I'm feeling vintage, so I'm going waaaaaaay back to a time when spiral sequences were a required element in the SP. Few skaters mastered the spiral sequence like Sasha Cohen, so let's take a look at the sequence from her 2005-06 Dark Eyes short program.
First, I-spiral (which Sasha popularized!) into a fan. No struggle for the I position and superb balance into the fan position.
The sign of a great fan spiral position isn't just the height of the free leg but minimal bend in the working leg. Bending the working knee can help cheat the position by offsetting a lack of strength or flexibility. Note the minimal knee bend here!
Then the spirals dreams are made of: a nearly 180 degree arabesque held over a change of edge. I love how she tugs it just a little bit higher to get the full extension and the point in the toes is *chef kiss*.
And finally, just because she can, a Beillmann position to round out the ice-spanning set:
Spiral sequences are a hallmark of early IJS programs. When I watch them now they feel like an attempt to reconcile some of the showiness of 6.0 skating with the bullet points of IJS. Not every skater survived the transition. For every sublime Sasha Cohen moment there were a dozen skaters with limp Kerrigan spirals and dodgy catch-foots.
The spiral sequence was replaced with the choreographic sequence as of the 2012-13 season, a nod to changing tastes and shifting technical priorities. Few skaters now could hit a 180 arabesque, which is why I get so excited when I see a classic, well-supported spiral in the competitive wild.
