Today I have a wonderful hip key drill for you. Hip keys are relatively complex and require notable strength. I used to teach them before inversions, but then I modified my curriculum to put inversions first, because inversions are simpler but require similar strength. My idea of an ideal hip key involves doing about 1/2 of an inversion (feet go HIGH!).
The thing with hip keys is that to do a good one, you need to start off with really clean technique. There’s not a lot of “saving” to be done if you capture the fabric below your knee instead of on your thigh.
So I like to break the hip key into parts, starting with the beginning motions. For this drill, we focus on keeping the legs super strong and straight, while finding the motion we need from the hips.
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- Hang on bent arms in a hollow position
- Lift your right leg as high as you can and draw your left leg behind the fabric. Do do this, squeeze your right side body to tilt the right side of your pelvis UP. Do not skip that pelvis lift! It’s super important. This is going to help get the fabric onto your left THIGH and not below your knee.
- Slightly tilt your pelvis forward/upward as if you are going to bring your feet up.
- Return legs to the original starting position and repeat.
- On your last round, do a full hip key. Keep your legs straight as you bring your feet as high as you can and fan your right and then left leg over.
- You can also advance this to the next step of bringing the feet up as high as you can once the fabric is captured on your thigh.
- Think about tilting the pelvis laterally (up to the sky) by contracting your obliques and quadratus lumborum. This allows the left leg to come car enough over such that the fabric reaches the upper thigh.
- I have additional tutorials on hip key, hip key roll up, and straight-arm hip key rollup on my Aerial Silks Online channel. www.wakefulascent.com/aerial-
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