The wheel down, also commonly known as the helicopter, barrel roll and windmill, plagues the training lives of many aspiring aerialists. It’s extremely difficult because it requires a concentration of muscular control and body awareness as you appear as though you are an unmoving shape as you rotate. Meanwhile, the tail requires the right amount of grip to create the intended rotation and speed. Our brains and bodies must be 100% engaged for this skill. There’s no passive element to depend on, which makes it unique from other things we do on silks. The wheel down is one of the most active drops in our arsenal, thus also the trickiest to master.
The struggle is real because of that little thing called GRAVITY. If we allow it, gravity can make you look like a dangling rag doll and make you feel like the fabric is trying to squeeze and suffocate you. If you feel like you’re slowly dying when training this skill, I want to help you understand why this is so challenging.
Two correct postures for wheel down are planche and pelvic bowl. Planche position is the fullest expression of the wheel down where the body is completely planked and neutral with the legs long and wide behind you. It’s the best position for training quick rotation. The legs look like a flat and wide fork sticking out to the side, perpendicular to the apparatus. Pelvic bowl is when the tailbone is slightly tilted forward. I have found this to be the most accessible version for students and is what I’ll focus more on here. The legs follow the hip alignment and are static in your personal best turn out, sort of like a ceiling fan that’s turned on it’s side.
While we’re focusing more on the pelvic bowl, you do need to commit to one of these two approaches. A mixture of the two postures is not effective because they are both individually correct but trying something in between will just leave you out of alignment and unable to support the weight of your legs.
If you are either learning this for the first time or need to deconstruct and retrain it, here’s my method. Get into your S-wrap at a low height and prep the legs in a frog position with the toes together and knees out in your personal best turn out. As you descend towards the tail, stop at every quarter to assess your position.
Torso Position
The head, neck, torso and pelvis should be static and lined up in a neutral spine. Point the crown of the head straight to the wall and line up your ribcage parallel to the floor. From the audience’s perspective, you aren’t moving a muscle but in reality, there’s a lot of micro-adjusting until you learn to maintain this shape in all four facings. The most problematic of the four are face up and down. If you are collapsing when facing down, bring your chest up and engage the glutes to keep the knees wide. If you’re arching when looking up, tilt the pelvis up to the ceiling and bring the chin to your chest.
Hand Grip
Wheel down requires only a percentage of your grip strength. A full grip on the tail will completely stop your rotation. Guide your descent by controlling the tension on the tail. A tight grip will be slower and light grip will be faster.
Hand Placement
The knot is always above your body because you are rolling downwards. To keep the tail from wrapping around the body, let go and start over with the hand on the tail just below the knot on every revolution. When descending left, the left hand will be the first grip just below the knot when starting a new circle. I find that my slow version is served best by holding the entire tail with a closed hand and using flat hands with pressure on my center works for my fast version.
Wrap Placement
An uncomfortable high wrap around the torso can be a big source of frustration and even with your most comfortable S-wrap entry, the loop can still end up in a less than favorable place. The wrap often has a mind of it’s own so learning how to fix the belly wrap placement with your descent is the best solution. With your body in a fixed plank from head to pelvis, tilt the head towards the floor if the wrap is riding too high and the legs down slightly to correct a wrap too low on the hips.
Rotation
Whatever speed you choose, roll down in a consistent tempo. It’s common to slow down passing through the belly up position and speed up while dropping tension in the hands and body for the rest of the roll. I call it the SWOOP and it’s incorrect unless it’s a choreographic choice. Keep even tension on the tail the entire way down.
Abdominal Wall
To keep the fabric from squeezing the internal organs, protect your center by creating an abdominal wall. Engage your abs like you are about to be punched in the gut to create a solid barrel out of your body which the taut fabric cannot overpower. This is where you need to be stronger than the fabric.
Breathing
Many students feel suffocated even though the lungs are located above the wrap, but that’s just because they are breathing with their belly. Instead, try to breathe through your chest and back with the lungs expanding to the front and back of your ribcage.
The biggest challenge is that all of these things need to be done at the same time. It requires incredible coordination and mind body awareness. Start low and take it slow. If you’ve been working at it for a while without smooth rotations, take a couple steps back and train one or two circles down at a time. Kudos to you for keeping at it, when it’s easy to get frustrated and just give up. Try out some of these suggestions and let me know how it goes.