From Zero to an International Prize in a Year

This is a straightforward record of the 13 months from the time I began aerial silks to the time I placed in an international competition, written in the hope that it may be of some use to someone else learning or teaching aerial.

This is only one example, of course.

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Roughly a year to get somewhere with it

Late April 2024
Touched aerial silks for the first time in a trial lesson.

May 2024
Went to a second and third trial session.

June 2024
Decided to begin aerial, but only for one year.
Still couldn’t do anything at all, but I joined an open practice slot anyway.
For a while after that, I was only on the silks once or twice a week.

October 2024
I started going to open practice two or three times a week.
Finally started getting to know a few people at the studio.

November 2024
Tried a drop for the first time.

January 2025
Pulled off my first roll-up.

February 2025
Decided to make one last routine before retiring.

March 2025
Had my first 1-on-1 lesson with my coach (then with my assistant coach).

April 2025
Chose the music and sketched out the rough structure of the routine.
Since I was putting a routine together anyway, I signed up for a competition and a few showcases.
From that point on, I was practicing 8 times a week, with a goal of 200 full run-throughs in 3 months.

June 2025
Just before the deadline, my coach told me to move my international competition entry from Intermediate up to Advanced, the highest division, and I did.
Around the same time, I performed an aerial routine in front of an audience for the first time.

Early July 2025
The timing worked out well, so I performed in the last event I had signed up for.
Placed second in the Advanced division at the Aerial Star Competition.

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Key points of each phase

From the first trial lesson through the foundational stage (roughly the first 6 months)

Since I started at a studio with many instructors, one within walking distance of home, I made a point at first of taking classes with a different teacher each time.
After trying classes with 7-8 different instructors, I eventually found myself settling into classes with two whose approach suited me best.

What suited me, I think, was a slightly more aggressive kind of teacher, the kind who encourages even beginners to try all sorts of things.

That said, I was buried in work during this period, so I was getting on the silks only once in a while, and the list of things I could do did not grow at all. As a rule, I tried to touch the silks (whether in class or open practice) at least once a week, but there were even weeks when I was too busy for that.
Naturally, everything was new, so at first all I did was learn the basic movements. Climbing is fun. Going upside down is fun. Swinging the silks around is fun. That sort of thing.

Of course, this depends on how often you practice, but people who pick up quickly seem to learn the basics in much less than 6 months.

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Around the point where the basics were beginning to settle in (about 4 months)

By then, the most basic movements were starting to come without much thought, and little by little I was spending more time on actual skills.

Drops, spins, power moves, flexibility moves: I would watch reels on Instagram or YouTube that caught my eye, imitate them, and if they felt they might be within reach, I would start working them in and gradually increase the number of things I could do.

For anyone just starting aerial, I would recommend getting at least this far, to the point where you can try the moves you want to do on your own, as a first milestone.

I also tried a few release moves, but none of them ever really turned into anything.

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Building a first routine (about 3 months)

Once you have both moves you can do and moves you want to try, I think aerial becomes another notch more enjoyable, because that is when you can start building a routine to music you love.

As for what came after that, I have already written about my own case in the following posts:

The 8-Day Rule
The 100-Run Rule
How to Build a Routine (Part 1 - only written in Japanese)
How to Build a Routine (Part 2 — not yet written)
My Coaching Team

But the level of commitment in my case had a great deal to do with the stubborn streak in me, so if what you want is simply to enjoy aerial in an ordinary way, I would recommend taking it a little more lightly.

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Aerial itself, with its strange, abstract addictiveness, was enormously enjoyable, and my aerial circle was wonderful too, many of them, as you might expect (?), eccentric in precisely the way that made them so!

As I wrote below in my article on the 8-times-a-week rule, I ended up retiring while still at a level that had barely even reached the starting line. But if anyone is unsure how to approach their own training, please feel free to reach out!

And the "8-times-a-week life" one reaches in this manner is, in every sense, still barely even the starting line.
(...)
In that light, the 3 months I spent devoted to aerial were nothing more than a fleeting, single step from the shadows of the wings, a momentary presence upon a vast, radiant stage, just as the curtain began to rise.