Airflares! Years Of Practice!

[leeaw]

I've been working on this move off and on for years with minimal progress.  Two gracious people who can airflare have been helping me through youtube, but I still can't get it and was hoping that a person on this forum who really know their biomechanics can break apart my form and tell me what's going on.  Please help...I'd be very grateful.

 

Here is my channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/lee2infiniti/videos?flow=grid&view=0

 

I have sixteen videos of my progress uploaded.  Video #9 shows a different form/approach that I'm strongly considering using since the horizontal approach gives me significant trouble.  Video #16 is the best of my horizontal attempts.

 

I'm not sure what the problem is...perhaps my core is not strong enough, my flexibility is poor.  I'm not sure, and I'm not sure how to correct it.  I hope that someone on this forum would take some time to help me work through developing this skill.  I will gladly provide details concerning my training regimen and will put in whatever work is necessary.

 

Thank you for the help!

[Alessandro Mainente]

first thing you need is learn how to jump from one arm to the other with correct hips angle.

the best position is very similar to that:

-sit on the floor, legs straddle, straigth back, arms over the ears. as your straddle is good as you will make less fatigue.

then.....think about do a carthweel, and jump from one arm to the other.

when you reach a decent form (vertical line) you have to lower you ass a little. as your jump improve talking in terms of depth you can put your ass more low, the result is a jump where , during the jump, you chest is facing upward. at the beginning you can find that perform the jump piking the hips is easier than with hips extended. so do it in this way. you can of course crunch your legs to your chest and push them UP to the ceiling but not far away from you. you can use 2 technique for the kick:

1- extend the legs up. this is nice because you learn how to maintain the legs straigth at the end of the jump when you land on the other arm;

2-maintain the same degree over the knee and use the hips extension, i prefer this because you can lose less form.

for example. think about handjumps, you can kick maintaining the legs and body straigth until the knees and then use the shinbone to generate momentum. another form is crunch the legs/knee near the chest and push them up using a very little movement. is the same concept.

 

the idea is wait wait wait until you feel that you are falling, just one fraction of seconds before the fall kick up and change arm. you cannot do wide jump at the beginning, maybe for a question of fear. i find very useful to anticipate with the head the arms switch when you are twisting the chest to the ceiling.

when the jump will be wide try to add the swing movement. for me was more easy, i was able to do 4-5 elbowairflare and halos, the legs motion is the same.

at the beginning you can need 3-4 jump from one arm to the other before draw one round on the floor. ideally you need 2 jairflare to draw a round on the floor (of course the jumps are very wide)

[Mikael Kristiansen]

Airflares are HARD. It took me years as well. Even becoming a pretty decent handbalancer didnt even help me on it because it is such a specific move. Now I finally have 5-10 decently safe and they look good. I trained the vertical technique for years and never got anywhere, and only started getting it when i changed to throwing over the chest. Airflares are very very technical. If you get the timing you can learn it quickly, but if not you can be stuck forever. I remember seeing some kids learn it within breaking for 2 years and myself spent day in and day out practising with no results. flexibility helps, but its mostly about understanding the momentum and where/when to push.

 

I looked at your videos and you should definitely throw across your chest like in video 16. thats an airflare. The other technique will make it hard to get the form, not because you are up high, but because you do not rotate in a circle like you are supposed to. That was my exact problem with the vertical way and i never understood anything.

 

The problem in 16 is mainly that you throw a bit early. Otherwise its good and you should safe it to windmill and flare before moving to 2 rounds. For multiple you need to focus more on feeling the pressure from the palm through your shoulder as you swing and get a solid push as you take off. Also there is an important thing about your swing that you can improve. I would suggest you take a 2 way approach at them along with practising it to windmill and to flare.

 

If you have seen the bboy Funt tutorial he talks about learning the push first and then the swing afterwards. I agree with this approach.  Most important is the push, because that decides if you land on your arms or not. I suggest you practice a bit on only getting a sold push from your shoulder without giving too much focus on the legs. Look upon it as practising a part of the movement and adressing a weak link. What you do when you throw across your chest is that you seem to swing hard, but it looks to me like there is not much force going through your shoulder to launch yourself over. This causes you to collapse towards your catch rather than come out on top of the arm.  The push is supposed to feel more or less like a handhop, shoulder and arm locked and the legs give most of the force required. And just like in a handhop, dont think about a jerky motion from the shoulder, what you need is to feel that you have your weight ON the arm so that you can push it away when you are about to throw.

 

For the swing, take a look at bboy gato when he does 61 airflares and notice how the swing leg reaches its top point as he lands, NOT as he jumps. He swings away from his torso so he is flat when in the air, and the leg comes swinging forcefully up as he lands. This is just like in a flare or a windmill, you swing out and the leg goes up by itself. In airflare it feels like you leg comes after you jump kind of and its counterintuitive. What you need to focus on is swinging the leg to the side so that you get your leg all the way to 9 o clock before it goes to 12 o clock. 

 

These two things together will help you land your airflare higher so you can continue, but most importantly is the push out of your shoulder. Like you know its very important to not push too early as well, but that usually happens because you do not really feel your weight on the arm and you havent rotated far enough. Like funt says, it also helps ot think that you push yourself TO the other hand, like you kind of give the push an angle sideways as you want to push the floor away.

 

Hope some of this helps! Let me know how your airflare feels, do you feel that you really push?

[leeaw]

Ok, thanks guys.  I will practice some more today...and will try to 1) wait longer on the arm, and 2) swing my leg away, then up.  I will not do the vertical style and will continue with the horizontal style.  I'll post new videos too.  Thanks!

[leeaw]

I trained it today (like hundreds of other days), but still no progress.  My right foot still smacks the ground and I can't keep my left foot up.  I'm really tempted to just start practicing like this:

 

 

or like the airflares at the end of this video:

 

 

I'm getting frustrated and I think because I've been practicing with my foot hitting the ground so long that it's built into muscle memory.  Perhaps it's because I'm 6ft. 190lbs. with little shoulder flexibility.  Maybe going vertical would be my only option.  Please help me with the body mechanics of this, exercises to overcome the plateau, or anything else.  I'm determined to get it, but apparently need help from the outside :-)

[leeaw]

Any noticeable biomechanical deficiencies that could be remedied through particular strength or flexibility training?

[Mikael Kristiansen]

Trust me, airflares have little to do with strength and flexibility. Of course it helps, but if you are flexible enough to flare, windmill and swipe it isnt really the a big problem. Super flexy shoulders can help, but its far from neccesary. You need to find your push to do the horizontal technique and really rotate far out on your arm before throwing. One thing you can try to find the point where to throw from is do the start, rotate outwards as far as you can and on straight arm fall down to windmill. Its uncomfortable in the begining but can give you some extra awareness on where to go before throwing. Also, i want to know, how does it feel in the shoulder before you throw? Do you feel you have a strong push and that there is force going through it down to your palm? Another question, can you flare-90 or windmill-90? 

 

I feel your frustration. I spent an INSANE amount of time on airflares(we are talking years) and I gave up many times but was too obsessed to let it go. If you are going to train the vertical technique, film yourself and make SURE that you rotate in the right direction. What i mean is that you need to rotate in a circle, even if it would take you 7 airflares to return to your original spot. If you move sideways you are not getting the right position in your shoulder before throwing and you will have a hard time progressing. In this regard, the "walking" technique you do in the supplement exercise clip is more correct rotation wise, than clip 9. Try not to look at the floor when you do it, it will force you to go more in the right direction. However, i suggest that you practice both techniques for now. Safe the low technique into flare windmill and swipe and try to learn several rounds up high. Film 10 attempts at both techniques and upload them, need to see more of both to see what you are doing. 

[alec_ar]

I can't personally help you, but good job! That a respectable commitment you've made and I hope once you perfect the airfares that you rock it!

[Alessandro Mainente]

i like the video you post, and was what i did in the beginning. no reason for me to do wide jump when i cannot control the little jump?

you need to learn the jump before and only the jump. legs movement is necessary for airflare? i don' think so. i do elbowairflare with legs crunched and 1 airflare with legs crunched, they help me only in the jump from one hand to the other. don't make le mistake to overcome the steps. little jump then feel how to control your body on the landing hand. learn to maintain the leg up after the kicking movement is the key to maintain the lower body up for the new round. another questio is : can you hold airfreeze on you landing arm?

[leeaw]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Handbalancer...I can do flare-90, but not windmill-90.  I am going to start training windmill-90 though.  I will also create the sets of 10 for each type of airflare within the next few days.

 

Alex87...on my landing arm, I can do a k-kick and a 1-hand-handstand for about 5 seconds.  I cannot do a piked freeze.

[leeaw]

No progress and feels like I'm hitting my right foot even harder before the second round.  I started lifting weights to try to build some explosive power, but I feel even slower now!  What freaking gives?