Yes! We look forward to seeing the combo with a modification that keeps your body healthy and happy 🙂

Hi Natty,

It’s important to keep the foot flexed as it’s more secure and puts less stress on the the ankle. we recommend using a theraband or stretchy tights and doing some ankle flex/ point exercises as well as internal/external to help build up ankle strength. In the air- You can also think about internally rotating the leg while placing the ankle hang with a strong flexed foot. That may also help your foot from sickling. As for question #2 could you send a new link so we could see your video? That link doesn’t seem to be working. Thanks

Looking forward to the slide re-do! Happy training!

Hi Jill,

One thing you could try is reaching up a bit higher on the tail before you twist into the arch position to climb up. As you twist into the arch, make sure to keep at least one arm bent so you’re not going into an intense shoulder stretch. As you twist into the arch, be sure to bend the leg that’s in the ankle hang right away and “pull down” with that ankle hang ankle as you climb up to help take some weight. You can also just practice rotating into the pull up arch and just practice holding that position with bent arms and then twisting back before climbing out in the standard way until you are ready for the arched climb up.

Oh fabulous! Best of luck adding these ideas into your climb!

Ah, the calf squeeze! It can be pretty intense. It looks like you use the free foot to guide the wrap a bit, see if you can push the fabric out from the muscle to allow it to pass the belly of the calf to settle high on the ankle. The theraband exercises mentioned above might help as well. Even with wonderful flexibility, checking in with the active strength is valuable for an ankle hang. Active flex is uncommon for most activities unless you want to hang from an ankle. 😉 Internal rotation of the leg is helpful to set the ankle wrap on the outside of the foot and towards the heel. And then strong external rotation to keep the wrap from sickling the foot. Although the foot position is parallel visually, the push is towards a turn out of the leg. Solid work, can’t wait to see then next steps!

Glad to hear the Q&A was helpful! Part of that first mermaid can be strength based. However, there are a few places to see if your left grip might be able to get more support from the rest of the body. The angle of the mermaid can be one place to adjust. If the feet are high, the one hand will be doing a fair amount of work. If the feet are lower, you can put more weight into the legs to support that single hand grip. See what power you can find when adjusting the angle of mermaid and also checking in with how much your legs can help press into the fabric. Happy training!

Helene! These are wonderful questions that get at the very heart of managing the exploration and journey of training. I will reach out to Brett and Rachel to see if they have any particular nuggets to share.
Some things that did pop out is your question about rest and the mention of recently changing jobs. Transitions take their time, even when we don’t immediately notice the effects of the changes to our schedule, how our day is structured, what kind of work we are doing, etc. The need for both physical and mental rest fluctuates but is usually greater than we tend to acknowledge and make time in our schedules for. Incorporating a new job into your life even without a strenuous physical activity is an undertaking of size!
It sounds like you have a great team of strength coaches on your side, clear aerial goals, and the will to try things out. Which means you are on a path of training with great tools and help by your side. Taking the time and giving yourself gentle yet determined grace is not necessarily a luxury if you want to learn and train long term.

Curious if we have anyone in the group with more specific strength training programs they love incorporating into their training!

Hey Jill!
Two thoughts on this. Try keeping some tension on the tail to help maintain that connection with the foot. Using some turn out, especially to the back arabasque shape, to keep the pocket of the arch of the instep working to your advantage. This connection is helped by longer feet and higher arches but is definitely possible for any foot in all it’s specific glory. You can try with a flexed foot to really feel the connection and add the bonus of pointed toes once you have wrangled that tail and foot friendship. The second question will be covered in the answer for @ncuppps below as it seems similar!

Oh it took a few beats but I believe the questions are about two different hands 🙂
The hand holding the two tails may not need to slide and that does depend on how much slack is built for the drop. Since the hand is overhead for the forced arabasque shape, the distance between hand and back foot is part of the slack variability. This length is effected by flexibility. One thing to try if you think the slack is longer for this reason, when grabbing the pole from the forced arabasque, look at grabbing as close to your hip as possible. Keep us updated!

Thank you for numbers!
1. If your ankle hang allows, try giving the free tail a beat to settle so you have a more clear view of where/how to grab it. Another option is after the toss, take your arms out (granted the tail is in front of your chest, keep your wingspan wide to hug the fabric between arms, and then use hands once the fabric has been gathered.
2. That hand does get a bit of burn! A few places to try different additional solutions to muscling down: Drive the toes down and slightly forward if your back is to the pole to use the landing pole as much as possible, taking some weight out of the sliding hand. If this feels possible, a palming press on the free pole can allow you to use the pole to help keep the chest lifted but with a slight adjustment of the relationship between fabric and hand. Happy sliding!!