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OH MY GOSH!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!! IM SO EXCITED!!!! I’ve been wanting to learn these infinity drops SO BAD!!!!! Rachel this ALL SO GORGEOUS! Ok, I MUST focus on June and finish, but AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! ❤️❤️🥳
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Ooh I tried infinity rolls before but got stuck at the 3/4’s point and ended up in a knee hang lol. Keen to see how I go this time 😊 I’m travelling overseas for a couple of weeks but hope to still be able to do the sequence 💜
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You have got this!!!
My first attempt! Can you tell I’m surprised? 😂 I think I need to drive my legs down more but not sure about my arms?
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Nice start for the challenge! Yes, driving the legs down more will help. And you can allow the tails to slide in your hands just a bit to give a little space in the leg loops for the rotation. Keep those hips open at the end and the shoulders coming up after them to really finish the heel drive. That moment of trust is exciting but you have the tails in hand and you already know a knee hang is where you might end up if the rotation doesn’t finish. Cannot wait to see how these progress!
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Yes, working in the back angle of the shoulders, the skin the cat, is fairly strength based. Pike active flexibility and compression are also important for stacking the limbs of the body to use our muscles as efficiently as we can. For bodies who have a lower center of gravity in the hips, the skin the cat can feel exciting. Working to strengthen the back and shoulder power to move the hips can be key.
Exercises that may help you find the connection and how to build strength:
shoulder shrugs in arrow/pencil (elbows straight): really testing the ability to move the hips up and down from the vertical shoulder mobility
shoulder shrugs in pike (elbows straight): only curving the back to the point where you can pull the chest back through to be between the biceps (often in the skin the cat, once the upper back curves, if we don’t have the power to straighten again, we can feel stuck)
small skin the cat rocks: starting in pike, keep the back/chest open/long, moving the hips past the wrists to a point where you still have control, then initiating the shift back to neutral pike from the chest. once these feel pretty good, go to the skin the cat, hold for a count of 3-5/longer (to mimic taking the leg wraps off) and then find that same pull to bring the hips center.
Once the shoulders and back ‘relaxes’ in the skin the cat, it can be pretty tough coming back!!Keep us posted!
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For those of us with less than great skin the cats, any suggestions for how to keep the hips high while removing the wraps?
I’m finding pushing into the wraps to lift my hips makes them knot but sinking to kick them off means I’m unable to get back over!-
Great question. Consider keeping the back long so the hips stay between the wrists like they would be for pencil/arrow/toes straight up. The idea is really staying strong through the back so that the angle of the legs pointing down to release the wraps comes from the slight shift of the hips back initiated from the slight opening of the shoulders into the back angle, less about lowering the hips to get the legs down. This does mean the active flex in the pike is important. And if the pike is not the most closed, using a small circle of the leg out and then towards the chest may get the tail to move off the leg. Also check out the exercise ideas posted to the above question to build the proprioception specific to the skin the cat strength.
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Glad I’m not the only one struggling with skin the cat! I can’t even begin to return to pike once my legs are unwrapped… Will focus on the above advice and hope for the best
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So I’ve figured out that the infinity roll is way easier if the loops are up high in the hip sockets, but I’m having to drop down so far losing all my height to make that happen. I have watched and rewatched Rachel doing it, but I’m just not getting it. Tips please?
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Yes Jill! The closer the wraps are to the hips, especially on the back of the legs, the more efficient the use of your heel drive power can be. And yes! Rachel makes the wrap for the Infinity Rolls look like no big deal. It is a notorious slide-y transition. In your double knee hook, think about closing the wrap by lifting the hips, and therefore the fabric tails by the hips, up to the place on the fabric where the knees are hooked instead of allowing the wrap to happen by the knees sliding down to where the hips where before climbing up into the wrap. This does require more of a pull up and a nice knee grip on the fabric to minimize the knee slide while climbing up to complete the wrap. Veronica’s Knee Grip Workout would be a great way to help those knee hooks become super effective! Keep us posted!
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Ok, this actually has helped A LOT!!! Thank you so much! Climbing above the wraps and using my knee grip (thank you June!) is making a difference already.
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Hi all! I really hoped to be able to fine tune this and to play with the timing but it was already too windy and it’s worse now. And I sail to Wallis soon. SO here is where I’d gotten to July 11th. I would definitely have sorted out my tails better and also changed my silly leg movement before the infinity roll. But gosh I had fun! https://www.silksstars.com/community/robin/media/3760/
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Just wondering if anyone gets knee pains during Angel Bomb Drop (or even the rotation from the bent leg accent from the inverted straddles)? Any ways to workaround that?
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Great question! It may be that the joints are being pulled into a deeper compression than they are comfortable. One idea to try is keeping more tension in the legs to keep the knees from closing as far as they can. When bending in from the straddle, you can keep pressing out against the foot locks to keep the heels from closing all the way to the hips, making space between the pelvis and the feet. You can keep the same activation in the Angel Bomb. While the heels might close to the hips in the drop, the activation of the muscles supporting the knee joint can help keep the ligaments or tendons taking too much pressure. If you are feeling discomfort through a joint, it’s typically a sign to make adjustments/build strength and is not the type of discomfort to ‘work through’.
Ground workouts videos that would help strengthen the hips, which then in turn can take care of the knee joints: Happy Hips!, Legs and Bands, Knee Grip workout, and Hip Stability.
Keep us posted and please take good care of those knees!
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I am having trouble finding the recording of the q&a – when I click the link, it doesn’t let me log in to view. Am I missing something? Thanks
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Hello! Here is the address for the Q&A from the forum: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/silks-stars-july-qa-2023 – password is bomb
If that doesn’t work, can you give some more details so we can figure out how to help?
Keep us posted! -
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Hmmm, this may take some more digging on our end and reaching out for more technical help.
The password does seem to be case sensitive for ‘Bomb’ with capital B
Did you check to make sure there is no extra space before you type? Sometimes a space can sneak in if you tried cutting and pasting.
Have you had trouble before? -
Another link option – https://www.crowdcast.io/e/silks-stars-july-qa-2023/register – password: Bomb
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I’m struggling with feeling able to support my weight in my skin the cat. My shoulders feel like they give out before I can engage my core to unroll. My instructor suggested really digging into my pec minors with a peanut to help loosen them and increase mobility. Any suggestions in the interim for how to get out?
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Great question. After the Angel Bomb, the body is mostly supported through the hips and leg wraps, the hips securely on one side of the poles for the landing. Shifting the position of the hips between the hands can help you find where your shoulders are able to take the work from the hip hang, so a shift towards an inverted pike position, hips on the head side of the poles rather than on the leg side of poles where the landing of the Angel Bomb is. Once you find where your shoulders can take the work, then you can start building to taking the hips back on the leg side of the poles (skin the cat) for the leg wrap release. Or even see what success you can find if the hips are primarily between the hands. There are few exercises mentioned above to start finding the power in the back/shoulders/abs when you take the hips behind the shoulders.
Yes, tight pec minors are typical in training aerialists. Some bodies respond well to vigorous digging, some bodies respond better to a softer, slower release. A little bit of self exploration to see what works for your body may take a little trial and error but then you will have a sense on how to approach your tight muscles. Pec and armpit tightness can get pretty tender!!
Keep us posted on how it goes!
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Hi silksstars, dear Rachel – I personalized slightly this months’ choreo as usual but I hope I remained within the spirit of your gorgeous combination. The splits are there! 😋 Thanks a lot! This will be my submission:
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