Sideways Sads

Silks was rough again. But it shouldn't be. Let me explain.

I was kicking ass. It was my third day in a row of an aerial class, so I should have been a bit on the tired side. I didn't feel that; I felt great.

I did the best straddle of my life. I'm still catching my foot but not as heavily. And I am finally getting that stack. My problem in the past has been my legs don't get parallel to the floor, which makes my bottom heavy, and I fall back down out of the straddle. I've been working on this without much success. I'll straddle so I can see myself in the mirror, and I'll see that my legs are sort of angled up toward to ceiling but getting them parallel is hard. I'm slowly getting them down. But I know I'm also hunched over. When I try to stack, somehow my body sends a signal to my legs to straighten out, thus sending them back toward the ceiling again. And I fall out of the straddle. So I've been trying to stack with just my upper back. I think to myself, tits out. And it worked last night. My thighs weren't squeezed together. My legs were parallel. And my back was mostly stacked straight. It felt awesome.

I wish I'd gotten a picture.

Then ball flows. I recently graduated to a single wrist wrap and felt very comfortable with that. Yay, no more double wrist wraps. But then last night, I tried no wrist wrap, and it was awesome. All three rounds of ball flows, no wrist wraps, super solid in my grip. The teacher saw one of them and exclaimed how great I looked.

But then...sideways middle. My teacher thought that perhaps, since I was able to get it on lyra, it would finally start clicking on silks. Not.even.close. I don't know how people do it. I won't say I'll never get it. But I don't think I'll get it until I have a flawless from-the-air straddle inversion. And that's not happening anytime soon. Maybe a year? Who fucking knows.

So that got me down, and I was trying not to cry. The teacher came over for one last move and asked whether I wanted single footlock series or leg wrap. Definitely leg wrap. Then she had us go to man in the moon. I remember early on really hating this move because the wraps hurt my ankle. Not last night. It was pretty perfect. Of course, I got no video.

Yes, overall, I should be looking at last night as a success. But I can't seem to shake the sads from damned sideways middle.

Emma Sits

I had a rough silks class the other night. Well, let me rephrase: I had a move go very, very wrong, which almost ended up ruining my night, but then the teacher helped me end on a positive note.

The dreaded move was half scorpion. I got very stuck and very panicky, and the teacher basically had to extract me from the silks of death.

I wanted to be done for the night when the teacher suggested emma sits. I quite like emma sits. I got it on video. My double footlocks are looking rather smooth. And exiting has gotten a lot better, too.

Clothesline

This move used to terrify me on silks. There are two versions, one with the silks split and then one with a single pole. I've never let go on either. Especially not with a single pole.

But then I learned clothesline on lyra in intermediate classes. And man, I fell in love with this move. My teacher says lyra is just my spirit apparatus. It's true. But the confidence I had from lyra translated yesterday to silks. And just look at me!

Get Strong or Die Trying

It's time to step up my aerial training. My studio hosts an aerial festival every April, with lots of workshops in aerials, acrobatics, flexibility. I've missed the last two years because the workshops selected were beyond my skill level. (Well, the workshops that interested me, anyway.)

Next year (2020) is very different. There's a beginner hammock workshop. I'm dying to train hammock. But the classes my studio currently offers are beyond my skill level (they require an inversion from the air). But a beginner workshop? That's my jam.

Also, there's a lyra spinning workshop. I love spinning. I love transitioning between moves while spinning. So this is right up my alley.

Here's the catch. These workshops are hosted over three days, Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Three days in a row of aerial classes. Not only that, but I want to take TWO workshops. So, back to back aerial classes, three days in a row? I'm not sure my body is conditioned for that.

It's time to work on it. This past Sunday, I took my usual lyra intermediate class. Followed by silks. Oy. It was ROUGH. But I hung in there, I was quite proud of myself. I thought I'd bail after the main conditioning portion of class, but I didn't. I may have only done four of the six straddle inversions. Shh, don't tell the teacher. But I did all my other reps. 

In addition to once a week double classes training, I want to start training three classes over three days. I tried it once a few weeks ago. By that third day, I was pooped. Back to it. I'll give myself a rest day or two after Sunday double classes, then do a single class but three days in a row.

I'm gonna get so strong or die trying.

Nemesis no longer

So much to be proud of. Last week was a rough week. I did so well, but this one move wasn't happening. And of course, I was fixated on that rather than all the things I was doing well. All last week, I could not get this move. Inside out splits. All unit, I knew it would be trouble. I've learned it before in private track. And it failed just as badly back then, too. I was the only student both classes last week that couldn't get it. It was difficult not to cry. But I don't like to cry in front of people.

Sunday kicks off a new week but still review of inside out splits. My first round was as expected...big fat nope. Then the students started learning a new exit from that move. I figured I would just try one more time to get the basic move, and I got it! It wasn't pretty, but I got it. So I wasn't ready for that new exit, I just focused on the move. This was on a 38" single tab, though.

Then class last night, after the review of the move, I figured I might be ready for the new exit. My first try went OK, teacher spotting and holding the hoop in place. My second try did not go well. I fell too fast through the skin the cats and landed on my knee in the hoop. But hey, I'm learning. I watched a few better students and saw that they tucked their booty back to center themselves under the hoop for stability before descending into skin the cats. I think that might've been my problem. I wasn't centered; my booty was too heavy and pulled me down.

So it's weighing on my mind that if I can only do this move on a single tab, I'll need to do the whole advancement sequence on a single tab. I don't like some of the moves on single. I don't want to have to learn them. I tried flamenco arabesque on the low single tab we were using in class. Nope. nope nope nope.

I then decide to try inside out splits on the 35" double tab hoop, the famous low hoop (it's always low). I didn't have much hope. I need a bigger hoop to fit. I was trying to drive my hands to flip the hoop back a bit, but it became an effort in comedy as the hoop would be in the right position for a moment, but as soon as I moved my foot to fit, the hoop would fall back. Rinse and repeat a few times. So I re-gripped my hands, slid my top leg as far over as I could, and really tried to hold the hoop back, and I got my foot in. At this point, I was used to inside out splits on a single tab so my top foot was flailing a bit, searching for the strap that wasn't there, when I remembered it's on the other side in a double tab. Then I tucked my booty and slowly descended via skin the cats. It was great!

I just wish I'd gotten it on video. When I'm really focused and concentrating, I don't like to bother with video.

Here's the only picture I've gotten of it, from Sunday, on the big single tab.