Difficulty: Easy

Safety Warning: Only practice aerial tricks if you have the proper aerial equipment at home. Always practice aerial tricks with supervision and protective matting below you.

In this tutorial, Jono shows you how to do a simple trapeze/hammock trick: layout to cradle! Jono demonstrates on a trapeze, but you can easily translate this trick to hammock as well.

To get into a layout, start by sitting on the bar in a sideways position against one of the ropes, with the rope running right up the centre of your back. Place one hand above your head with your thumb pointing down (as if you’re scrubbing your back with a brush!)

With your other hand, hold the rope in front of you at about eye level. Bring your outside leg up and place your foot flat on the rope in front of you, at the same point as your hand. Move this hand out of the way to the rope behind you, again with your thumb pointing down.

Position the rope between your shoulder and neck and start to slowly push the other rope away with your foot. As you do this, push your shoulder back into the rope behind you until your leg locks into a straight position. Your bum will start to lift off the bar, allowing you to bring your other leg up and on top of the leg that is already on the rope. When you’re in this position, continue to push and lift your hips to a nice straight-body position. If you are feeling confident, you can take your hands off the bar and pose!

To move into cradle, keep your legs straight but slowly dip your hips on one side of the bar into a v shape. Keep the rope high on your back as a contact point. Relax your knees to fold over the bar/ropes and lean your head back as another point of contact.

To get out of cradle back to sit, reach your outside hand across to the opposite rope. Hold the near rope with your other hand, and pull yourself across to sit.

Now that you’ve learnt how to transition from layout to cradle, practice switching between the two!

You can see all our aerial videos by tagging ‘aerial’ on our library homepage here.