An aerial is a cartwheel with no hands, here taken off the trampoline bed. The bounce stays deliberately small: instead of jumping tall, the base leg presses down into the bed and rides the rebound while the back leg kicks hard up and over. The turn matters as much as the kick — the base foot pivots early in the direction of travel, because a foot left planted on a springy bed twists the knee — and the chest and arms scoop across the body before pulling up and back to lift the head for landing. Coaches drill it straight from the cartwheel: low fast cartwheels with an ever-lighter hand touch until the hands stop reaching the bed at all. The landing lines up like a front split; letting the legs swing wide into a side-split line collapses the hips backwards, which is the fall every coach warns about.
Key cues
- Warm up hamstrings and ankles first
- Keep the bounce small and press into the bed
- Kick the back leg hard up and over
- Pivot the base foot early into the turn
- Pull the chest and head up to finish
- Land in a front-split line not sideways