Is it normal to have a hip so closed that one can barely do an inside spread eagle? | Golden Skate

Is it normal to have a hip so closed that one can barely do an inside spread eagle?

Xstatic

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
Is it normal to have a hip so closed that one can barely do an inside spread eagle?

My turn out is probably 100-110 degrees. No matter how much I stretched, I couldn't get any further than that. Now, there's this person I met online who claims he has closed hips and has been giving me advice on how to manage skating with closed hips, apparently is able to do an inside spread eagle. I was confused at that, this means his hips are NOT entirely closed as mine is. So I thought, are my hips abnormal?

When I try to do an inside spread eagle, the circle is very VERY small that I can't even manage to hold the spread eagle because I would appear as if I'm spinning and I'm going really fast.

So, my question is, are my hips unusually too closed?
 

silver.blades

Medalist
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Country
Canada
Not particularly. I don't have the turnout to do an inside spread eagle either and no amount of stretching will change that. What can be done however is learn to fake it, but you'll unfortunately never be able to do a sustained one. I'd go for the ina bauer. It's easier to do with closed hips because the knee bend can help to compensate for the lack of turnout.
 

treesprite

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Even when I was a kid I didn't have open enough hips to do a spreadeagle, but had a nice Ina Bauer (not anymore!)
 

hanca

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
I have very closed hips. I have been stretching every day for three years and I am nowhere near to spread eagle, or to Ina Bauer. And the more I am trying to push it, the more I am destroying my hips and knees. Up to date I had two surgeries on my left knee, one surgery on my right knee and one surgery on my left hip. I am pretty certain that I will never have spread eagle or Ina Bauer, no matter how much work I put into it. But one has to be realistic. I will never have triples (or even doubles) either, so does it really matter that I won't have spread eagle and Ina Bauer? It is not like if I could get some extra points for having them. I can concentrate on elements that I can have, and there is plenty of those. No worries that I would run out of things to learn.
 
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