It is humbling. I used to teach upright and inverted flat spins back when I had my S2-B. I always taught the Muller/Beggs technique. Power off, let go of the stick, opposite rudder. In the Pitts didn't matter what type of spin it was, it would recover for emergencies. It doesn't work for every airplane, though, so you do need to know recovery procedures. Good job for taking the time to learn it right.
Had the unique opportunity to train with a certain two star admiral (ret) who was inducted in the IAC hall of fame. Man, could that guy fly that airplane! I think I learned more from a couple hours with him than I have in aerobatics or even flying in general - let me rephrase that...learned more about what I never knew and need to know! His method was a little different...the "Finigan" method. If it really is an emergency, departure - rather than trying to figure out what's going on, which way, etc just pull the power and forcefully neutralize the stick... wait for the nose down, 100KIAS and pull out. Before we began any advanced aerobatics... he would say close your eyes and do all sorts of crazy stuff... now recover.. his method worked everytime in that airplane no matter what was going on.
His reasoning was that it was easy to cross-over spin by applying too much rudder (and as you know, the Pitts' rudder is super responsive)...and most spins are induced by a person's control movements.
Overall that airplane has a lot to teach me - I guess there's more than one way to skin a cat with the Pitts
sorry for the threadjack guys!