My reply, happily pasted here (thanks for the convenience of that I24) was perhaps a little too vague...
As the POH wording very clearly states, Intentional spins are not approved in the "normal" category for a 172. Indeed, for an aircraft (by type) to be spin approved, it must demonstrate six turn spin recoveries. For any other single engined aircraft to be certified, it still must demonstrate a one turn spin recovery, but that demonstration will not result in spin approval for the type, and therefore does not need to meet the mark of "average pilot skill".
I opine that Cessna "illuminated" spin recovery in the POH about the same time as it was no longer trained in the US. If I were Cessnas horribly over worked and abused legal team, I'd send a memo up to the ivory tower, saying: "if pilots are no longer being trained to recover from spins, we'd better write how to do it into the POH, just so no one can sue saying that they had never been told how to recover." Just my opinion....
An accident in Ontario in a 172 with four fatalities was widely thought to have been a deliberate spin entry, and failure to recover. No surprise there...
The aft C of G limit for a certified plane may well be determined by it's spin recovery characteristics, even though it is not spin approved. Do not ingor this! It is not a place you want to be in the sky (not you I24, those who are less familiar!).
Control wheel "briskly" forward.... Yup! I was spin testing a modified C 206, at GW and aft C of G. I was sloppy in my recovery, and just did the standard Cessna "let go". That did not work, and I really had to apply myself. Feeling foolish, I went again... Briskly forward did the trick! It was still quite a dive coming out.
My experience has been that airplanes will recover quite nicely from a forward C of G spin, but often end up in a wicked dive. Without a G meter, which you would use to actually pull the several G's you will need to recover below Vne, you're probably going to overspeed it. Particularly in dense, slinky types like a 182RG - they speed up fast, when pointed down.
On the other hand, a not so dense, draggy plane, like a Citabria on floats, pretty well has to be pointed straight down to recover, just to accelerate back to flying speed...
Aft C of G spins make me nervous. Too many times I've been holding the controls fully forward, and just waiting for the nose to go down. It always did, but it's a bit of a helpless feeling waiting.... So "briskly" helps, get some inertia helping...
For most types I have spun during testing, which were not spin approved airplanes (I get flight permits to allow this testing), I usually temporarily install a G meter. In one type, the forward C of G spin recovery resulted in dives, from which the pull out was around Vne, and 2.8G. Not much "room" in those numbers!
There are other types, Lake Amphibian comes to mind, which spin and recover beautifully. I opine that they are not spin approved, just because they have no operational need to be, so why would the manufacturer want to spin approve it anyway....