Flying Camel Improvements (Charyl Brusch)

Spin specialist Charyl Brusch continues her explanation of how she teaches a flying camel. In the previous video in this series, she worked directly with a skater on the basics of learning the spin. In this video, Charyl continues her explanation of how she builds the flying camel with more speed and energy.

She starts this video by adding the back crossover entrance, but limits the skater initially to just a step-over exercise after a single crossover. She builds it up in the same way as discussed in the previous video. Once the skater can step over comfortably and correctly, she has them hop over, and eventually fly over. The demonstrator in the video is more advanced so she begins with 3 crossovers and a basic fly over. Charyl discusses how this demonstrator releases the skating arm the way she prefers. In this video, Charyl also briefly addresses the back camel position. She would like this demonstrator to fix the common problem of dropping the skating side shoulder in the spin. The open shoulder back camel position may be more comfortable for most skaters initially learning the spin, but it’s also harder to balance.

In the next stage of the development, Charyl progresses to a forward inside three turn entrance. She draws the desired pattern on the ice with a marker. She wants the skater to step “out of the circle.” The demonstrator initially steps into the circle then corrects it so you can see the difference. After this correction, Charyl offers more advice to improve this particular flying camel. The tip about keeping the belly button over the skating leg on the entrance is very helpful for nearly all skaters.