Flying Camel Key Positions (Charyl Brusch)

Spin specialist Charyl Brusch continues her explanation of how she teaches a flying camel. In her introduction to the flying camel, she worked directly with a skater on the basics of learning the spin. In the second video covering flying camel improvements, she discussed how to build the flying camel with more speed and energy. In this video, Charyl discusses important positions and addresses common problems with position and movement.

At the very beginning of this video, Charyl addresses a very common figure skating myth about flying camel. Many coaches teach their skaters to push into a camel position with the body down, then fly, and then return to a camel position. Charyl makes it clear that the body should remain up throughout the entrance. She describes it as, “I have them push with their backs up.” She continues, “If you see some really good flying camels, they actually lift their back end up. They don’t drop the front end that much. That way when you land, you’re a lot steadier.” She explains this in more detail in the video.

Next, Charyl addresses an extremely common problem, “The first problem that you’re really going to see on a flying camel is their butt up and their body down and their leg way out to the side and they actually step onto the other foot.” This “droopy” flying camel attempt is typically very low and it also lacks rotational energy. Charyl explains how she solves this problem. She initially focuses on the free leg position on the entrance.

Next Charyl shows what she is looking for in the air on a flying camel. These positions are exaggerated as the second position demonstrated in the video is actually more common on good flying camels. But to skaters, it often feels like the extreme position that Charyl has her skater initially demonstrate on the wall. The words Charyl uses in her description can really help a skater develop the correct feeling. She says, “As you push off the toe, you’re snapping the left leg (for CW spinners) in back of you, in the air, so it’s in back of you when you land.” To clarify further, Charyl discusses the idea of stacking the hips in the back camel spin which requires the left leg to be pulled back strongly. She also explains how to increase the spin speed