For example, if you lose your balance while spinning, your axis tilts as you skate, and the blade almost ends up drawing a heart on the ice... Hey, it actually did draw a heart.

All of this shows that the skater’s core strength is weak, making it hard to stay steady while spinning, and the spin speed isn’t high either.

But what happened next was truly surprising. Chris Bolton raised his hand to grab the free leg’s skate, and his whole body formed a circle while spinning—this is the donut position. After a few rotations, Chris Bolton switched to the layback spin position.

These are all moves that are usually only seen in women’s singles competitions and require extremely high flexibility!

Wait, when did Chris Bolton learn a new spin?

Since he had only recently recovered, Chris Bolton didn’t dare practice jumps when there were a lot of people around and no coach watching, but spinning was no problem.

He skated over to Emily Quinn, excitedly asking, “Did I make it to 15 seconds?”

The two had a bet: as long as Chris Bolton could spin for more than 15 seconds, Emily Quinn would treat him to candied hawthorn.

It was kind of Emily Quinn, knowing that the kid, because of his tendency to gain weight, would drool over delicious food but never dare to actually eat it, so he specially gave Chris Bolton a chance to have some sweets.

He looked at the phone screen—18.28 seconds—then closed the phone.

Great head-spotting technique. After using this trick, Chris Bolton’s spin endurance clearly improved.

Emily Quinn smiled slightly: “Congratulations, you made it to 15 seconds. Your back is pretty good—you can twist yourself into a circle and still keep spinning.”

Chris Bolton said proudly, “Of course! I’ve practiced ballet for years. My teacher would stretch my back and legs every day, so I got flexible early on.”

Although a 200-degree split is Chris Bolton’s peak level, and it started to decline after he turned 18, Chris Bolton was still quite proud—this is the flexibility of a professional dancer.

“Mr. Quinn, let me tell you, I can even touch the back of my head with my foot!”

He said it and did it, performing a yoga trick on the spot. He succeeded, but if Emily Quinn hadn’t held him, he would have almost fallen face-first.

Once he was steady, a familiar voice rang out nearby.

“What are you doing, what are you doing? You want to see the doctor again?”

Chris Bolton turned around, startled, and jumped back.

“Uncle?!”

He was doomed—looks like he wouldn’t be getting that candied hawthorn after all.

The little fairy boy who had just amazed a crowd at the rink could only hang his head in front of his uncle, first getting the usual scolding, then being dragged off by the ear for a physical test.

Jack Bolton needed to make sure that while he was away on a business trip, Chris Bolton hadn’t lost all the jumps he’d worked so hard to regain.

The double jumps were fine, the double-double (2+2) combinations were still solid, but the landings on the 3T and 3S solo jumps were unstable.

What surprised Jack Bolton was that Chris Bolton hadn’t even lost the 2A+3T combination he’d just learned before his injury. Aside from needing to adjust his condition, he was almost like he’d never been hurt!

Just like those ball sport experts with great ball sense, who know how to handle the changing force of the ball as soon as they touch it, Chris Bolton was the same. His “ice sense” made him quick to learn new moves, and once he mastered them, he rarely lost them.

That’s talent—something others can only envy. And Jack Bolton discovered something else.

Uncle snapped his fingers: “Come on, strike a layback spin pose, then stand still.”

Chris Bolton didn’t know why, but held onto the barrier, lifted his right leg, and grabbed it with one hand.

Jack Bolton: “Lift your free leg higher, try to straighten it as much as possible.”

Chris Bolton did as told.

Jack Bolton: “Keep going.”

Chris Bolton tried harder, grimacing: “Uncle, this is my limit. Any higher and it hurts.”

His back was flexible, and his split was wide, but when lifting his leg back to a certain point, his groin would hurt—this is due to male physiology.

Jack Bolton didn’t push him, just looked happily at this perfect teardrop shape.

As the elders say, flexibility and explosive power can’t both be maximized. In Chris Bolton’s case, it seems all his talent points went into flexibility.

Emily Quinn’s eyes also showed a hint of amazement. His grandfather was a retired team doctor for the H Province figure skating team, so even though he hadn’t skated much before, he still had the necessary knowledge.

This was a Biellmann position.

The Biellmann spin is a variation of the layback spin, requiring the free leg to be lifted from behind so that the skate is above the head, forming a teardrop shape with the whole body. It was the signature move of Swiss ladies’ singles skater Denise Biellmann in the 1970s.

And Chris Bolton could not only lift his leg above his head, but even far beyond it—a 200-degree split allowed him to fully straighten his leg!

But just as Chris Bolton said, fully straightening it hurt a lot, so forming the teardrop-shaped Biellmann was relatively easier for him.

Emily Quinn turned to ask Julia Miller, “What do you think of his move?”

Julia Miller stroked his chin, “This spin requires extremely high flexibility. So far, no male skater in the world has used the Biellmann in competition, but... judges are always more impressed by skaters with signature moves, and tend to be more generous with their performance scores.”

A male singles skater who can do the Biellmann is certainly memorable.

Chris Bolton found the Biellmann painful, but when it came to skating, Uncle’s word was law, and Jack Bolton gave Chris Bolton a perfectly legitimate reason.