Has anyone else noticed the proliferation of “tutorials” that aren’t actually tutorials on Instagram? You know the ones we’re talking about, or if you aren’t sure, picture this:
Video of someone doing an advanced aerial drop on silks.
Then the word: Tutorial.
Then video of that same person wrapping for the drop.
End video.
That’s just a demonstration of the skill. If you were performing that drop in a routine, the wrap would be part of your routine too. It’s not a tutorial, it’s simply a demonstration of the wrap.
Here’s what’s missing:
An explanation of how the move works.
An explanation about what could go wrong with the move.
An explanation about how to work up to the move in stages.
An explanation about how to assess readiness for the move.
Where to take the move next.
Want to see this framework actually applied instead of just listed out? This is exactly how we break down every skill in our tutorial library, building blocks, common mistakes, related drills, all mapped out so you’re not guessing.
Take a look
This can sound like a lot, but it’s actually not that complicated. Great instructors hide this prep seamlessly in their lesson plans, so chances are good a student doesn’t even notice the prep work, because the class just flows.
Here’s what this process looks like in a good aerial class.
The instructor makes a general plan taking into account who is in class, what they are working towards, what their challenges are, and what successes will help them grow as an aerialist.
The instructor understands the skill so well that they can teach students how it works and help students find the modifications needed (if any) to make it work on their own unique body.
Students are prepped with a ground warm-up that introduces key engagement points that will be needed for the aerial skills later. The entire body is warmed up with a special emphasis on any trouble spots that might come up in the skill.
The students are warmed up on the apparatus. This warm-up includes simpler components of the new skill that’s going to be taught later. It focuses on key actions that will be required to make the new skill work.
There is some review to build students confidence and for the instructor to assess readiness for the new skill. The review focuses on related skills and prerequisite skills that are important for the new skill.
The new skill is taught. If the instructor demonstrates, they point out each important moment during the demo, where their support is, how to maintain that support, what body engagement is required and when.
If a drop is being taught, students learn to walk the drop down first. They might even wrap the drop on the ground and roll through the supports on the floor. Students are taught to assess their height and how to understand whether they are wrapped correctly and whether they have enough height to safely complete the drop. There is no guesswork. Students know where their supports are and they know how to walk the drop down and how to unwrap from the drop if they don’t want to do it dynamically.
Depending on the skill, this process can take more than just one single class. When it’s time to perform the move, students know the supports, the safeties, the body engagement required, the height required, they know how it might go wrong and how to avoid it, and they are ready.
So when we see a “tutorial” on Instagram that simply shows a setup and calls it a tutorial, it always makes us cringe. Picture an instructor who has only ever seen those “tutorials.” Maybe they think a demo of the wrap is enough. Now picture their students, showing up unprepared for skills they were never actually taught how to build toward. Especially if they’re a normal human and not already an advanced acrobatic athlete.
And it makes us wonder what people expect from our tutorials when they first visit our website. We’ve heard most do not expect the depth of information that we present, and most are pleasantly surprised by that.
Our main tutorial videos include all the details we talked about above. And our tutorial library is organized so that all the most effective building blocks, ground exercises, related aerial drills, variations, and future planning goals are laid out simply on each page. We’ve spent years diving deep into the skills we teach, making them work for a diverse student body, and coaching aerialists at all levels effectively. Our library presents that hard gained knowledge so you can spend more time in the air putting it to use.
If you teach, this is the standard your lesson plans should be hitting, and it’s exactly what we build into ours so you don’t have to build it from scratch.
If you’re training on your own, this is what to demand from any tutorial before you trust it with your body. It’s also exactly what you’ll find waiting for you in our library.
A real tutorial doesn’t just show you the move, it shows you everything around it. That’s what’s waiting for you in our library.
See the library
