Spin specialist Kim Ryan works with a skater to improve a camel spin. (Previous parts of this lesson focused on the sit spin, Part 1 and Part 2.) This skater, who can rotate the camel a few revolutions and has a reasonably high free leg, has a number of very common problems. First and foremost, the skater has the head down and the hands turned up from underneath (Kim calls them “inside out arms?), dramatically closing the shoulders.
Kim begins by encouraging a stronger exit, going from the camel position to the upright skinny-V to the exit position. Then she focuses on the head and the skater admits to spinning with her eyes closed (not recommended!). To keep the head up and shoulders open, Kim asks the skater to enter the spin while holding imaginary cupcakes on the palms of each hand. Additionally Kim says, “Make a table with your back.” And when entering the camel position she says, “Just because you’re going lower (with the body) doesn’t mean you lower your thumbs.”
Because many skaters (including this one) struggle with only opening the lead hand (skating side), Kim encourages skaters to enter a camel with both hands in front, and touching. This allows the skater to see the hands during the entry and open both shoulders while keeping the head up. It also helps many skaters generate a stronger entry edge as it tends to add often-needed tension to the upper body.
To end the lesson, Kim is trying to get this skater to extend the free leg in front in the upright skinny-V position after the camel. This is obviously not natural for this skater, so Kim does camel sit combination to help the skater feel how the free leg needs to “go around” and finish all the way in front. This is a great teaching method for this issue, but it isn’t super effective for skaters that have a strongly bent free leg in their sit position (like this skater).
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