Spin direction: choosing btwn CW and CCW?

I'm an adult beginning freestyle skater, started skating about two years ago. I'm currently working on my loop jump and scratch spin.

My original rotational direction was "assessed" by a skater friend who taught me how to waltz jump; she asked me to just do a two-foot spin from a standstill, and I turned CW... In general, I still feel much more comfortable rotating clockwise than the "normal" counterclockwise. I am right-handed but semi-ambidextrous with my left hand, at least compared to friends who can't even write poorly with their left hand.

So... I'm a righty who skates like a lefty, problem solved? BUT, I have had multiple skating instructors comment with surprise that my form looks better/stronger on my "wrong" side (the CCW side). My left outside 3-turn is stronger than my right outside 3-turn, for example; I've always struggled with my salchow and spin entries. Less of a difference on toe loop, which is my favorite jump. I've finally started landing my CW loop after two months of work.

In today's lesson my private freestyle coach looked at my CCW waltz and salchow. Even though I'm underrotating the sal, he seems to think that my CCW entry and takeoff are already stronger, and that I should consider switching directions and retraining my brain to rotate in my physically dominant direction.

I'm going to practice the CCW elements some more to see how comfortable I can get with them, but 1) I'm dreading relearning everything in the other direction, especially the loop, and 2) my brain doesn't want to rotate CCW! If you ask me to spin around on dry land, 100% of the time I will go CW. On the other hand, having better control of my form should help me learn jumps more easily. My goal is to get an axel eventually.

If you were in my position--stronger muscles for CCW rotation, natural brain inclination for CW rotation--which direction would you choose to focus on? Is it completely absurd for me to continue working on both directions?

Refer to this thread here https://goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?67698-Clockwise-Counterclockwise
where this has been discussed in detail.

Thanks for the link! My situation is a little different though; I prefer spinning and jumping both CW, but my takeoff/landing form is naturally stronger when I force myself to rotate CCW. Essentially, I can either have weaker rotation/stronger form or stronger rotation/weaker form (obviously both of those weak aspects can be strengthened through hard work, but I have to choose one combination to focus on).

keilexandra said:

Thanks for the link! My situation is a little different though; I prefer spinning and jumping both CW, but my takeoff/landing form is naturally stronger when I force myself to rotate CCW. Essentially, I can either have weaker rotation/stronger form or stronger rotation/weaker form (obviously both of those weak aspects can be strengthened through hard work, but I have to choose one combination to focus on).

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You're going to have to choose one and go with it. What does your coach suggest? What is their choice for which way you jump/spin?

Early on I could jump and spin in both directions, I can still spin in both directions which is good for twizzles and levels if I still competed. I chose to jump and spin CW(like a lefty) though even though I'm right handed which at this point doesn't even matter anymore.

Chose which is stronger and feels more natural.

Ic3Rabbit said:

You're going to have to choose one and go with it. What does your coach suggest? What is their choice for which way you jump/spin?

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My current coach has suggested that I relearn to jump/spin CCW, due to the stronger form. But...

Ic3Rabbit said:

Chose which is stronger and feels more natural.

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Definitely CW feels stronger and more natural. It comes out less controlled because that side of my body is weaker. Of course, I've been jumping and spinning exclusively CW for about a year, so there's some training bias. But when I was a kid pretending to do jumps while watching figure skating on TV, I'm pretty sure that I rotated CW then too.

I am seeing my old coach, an ice dancer whose dominant direction is CW (although it matters much less for dance), later today. I'll ask for his input as well. (He moved across the country and only comes back once a month, which is why I had to change coaches, sadly.)

keilexandra said:

My current coach has suggested that I relearn to jump/spin CCW, due to the stronger form. But...



Definitely CW feels stronger and more natural. It comes out less controlled because that side of my body is weaker. Of course, I've been jumping and spinning exclusively CW for about a year, so there's some training bias. But when I was a kid pretending to do jumps while watching figure skating on TV, I'm pretty sure that I rotated CW then too.

I am seeing my old coach, an ice dancer whose dominant direction is CW (although it matters much less for dance), later today. I'll ask for his input as well. (He moved across the country and only comes back once a month, which is why I had to change coaches, sadly.)

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Good luck!

Just got back from a lesson with my old coach. He taught me for over a year and works primarily with adult skaters; I value his opinion very highly. My current coach is also great, a former elite freestyle competitor, but his experience is primarily teaching kids/aspiring elite skaters.

So... my old coach was totally pro-CW "natural rotation" direction, especially after he saw my horrid CCW two-foot spin. But we spent a few minutes working on my CCW salchow, which I first learned earlier in the day, and he declared that it was a "totally different jump" (for the better) compared to my normal CW salchow. He's now in favor of switching to CCW if I can learn an adequate spin in that direction.

He also made a crazy additional suggestion: as I'm an adult skater with no aspirations toward doubles, he suggested that I consider jumping CCW and spinning CW. !!!

Final verdict: well, everyone seems to agree that I should try out jumping CCW. I'll attempt to work on CCW spins too, and generally train both directions while I "catch up" on CCW elements.

keilexandra said:

Just got back from a lesson with my old coach. He taught me for over a year and works primarily with adult skaters; I value his opinion very highly. My current coach is also great, a former elite freestyle competitor, but his experience is primarily teaching kids/aspiring elite skaters.

So... my old coach was totally pro-CW "natural rotation" direction, especially after he saw my horrid CCW two-foot spin. But we spent a few minutes working on my CCW salchow, which I first learned earlier in the day, and he declared that it was a "totally different jump" (for the better) compared to my normal CW salchow. He's now in favor of switching to CCW if I can learn an adequate spin in that direction.

He also made a crazy additional suggestion: as I'm an adult skater with no aspirations toward doubles, he suggested that I consider jumping CCW and spinning CW. !!!

Final verdict: well, everyone seems to agree that I should try out jumping CCW. I'll attempt to work on CCW spins too, and generally train both directions while I "catch up" on CCW elements.

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I'm glad you got it figured out! I'm a former elite competitive skater and now a pro. As an adult skater with no aspirations to go above singles, it's definitely fine for you to do it both ways if you want.

Good luck!

Glad you have a plan.

I haven't seen your jumps and I'm not an expert, so trust your coach more than me.

I would expect it would be easier to strengthen one side of the body than to change your natural rotational preference.

It definitely will help if you learn the backspin in the same direction you want to do your loop and axel jumps. For waltz jump, salchow, and toe loop you can jump both directions.

After skating for a couple of years in my early teens and then getting more serious about ballet and other dance styles after I quit skating, I found that I did better pirouettes CW than CCW despite strongly preferring CCW for spins and jumps on ice. My theory was that for the CW pirouettes I relied on technique and for CCW I was trying to spin them as if I were on skates.