Field Guide to Figure Skating
NZ

Back spin

An upright spin on a back edge with the free leg crossed over the skating leg, left on a back outside edge.

Also called backspin, back cross foot spin, back one foot spin, backward upright spin or upright back spin. Other names.

spin

Not checked yet. The mechanics on this page are a first draft by a non-expert, and no coach has seen them yet. Read them as a starting point and check them with a coach. Corrections are very welcome.

shoulder to hip —on the —
right back outside edge: entered, centred with the free leg crossed, wound up and stepped out. Negative twist means the shoulders are held back against the hips, which stores rotation before a takeoff and checks it on a landing.

You spin upright on a back edge with the free leg crossed over the skating leg, and leave on a back outside edge with the free leg extended. Ice Skating Australia asks for three revolutions at its Freeskate 3 level, on the correct part of the blade; U.S. Figure Skating’s adaptive Silver test asks for four.

None of the documents behind this guide names the foot or the edge it turns on. What they agree on is that it is a different spin from the forward one: U.S. Figure Skating lets a Pre-Preliminary skater count both, because a backward upright spin has a different character. The exit is a back outside edge, the edge every jump in this guide lands on.

New Zealand’s KiwiSkate teaches it at Free skating 1 from a pivot entrance and asks for it again at Free skating 3 with a correct entry.

Build on

Appears in

In New Zealand's grades