Are You Actually Ready for Aerial Drops?

Drops, drops, drops…every aerial student wants to learn drops.  Sometimes, that’s a student’s first question in a brand new class –  “When do we learn drops?”.  The truth is that drops take a lot of mental and physical preparation and can be very dangerous if done before a student is ready.  As a coach, a lot of things have to happen in a student’s training before I’ll even humor the idea of teaching them, and I can tell you that it’s not happening at a Level 1, that’s for darn sure!  Laura Witwer, aerial coaching and performing QUEEN, is the owner and operator of SassyPants Aerial Arts in Brooklyn, NY and has a great post about learning drops on her blog, www.laurawitwer.com.  Read on for an abridged version!

PARDON ME, SIR OR MADAM, BUT YOU ARE NOT READY FOR THAT DROP!

Drops – the Holy Grail of aerial work (they’re not, but that’s another post). From the moment my darlings start classes, I see them eyeing the rolls, the slides, the flips, the wedgies – they WANT it (especially the wedgies)! But ya’ll…..

My eyeballs……

I saw one young hopeful on Instagram attempting open drops, but he couldn’t yet invert cleanly. I see students online with legs and spines whipping like noodles on advanced roll drops. I see Facebook videos with people flailing like angry badgers on drops which could easily end with dislocations. People – MY HEART CANNOT TAKE THIS!

The Smart and Sassy Student’s Guide to Approaching Drops

Drops come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and levels of wedgie; from high-tumbling quads to teensy slack drops, they’re a fun and important part of silks, rope, etc. But (BUTT), you’ve gotta be ready for the drop you’re attempting. Different drops have different prerequisites, but I’m most often looking at:

  • Essential tension – is this student going to flop like a gummy worm on the way down?
  • Prep skills, inversions, etc – some drops require nothing less than perfection in the invert category, some you can fudge a bit. Is the student strong enough to fully execute the wrap, drop, and proper dismount? And by proper dismount, I do not mean puddling to the floor, quivering and moaning, “whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy”.
  • Understanding of the theory – do they know how/why the drop works? Recreational students often loooooove to gloss over this part in their haste to do ALL the fancy things for Instagram. Knowledge is power, people.
  • Listening skills – can this student accurately interpret verbal cues in the air?
  • Emotional readiness – is this student likely to panic when a drop gets a little pinchy? How’s their fear level? Are they capable of making good decisions on the fly (example: my grip is super fatigued – should I let go to pass the rope behind my back, or straddle and come down)?
  • A certain level of non-flakiness, and a common-sense aversion to risk is preferred. I’m not going to lie – if I see ZERO apprehension, nervousness, questioning, etc when someone is up for their first drop, I do a quick check-in. If you’re an adrenaline junkie who likes their pony tail to brush the floor at the end of a drop, or if I’m constantly wondering how you function with that level of spaciness, I’ll be doubling down on your prerecs.