I am learning to spin while jumping and wondered what tips there are out there. I've heard that I should pull my elbow in and look at the ground

Do you mean spin the kite?

spin?

spinning wool, by chance?

or maybe you mean doing rotations while jumping?

TBH, not too sure what you are asking for advice on....

I mean jumping and spinning i.e. a 360

Well I havent started spinning with the kite yet, but from other board sports, wind up your hips, and throw hard. Use your head, literally, look the direction you want to turn. Your body will follow your head.

and DEDICATE YOURSELF. Unless you put 100% into a spin, you won't make it. Don't hesitate, and throw quickly.

Last but not least, don't think. It only makes you hesitate.

Easy trick once you stop worrying about your body and can easily lead into inverting which is super fun

Barnes is completely right... DEDICATE yourself, don't wus out mid spin because you will land on your back and that hurts and is easy to loose your coordination...

I learnt to do these the wrong way round to most people, which meant i was going inverted on my very first rotations... here's how i learnt without a board, it just took me a few minutes to get it on a board after i'd done this...

I ran to my right and went in for a usual slightly bigger than average jump - pull the kite back the other way... up you go... i kick off the ground with my left foot and swing my head over my right shoulder, the push from my leg forces the rotation and i almost immediately went upside down and completed a rotation

After that it was easy, there's just an initial fence you have to get over by tricking your body into doing something it instinctively wants to protect you from, but you'll soon get really comfy with it! Felt awesome getting them

Good luck, wear a helmet

Another really good way of practicing rotations (the standard way round) is to lie down on the ground / sand, take kite down and then whip it up as though you would be skudding forward on your back but let it pull you face first and twist your body round in a 360, do that as much as possible and then just transition it to jumping you might get dragged around back to front a bit but once you gottit its basically the same thing

Quote:

Originally posted by domdino Another really good way of practicing rotations (the standard way round) is to lie down on the ground / sand, take kite down and then whip it up as though you would be skudding forward on your back but let it pull you face first and twist your body round in a 360, do that as much as possible and then just transition it to jumping you might get dragged around back to front a bit but once you gottit its basically the same thing

That seems terribly painful, put it will probably work!

Are you spinning with handles, or a bar? Again, I can't spin when kiting, so I'm basiclly talking out of my ass, but I know from diving, and snowboard, I use my arms to get momentum spinning. If you are on a bar, and can handle with one hand, use your second arm to throw weight around and build momentum as well. (If that is NOT a good idea, someone more knowledgeable please speak up.

I learnt on a bar with a harness which makes it much easier as your center of gravity is as your belly rather than dangling from your arms which definitely makes things easier, its mainly just about having the balls to follow through though because i could do it on a blade after i tried that!

First time i did it i was on an old guerilla lovely kite

Definitely, on the bar it not only looks much better but is much easier using one hand to kind of pull yourself around and get some reach, i used to get mad tennis elbow when i first learnt spinning (because obviously after first learning it i did it constantly) and i used to keep both hands on the bar which really stretched my elbows or something, i now do it one handed, much easier on the arms

Lying down thing isn't painful, when i say face first by the way i don't mean face down eating grass!!! spin onto your back - your facing the sky!

This guys got it hehe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OrpxSU-Xb4