An aerial is a cartwheel with no hands: the same line and the same rotation, with the floor never touched. It is built on a cartwheel that already travels straight, and coaches are near-unanimous that anyone without one should go back and get it before trying this. The entry is a step or short hurdle onto the front leg; from there the chest drives down and forward while the back leg kicks up and over as fast as it will go, and it is those two together — not jumping height — that turn the body over. The instinct to hold the chest up in order to stay further from the floor is the mistake named most often: it stalls the rotation and puts the hands down anyway. The body passes through an upside-down straddle with the arms swinging down and back, and the feet land one at a time in a lunge.
Key cues
- Get a straight cartwheel first
- Step or hurdle onto the front leg
- Chest drives down and forward — not up
- Kick the back leg back fast and hard
- Swing the arms down and behind
- Land one foot at a time in a lunge