Christmas revisited

Finally got around to putting my Christmas performance online:

The 'pulling on jeans' move

A couple of weeks ago I had the interesting situation of being one of only two people in my trapeze class.  It's so rare to get so much individual attention so I didn't let the opportunity slip.  I was having trouble with something, I forget what, and asked for help.  What ensued was a 20 minute masterclass on exactly which abdominal muscles I should be using, how to locate them, how to practice activating them.  It was a revelation to me.  I'd been relying on muscles too high up and there's a limit to what you can do that way.
The turning point was when I was told to imagine sucking in to pull on jeans.  We've all been there and I love the image of that.  Suddenly it all makes sense.
Since that class, I've been using random moments like walking down the street to work those new muscles. I never want to forget them.
It seems to be paying off.  In last week's class, we were going through the usual conditioning and I realised that I should stop cheating 'hocks half turn' and see if my newly found muscles will help with it.  To put this into perspective, this is a move which has always seemed to involve levitation.  How is it possible for your body to hang in mid-air like that?  Amanda broke it down for us and helped us spot each other trying it. I activated my 'jeans' muscles and gave it a few goes.  I was getting close...
Then near the end of the class I decided to try it again and bam!, I got it! I kicked my legs with glee once I was through.
I don't really know what this all means yet.  It's such a fundamental aspect of aerial work - I feel like I have to relearn everything, this time doing it the technically correct way.  Hopefully it'll help me cross off a couple of the moves on my homework list too.

Unexpected progress

I've spent years remembering old trapeze classes, thinking about all the amazing moves my classmates learned while I floundered.  My new-found strength has given me the confidence to try and tackle all those moves and this week in class I was putting in work for some of the new moves on my list: 'off at the back', skinning the cat to one arm hang, plus little attempts at toe hang, heel hang and mill circles for a laugh.

My teacher saw me doing very little as I tried to get my confidence together to try 'off at the back'.  She broke it down for me, explained what my body should be doing and then blew me away with a demonstration that had such control and clarity of movement.  Suddenly I could see a way of doing it without smashing my face in or pulling my arms out of their sockets.  Love her!

Starting on a low bar, I gave it a try following her tips and advice.  It worked first time!  Of course this move requires a fairly high bar so I wasn't finished yet.  I moved to a medium height bar and tried again.  Success!  So  I moved to the bar that was the right height for this and did up and over, scary pause and mental preparation, then off at the back.  Wheeeeeee!

I felt like I needed to throw a party to celebrate.  I mean, it's no perfect and beautiful move right now, but technically I know I have the ability to do it.  Yay!  Think of it like setting a new personal best at something you've struggled to progress in for years.

Revised homework list: 

Category 1 - Bring it on (stuff I can probably do with teaching and practice)

• Hocks on the rope
• Knee balance to death roll
• Backward roll to ankles
• Skinning the cat to one arm hang
• Rotation out of double nappies
• Crucifix to up and over

Category 2 - I wish (stuff I've tried before and never been able to do)

• Toe hang
• Heel hang
• Mill circles
• Knee leanout to ankles

Category 3 - Yeah right  (stuff that looks really hard and probably out of my league)

• Neck hang 
• Crucifix beat to hocks
• Armpits spin (don't know the actual name)

"Crucifix to up and over", you've just been promoted!

Breaking it down

Last night's class was great fun as always. In order to make progress on our ambitions, we were encouraged to think about what to work on in order to be able to achieve that goal.
I've decided to look at them one at a time for the moment.  First up: skinning the cat to one arm hang.  I can sort of do this already, in a messy scary did-you-fall-off? looking move. No control. No confidence. So I need to tackle this from both ends of the move.
Skinning the cat is when you are in pike under the bar and you rotate yourself backwards so that your feet are pointing to the floor and your body follows. The move isn't too hard to get into but once there, you can get stuck.  You need really strong core muscles and strong arms to pull your body back to pike.  So training usually involves rotating to your limit and back, or having a partner help you lift yourself back some of the way.  I need to be doing both of these training techniques in order to improve.  If I can't pull myself out, even a little, I don't have enough control.
Then we have one arm hangs.  Exactly what you might expect: hanging from a bar using only one arm, well, hand.  The work for this will be practice practice practice to increase my endurance. On the trapeze and on my pull up bar at home.  Keeping correct body position, keeping shoulders down, for an ever increasing number of seconds on each attempt. In fact, my pull up bar might be my secret weapon for this move.  Like with the pull ups I conquered last year, regular (maybe even daily) practice can really show fast results.

In other news, the DVD for the Christmas show will be out soon.  So excited to see it - I loved working on it with everyone and I'm curious to see how it all looked.  I've never been in a proper aerial show before.

Homework

Last week's class ended with a suggestion to write down ambitions for the next few months.  On the train home, I started jotting down the list that had been swirling in my head.

Category 1 - Bring it on (stuff I can probably do with teaching and practice)

• 'Off at the back' - a progression from Up and overs
• Hocks on the rope
• Knee balance to death roll
• Backward roll to ankles
• Skinning the cat to one arm hang
• Rotation out of double nappies

Category 2 - I wish (stuff I've tried before and never been able to do)

• Toe hang
• Heel hang
• Mill circles
• Knee leanout to ankles
• Crucifix to up and over

Category 3 - Yeah right  (stuff that looks really hard and probably out of my league)

• Neck hang 
• Crucifix beat to hocks
• Armpits spin (don't know the actual name)

So I want to have learned Category 1 moves in the next six months.

I want to have given the Category 2 moves a good try for 4-6 weeks to see if I can get anywhere.

If I nail any of the Category 2 moves, I'm bumping a Category 3 move up for a try.

The joy of the learning to fly

Tomorrow I am back in my trapeze class after a painfully long break for Christmas and New Year.  I am excited beyond words.  My body is twitching, literally.  I am itching to commence battle with gravity once again. 
My tools are many layered. 

Strong hands, arms and shoulders give me the courage to be high in the trapeze and ropes.  'Core' strength helps me haul my body and legs into the right place. 
Practice and conditioning moves help my body know what to do: muscle memory is a joy once it kicks in.
Determination keeps me going when I feel weak and like a failure.  I must believe in myself. 

Learning new moves is my top priority for the new year and I can't wait to crack the new puzzles that are ahead of me.  The combination of physics, body dynamics, mental discipline and visualization are a complicated mix to get right.  Sometimes a memory or idea can be all it takes to go from failure to success.  Sometimes it's something much more fundamental: being stronger, or being lighter.  Though at the back if my mind I know that there's only one thing in the way of some of my precious new moves: fear.  A very sensible fear of smacking my face with a heavy metal bar.  Or a fear of falling from a great height and being too shaken to go back up.  I'm frustrated by how long it takes to learn these scary moves in a controlled careful manner - but to go faster is too great a risk.

What keeps me going, in a wonderful modern world, is inspiration garnered from fellow aerialists.  Once limited to the trapeze studio or occasional visit to a show, the Internet and particularly YouTube opens up a feast of artists varying in style, technical ability and performance. Watching them helps me understand what kind of aerialist I want to be, what kind of tricks I long to master, what videos I want to create and upload.

Of course, all of this is nothing without my most valuable assets: my amazing and talented teachers.  Strong, elegant, highly skilled, totally inspirational.  Always pushing me further, telling me off, keeping it difficult and wanting me to always do more.  They are in my head.  "Point your feet". "Tummy in". "Shoulders back". "Arms". "LEGS!"

I will never reach perfection.  There will always be something to strive for.  Something new to set my sights on.  And for me, that pursuit is the joy of the aerial arts. 

Performing...playing.

Today someone I have huge respect for called me an aerialist. That was incredibly cool.

I attended a Creating Circus intensive week at MAH in August and ended up with a reasonable semblence of a routine. So now I'm being faced with the scariest of all things: opportunities to achieve my goals and dreams. The only thing stopping me now is me.

I have a Christmas Show at my aerial school that I'm planning to perform at AND there are two other shows that may give me the opportunity to perform this year. The first one is a charity show on 8th October and there's going to be a variety of acts performing: pole dancing, street dance, fire breathing and some aerial. Looking at the lineup, it scares me that it's just going to be little old me on that trapeze for over 3 mins. It would be nice to have an ensemble to hide in. This is what I wanted though - the chance to perform.

While I work on my goals, I'm trying ever so hard to avoid being a pushy mother as I introduce my girls to the world of circus arts. My 2 year old had her first ever circus class today and while she loved all the floor exercises, I think she was even more keen on the aerial. At the end of class, I was a bit cheeky and went into catchers on a reasonably high trapeze so that I could swing her in some fledgling beats. The grin on her face afterwards was fantastic. Tomorrow I get to do it all over again with my other (5 year old) daughter in her class :)