We put everything we know into Aerial Fit®
And, that means we need to fit a ton of information into our tutorials. It is a lot to manage and so we have a system that we use to keep it all organized.
For the majority of the main library curriculum, it is just the two of us, working on the content. In many ways, this makes things easier, because we work great together. We do enjoy the opportunity to bring in other aerialists and we plan to do more of it.
Here is the system we use to make our tutorials.
It all starts with our years of teaching in-person classes
All of the skills in our library are in our school curriculum that we use with our in-person students. We've each been teaching aerial for 15+ years and have had around 10,000+ unique students come through our classes. We have adapted and modified our teaching tips based on the huge variety of skill levels, body types, personalities, and learning styles we've encountered.
Create an extensive shot list.
We take everything we learned from teaching our in-person students and make a thorough shot list of every detail we want to include in the tutorials. This includes all of the common mistakes students have made over the years, the related drills that have led to break through moments, the ground drills that help isolate muscles and pathways, and the variations that help us manage class planning.
Film the skills
When it is time to film, we follow our shot list so we don't miss anything. We film clean demonstrations, related drills, common mistakes, variations and anything else we think is important for the skill. We usually have to do several takes to make sure we get all the best angles for each detail we want to show.
Write detailed voiceover scripts
We are so familiar with these skills and the important concepts, that we start writing the scripts from memory, but then we'll go back to the videos we filmed and make sure we didn't miss any important details. Our voiceovers include a lot of information presented from a teachers perspective and they point out exactly where to look and when.
Edit the videos to match the voiceovers
Jordan then edits the videos to go along with the voiceovers. Jordan used to be a professional documentary maker (it feels like a lifetime ago) and has worked on documentaries that have been featured on HBO and PBS among others.
This is where we use the magic of video editing is used to hone in on all the important details that might not be obvious at first glance. Slo-mo, freeze-frames, arrows, and more train your eye to see the important details that make each skill work in an efficient way.
Upload and add cross references to other skills
We then upload our videos to the site and make all of the cross references. Each time we add a video, we usually also update 10 to 20 other tutorials to make sure the appropriate existing tutorials also cross reference to the new skill.
Aerial Fit® Online is a labor of love
We love what we do. We love helping others better understand how and why aerial works, but these tutorials take a lot of work. Just making the tutorials has taken us 1,740+ hours so far. This doesn't include the time we spend teaching, training, doing web design, or anything else.
We hope this helps you better understand what we offer at Aerial Fit® Online and the depth of our devotion to the art and science of aerial teaching. If you enjoyed this breakdown, you may also like to learn more about our approach to teaching.