National level coach Jackie Brenner shares some tips for helping skaters get more comfortable with the transition from a basic forward camel to a change edge camel. She begins by noting that in a basic camel the skate is gliding backwards creating back inside circles. To get to the change edge camel, the skater does a three-turn and glides forward creating forward outside circles. For most skaters this change requires going from the front of the blade in the base camel to balancing further back on the blade in the change edge camel.
[Editors note: The late great spin expert Bobbe Shire taught some of her skaters to do change edge camels on the ball of the foot, the same spin spot on the blade as the base camel, and it resulted in a faster change edge camel. However, the drawback was the technical panel often called it incorrectly as they were looking for a weight shift on the blade and not which direction the blade was actually gliding in the spin.]
To help skaters get to the back of the blade for the edge change, Jackie explains the need to shift the hips backward (almost creating a hamstring stretch of the skating leg) to help push the skating foot forward. She then has her demonstrators do the “skate guard exercise” for this skill, where the skater holds a guard by the end and tried to touch it to the ice to the outside of the outside edge. This keeps the upper body down and keeps the balance on the outside edge. Jackie says to lean forward and “tickle the guard on the ice surface” as a way to keep the upper body down.
One of the skaters then demonstrates a bend leg change edge camel. To finish the video Jackie notes that skaters can develop the necessary position endurance by training the camel position off the floor, and for regular camel she encourages the hands-on-dashboard-and-hips-in-the-backseat method which she demonstrates. She suggests holding this position 15-20 seconds off the ice.
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