Figure Skating Spin – Broken Leg Sit Spin (Charyl Brusch)

Figure skating spin specialist Charyl Brusch explains how she teaches a broken leg sit spin.  This sit spin has gained new popularity recently with the recent rule changes that give credit for a “sit side difficult variation.”  The broken leg sit spin has historically been a spin that some skaters can do well and others struggle with.  In the past, those that struggled with it simply ignored it didn’t really bother to do them.  But with the new rules, improving and fixing a broken leg sit spin is worth the effort, making this video particularly important.

In this video, Charyl explains how she introduces the spin without any rotation.  Notice the focus on being “flat footed.”  Charyl says that exact free leg position tends to depend on the skater’s body and balance.  One of the keys is proper alignment of the body over the skating knee.  Next she has her demonstrator try a broken leg sit, with very simple instructions.  She has the skaters start in a regular sit spin and then as the free leg drops back into the broken leg position, the skater needs to go “flat footed” and drop down lower.  Charyl spends some time on developing the correct feeling of the flat footed spin by practicing with upright spins.

Although the body position in a broken leg sit spin tends to be more upright than on a basic sit spin, Charyl still wants some forward lean (with a strong back, not rounded).  She also thinks it helps to have a lot of speed when learning and working on this spin and she acknowledges that skaters with longer legs tend to find the spin more difficult.  She says, “It’s hard to do a broken leg with longer legs.  When you have somebody who has short legs and a longer torso, boom, they go right into it just like a sit spin.”  She continues, “So you have to work a lot harder on getting your bottom down on a broken leg when you legs are longer.”

Charyl also offers a tip for arm movement for balance and speed.  She also continues to work with the demonstrator with drills and ideas to get the hips lower in the spin.  At the end of the video, Charyl discusses the very common broken leg error of the free foot being too far forward.  She notes that this is a “gray area” according to the rules, and a skater risks losing the sit side difficult variation with this positioning.  She explains how she would correct this problem.

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