I've mostly migrated to the kids' academy class session at Sheffield, but I nipped into the adult group class today just to see what the other coach in the lesson was like (the previous session I went to only had the one coach when there're normally two). We warmed up and did some work on continuous 3 turns from the level 2 field moves before moving into upright spin. At this point I had a bit of a disagreement with the coach.
Context: Most anticlockwise spinners/jumpers enter upright spin with left arm leading. I tried to do this for a year and a half and never made any progress. I'm a little better at it these days if I give it a go but I can't stabilise the rotation at all. So, my last coach eventually decided to just let me try having right arm leading, which I'm told is more of an American technique and is just all-round highly unorthodox. I immediately started to improve at upright spin and, while I can't always nail it, I've made more progress with that technique than I've done since I've started skating.
So we get into spins and the coach comes round to take a look at my upright spin and she does the usual double-take that I'm using right arm forward. I'm used to this at this point (already had to justify it twice already and my last coach warned me this would be the case), so I break into my speech about how this is the only way I've made progress. She insisted on trying to fix the left arm leading approach. I politely gave it a go for the lesson and struggled constantly for the rest of the session.
I appreciate the value of trying a different approach and I liked her suggested alterations to my foot placement on entry and number of rotations before pulling in, because those felt like things I could carry back into my usual technique, but it was a little frustrating trying to do it the other way. I felt like, having explained it wasn't for me, she didn't try and work with what I had before suggesting something different. I appreciate that coaches don't get a lot of time to work with people in group lessons, so they're kinda jumping in and tweaking where they can, but it ended up being a bit frustrating for me.
We finished up with a bit of spiral work, which, to be fair, I do desperately need to work on, so that was good, but I was definitely reminded of how much more productive individual lessons are. Need to get a job so I can nail down a timetable and look for available coaches in free slots.