Does anyone have any good tips or advice on how to practice a backcamel, I can do a good backspin and the back spin is solwly getting better, however the back camel is not getting better at all, I just can't get the entrance ok and get it to spin and it is also a little bit scary.
Thank you

I don't believe I've ever done just a back camel. I learned a flying camel first (and they just about spin on auto-pilot), and then a camel/change camel (which still has it's pathetic moments). Give me a flying camel any day of the week. Lots of fun. Good Luck!!!!!

Exactly! The plain reverse camel is much harder than either the flying camel or the camel-change-camel! Ask your coach to teach you those, although you can probably do the camel-change-camel on your own. The idea is to keep your torso in the same position, point the right toe (assuming you spin CCW) and put it in the ice at 2:00, then pivot on it to get into the back camel position.

I've started to work on these, but they are still quite awful. I find that the camel-back camel is the most closely related to the back camel alone from a RFI three turn. I find that thinking about keeping my shoulders parallel to the ice helps me--if I drop my right shoulder, I'm doomed. As for the nice hook I'm supposed to be getting after the 3-turn...uh...I'll let you know how I did it once it actually happens.

Thanks a lot!!
I'll try doing camel-back camel more instead of trying the back cmlle on it's own.
However I'll probably wait before I try the flying camel hehe

Just wanted to isolate this because I totally agree! If you start twisting the skating side shoulder forward, you're done for. I try to think of keeping my right arm up.

Hmmm. I always thought doing a bcamel from a FI3 was easier than any other entrance, though i can do it from all of the standard entrances. For me, the secret to the FI3 bcamel is hooking the 3turn, just like a forward camel. Actually, hooking the 3turn is easier in the bcamel than the forward.

Legs must be far apart as you enter the initiating 3turn. Pushing the three, the free leg lifts into the camel, the torso attains the camel posture w/o rising into a standing position. This is probably the most common error I see in people learning bcamels. They stand up then try to drop back down. Stay down! The unemployed arm sweeps and lifts, similar to the "clearing the table" action used in the forward camel. The toe pick hooks the ice at the apex of the 3turn, anchoring the turn to the ice and creating a center. You must snap into the position very quickly and smoothly. Great speed can be created in this entrance. I can spin as fast this way as from a flying entrance. The center can be made very precise and will readily accomodate a layover or inverted variation.

Now my goal is to rock it over to the inside edge. Not easy. Not yet, anyway.

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