Transcript of a YouTube instructional session (Autumn Calabrese with instructor Kerri Wee) at JJ Gym teaching beginner aerial silks techniques. The content covers climbing, footlocks, straddles, swings, drops, and choreography tips, mixing step-by-step cues with demonstration and commentary on difficulty and form.
Every once in a while, I gotta step out of the box and try something new, so that's what I'm doing today. I am with the beautiful Kerri Wee, and today she is going to teach me the Silk.
We're here at JJ Gym, and I'm going to teach Autumn how to climb, how to do some spins. We're going to do some straddles and some splits. It's going to be really fun. You're going to wrap your right leg around, and you're just going to put your left foot on there, and you're just going to push through and climb up. So the hardest part about the climb is when your knees come up and you put yourself back in that position. And you're just gonna stand up from there. Coming down, you're just gonna put one hand underneath the other. Just a wrap and a push. Safely descend to the ground. Yes. Straighten that right leg. Beautiful. Good.
Two hands up.
You're gonna do a knee up, regrab, and push. Yes. Good job. Okay. You don't spin. Why am I spinning? Well, you're kind of swinging under the point, but it's okay. One more try. Push all the way out. Yes. Good. Let me give it one more try. Yes, yes, yes. Straighten that leg out and push. And go ahead and slide down with control.
There you go. Beautiful. We're gonna do this great thing called a footlock. Okay? Okay. So you're gonna do your climb up.
And you're gonna hold on above your head, lean back. That left foot is gonna go right in front of you. You're gonna push it away, bicycle the other foot in, step and stand. Not as easy as it looks. Right? And then we're gonna sit back, push it off the foot, and slide down. Okay, good. Lean back slightly, left foot. Good. And you're gonna go under with the foot. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Get your foot in there. Yes. Step in it. Get your other leg out. Amazing. Good. And you're gonna cross that left leg over the right, and you're gonna go like this with your left arm on fabric, and you're gonna reach out. Beautiful. This footlock is squeezing the crop out of your foot.
It's binded like a rubber band.
So from here, go ahead and separate the fabric.
There it is. Beautiful.
Two hands on both ends. Bring both knees into the center, both knees into the center, both knees. So open it up. Bring both knees in. You're gonna kneel down. So both knees in. Yep. Just kneel down on both knees. Good. This is what you called your birth cage. You can bring your hands here and we can do a little bit of a head roll just to make it a little choreography. Yes, it's beautiful.
Oh, look how fabulous.
Yeah. So we go here first, hold down.
And then I'm kicking into it, right?
Yes, Kick into it. Let go of your hands. Good. Beautiful. Make sure your toes go down to your face. Yes. Good. Pick a side. You're flip over so you can sit down. Good. Let's cross the right or the left and have a little pretty moment there.
Pretty moment.
Swing sets. Slide your tush down off the loop and you're going to straddle up. That takes a lot of ab strength for all you people out there watching. Pointed toes and pretty arms. Beautiful. Good. Let's go to our next position. You're gonna bend your right leg into the front so that it's caught on both pieces. That's fine. Right there. Good. You're extend the back leg behind you. Yes. And if you can grab that foot, then you have a beautiful stretchy contortion moment. That's gorgeous, Autumn. Wonderful. Good. And go back to your straddle. Back to your straddle. And go ahead and stand up.
Beautiful.
Woo.
Really, really nice. You're gonna prep with your left leg in front, your right leg in back. So you're gonna twist to go the other way. So I'm gonna twist left to go right.
And then stop yourself. So you're gonna go left in front, you're gonna twist to the left. And as you go to the right, you're gonna bring your feet off the ground and drop your knees. Drop your hips. There you go. It's gorgeous.
Really nice, Autumn.
Woo. Good.
Okay, now you're getting. You're gonna pull through like a monkey bar. Relax into the hips. Let go of the arms. Relax. Deep breath. Then you're gonna pick one side, flip your body over and sit in your swing set. Cross the leg over. Beautiful. Really nice moment. You're gonna bring your tush off and go ahead and straddle back. Lower abs. Nice and straight legs. Gorgeous. From here, frog position. Good. Let's go to the stag. Because it was so good on you, let's bring the left leg behind you. Stretch your back. Really nice. Good. And from here, the right leg is going to go up and in. Yes. Amazing. Good. Other leg does the exact same thing. Try to get into your knees. It's tight, right? Bend the knees. Nice. You see how it's in your knee pits? It's perfect. Point those toes. Big sit up. Big ab. Work two hands up high. High arms. Good. And push all the way through. Good. Yes. Two hands high. And you're gonna bring your legs behind you. Yes. From here, left arm reaches forward. Good. And fall into your right knee. So slide your right hand down. Really good. And all the way back. Pretty impressive. It's hard at the beginning to do these things, because also the. The gut straddle and come up. Because the student. At the beginning, you're not just dealing with the choreography. It just feels so foreign to your body. So it's a lot to get used to. And Autumn's doing really great.
Okay, now that I've shown them just how insanely hard this is, let's have the pro show them how pretty it can look.
Sa.
So.
There'S a routine that I've been working on.
So that was crazy thick.
I love it.
But that's it. You guys, these are the silks. This is the beautiful carry. We thank you for joining me. Be sure to subscribe so you can get this and other videos coming to your email box every week. And I will see you guys next time. Bye.
