How to Open Gym the RIGHT Way

Open Gym.  Open Practice.  Free Practice.  Supervised Practice.  Free Training.  Call it what you will, it’s all the same.  It’s the time for students to get on the equipment to safely practice outside of class what they’ve learned inside of class.  And it’s soooooo important.

Here at Akrosphere, we include unlimited Open Gym time to all of our students enrolled in our Leveled Apparatus Classes (i.e. Silks Level 1, Cyr Wheel Level 5, Trapeze Level 3, etc.). Our open gym schedule is listed on our website, so you can always check there to make sure you know when it is offered.

Right now (well, starting on Tuesday, May 31st) is the time we excitedly enter into our “Summer Skills Slam” in our Leveled Apparatus Classes here at Akrosphere. We learn special things we don’t normally get to learn in our classes (like duo work, being lifted on the Butterfly Lift, orbiting, swinging skills, and the like).  We push forward in our classes to get as good as we can as fast as we can in the summers. It’s an amazing time for our students and our coaches alike.  And taking part in Open Gym is a HUUUUUUUGE part of it.

But…as a student, what do you DO when you’re there?  Where do you start?  How do you know where to begin?

Well, lovelies, I’m here to help you with that.  If you are a parent of an Akrosphere student, make sure you share these Open Gym tips with your child, so they will not feel lost.

Oh…before I go any further, YES, there is at least one coach on the gym floor at all times during Open Gym.  They are there to help rig equipment (i.e. if you come to work on lyra but don’t see your size lyra in the air) and keep an eye on the students practicing to ensure they are safe.

(1) Warm Up First at Open Gym

  • Start with about 5 minutes of cardio (these are your jumping jacks, jogging, etc.).  You have to get those muscles warm and moving before they can do anything.
  • Then move on to about 5 minutes of strength work: push-ups, planks, lunges, etc.  A safe bet is to do the same exercises you do with your coaches in your class.  You have to get those targeted muscles firing before you can expect them to do the super complex movements you want them to do in the air.
  • Finish with 5 minutes of stretching…and it’s more than just splits.  Gently stretch shoulders, wrists, fingers…all the things that get tired and “stressed” when you are in class.

If you are still having trouble with your warm-ups in open gym, we happen to have a large banner on the wall with a suggested warm-up for you.  Follow it, and you will be good to go!

(2) Use Your Notebooks at Open Gym

Start with your notebook!  We require all Akrosphere students to keep a training notebook in their classes, to write down the skills and sequences they learn in class.  That’s a great place to start at Open Gym!

  • Practice what you learned in class that week! Go through your notebook and review what you  learned in class.  And don’t just do it once!  Do it over and over again until it is no longer “challenging”, until you no longer have to think about how it is done.  And once you’ve done that…then work it on your other side!  Yep – both sides count!
  • Practice what you learned in class the week before that…and the week before that…and the week before that!  Repetition is key in the circus arts.  You have to practice your moves over and over again, until they are beyond perfect, until you can no longer do it imperfectly. Think about the things your coach tells you in class, like “point your foot” or “make your legs completely straight” and take the time to truly perfect each skill.
  • Practice those nemesis tricks!  You know those skills that you hate doing because they are hard?  Well guess what…those are probably the skills you need to work on the most.  And guess what: form still counts!  Practicing those inversions doesn’t help you unless you practice them with beautiful straight legs and pointed toes.  (Tip:  when your coach tells you corrections more than once in class, write them in your notebook; that way, you can remind yourself to practice those corrections in Open Gym!)
  • Practice transitions between skills, and create “sequences”.  That’s just a fancy word for putting skills together without coming down off the apparatus. Start with two different skills in a row. Do that a few times. Then try three in a row. Just remember that you should always have enough strength to come back down off your apparatus safely!

(3) Style Experimentation at Open Gym

After you go through your notebook and have some skills practically perfect and some sequences fairly flawless, it’s time to start playing with style.  That just means you get to “mess with your pictures and flow” a bit!  (Tip: if a skill or sequence is brand new, play with making it perfect.  If it is from a few weeks ago and you really HAVE it, then play with style!)

  • Play with shape.  What happens if you purposely bend a leg in that pose?  Or flex a foot?  Or flex your hands?  Or turn your head to look up?  What does it look like?  What kind of shape does it make?  What does it FEEL like?  (Tip: you can bring in your phone to Open Gym and video yourself to see what you like and what you don’t!)
  • Practice moving through your transitions as if they were more important than the tricks.  Rather than just moving your hands up higher on the ropes of the trapeze to stand up because that makes it easier, what if you MADE THE CHOICE to reach high and really stretched into the movement?  How much more interesting is that to watch?  Now what if your arm curved through all that empty space on its way to the rope?  What does that look like?  Now what if you lifted that arm slow and “heavy”, like it was moving through honey?  Each of those ways of putting your hand up higher on the rope says something different…and they are work exploring!
  • Pretend to be someone else while you run sequences.  (This is one of my favorites!).   We all watch people do amazing routines on Instagram and YouTube.  SO figure out what makes them unique.  What is it you like about them?  Are they flowy and smooth and effortless and graceful?  Are they choppy and fast and staccato?  Are they supposed to be a lizard or a frog in their routine and you find that amazing?  Figure out what you LOVE about the people you are watching.  Then, go onto your apparatus, and take the sequence you know and are practicing, and PRETEND TO BE THEM while you do it.  Take on their grace and fluidity, or their choppiness, or their reptilian nature.  Whatever it is, pretend to be them and see what it does to your sequence.  (Interesting Fact:  When students start finding their personal artistic voice, most begin by imitating the artistry of the people they look up to…it’s an important step!)
  • Play creativity games. Do your sequence as if you were covered in maple syrup and stuck to the silks, having to pull your hand off each time.  Do your sequence as if you were angry at the silks, as if they were someone you were having a fight with.  Do your sequence as if you were desperate to cling to the silks and don’t want to let them go.  Or as if they are your best friend having a bad day.  Or as if they were your boyfriend and you were having a fight.  How would you relate differently to your apparatus in each circumstance?  Pretend your apparatus is a person, and put the two of you in different situations.

(4) Film Yourself at Open Gym

PLEASE DEFINITELY BRING YOUR PHONE IN TO OPEN GYM!  No, don’t use it to text your friends or take selfies with a weird filter.  Use it to LEARN.  Phones are amazing in that they are a fantastic learning device when it comes to circus!

  • Watch your single skills.  Think about the things your teacher tells you in class, like “point your toes” or “make your legs straight” and watch for those little things.  (Tip:  Do a skill three times or so while filming, and then stop and watch it.  Take notes of the things you see that “need fixing”.  Then go back up and try to make those fixes while filming it again.  Then watch it again to see if you got it!)
  • Watch your sequences.  Film yourself trying a sequence in one way.  Then watch it back and make a note of what you liked and what you didn’t like.  (With style, there are no right or wrong choices, just choices you find more interesting or less interesting.). What looks cool?  What looks angry?  What looks hopeful?  If your apparatus is another person, can you tell by watching your movement what is going on with the two of you?  Can you tell if you are angry, or loving, or helping a sad friend?
  • Watch the transitions. Especially when you are playing with style.  Does it look cool to make your hands heavy and slow as they raise up the ropes of the trapeze as if they are pushing through honey?  Does it look unearthly?  Maybe doing a piece as an alien is in store!
  • Play freeze-frame.  (I love this game also!). In dance, there is a theory that you should be able to film a dance sequence, and then stop the film at ANY POINT in the sequence, and it should be beautiful and / or emotive.  Play that game with your circus sequences!  Film 2 or 3 moves in a sequence.  Then go to watch the film back, and pause it; then go frame by frame and see where you look goofy, or where there are form breaks, or where you just look kinda derpy.  Then film yourself doing the sequence again, and try to make all those goofy spots look beautiful as you move through them.

(5) Strengthen & Stretch at Open Gym

Open Gym is a perfect time to do some conditioning and stretching!  Just make sure you are using proper form and not “flopping through” the moves!

  • Do some apparatus specific conditioning.  Ever wonder why it’s easier to do pull-ups on a pull-up bar than it is on the silks?  Because your hands are in a different position, that’s why! Think of the things that are specific to your apparatus that take some muscle.  Pull-ups with your hands wrapped around the silks or ropes.  Inversions with one hand over the top of the other; then more inversions with switched hands.  All of these apparatus specific conditioning exercises are the perfect way to begin concluding your session at Open Gym.
  • Don’t skip your stretching.  The stretches you do in class?  Guess what: they really are important.  They will do more than just stretch out the muscles you used while training.  By stretching (and spending some REAL TIME in) those poses we work on the floor at the end of class like our splits and straight-legged backbends, we set ourselves up for success in other future moves.  Some moves like Split Roll Ups on silks or trapeze or Split Waltz on cyr wheel is soooooo much easier if you actually HAVE your splits!  And having a nice tight active backbend on the floor will really help those arched positions in lyra.  (Tip:  to really be effective, a big stretch like splits has to be held for 1-2 minutes.  By holding a stretch only for a few seconds, it trains your muscles to “grab on” once the stretch is released and you can actually LOSE flexibility!)

So there ya have it!  That gives you (or your child) a solid game plan for every Open Gym in the foreseeable future!  We hope to see ALL of our students who are enrolled in our Leveled Apparatus Classes at Open Gym this summer!

PLEASE DO spend some time sharing this post with your child, to make sure they feel comfortable coming in to open gym this summer.  The more they train, the better they will get, and the faster they will make those gains!!!

PS:  They can also always ASK THEIR COACH if there are specific things they should train during open gym.  All us coaches are happy to share our thoughts with our students!

Happy Open Gymming, all!  (Haha you never know, you might even see me training on my wheel there!)

Smiles,

— Jen MacQueen

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Also, here are four ways you can play with us further!

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3. Check out our Website
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4. Join one of our Circus Classes
Learn Aerial Silks, Trapeze, Aerial Hoop / Lyra, Cloud Swing, Cyr Wheel, Aerial Rope, Contortion, and more!

Akrosphere Aerial & Circus Arts
225 Curie Dr Suite 700
Alpharetta, GA, 30005