Acro: status and goals

[curgoth]

It has occurred to me that some of the acro stuff I keep talking about doesn't make sense going just on description.

So, here's what I am working on now and what my goals are. Class has 6 stations, plus there's a few things I am working on on my own. The stations are presented in the order I usually go through them, but the starting points are by choice.

I had to try extra hard to not have all the videos feature 7 year old girls, because apparently that is who do the most gymnastics videos, and it looks really, really easy when they do it. Never watch the kids.



1. Handstands

A basic kick to handstand. I'm getting close to where I want to be with these. When I can reliably kick up and hold for 10-15 seconds (I'm at a few seconds now, and not quite reliably), I'll be looking for harder things like:

Handstand walking:

Handstand pushups:

2. Cartwheels

I'm getting close with these; mostly I am still having trouble getting my hips squared off. Which will eventually lead into;

One-handed cartwheels:

Round-offs:

and in the "long term only maybe possible", aerials - aka no-hand cartwheels.

Aerial Cartwheel - Actual Speed & In Slow Motion from Jenni on Vimeo.

3. Wall Handstands

I'm also moving into straddle wall handstands

and trying to get my feet away form the wall entirely, so I'm just doing a handstand *next* to a wall.

4. Bridge

This is one of the techniques I have been progressing at slowly. I can definitely do them, but I can't hold it very long, and I'm not happy with my hand positioning.

The progressions form this are bending backwards into it from standing, and then things like kickovers. Which I don't find exciting.

Related stuff I do want to do include:

Kip ups:

And in the "stretch goal" category, backflips:

(and that's my coach doing it)

5. Headstands

I have already graduated from these, and instead now do front rolls out of handstands:

Eventually this station just merges with 1. to be extra handstand time.

6. Back rolls.

My nemesis.

Necessary for back roll to handstand, back flips and other fun things. I cannot for the life of me get my hands into the ground to push off of.

Some of it is that I learned aikido rolls as a teenager and have a hell of a time not turning to one side.

My coach is trying me on pushup rolls to get me using my hands.

They have no gone well thus far.

My own goals:

Starting with Crow Pose

I can now do crow pose for 30 seconds, 3 times, on a good day with a hard floor.

I'm trying to transition to Crane pose:

And both of these are in pursuit of some day being able to do a planche:

That will take a while.

The other thing I am working on is butterfly kicks, because they look cool with swords.

I have the basic technique, but not much height.

Comments

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

My nemesis right now is tuck throughs. I lack the flexibility and core strength to get a tight enough tuck and my feet keep getting caught on the hoop. I keep hearing that doing plow pose in yoga will help with that, but every time I try it, I'm convinced I'm going to snap my neck in half.

Er...remind me again why we do this to ourselves? ;)

[curgoth]

I don't know about you, but this is all part of my general scheme to be someone my teenaged self would have thought was cool. Or maybe become Batman. Either is good.