I often talk about how pathways in aerial show up over and over. But maybe I don’t always explain what I mean. So let’s talk about a pathway I call “rolling over/keying over”.
To introduce this pathway, I use a floor exercise adapted from Bartenieff fundamentals.
It is important to note that we’re going to do this with the LEAST amount of effort possible.
Aerialists, I’ve met you. I know you’re going to try to turn this into an ab exercise or some sort of drill.
DON’T DO THAT.
Lie on your back, arms overhead, legs relaxed, forming an X shape. And f*cking relax.
Slide your right elbow and knee towards each other, staying on the floor as much as possible. Notice that you naturally start to make a bit of a C-shape. Try it on the left side.
Just slide!
If you allow this movement to continue, it can pull you into a fetal position. Just keep pulling your elbow and knee together and let the rest of your body follow. It should feel easy! Slide your left arm and leg away to roll back onto your back. Repeat on the left.
Just roll!
If you’ve stayed sliding on the floor, you should notice that your hip has to rotate and your spine flexes as you roll, and that all these things coordinate without you trying that hard to help you roll.
Next, keep your arms and legs straight while doing the exercise. Pay attention to how external hip rotation helps to drive the movement, and that the rest of your body has to follow by flexing the spine and rolling onto your side.
Don’t try too hard!
This is a way that your body wants to organize: when your hip does this, the pelvis does that, and the spine does this.
For those of you who like thinking about planes of motion, we started in the frontal plane, and rolled through the transverse plane to end up in the sagittal plane.
In this scenario, the fixed point or pivot point on the body is the hip. If we were on an apparatus, we could use this pathway to roll from sitting on a trapeze to a hiphang, or we could use it to key over into a vertical pole.
vertical pole
horizontal pole
But what if we changed the fixed point?
If the fixed point was the shoulders and we have the legs traveling through the same pathway, all the sudden we have something that looks a lot like bell beats and turnpike beats.
sliding on the floor
swinging in the air
Or, if we were inverted and the fixed point was the hands, now it’s something that looks a lot like going into and out of a meathook.
easy meathook
oof. Can you tell I don’t train these often?
So what’s my point? Is rolling into a hip key going to make doing a meathook easier?
Probably not.
But understanding what’s happening in the body while it’s moving through this basic pathway, and recognizing repeated patterns sure can help you understand what you or your students are trying to do!
Like how it’s going to be a lot easier to keep your hips up in a meat hook if you use external rotation to bring your leg around and down instead of dropping your butt while you just bring it straignt in.
Or seeing how you want to keep your body in the frontal plane as long as you can before keying over OR before lifting your legs in your turnpike beat.
Leaning into the pattern helps your body work in an easier and more supported way.
Why wouldn’t you want to do that?
If this is your sort of nerd shit, let me invite you to check out my online course Aerial for Nerds! This course explores pathways just like this that I see in aerial all the time.
I know I’ve said I’m going to offer this soon before, but for REALSIES I am going to open registration soon!
I’ve you’ve got something to say, I’d love to hear it! Drop a comment and let’s chat!
