Can't Spot

[Guest Miss Pointe]

I am having trouble spotting in turns. Can anyone help me please? Thanks!!!

-MP

[Mel Johnson]

This is going to drive you half crazy, because it seems like such a simple thing to do, but it works!

 

Stand in first neutral (sixth position, first with no turnout) and begin a bunch of little tiny baby steps in place but keep your head front as you turn. Then, when you can't hold your head straight and level and front, zip it around to the other side and pick up your spot again. Keep doing it. Then do it to the other side.

[Star]

My teacher told me exactly the same thing and it really does work. I also found it really useful to do (im not sure if this is the right name but..) pose coupe turns (where you move forward), as you do not need to balance in the same place (as with pirouettes), but have to spot with your head to keep going in a straight line.

Hope this helps

Star

[Guest dancerkad]

try working with chaine turns too. it really helps with the whole spotting problem because you're turning, but your not trying to do a billion things at once (like the passe position or balancing, etc.) you can try doing them slowly and then building the tempo. also, once you get fast enough, you could try doing four to each wall (quickly) this way when it's time to switch walls you have to turn one and a quarter turns. you may get dizzy, but if you work on it you'll get better and get a snappier spot

 

~Katherine

dancerkad

[kellyisthebestintheworld]

I'm not a very good at spotting either. One day during chaine turns she made us all stop and she walked over to the side of the room and took the handle off of a broom and grabbed a hoe from the garden place (right outside the door) and had us put it behind our shoulders so we could make sure we were lined up. It helped a lot because it was like and extention of the shoulder and you didn't have to lose your spot to look in the mirror and see if you were doing it right.

[Guest manondancer]

I know this sounds stupid, but it really works. If you'd like a nice clean double pirouette, every time you come around, say in your head "Julie" (first turn say "Jule" second turn say "ee"... this is in Julie Kent of course). If you want to try for three turns say "Pa-lo-ma"! I know it sounds really lame but it actually works!

[Claude_Catastrophique]

*knock* *knock* may I....

I hope I have not over read it but I was a very bad spotter but since my teacher told me to fix a thing which is on the height of your eyes (a picture, what ever) and look at this as long as I must snap my head around and then fix it again as fast as possible, I don't have problems to spot anymore. It is just to learn the movement.

[Guest dancer522]

What really helps is to not think of the snapping your head part of spotting, but to actually look at what you're spotting and think that you're not going to take your eyes off of what you're spotting. Then the snapping just comes naturally without even having to think about it.

[kellyisthebestintheworld]

on Friday we were practicing double additude turns and I asked my friend to watch to see if I was doing it right and I was spotting and I didn't even realise I was doing it! So now I can do it if I don't think about it too hard!

[pink_tutu]

When I was little, and just learning to spot, an older girl at my studio thought of something cute to help me spot, and it really worked.

 

She made something that was the shape of a stop sign, and painted it bright red, but wrote the word SPOT on it instead of STOP. hehe She stuck it in the corner of the studio, so when we were doing chaines or pique turns across the floor, we would have something to spot. I don't know if it helped me to spot better, but maybe you could get like a piece of red construction paper and tape it to a wall at your house and try the spotting exercises there! hth