acro beginner

[freedom1 0]

In thinking about making a concerted effort to take on acro as an extension to distance / speed, I’ve been thinking a lot on the topic while the weather fails to cooperate. I’ve heard a few folks talk about intention in your movements (rather than just going by intuition) in that you really have to understand the outcomes of a particular input. So when it comes to learning to fly in all orientations can we identify common mistakes upfront and prevent them from becoming habit. To this end;

half barrel roll / back fly transition: doing the roll causes the pilot to pitch forward causing a head down orientation. What causes this and what can one do to prevent it and obtain a smooth transition?

losing lots of altitude in a barrell roll: Watching acro competitions, the pilots hardly lose any altitude when performing a roll. It also looks as though when multiple rotations are done, neither of the arm wings comes completely into the body. This seems a rather complex helical orientation of the arms that allows one to corkscrew?

please add to and expand on ideas that you think are important

[DSE 3]

First thing to learn is to close the leg wing prior to initiating the barrel roll. If you're going head down on completion of the barrel roll or transition, it's likely you're opening up your tail wing before completing the roll.
Are you forcing the transition with shoulder or hips? Or are you allowing the wind to manage the transition for you?

[freedom1 0]

ah ha. yessss indeed. I initiate with my shoulders for both barrel rolls and back fly transition.

I hadn't realized transitions could be initiated from the hips. is this the correct way to go about rolls? It looks like there is very little in the way of arm inputs for some transitions to the back. perhaps a quick bend in the elbow?

[mccordia 73]

Neither hips or shoulders should be used. Close legwing, close 1 armwing, and simply wait for the roll to start.

JC
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