What good are three-turns?

[FigureSpins]

One of my private students exasperatedly asked "What good are three turns anyway?" today during a lesson.  I explained that they turn up in all sort of jumps and spins, plus they're a handy way to change direction without stopping.  I quickly did a toe loop, a forward spin and then a back spin just to show off.  (My feet were cold from standing.)

Just for fun, what would your reply be to the $64 Question*:

What good are three-turns anyway?

* - You're not getting any money for answering; it's from an old game show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_$64,000_Question

[nicklaszlo]

Obvious answer:  They're fun.

They will help you learn all the other turns.

They will help you learn to check.

You need them to pass your moves.

[LilJen]

They are essential to spins.

[VAsk8r]

When I was about 10, my mom taught me to how to cook pasta. I love to cook. I make something with some kind of pasta at least twice a week.

I was going to say 3-turns are the pasta of my skating world, but actually, I'd have to eat pasta every night for that to be true. They're everything. They're the difference between a kid fooling around on public and a kid learning the fundamentals of figure skating.

I was thinking you can't die on a 3-turn the way you can on a mohawk, but then I remembered I have a scar to prove otherwise.

Sometimes kids on public sessions will watch me do a scratch spin and then ask how to do one. I start with, "Well, first you have to learn how to do a 3-turn, and then..." They usually get bored and skate away.

[AgnesNitt]

Help you develop strong edge control, get over your fear of rotation, gain upper body control, and turn you from one direction to the other in a minimum amount of time and space.

[jjane45]

Fun on ice: three turns actually form a number three!!! I took the pleasure to surprise some new skaters with it

It's also the preferred way to change direction for many of my skating friends, although I always use mohawks over three turns. (having an Asian stomach, I understand the importance of pasta to you but eat rice more often, lol)

[aussieskater]

Ain't no European waltz happening without 3turns... (she says still dizzy from today's lesson)

[FigureSpins]

Obvious answer:  They're fun.

I think any Basic 4 skater would disagree with you, lol.

[Skittl1321]

Well, for the most part you have to do either a three turn or a mohawk to get around to the other direction, and I'd sure rather do a 3-turn!

[sk8lady]

My dance coach would have to find at least three new things to shout at me about to make up for all the time he would not be spending shouting at me about my 3-turns!! 

[sampaguita]

1. They make for interesting footwork.
2. They are essential in learning any one-foot spin.
3. They are very often used to generate momentum going into a jump.

[turnip]

I hate three turns at the moment! I can only do them even half deccently anti-clockwise (LFO and RFI), the other way is atrocious! All the turns in my program are mohawks because I can do them at speed (unlike three turns)! But then thye're not nice neat mohawks, they're scrappy with my feet quite far apart.

I like the statement that three turns are the difference between messing around on the ice and learning to skate properly. they're one of the first things that incorporates several skills in one (controlled forwards and backwards edges, checked postition, using a specific part of your blade to turn).

[Doubletoe]

They're the difference between a kid fooling around on public and a kid learning the fundamentals of figure skating.

That's so true!!

[supra]

Oddly enough 3 turns were, and still are, my obsession in skating. That was what drew me into figure skating, seeing a girl fly down the ice at seemingly a gazillion miles an hour, and do a 3 turn and then a jump or something after, and continue flying. I just thought it was amazing, and I was totally baffled to how they were done, and it just became my obsession to learn the 3 turn, I first started in hockey skates, and then got figure skates. But it all started from 3 turns. Now what I'd like to learn to do is learn to power through the turns or go into them with enough speed, so I can do a row of 3 turns down the ice, I can only cover like half of a hockey circle going forward to backward and forward again on 3s. Hardest one to figure out has been left inside to left back outside. Oh man, and then there's brackets after, ooh joy.

Honestly compulsory figures looks really fun, too. The only problem with compulsories is they're for better or worse about as interesting to watch as golf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31-yn9XYq0k
Sometimes I wish I could do that, I remember when I first was trying to learn edges there were times I'd just time myself skating in a hockey circle for 5 or more minutes at a time. Maybe that's why people think I'm nuts, but how else am I supposed to learn those edges?

My "coach" though, was just super duper adamant about edges, my forward edges are decent but my backward ones for the most part suck. But it seems edges are what make skaters good, I remember when I was watching the ISU Championships with me, she was surprised that Patrick Chan won, and not...what's his name with the Matrix routine. Sure, Matrix guy did more jumps, but Patrick Chan simply flowed a LOT better.

But 3 turns are the best, though.

[itsallok]

To me, 'real' dances are the ones in waltz hold with 3-turns in them - they are (I think) the most elegant to watch, and there's a buzz to whirling round, and also an intimacy to them (with the dancers are facing each other). 

It's a shame, I think, how far you have to go down the dance route nowadays before you encounter them (too many kilian dances!).

[Skittl1321]

It's a shame, I think, how far you have to go down the dance route nowadays before you encounter them (too many kilian dances!).

The willow waltz is on only the Bronze test.  Yes, there are a number of killian dances before it- but for most people, those 3-turns in waltz hold are pretty difficult.  The tests before it help you learn the skills needed to work your way up in dance. (I've never done willow in hold, but individually, I prefer it to the Rhythm blues!)

[icedancer]

I think Itsallok is talking more about the dances like the European and American where the dancers are doing a lot of 3-turns and the whole thing gets kind of "lilt-y" - waltz hold comes up first in the Swing Dance which I like because it is not such a hard dance and you can socialize with your partner while you are skating...

The Willow Waltz doesn't really have that quality although it builds on the whole waltz hold theme that starts with Swing and Hickory, moves through the Ten-Fox, diverts as you learn Foxtrot hold in the Foxtrot (which has both waltz and Foxtrot holds) - etc.

The dances do build on one another!!!

[Skittl1321]

I think Itsallok is talking more about the dances like the European and American where the dancers are doing a lot of 3-turns and the whole thing gets kind of "lilt-y"

Yes, I love those big series of 3-turns.  They would be impossible to put low in the test structure.  That beautiful, "effortless" 3-turning is HARD.

The Swing dance doesn't have any 3-turns in it, does it?  It is the first waltz hold, but I think to do a 3-turn in waltz hold, you have to get to Willow...

[jjane45]

In swing dance you three turn into the waltz hold, which is quite hard on the timing...

[icedancer]

In swing dance you three turn into the waltz hold, which is quite hard on the timing...

That's in the intro which can be any combination of steps and is not part of the actual dance - you can do a mohawk if that is easier for you... 

I saw a VERY high level skater (former world level ice dancer from another country living and coaching here and going through USFS test structure) do a mohawk instead of a 3-turn in the intro of the Paso recently and I was a little shocked although the dance was almost completely flawless...

[sarahspins]

The Swing dance doesn't have any 3-turns in it, does it?

No, it's just mohawks.