You Keep Me Spinnin' Around: Figure Skating and the Vestibular System

Ah, December. It’s the month of giving and receiving gifts, eating delicious foods, and celebrating Christmas. There’s another yearly even that’s celebrated around the world during the first week of December, too, and that is the annual Grand Prix Finals of Figure Skating!

Figure skating is one of the few sports that I actually pay attention to, and it’s because the sport mixes technicality with artistry. Aside from having to interpret the music through choreography, figure skaters also have to show that they can do elements like jumping. As an example, here’s Boyang Jin, an upcoming men’s skater, performing a jump called a quadruple lutz. (Isn’t he amazing?)

Boyang Jin executing a quadruple lutz 

(from http://magicaleggplant.tumblr.com/post/151768838548/squad-intro-post-part-2-dj-boyang)

While the jumps are amazing to watch, this isn’t the element that caught my attention. Allow me to introduce you all to the element called spins, which is also a skill that is essential to become a top-tier figure skater. In most competitions, skaters are required to perform different types of spins throughout their performance. One of my personal favorite spins is the Biellmann spin, which is also one of the specialties of the Philippines’ very own figure skater, Michael Christian Martinez.

Michael Christian Martinez executing a Biellmann spin at the 2014 Sochi Olympics

(from http://365daysofsexy.tumblr.com/post/76535912291/go-michael-christian-martinez)

Like me, I’m pretty sure some of you are wondering the same thing: How do figure skaters do all these spins without feeling dizzy? I’m sure that if I even tried to spin the way figure skaters do, I’d fall on the floor and have a hard time getting up. In order to explain this, let’s talk about the vestibular system, which plays an important role in balance. (Goldstein, 2014)

Keeping our balance is something that we don’t really have to think about. For instance, we can stand upright without giving it much thought. In other words, we can say that our vestibular system is reflexive, in that conscious thought is not as needed in order to maintain balance. We usually become aware of balancing, though, when we’re in situations where our balance is thrown-off, and in this case, spinning may be one of those instances.

In one particular study, a certain type of vestibular system reflex was examined in figure skaters and non-figure skaters. This reflex is called the vestibulo-ocular reflex, which allows for the eyes’ gaze to be stabilized through compensatory eye movements in the opposite direction of the body movement (Tanguy, Quarck, Etard, Gauthier, and Denise, 2008).

In order to visualize how the vestibulo-ocular reflex works, imagine yourself at an amusement ride called “Spinning Teacups”. When the ride first starts, you would feel very dizzy at first, right? As you spend more time in the ride, though, you slowly start to get used to it, until you won’t feel as dizzy anymore. The vestibulo-ocular reflex also works like this. Our eyes go through a slow compensatory phase first, which may alternate with fast phases (Tanguy, Quarck, Etard, Gauthier, and Denise, 2008). The velocity of these slow phases may peak, before exponentially decreasing to zero (Tanguy, Quarck, Etard, Gauthier, and Denise, 2008).

As an example of the vestibulo-ocular reflex at work, look at the figure skater below. This figure skater shown below can be seen to be spinning in a counterclockwise direction; her vestibulo-ocular reflex would be at work through eye movements in a clockwise direction.

Yuna Kim performing a spin sequence 

(from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b6/57/ac/b657ac6a8e95cc5d83307557a8db954a.gif)

This particular study by Tanguy, Quarck, Etard, Gauthier, and Denise (2008) examined the vestibulo-ocular response and the motion sickness among figure skaters and non-figure skaters. These researchers wanted to examine the plasticity, or the flexibility, of the vestibular system.

In order to simulate spinning, participants were secured in a chair which rotated in different velocities and directions. Since the vestibulo-ocular response focuses on eye movements, the researchers uses a method called video-oculography in order to record the eye movements. After each session, the participants’ motion sickness was examined using the Pensacola diagnostic index, which tested for the symptoms of motion sickness.

The results of the study showed that the vestibulo-ocular reflex of figure skaters, compared to non-figure skaters, were faster to adapt and experienced significantly less motion sickness (and dizziness). The researchers offered a possible explanation: vestibular habituation (Tanguy, Quarck, Etard, Gauthier, and Denise, 2008). Since figure skaters train for long hours, their vestibular systems also become more efficient, and therefore also become more adapted to possible dizziness (Tanguy, Quarck, Etard, Gauthier, and Denise, 2008).

From this study, we can see that our body’s vestibular system is not fixed; we can train ourselves to have better balance. Figure skaters have to go through training, and years of practice, in order to get used to spinning. In the meanwhile, non-figure skaters, like me, can settle for just admiring the amount of time and effort these figure skaters put into training. To end this post, here’s a link to a performance of Yuzuru Hanyu, 2014 Olympic champion, ten-time world record breaker, and also a finalist in this year’s Grand Prix Final. J

Yuzuru Hanyu's world-record breaking performance at the 2014 Sochi Olympics

References

Goldstein, E.B. (2014). Sensation and Perception (9^th ed.). Belmont, CA, USA; Cengage Learning.

Tanguy, S., Quarck, G., Etard, O., Gauthier, A., & Denise, P. (2008). Vestibulo-ocular reflex and motion sickness in figure skaters. Eur J Appl Physiol, 104, 1031-1037. DOI 10.1007/s00421-008-0859-7