Off Ice Spinner

[myhoneyhoney]

My spins are awful so I'm thinking of getting one of those off ice spinners. Can you recommend one? Is there a difference between the Edea and other spinner boards?

Also, I will be practicing in the backyard patio. I plan on purchasing a plywood or MDF board to lay over the patio concrete ground. Should I get linoleum to lay over the board too? Any advice is appreciated

 

[GarrAargHrumph]

I have one of the Edea spinners. It works well, it's not hugely expensive, and it's super portable. It also comes with bunnies on it, or fish, or...

If it's typical plywood, I think you'd need to put actual flooring of some sort on it. Otherwise, it'll be too rough to spin smoothly, and you'll get splinters when you come off the spinner onto it. What I think would work well is an MDF board, because that's smoother than plywood. You may find you don't need to put anything on top of the MDF in order for it to work for your purposes. If you find you do need something on it for your spinner to go well, you can either throw two coats of polyurethane on it, or apply flooring tiles/lino.

I've found that practicing on my spinner is helping my on ice spins massively. I'm taking an off ice spins class via here, if you're interested. It's only $10.

 

[bladesofgorey]

I have two kinds of spinners- the edea and a ballet spinner that's a plastic arc similar to this photo . There's positives and negatives to each- the edea was much more expensive and I can spin tons of revolutions on it (10-12) and the other spinner was a lot cheaper and I can only spin about 6-7 revolutions on it at the most. However, I find on the edea spinner I am not spinning close to the ball of my foot and my foot pressure shifts around during long spins, whereas on the ballet spinner my weight stays near the ball of my foot the whole time. So I think for practicing things like getting used to quick rotations in the air and air positions for jumps Edea is the winner- but for practicing finding a balance point in spins and staying there the ballet spinner is better even if the rotations aren't as fast or as many.

Another note- I am talking about backspins in the above observations. I cannot do a forward spin for more than a revolution or two with either of these tools, which is also funny since I have a much better backspin position on these than I do on the ice. I think they are useful though regardless of which you go with. Smooth MDF might work for it- linoleum probably will let both spin faster although I'd be worried about it slipping out from under my foot more easily. I use both of these on wood floors myself.

 

[overedge]

When we moved into our house, we found a sample square (about 18" by 18") of the kitchen countertop material that had been left behind during renovations. I use that for my spinner. It works really well - it's some kind of laminate, and like @GarrAargHrumph suggests, it's smooth enough to get a good spin going, but not so smooth that you fly off it.

 

[Theoreticalgirl]

I have Kim Ryan's Spinergy board that I picked up after taking one of her clinics:

Purple Spinboard

Spinergy Spinboard The fun and EFFECTIVE way to continue your on-ice spin training off-ice … anytime, anywhere.

www.kimspinergy.com

What I have found helpful is not so much the board itself, but rather the technique she uses to teach spinning on it.

 

[antmanb]

I don't find my spinner useful at all. For one - I can backspin easily on the spinner but can't even get one revolution on the ice so the spinner is not making me have my weight and pressure where it needs to be in a skate. This is also true for forward spins which I literally cannot do on the spinner, but I have passable basic position forward spins on the ice.

If you have the money to burn then there's no harm getting one and playing around with it, but if there's something else you could buy with the money I'd not bother.

 

[Theoreticalgirl]

I have to agree @antmanb. There's just no substitute for the ice in this regard.

 

[myhoneyhoney]

Thanks for all the great information, everyone! I'm only a beginner but really suck. Hahaha. I will try the ballet one first along with a square mdf board. Maybe I should invest in those foam floor covers in case I scrub big time

 

[GarrAargHrumph]

Thanks for all the great information, everyone! I'm only a beginner but really suck. Hahaha. I will try the ballet one first along with a square mdf board. Maybe I should invest in those foam floor covers in case I scrub big time

Do you have a coach or a lesson teacher? If so, bring your spinner to the rink and ask if they'll show you how to use it for your basic spins.

 

[myhoneyhoney]

Do you have a coach or a lesson teacher? If so, bring your spinner to the rink and ask if they'll show you how to use it for your basic spins.

Yes, that's a great idea! I'll take it to my lesson once I receive it. Thank you

 

[antmanb]

@myhoneyhoney just one more question I would ask (since i'm generally quite negative about of ice spinners!) - is the issue you have with spins more about the actual technique of getting them going on the ice or do you struggle because of dizziness/fear of rotating quickly? I ask because a friend of mine had a good technique getting spins going on the ice but she always chickened out because she was scared of the general feeling of spinning and getting a spinner helped her used to the motion of spinning so her on ice spins got better.

 

[myhoneyhoney]

@myhoneyhoney just one more question I would ask (since i'm generally quite negative about of ice spinners!) - is the issue you have with spins more about the actual technique of getting them going on the ice or do you struggle because of dizziness/fear of rotating quickly? I ask because a friend of mine had a good technique getting spins going on the ice but she always chickened out because she was scared of the general feeling of spinning and getting a spinner helped her used to the motion of spinning so her on ice spins got better.

Other than being a newbie with spins, I'm a CHICKEN! Terrified. I danced and cheered for years, spinning/turn 4's are no problems and I don't get dizzy. My instructor thinks it's mental because she's watched me do dance spins on the floor, centering/spotting/etc are all fine. Ugh.

 

[syzygy]

I find they're much more useful for practicing position in spins and being confident in spins. I love mine. If your problem is unrelated to pressure on the foot then it's amazing, but if you struggle with your spinning foot doing something wrong, they're useless and teach bad technique.

I'm sure in your case it will be a major help.