I have truly mastered the camel spin, however, on video i noticed that i seem to come up a bit on the torso, which makes it not as pretty. It doesn't feel "up" when i do it, so i have no idea how to fix it to make it look better. Must be an adult skater issue. I can get a lot of revs, but i WANT to look like i've done it all my life.

Any tips?

I do exactly the same thing all the time, so my coach got me to do the spin with my hands on my knee (skating leg!). Not my favourite spin position, but it does seem to help me keep my torso parallel to the ice without thinking about it to much.

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"Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves" - Captain Jack Harkness

Interesting. My coach asked me to also put my R hand on my L (skating) knee. I have a tendancy to open up the hip like a lay-over, and even more on the back camels. This keeps it square.

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Think about arching shoulders, not your back. I also practice the position at the boards in between spins to make sure my leg is level with my shoulders, my hip is open, etc.

It's not very attractive, but here's an exercise I have my students do for camel spins & spirals, and I've seen a lot of improvement:

I've included a Paint diagram of what this exercise should look like at the end of this post...
You'll want to be skating on the leg that you spin on, so that's all up to you...

1. Standing on your skating leg, place a glove on the front of you in the crease where your thigh (or top of your leg) and hip meet. The glove should not be resting on/tucked into your clothes, otherwise you're defeating the purpose of this exercise. You will need to push back in your hips in order to keep the glove in place. (Yep, that's the hard part, but the point of this exercise...) Your free leg should be behind you on the ice, like you're getting ready to stroke. You're going to want to have your back almost parallel to the ice in order to achieve the desired camel/spiral position...
2. Keeping your body in the position described above, use your free leg, which should still be behind you and extended, to push you. You only get one push, which is all the speed you need for this exercise anyway. Do not rise up yet; keep on the bent knee - same position as above, but with free leg lifted low, like a stroke. The only difference now is that you're gliding forward in that very "attractive" position, hahaha! The goal here is to still keep your glove in place.
3. Staying in that same position (free leg, back, hip, etc.) slowly rise up into your camel/spiral position. You'll need to really feel that your hip is pulling back - as if trying to separate it from your skating leg. Glide in that position as long as you can!

If your glove stays in place, you've nailed the correct position. If not, you're likely not creating that tension in your hips. I must caution that you need to keep an eye out for the glove b/c it will put you at a dead stop (and make you fall) if you run it over. So although you're trying to hit that gorgeous camel/spiral position, do be careful!

So, how does this apply to the camel spin?
In the camel spin, there are three circles of tension that apply to the spin, as shown & explanied in the diagram linked here:

http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/b...ralCircles.png

When you get the right position in the spin, you create speed from the tension, get on the ball of your foot from pushing your hips back, and in the end have a nicer spin to look at.

Link to above exercise diagram in Paint:
http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/b...ctSpiralEx.png

Happy spinning!

SynchroSk8r114 - you have the best diagrams! The glove exercise sounds like a good (but hard) one. It sounds as though it would also help with straightening the skating leg with spinning.

Count me in as another who lifts her torso on her camels...(and can't keep her legs locked straight while spinning).

wow, synchroskater, that exercise is nearly impossible even off ice!! where do you get all these great (even if really hard) exercises from? do you make them up yourself or is there a book?

and I love your diagrams, too!

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At my first and only trip to Lake Placid in 1998 for an adult camp we did this exercise. There was a well-known spin doctor at the camp and she demonstrated the glove in the hip exercise. I had only been skating for about a year so the camel was not a possibility for me. I still have problems with it because #1, I'm lazy and #2, my left leg spiral is my offside one. My better/stronger spiral is done on my right leg even though I spin CCW.

But that exercise is wonderful and really gives a feel for how the body needs to be held.

Hahaha, thanks everyone! I'm glad to see my diagrams and exercises are able to help you all out out. The majority of exercises I've learned come from other coaches that I've studied under (mostly PSA Master-rated coaches) while other exercises are just crazy things I've come up with on my own that, well...worked! Both the glove exercise and the Lollipop were shown to me by an old coach I used to take off of and I just feel that they're really helpful, so I pass 'em along to anyone who could benefit from them.

This is a wonderful exercise to try when we get ice!!! I also cheated and looked at the "lollipop" diagram. That is exactly what my coach had me do to "fix" my broken spins!!!!

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!