There are three main categories of spins:
■the upright spin
■the camel spin
■the sit spin
There are many variations within each of these categories.
Upright Spin: A spin where a skater's body stays more or less vertical to the ice. This category includes one-foot spins, backspins, cross foot spins, and the layback spin. The layback spin is a spin primarily performed by female skaters (though more men are performing this difficult spin today) where the back is arched and the free leg is drawn up slightly.
Variations include the Bielman position (the skater catches the blade of the free foot in their hands and pulls the free-leg up over their head) and sideways leaning spin in which the skater arches to one side while maintaining an upright position.
Sit Spin: As the name indicates a sit spin is classified as any spin in which the skater's body is located close to the ice and the skating knee is bent to allow the skater to appear to be 'sitting'.
Variations include flying sit, flying change sit, sit change sit spin and more.
Camel Spin: A spin position in which the skater's body is horizontal to the ice except for the leg on which they are spinning.
Variations on this spin include a flying camel (change foot in air prior to start of spin) and death-drop (a dramatic flying entry). To increase the difficulty of a camel spin skaters will often perform a forward camel spin on an outside edge, or a back camel on an inside edge. Arm and leg position variations also increase the difficulty of spins and can be very effective from an aesthetic standpoint.
