November 2022

[Silks Stars Team]

Option 1: Front Cross Belay to Split Wheeldown
Option 2: Front Cross Belay to Split Waterfall (mini-rig)
Share your comments, questions, and work from this month’s combination below!

[Manon]

Woohoo ! I’m so excited by this month challenge. Is there a reason why I can’t have the full screen ?

[Manon]

Oh ! Never mind. I have it now !

[Manon]

https://www.silksstars.com/community/manon/media/2997/edit
Help! I’m totally stuck after the front cross. I know my hip flexors are not that strong, so any tip or exercise to help me would be greatly appreciated. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[Danica.Liu]

Having fun on working on both variations! With the split, I’m finding I’m dropping as I wrap my feet and split them. Sometimes I drop enough that I’m too far below the belay to get my leg hooked back in for the waterfall. I am trying to keep the tails tight as I wrap and split, but do you have any tips to stop the additional drop?

[Silks Stars Team]

Hi Manon and Danica! Rachel will go over these questions in next weeks Q & A!

[Ogie]

Front Cross Belay to Split Wheeldown: Great choreo Rachel. I love the clean belay entry, the salto drop and the belay wheeldown.

Some questions for the Q&A:
1) how to climb into belay with minimal use of arms and hands to hang straight. Tips to make it smooth and effortless?
2) neckhang: my head does not stick between poles since i am not flexible and have center of gravity in my upper body. Hence i need to hold hands. Tips?
3) salto handsfree through. Find this a bit scary since i do not feel i have control. Tips?
4) splits: alternative pose for not so flexible people? Any inspiration?

[Silks Stars Team]

Great questions Rogier! Rachel will go over all this on Tuesday!

[Janice]

Hi. Although I can do s-wrap wheeldowns, this particular kind is tricky for me because the hand placement seems different. Need coaching on what to do particularly in the the part when the body is facing the floor (perpendicular)… what do we hold and not hold? Thanks 🙂

[Ogie]

Hi Rachel, I just realized that during the Q&A you did something beautiful, that I did not see you doing in the choreo or demo. You bent your legs alternating during the belay wheel down. I love it, especially since it take the attention away from not so spacious straddles and slightly bent legs 😉 (yes: fake it till you make it) . But how do you time that? Any tips?

[Ogie]

From what I can see you bent the other leg on each half turn. I tried this, but it looked far from elegant when I tried it like that. I think I am missing something in timing here… Is my assumption correct that you rotate the hip outside, even with bent leg? Or is the hip rotation also moving in the sequence? Again, thanks for the unexpected extra, I really like this one.

[Silks Stars Team]

Hi Rogier- good eye, mate! Yes, it is an external rotation from the hip as you noticed. Bringing the bent leg closer toward the midline as the roll moves toward the loop. Hope that helps, let us know how it goes!

[Silks Stars Team]

Happy Thanksgiving Silks Stars!!!!!

[Gillian]

The last couple of months have not gone as planned and I was in hospital last week having surgery on my spine. I won’t be able to submit a video again this month, I’ve had a look at the Pilates option but that is out of bounds at the moment too. Looking forward to getting back in the air when I get medical clearance (maybe 10 – 12 weeks-ish away). By then I might be delving into the foundations library to build up a strong base! It’s great seeing everyones progress on instagram and seeing the community here etc.. It makes me feel at least part of the aerial world even if I am grounded for now!

[Silks Stars Team]

Hi Gillian! Wow, that is a lot! Thank you so much for sharing with us. Sending healing thoughts your way. Here’s to a speedy recovery!

[Yvan]

As usual a link from me for this month’s challenge. So happy I could record sth today… I have a knee injury that kept me off the silks this month and had to modify slightly the split in the belay which I did not manage to stabilize 🙁 … details… I selected a song from Fame (1980) from Irene Cara as tribute to her 🖤

https://www.silksstars.com/community/yvanlp/media/3015/

[Karenvferreirac]

Just wanted to check something…

I spent 6 weeks travelling with no access to a rig and pretty much 0 exercise 😬, so when I started training for this month’s challenge it was 200% on the too hard range of motion for me, is it ok to submit the October challenge for this month (btw, in October I submitted the workout because I was nowhere near getting it with only one week of training for it 🙈)

Thanks!

[Silks Stars Team]

Yes, that is ok!

[Helene]

This month will only be about the pilate session for me.
I’ve been grounded the entire month due to a rotator cuff strain.
I am very much hoping to be able to give a shot at the December challenge, but recovery has been slower that I would have liked, so let s see.

[Cutsi]

I have a question about last month’s challenge, I know novemeber is over but it would be great if you could still help me.
I have noticed that when I climb up from the belay for the neck hang and to get ready for the drop, there is a lot of pressure, and it can even be a little painful if I did it a lot of times, in the…. crotch area. I was wondering how would a man (or anyone with male anatomy in the crotch) go about doing this part of the sequence? Is there some way to avoid too much pressure in that area? Or maybe I should be letting the loop in the belay be a little bigger before hooking the knee and climbing up?
I know there is quite a few silks starts members who are boys and could help me out, or maybe Brett could give me some insight in to how this squence feels?
Thanks.

[Yvan]

Hi!
I initially thought this sequence was going to be pinful in the crotch area. However, it was not. I personally do 3 things:
1. As you said, make sure the belay has some slack to have that extra space.
2. Always pull up first to create some slack to move through the wrap and “land” in a comfortable position. In this sequence that action of pulling up happens twice: in the climbing up from the knee hook before the neck hang and also in the last inversion after the neckhang (before the drop).
3. Keep tension in the legs at all times.
Hope this helps 🙂
Yvan

[VictorSzeto]

I’ll second Yvan’s answer. For me, the important moment was the climb after the knee hook/before the neck hang. That’s a nutcracker spot, and if I didn’t wiggle into a good spot from there, everything else was at a higher pain level than it needed it be.

[Silks Stars Team]

There was an issue with the video hosting software but the issue has been fixed. Thanks for letting us know!

[Author]

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