Spin Level, How Does It Work?

Hi guys, it’s been a long while but I’m finally back with the next part of this explanation series. This time, by popular demand and fueled by my own guilt from seriously neglecting spins in my tech posts so far, I’m going to talk about spin levels.

I have to fully disclose, up front, that this is a topic I hate with a vengeance. For reasons that will hopefully become clear to you through this post, them levels make my head spin (no pun intended), my stomach churn, and my eyes water. 

Before I start, I’d like to offer my thank to @fuckyeahdearlybeloved​ who provided a lot of helpful advice on decoding the ISU cipher on spins (seriously guys, next time you’re in the mood for a mind-twisting mystery novel, try reading that section of the technical handbook instead), plus plenty of moral support in the form of snarky comment about my masochist tendency. If you guys have more questions about spins I’d like to wholeheartedly recommend her ask box (which may or may not be cleared by the year 2092).  

Well, here goes nothing.

Now, spin levels range from B (no level) to 1 - 2 - 3 - 4. The building blocks of spin levels are the level features and that’s what we will be focusing on today. 1 feature = 1 level, so in order for a spin to achieve level 4, it must include at least 4 valid features. The ISU lists a total of 11 features any spin can have and an additional 2 specially for layback spins.

We will look at each of these features in detail.

Feature 1: Difficult variations

The ISU defines difficult spin variation as a movement which requires additional physical strength and flexibility, and has a material effect on the skater’s balance. If you recall from my previous post on spin explanation, there are 11 categories of these variations. 

Three for camel spin. 

Three for sit spin.

Three for upright spin.

The layback spin is in a category of its own (aptly named the upright layback), and all non-basic positions are grouped into the final category.

You’ll need to remember all of these categories while attempting to figure out spin levels, because each of these variations, when performed in 2 revolutions or more, will count as one level for the spin in which it’s included. However, throughout the whole program (short and long), each category can only be counted once. Say a skater has performed the half-Biellmann (that one Janny did in the first gif) in one spin, if they later perform the same variation, or any other difficult variation belonging to the same camel forward category, it will not increase the level of the second spin. On the other hand, if the skater performs any additional feature on top of the difficult variation (mainly applicable to feature 6, 9, and 10, which we will get to in a bit), that one can be credited for additional levels. 

Aside from feature 1, the rest of the features count strictly once per program. See, that is why I said these spin levels are icky. To determine the level for a step sequence or number of rotations for a jump, you only need to focus on that one element alone, however for spins you have to remember and discard those features that have been used in previous spins while counting the level for the current one. It’s like a convoluted game of bridge (I hate that card game too).