- Hey guys, it's Whitney, and I'm with Shawn Johnson,
and we are going to be showing you some tips
on how to get a better side aerial, or how to start one.
Let's get started.
Here's what a side aerial looks like.
- That's beautiful.
That's exactly how you do a side aerial.
(acoustic guitar music)
(chime)
Her side aerial's actually perfect.
If you didn't know, a side aerial is a cartwheel
without hands.
The way you train and learn a side aerial,
please don't do it at home by yourself.
Do it with a coach, in a gym, with mats, safety,
but you can start from a cartwheel, so progressions.
Show the whole progression.
You start at side cartwheel.
Next, you would probably progress into a one arm cartwheel,
just getting the feel of balance and drive.
Drills you can do, going into a side aerial,
you can do a one arm cartwheel snap down,
or a cartwheel snap down,
which is learning how to draw yourself over the top.
Exactly, beautiful.
Do you want to show them a one arm?
- Okay.
- The same thing, you're learning a little bit more
of a drive because you only have one arm.
Other drills you can do,
you can start from a kneeling position
and go into needle kick,
or even a needle kick is the same.
You can do it with arms, which is a little less advanced,
for a beginning ...
Like, arms down.
You can then progress from a kneeling position
through a needle kick, into a cartwheel.
You do the same thing into a snap down.
You can do the same thing into a one arm cartwheel.
Still progressing.
You can then progress from that into an aerial,
a full aerial into a pit.
You don't have to do that,
because you know how to do it.
After a pit, you can put mats into a pit,
you can stack panel mats up
to go off the panel mats into a pit.
Once you feel comfortable enough to move to a floor,
you can stack panel mats up to give you some height,
go onto a soft landing,
and then slowly work your way down from there.
- And practice.
Once you hit great, you can do it on the beam,
work on a line.
Make it look exactly like her.
- [Woman] Do it on the line.
- Can you do an aerial on the beam?
- Yes.
- Wow.
I never got that one.
That's beautiful.
- [Man] Wow.
(electronic music)
- That's how you do an aerial.
Literally by the book right there.
- So now we are going to grab in
some beginners and not-at-allers.
(laughs)
- Ouch, Whitney.
Ouch.
- All right Blakely.
- We have a beginner of aerials.
She has her aerial onto a pit.
She's working off the mat.
Do you want to show me your aerial into a pit?
Yeah?
Do you want to show us a cartwheel snapdown?
- It's a really fast cartwheel.
Brings your legs together at the end of the cartwheel
as fast as you can.
Can you bring your arms up with it?
You're kind of in a round off.
Do a little bit more of a step out.
There we go.
Can I see your aerial into the pit?
(crowd applauds)
- [Shawn] Nice.
Good job.
- Eventually she'll get it on the floor
with tons of practice.
Now it's time for the not-at-aller.
- Okay, stop. (glass crashes)
Andrew.
(laughs)
(trumpet fanfare)
- Okay.
- You start with a cartwheel.
- Just like the one I just did?
- No, an actual cartwheel.
Nice, but you need to land facing
the same direction as this.
Why are you doing this?
It's like this, and like this.
Nice.
- Pretty good?
- Yeah. - That's as far as you go.
- I'm game.
- Now you try it in the pit.
- In the future ...
An aerial?
- No.
Could you do a cartwheel in the pit?
(water splashes)
- [Shawn] Nice.
- Nice.
The next step is we'll do the aerial.
Aerial's a danger.
- Yes.
- But that's a beginner right there.
- Very beginner.
- A not-at-aller.
- Not-at-aller.
- You guys close it out.
- Thanks for watching.
- Yes. - Thanks for watching.
See ya.
(acoustic guitar music)