Circus Sunday

I had a fun Circus Sunday.

I took a 3 p.m. class at Leap. Today, I was just working on tricks for the show next Sunday. I've decided my two tricks are back end straddle and a seat roll.

Your show tricks are supposed to be tricks you feel confident in—that you can throw when your'e nervous. They're not necessarily you're best trick.

In a perfect world, I'd love to do my cutaway (but think that might take a few classes to get) and a straight jump, but I didn't work on those today. I worked on my seat roll, which I did earlier this summer.

I decided on that trick because it looks cool, isn't a particularly difficult trick and no one else in the show is doing that trick. (There are lots of similar backend tricks)

I went up and did my seat roll. Which I remember being an easy trick.

It's amazing how quickly your muscles forget how to do a trick.

I was slow to get up on the bar. I remember it being a slow trick. But it's not. I feel like I don't even have enough time and this is the slow version of the trick.

The trick is to go up into a pike, knees over the bar, sit, toes out to straighten and lengthen, lay back on the bar and hands.

I was slow every time, but I could save it by the time it's time to release hands for catch. I just need to calm down and realize I have enough time for this trick.

I also worked on my backend straddle. Only I didn't warm up my swing, so I had to muscle into the straddle, which affects the timing.

We practiced my swing once and I still need to work on my extend.

For catching, I caught my seat roll on the third catch.

I missed the first one because of a timing issue. (We had a guest from Club Med pulling lines.) The second one, I opened too narrow and got it on my third try. It was a little sloppy and I need to straighten out my body next time. I have a Wednesday and Saturday class before the show so hopefully I can get it.

Bloopers from today
1) I'm still a belt hold. They didn't do a belt hold one time and that felt weird. I'm not there yet.
2) Calling my own timing. What? They asked me to call my own ready once. I need you to just tell me what to do.

Battle wounds
It was the class of battle wounds. On my first time up doing the seat roll, I tore my tank top and got a red bruise on my upper abs. (I think my safety belt collided with the bar).

My foot hit the bar and got a bruise on the inside of my right ankle

I opened my hands too narrow for a catch, and was caught one handed. It stung. I fell. There's a bruise on my hand.

And I came home with bruises on the fronts and back of my knees and generally felt pretty beat up the next day.

CANOPY SHOW
After the class, I went to the show at Canopy. A few friends were in it. It was awesome.

Aerial Trapeze Class

Our class was not this advanced.

Today was my first day of aerial Trapeze class. Everyone in Athens raves about Canopy and I was ready for something different so I decided to give it a try.

It was as first classes are. Go around the room and say your name, stretch, learn about the equipment, and do some tricks but not too many.

The class was a diverse mix of people—all women. A few were younger. I'd say most were 30s and 40s. There were 14 people in all.

After stretches we partnered up to work on the trapezes. First, they showed us how to lower a trapeze from the wall, take it off the caribiner and adjust the height. It was all complicated and will definitely take me a few classes.

We had partners and we took turns practicing all of the skills like getting on the trapeze. You don't simply sit on it. (My logical brain was so confused.) You start on the floor and bring your knees over and pull yourself up. We practiced sitting on the trapeze and swinging playground style. We did knee hangs—both from a low trapeze with your back on the floor and then later from a higher trapeze when you could actually hang. We practiced laying back on the trapeze, standing on the trapeze (It was shakier than I thought it would be) and something that might have been called star pose—with one foot and hand on the rope, and the other two out. We tried leaning back from standing and getting down from that (think one footed squat, while balancing on a bar) and then doing a skin the cat to get down from the trapeze. The end. That was class.

Trapeze seems complicated—there are a lot steps, and placements to remember (grip your thumb around the bar, keep your thumbs up like in thumbs up, pike this way etc.) It doesn't seem overly difficult though. I wasn't tired or winded afterwards. And perhaps I was expecting it to be more fun? (Like trampoline, acro or gymnastics. All super fun for the first class.)  I guess it could be more fun later.  For my first class, I wasn't wowed. But then again a good foundation is important. We'll see how the next class though.