The one fellow that I know has spun a IV and lived to tell is Charlie Kohler (CFII, DAR, Lancair check pilot and general good guy with many thousands of hours). According to Charlie he was instructing and the pilot was practicing accelerated stalls. On one attempt the pilot entered the stall uncoordinated that resulted in a very fast spin. Charlie  was able to break the spin with power back, opposite rudder and RAPID forward stick. The plane lost 8,000 feet in a few seconds (although I am sure it seemed like a few hours).

Now I am not about to tell anyone that practicing stalls is a good or bad idea. The FAA has been on both sides of the fence and this is another case of lean-rich, left stick-right stick, less filling-tastes great, PC-MAC where there is no general right answer and arguing about it makes you look a little silly.

I can say that I do practice stalls for the following reason. There are three things that combined represent better than 90 percent of airplane crashes. They are; VMC into IMC, running out of fuel, and stall spin when low and slow. To increase my longevity I got my instrument ticket, was careful to be sure that the fuel system was properly built and the gages were accurate, and I practice stalls. I start at 10-12,000 feet AGL and put the plane in landing configuration. I am always careful to keep the ball centered. When I started stall training it would take 1500 to 2000 feet to recover and secondary stalls were frequent (death in the pattern). After a couple dozen or so I am able to consistently recover in 5-600 feet with no secondary. Given the surprise of an unexpected stall in the pattern this will increase but should still be in the survivable range of the pattern altitude.

My advice is to practice stalls and avoid spins. Spins are not recoverable from altitudes where they are likely to happen but stalls can be IF the pilot's reactions are trained.

But that is just my opinion and I am probably wrong.

Regards
Brent Regan