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Aerial frustration – I need to vent
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Free climb as in what fire fighters and cops are required to do on ropes. Think Chinese climb on pole….all arms. Not sure if that is the proper terminology.
I have never gotten as bad of foot and hand cramps as I do from silks. This is one time that big hands and feet do NOT come in handy!
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When I first learned foot wraps, I COULD NOT walk on my dominant foot for days afterwards. It hurt soooo bad!
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HELZ NO ON A FREE CLIMB! As for climbing that high, all of us were trying to see how high we could go. Nobody could get half way, but since pole, it really wasn't that bad. The instructor didn't say don't go that high. It was when I got up there and looked down, I was like Holy S, I am HIGH! It was scary coming down and I really had to concentrate on what to do, since we weren't taught how to come down. They said just don't slide or you will get burns and maybe go to fast and end up falling!
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I know when I teach intro/basic silks we don't teach wrist locks/hitches. Any repetitive inversions are done from the ground, in the conditioning section of class. Often in the intro classes, all straddle ups conditioning is usually done in a knot, until a student has proved they can move on. Double wrist wraps are totally fine to me because the hands must remain active and grip cannot be forgotten. But a wrist hitch sometimes lets people do get ahead of themselves, so we tend to save those for more upper levels. If your grip strength isn't good enough, then there are a lot of things a person shouldnt be doing up in the air even if their body is capable of it. There's nothing that makes a person freak out more than getting up the silk and realizing their grip isn't good enough. When a person freaks out up in the air, they stop listening, their energy efficiency is totally shot, their brain shuts off, they can hyperventilate, and accidents happen. I have watched students do this, and while I remain calm on the outside for them, the inside is a-jumpin'. Falling from 6 feet inverted, even on to a mat could sustain injury. Silks is a difficult apparatus. Many places will not even teach it as a first apparatus, requiring people to work on trapeze, etc to build up hand strength and grip.
Also, Rebekah Leach is awesome. Learning from books? Not awesome. I linked a video where she herself tells you why. This blew my mind. It's so dangerous. I cannot say enough times… circus aerial is not therapeutic, it provides fitness but its so much more than that. It is dangerous and can require things of the body that are not healthy or good for a person. Do not teach yourself until you have enough experience to do so. With silks it can take people years to acquire that proficiency. Aerial manuals should be used for reference. Not learning.
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I wish I could do a wrist hitch or wrist wrap…..not sure what either are, but just grabbing the silk scares me. Also, I have noticed that either I am getting bigger muscles in my fingers or my joints are swelling because I have been having a hard time taking my rings on and off since starting.
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Starting any aerial definitely changes the hands. Grip requires a lot of those little interstitial muscles of the hand to work in ways that we never ask them to otherwise. Do you use rosin? That might help. I have a hard time with grip on silks. I actually like corde lisse and trapeze a lot better because I can grip better on those apparatus. I think it's going to be different for everyone. I do know that sweaty handed people tend to have an easier time gripping the silk, because the sweat makes the fabric sticky. I have dry hands. What I do is put corn huskers lotion on when I am warming up, and 20 min later or so, I add rosin before actually getting on the apparatus. It really helps for me.
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@Corby Thanks for your post. I couldn't agree more with everything you said. You brought up an important point I forgot to mention, which is that the fear factor in silks can cause your brain to shut off. I've had the experience of wrapping up for a hard drop and getting so nervous I literally couldn't understand what was being said to me. This is a very dangerous situation to be in. Fortunately for me, I was strong enough to hold myself where I was, and was able to calm down. Had I been alone, trying to remember something I read in a book a few minutes ago, I might have been royally screwed. I'm all for people having silks at home for ground-level conditioning purposes, but otherwise it should be done in a studio with proper supervision, rigging, and safety equipment. The only people I know who have a true silks set-up at home are a duo act who train together and teach silks, too.
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Its really true. Being high off the ground has a certain amount of scare factor whether upside down or right side up. Talking someone out of that calmly and clearly is the only way, yet a lot of people are not calm or focused enough to be able to listen. This is pretty much the best indicator there is that you are not ready for something.
I know that when I teach, everything is initially learned close to the ground. AND everything is taught forwards and backwards. No student that I have taught is allowed to go for a drop until they have mastered the setup and reversing the set up to get back out safely. I find that this helps people a lot with mechanics. Because anyone can do something if they are told what to do, but actually learning why/how drops and moves work is more difficult. Also helps people with remembering their moves.
Bottom line for me, grip strength evens the playing field when people start silks. Even when they have prior pole experience. Remember learning pole and the baby steps involved with learning to invert correctly? It's the same thing. You have to train grip strength. Its not fun and it takes a while. But it's necessary in order to be safe. Gotta crawl before you walk.
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