15 May How to Spin with the Aerial Hammock: 10 Practice Tips
Are you learning aerial and getting frustrated with now knowing how to spin with the aerial hammock without getting sick? After spending years as a couch potato, gaining strength and flexibility are both huge challenges for me. I get motion sickness very easily. Imagine the one person that gets sick on a fancy cruise ship, that would be me!
This learning process was particularly challenging for me, and I was so close to giving up aerial because of it. Before giving up, I decided to try anything I can and here are tips that I found useful to share with you.
Why is spinning so hard?
I believe in order to spin successfully requires a combination of technique (how you adapt your body to the changes of your environment) and experience (how your body adapts to the changes).
Aerial spinning is extra challenging because the movement involves the body spinning dynamically – meaning your head and body are going in all directions. That means to learn aerial spinning, the simplest answer is to practice spinning in ALL directions until your body is used to it.
Sad news, but the tips below helped me to get started, and I hope they will help you learn to spin in the air without getting sick.
Tip #1. Fresh Honey Ginger Lemon Tea
Some sites recommended eating ginger before spinning. Ew! My apologies if you love eating plain ginger.
I found that honey, ginger, and lemon all help to combat dizziness. I started including a nice bottle of warm honey ginger lemon tea on the side in every practice. Stop and take a sip whenever I needed. Just the placebo effect already made me feel a lot safer.
Tip #2. Prepare Snacks
Hunger seems to play a role in dizziness from spinning. I noticed that I get sick easier with an empty stomach. I would definitely not spin with a full stomach. The act of chewing something sweet and crunchy seemed to help to reduce my disorientation.
My favorite snack of practice was Digestive Cookies. After half a piece, I was ready to go again.
Tip #3.Spot
Spotting technique from dancing does not work for aerial during the spin. I found it helpful to do that before and after:
1. Before starting, find a spot that doesn’t move, for example, the corner of the room or the AC unit. I found it works better if the spot is far and high up, which also helps to keep your head up and body straight.
2. When beginning, close your eyes to avoid getting distracted or dizzy from seeing the blurry surroundings.
3. When you are ready to stop, slow down your spin (avoid sudden stop) and quickly get your gaze back to the spot you chose and give yourself a few seconds before sitting down.
4. Closing your eyes is not necessary for everyone. You could also try spotting the silks/hammock, something that is following the movement. Find out what works best for you and adjust.
Tip #4. Start real slow & Spin both directions
The more you are uncomfortable with spinning, the more time you have to give your body to get used to it. Don’t forget you are the boss of the spin so you get to control it.
Start with your body wide open (limbs out) and begin the spin slowly, you can increase the speed by bringing your limbs in and vice versa.
Tip #5. Breathe, Breathe, Breathe
We tend to hold our breath when we do difficult things, but tensing up our body is no way to learn and adopt a new skill. Saying it (or reading it) often will help to lock this concept in our minds so we don’t forget something so basic and so important. Let’s breathe!
Tip #6. Count the Beat
This tip helped me to let go the “oh my god, here it goes and I hope I don’t get sick again” thought. Try listening to slow music,count the beat, keeping your speed and breath during your spinning practice.
Tip #7. Look Far
If you finish staring at your fixed spot (tip #3), drinking the magical tea (tip #1) and still feel bad, try to look out the window for items far out in the open, such as a tree or a building.
Tip #8. Keep Moving
It felt great to collapse into the ground and sink into the sickness, but it took way longer to recover to get back to practice again. So instead it is better to pace around to keep your circulation moving.
Tip #9. Avoid Practicing Too Much
You are learning nothing if you keep getting sick every time. I added time goals and timing the duration of my spin. I started with 30 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 3 seconds, etc.
Tip #10. Other Practices
Renting an aerial practice space costs money! Something you could do on the side is to turn and spin however you can. I am practicing to do a pirouette for fun, and you could give it a try too!
After all these tips, don’t forget to enjoy spinning in the air and looking amazing! When you feel ready, check out the videos in the Aerial Sling Playlist:
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