How to be a badass base.
So you think you got what it takes to be a bad ass base? Honestly, its not that hard I will share a few tips that will make flyers want to fly with you and bases want to be you! These secrets will improve your Acro Skills with the quickness so lets take a look!
Make sure your flyer is safe.
Check your surroundings - make sure you have proper room to play. Avoid obstructions, other yogis, trees, walls or concrete floors; you get the idea. No flyer wants to put themselves in danger by playing with an unsafe base.
Warm up - Sure its fun to jump into big back bends or hand to hand right away. This is also a great way to get injured. So start by doing a few easy poses or partner stretches with your flyer before jumping into more advanced postures. Your flyer will be grateful and you’ll be more successful in the postures you try.
Falling Safely - listen your going to fall its part of the game. It is YOUR responsibility to make sure your flyer is safe. When you are basing and you feel your unsteady or your loosing your balance, focus or strength be sure to say “down”. This gives your flyer time to prep and make a clean exit.
Use spotters my friends. Trying something new or potentially dangerous? Grab a friend have them spot you. Just because you have done a certain pose a hundred times before doesn’t mean mistakes wont happen. Maybe your working with a new flyer or its been a long time for your flyer its better to be safe than sorry.
Get Flexible in your legs
Being able to put your legs straight in the air with out bending is a HUGE advantage in acroyoga. This allows you to keep your flyer centered over your body giving you lots of stability. So hit a yoga class, do some stretches after an acroyoga Jam invest in a yoga strap to help bring the flexibility into your legs. Anatomically this may not work for everyone so a trick is to fold a blanket place it under your hips to allow your legs to fully extend.
Be Prepared
Hair ties, Sunglasses, Chalk, Blankets, and a Soft mat to land on this is your bad ass base tool kit.
Hair ties - Some flyers will have long hair having a hair tie on deck is great for keeping your visibility when the flyer is upside down and their hair is all up in your face.
Sunglasses - We like to play outside in parks of the beach and when your lying down on the grass and the sun is beaming down on your eyes and you can see a thing you’ll be thanking me for this tip.
Chalk - Sometimes we sweat, have lotion or sun screen on our hands. Chalk will give your hands a texture and make for a stronger connection in the hands and feet.
Soft Mats - Having a nice clean soft mat to fall on is great. It takes some of the fear element away when trying more advanced poses with flyers to give you and your flyer confidence to try more advanced postures. These mats are great for outdoor jams and are really portable and cheap.
Cross Train on your own time.
Yoga Yoga Yoga - It is in the name right? Yoga is great because it mimics a lot of the same movements found in acroyoga. Yoga will give you flexibility and core strength to support your flyers.
Turkish get ups - This is one of my favorite things to do in the gym to cross train my Acroyoga practice. Grab some kettle bells and give it a try. Turkish get ups teach you to stack your bones and mimics having a flyer on your hands in a lot of standing acroyoga moves. The Core is strengthen as well. You will learn to control your center while having weight above your head which is good for your health and the flyers safety. Start light with the weights focus on technique and work your way up. Hers a video on how to do the perfect Turkish get up.
Rock Climbing - I feel like these to activities go hand in hand there is a lot of cross over between acroyogis and rock climbers. The gear is similar chalk and you have crash pads which can save you from falling. Plus the hand strength and core stability you’ll gain from climbing boulders will give you an upper hand in acro.
Communication is key.
Listen to your flyers! Your flyers input is valuable information do not brush it aside because your used to doing something a certain way.
Let your flyers know you are open to feed back. This gives flyers permission to provide constructive feed back to help improve your acroyoga skills.
Work with flyers bigger than you!
This has to be one of my biggest acroyoga secrets. When working with someone taller or heavier than you its an opportunity to perfect your technique. No matter how strong you are you can only muscle it so much before you are forced to find that sweet balanced and stacked spot.
Be ready for the photos!
Its so fun to capture the moment and if you are ready to take photos your flyer will be stoked! I reccomend having a tripod handy to capture this one sets up with your phone and has a bluetooth remote with it check it out here.
