National level coach Jackie Brenner shares some ideas and suggestions for flying camel. She begins by noting that flying camel has become something of a forgotten spin since it is not considered a difficult entry in IJS competition, making other flying spin entries more attractive in terms of levels and points. But flying camel continues to be a skill that relatively few skaters do well, which is one reason that Jackie wants her skaters to do it every day as part of their warm-up.
On the first flying camel the skater does a flying camel using a bit of technique from a flying sit (pulling both arms back and then through to fly). Jackie shares a good way to remember what the flying camel tracing should look like using her “moon and star” concept. The “moon” is the take-off edge, and the “star” is the landing point. This landing point should be across the entry edge, and this is accomplished by spinning about a quarter turn on the toe pick just prior to take-off. After turning on the toe pick Jackie says, “That free leg is going to whip around and land on the other side of the moon.” She has the skater do another flying camel focusing on “keeping that skating side in front and not releasing it until you’re in the air” to address the funky arms on the first attempt.
Jackie continues, “The most common mistakes you’ll see on a flying camel is that the athlete will do a three turn on the approach prior to the fly, and that’s what we nickname a flying salchow, or they jump too early and land inside their curvature and then it’s like a flying waltz jump.” Jackie wants both skaters to wait longer on both the end of the entrance edge and while spinning on the toe pick during the take-off and she highlights the need for patience. The edge pressure builds significantly, and skaters need to stay down in the knee and allow it to keep coming around even with the building pressure.
To get more patience on the flying camel, Jackie takes her skaters back to a stationary T-start on the line (which is how she introduces all flying spins). She wants the skater to wait until she gets back to the line, and then jump across the entry edge print. At the end of the video Jackie briefly mentions the free leg movement of “clearing a table” to keep the free leg up and flying around.
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