PSA: Spinning in the other direction (IJS spin feature)

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axelwylie:
I competed in an IJS event this past weekend and learned something from the tech panel regarding spinning in the other direction. Sadly, my spin ended up getting dashed, but I wanted to educate everyone on an IJS spin rule/clarification that wasn’t super clear to begin with.

Here’s what I learned:

According to ISU communication 2558, which is still in effect this season, a skater can earn a feature if they execute a spin in the opposite direction (as long as it immediately follows the spin in the “normal” direction for that skater). What this rule doesn’t clarify is that if a skater executes this spin, it is considered a CHANGE FOOT SPIN. Because the skater changes feet for this feature, it will receive a code for the respective change foot spin.

Example: a skater does an USp and immediately does an USp the other direction. The code it will receive is a CUSp. Same goes for a CSp to opposite direction CSp and SSp to opposite direction SSp (they will be coded as CCSp and CSSp, respectively). A combo spin with a position in the opposite direction (assuming the skater executed the same position on their “normal” foot) will receive a CCoSp code.

The reason why my spin was dashed is because we didn’t realize it would be coded as a change foot spin. I already executed a CCoSp earlier in the program, and because my final spin had the same code, the final spin received no value.

Please don’t let this happen to you and I hope you share this with others!

AlbaNY:
Excellent to know. Thanks for pointing it out.

(Not that I expect to compete much anymore, but for everyone.)
I just saw a coach in Romania having her swarm of skaters working on back spins in both directions one after another. I haven’t seen that before and generally was discouraged about doing both ways by coaches personally.

Christy:
Thanks for the info. Does this mean that we can actually do a CCW spin then follow with a CW spin as a Change Foot Spin?

axelwylie:
Yes, as long as you do the same type of spin immediately following each other (meaning it has to be a camel to a camel, a sit to a sit or an upright to an upright). You won’t be awarded the feature if you do different types of spins (like a camel in one direction to a sit in the other direction).