A Very Full Aerial Practice

Aerial tonight had a full eight people in it. It had been a complete seven days since I had been to class and two weeks since I bruised myself so badly with the Angel Drop. I did get iron supplements and have been taking them for a week. Hopefully it will help prevent new bruises in the future.

The other students were two women that I see frequently, one that I have seen before, three newbies, and a child. The only other time there were children in my class, I was really uncomfortable about it. However, since we were so full and I was grouped with the others who come regularly, it was fine. (I probably sound like a giant jerk saying that, but I just feel weird about it.)

I did do one Angel Drop. One was enough. It hurt so bad. I'm probably tensing up and making it worse, but I still feel like there's no sense in doing a trick that is painful and not fun. I will continue to try it here and there but if it doesn't get better (lots of things in aerial weirdly do just stop hurting) I think I can just do without the drop in my life. No exterior signs of bruising on the thigh yet, but it feels like it's there.

I briefly worked on the Layback on the lyra and did some warm up chin ups on it. I almost felt like I could let go of my hands... but didn't.

We also worked on a stylized Russian Climb with a Sit, which was fun and relevant to my wish to get better at Flow. The fancy climb switched off with an invert to a knee hook to a split by wrapping the silk around the waist and the opposite foot. I liked this one, too. And my split definitely needs all the help it can get.

Other things I worked on briefly were the Georgia Twist and the foot lock to arabesque to middle invert/split/j-pose/sit/lotus hang that I love from January's flow choreography. One of the newer students told me that I was graceful and made the middle split invert look effortless. I almost died of disbelief.

At the end of class I remembered several other things that I wanted to work on. I'm listing them here in hopes that I will remember: Crochet Climb, Superman, Scorpion.

An Evening of Aerial Arts

We had a packed aerial class tonight with a total of 7 students. Four of the women were new, so they worked solely on silks, switching off between two of the silks in the room. The other three of us rotated between using the silks, lyra, and corde lisse. While I am pretty sure that I will always prefer the silks, I don't mind the other apparatuses as much these days.

My thighs and hips are still all black and blue from the Star Drop last week, so I opted out of trying the Double Star Drop that our instructor went over this week. (I did get some iron supplements this weekend, so hopefully soon I just won't be getting bruised so much.) I practiced the Georgia Twist some more and tried to keep my legs straight in a cross-back straddle. It was a rare opportunity to be the person that can help others learn a new move. ;)

This video is pretty good for showing how the Georgia Twist works. I prefer the last way that he does it, where you move into and out of a sit.

(It's really difficult to find silks videos since so many of the moves are called by multiples names and most videos contain multiple tricks. I feel lucky that I'm finding almost everything that I'm looking for this time!)

We also worked on the Bicycle Climb on the corde lisse, which isn't bad at all. It's almost easier because the silks don't get tangled around the feet. (Video link is obviously on the silks.)

I spent the rest of the class working on the Layback on the lyra and the Crochet Climb on the silks. I found a good Crochet Climb tutorial. I still need to work on getting my unwrapped leg straight and stretched on the Crochet Climb. I keep bending and not getting enough height.

Thursday is the first time I'll get to try to the February choreography at Flow. I hope I'm not too far behind already!