up as so. Okay? That's how I like to enter. I'm going to create this twist with my body so that I can place my heels together as I'm still gliding on an inside edge. And then I'm going to take my left arm and I'm going to go into that entrance that we did when we first started doing our positions. And I'm going to step as if I'm on a curve. And then I'm going to go on my knee. And then I'm going to do knee. And snap everything together. And ankles together. And lamp. Fantastic. So let's put that all together. And what I'm going to do next is that I'm going to hop in the spin. Okay? So for those of you who have spinners at home, you are more than welcome to use your spinners at this time. I want to break down the positions first in this Skate with Michelle series because I think it's really important to get down the nitty gritty of the basics. I see all too often that skaters are able to visualize all these amazing beautiful spins because they see people doing them on Instagram and on Facebook and all over the internet. But how do we get to that point, right? The baby steps to get to that point is essential. We don't just jump into a double axel right away. We start with a wall strut. So same with this. Okay. So we're going to push and cross. Push and cross. I'm looking in the direction of my crossovers. So when I'm prepping for my windup, I'm going to go from looking inside the circle, as so, to turning my shoulders and my head to look towards the outside of the circle. Now from the windup, you're going to go into a T position with your feet so that you can step on the clean outside edge as you enter your forward outside entrance. And I'm going to use my skating arm. I'm going to go push and create a circle to be able to engage and create that V. You're going to snap your knee over. And then we're going to start to rotate. Let's hop here. And squeeze. As so. And if you want to practice maintaining that tight position, stay in a standstill as so. Put your feet together until you're a little one foot spin. And then you're going to bend and push out. Fantastic. So that is how you do the scratch spin. And I think it's very important to nail down these basics before starting them on the spinner. So with that being said, I love you all so much. Thank you for staying tuned. And I'll see you in the next episode of Skate With Michelle. Bye.