My Knee Bend, 3 turn Checking, Posture Correcting Offi-Ice Training Tool

I wanted to buy a spin trainer, but it was kind of expensive, so I bought what's called a 'figure trimmer'. That didn't work for spins, but what it did work for was improving my knee bend, 3 turn checking and posture in the turn. Not kidding. This thing helped me immediately to identify and feel what I was doing wrong and rather than being on ice I didn't have to worry about people running into me. Not to say this thing was 'safe'. I nearly fell off of it a couple of times until I fixed my posture.

Figure Trimmer

Here's how I use it:

1.  Stand with both feet on the trainer, feet as close together as possible
2. Make sure I am near something where I can catch myself if I fall (a wall, the back of a couch, a counter)
3. Hold my arms in position for the turn I'm about to do
4. I make the turn
5. If I do it correctly, I don't tip over, fall or roll off the trainer 
6. If I do it wrong I get instantaneous feedback, and I can make instantaneous corrections

What I learned using this tool that to make the turn correctly (no tipping over) I have to do the following:

1. I learned I have to go much, much deeper in the knee than I'm used to
2. According to my coach 'much, much deeper in the knee than I'm used to" is the correct amount of knee bend
3.  I learned that I do the knee bend so that I drop straight down--no butt sticking out or leaning forward.
4. According to my coach, butt out-tits forward is a typical adult turn problem. 
5. I learned that once I got the correct amount of knee bend, and the correct posture (no butt out-tits forward) I could do the turn on the trainer without falling off
6. Once I got the kneebend, posture right, I could work on my checking and timing.
7. I'm now working on the checking and timing, but bad habits are hard to break 
8. Learning what I was doing wrong took about 5 minutes. Fixing it didn't take much longer. Getting better is an ongoing process

 Just a heads up, if you give this a try, if you don't get everything just perfect, the trainer will send you flying. So  make sure that you start out near someplace where you can reach out a hand to steady your self.

So, when I showed my coach what I had learned, she was tactful enough not to say "Finally!"  She had been working with me on this for back 3's, but the temptation to lean forward is awfully strong. Using this trainer made a world of difference and corrected my bad habits between lessons.

P.S. Don't use this for one foot turns. I think it's too unstable