Thursday Tricks: Superman to Cradle

May 10, 2012 · by amy~* · in , , ,

I’ve had a few requests to post more trick combos…. So I’m going to be posting a few fun combos that are either new to me, or particular favorites, in hopes that maybe it’ll inspire some of you guys to try them! I’ll be posting a range of tricks for all y’all abilities out there. If there is a particular trick combo that you’d like to see featured, OR if you are looking for a new way to get into or out of something, let me know!

So… without further ado, here’s a trick combo coming your way! I think this is a great way to get out of superman. It’s a little more unexpected and it’s not necessarily a strength move, so it should be doable if you have the body awareness and coordination to get into superman in the first place. Before you work on this, you should have a solid static cradle (also called a Jamilla or advanced apprentice) and you should be comfortable with superman (duh). Let’s take a look at the video (or click here to see it on YouTube):

So, notes on this combo:

As shown, a great way to understand the mechanics of moving into cradle from superman is to go into it from another trick, like the figurehead/hood ornament. Set your OUTSIDE arm high, and drop your inside hand low- right under your butt. Push into the pole with the bottom hand, pressing the pole HARD into the back of your thigh, and turn your outside hip and chest towards the pole by dropping your upper body back (using your bent top arm to control and pull your weight up) as you engage your abs to bring your legs up. You should essentially be rolling the pole from the back of the thigh, to the side of the thigh, to the top of the thigh, as you continue to turn into the pole, but the pole should be rolling UP your leg– you should actually be gaining height as you do this transition. Keep that bottom arm straight, and don’t let your shoulders come up around your ears as you push, or you won’t have the right engagement.

If you understand the turn towards the pole, and have no problem keeping the thigh rest/push stable with the bottom hand, you can do it a little faster by bringing your outside leg up more explosively, giving you a little momentum as you swing it forward to pop right into the cradle.

Once you have that transition mastered, you can work on it from a superman. Get into your superman however you most love to do it (do you guys appreciate that I HATE the superman, and yet I put it into a blog entry? See how much I love you?????). After you’ve finished hanging out in your beautiful pose, pull your upper body back up to the pole (this can also be accomplished by loosening your leg hold and letting your hips slide down, depending on how sticky your pole is… in the video my pole is VERY sticky and so I am not really able to slide my hips down). Your inside arm will drop down low and push the pole into your leg while your outside arm reaches up high. Release your legs completely, push and pop up into your cradle. From there, the world is your oyster– I’ve shown going into a pop-up butterfly, but you can take it into anything you’d like!

Hope that helps and maybe gives you some ideas! I love the cradle transition into inverts, and have been using it out of chopsticks as well.


Tomorrow’s post: FINALS!…