The Dynamics Hump
So, you’ve been doing partner acrobatics for a while now. You’ve nailed all the key positions; two highs, birds, foot to hand, even hand to hand. Plus you have picked up a bunch of cool skills along the way, maybe flowy scarfs or flashy cradle twists, maybe some sick drops that earn satisfying gasps. Feeling good about yourself, and rightly so, you turn your sights towards the holy grail of aspirational partner acro: dynamics. Specifically, courbettes and cascades are the next sick tricks on your list. You’ve crushed everything leading up to this point so how hard could they be?
Turns out, really bloody hard.
Dynamics are a significant difficulty spike on the partner acrobatic learning curve. It’s not unusual to start out hitting skills in just a session or two. This is awesome, because you are constantly rewarded, which leads to motivated, feel good sessions. Dynamics however are not like this. It took me one year to get a courbette, comfortable and out of lines. This is after 7 years of prior practice, and that year was full time training under one of the most respected partner acrobatic coaches in the world. Dynamics take time.
Going from nailing skill after skill, to hitting a wall like this can really catch you off guard. The slower rate of progress can be pretty discouraging. It might be tempting to give up or to try to force the skill to work as quickly as previous ones, neither of which leads to success or positive experiences. Instead I have two pieces of advice for you.
Celebrate the Little Victories
Moments of success lead to fun and motivated sessions, which lead to more success, in a rather wonderful positive feedback loop. Until now, your success moments have probably been almost exclusively when you hit a skill. If we keep that same outlook when practicing dynamic skills we set ourselves up for failure. Instead, we have to redefine our success moments. Don’t wait until you nail the skill perfectly. Instead, celebrate a really smooth tempo, your first time making contact in the catch, seeing more in the skill, feeling the pathway better - simply any moment of progress or good feeling. These are all genuine moments of success and seeing them as such will be a huge boon to your training process. Celebrate the little victories!
The Slow Way is the Fast Way
Hey, you know how your coach keeps telling you to change that one bit of technique, even though you are doing the skill just fine your way? Yeah, they may have a point… sorry!
The subject of what makes good technique could fill several books, but one important part is that it sets you up for future success. For example, your specific hand to hand technique might work for holding the skill, but create all sorts of problems when you try a tempo, which makes learning dynamics nigh impossible. An over arched upper back in the base is a classic example of this. So when you go to start learning dynamics you are faced with two pretty frustrating choices:
Keep going with your current technique and watch as your progress slows to a crawl or stops completely.
Go backwards and change your existing technique before learning the fun stuff you want to focus on.
Learning good technique early allows us to avoid this situation completely. It can take a little longer in the moment, but investing a bit of time now will mean much less wasted time down the line. If this seems unsatisfying, I refer you to the previous advice: enjoy the process and little victories so the need to hit skills asap can take a back seat. Set yourself up for success and the dynamic difficulty spike will be much more manageable. The slow way truly is the fast way.
It’s a Journey
Training partner acrobatics is a journey not a race, and even if it were, it’d be a marathon not a sprint. As you progress, skills will get harder and take longer to learn, especially when you start working on dynamics. So, set yourself up for success by focusing on good technique early, enjoy the process and celebrate all the little victories along the way. Enjoy the journey!
I'd love to hear your thoughts! Was this helpful? Agree or disagree? Anything I didn't cover? Let me know by dropping a comment here, or contact me through Facebook, Instagram or my email circus.coach.sol@gmail.com.
If you would like more hands on help navigating the dynamics hump, I am currently available for private lessons both in person and online. Contact me in any of the above ways to get started.
Until next time, I hope you enjoyed the very first Coach Sol blog!
Cheers!
Coach Sol
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