How to Tarzan

Описание: Debbie and I made this video because we have noticed that it is a difficult skill for people to learn. It can be more difficult than throne whips. So in this video you can see how we would break it down in a class.

1: Bird Rocks
This is an easy drill and you should know how to do this before attempting Tarzans. Specifically, in order to do a Tarzan, you need to do a timer. In the timer, the base tilts the flyer's head up before she drops into the move. This drill is to practice that motion.

2: Monkey Swings
In this drill the base has toes pointed out. The base bends his knees so the flyer can fit through the base's knees. Flyer has to stay straddled and piked. Base and flyer have to work together to help the flyer swing back and forth. Flyer has to make his knees wide enough for the flyer to get through and flyer has to made her shoulders narrow to fit through. The most common problem people have with Tarzans is an inability to get the flyers' shoulders through the base's legs. practice, practice, practice. Of course this is going to be easier with a big base/small flyer, but when you are skilled you can have more same size people.

3: No Base Hands
This is so you get better at swinging. The flyer does a deep straddle pike when she goes through the base's legs. If the flyer does not do this she will slide off the base's feet. The base has to learn to swing the flyer. He has to pump his legs in a certain way to make this work. The base's legs are more or less straight up and down while the flyer is in the bird position and then the base moves the flyer a little over his face while the flyers upper body goes through his legs. As the flyer swings up the base helps the swing by pushing his feet away from his face on the way up.

4: Swing up from Back
The best Tarzans are ones in which the flyer swings up the highest in the back. The move looks better and the flyer will have more swing. Lets just do the second part of the Tarzan for now. The flyer hangs down and the base pushes her though his legs as high as he can reach. He holds her in place with his legs. The base initiates the swing up. He unclenches his legs from the flyer and the flyer should swing up.

5: Low Tarzan
The hardest part of the Tarzan is the first part, when the flyer drops from bird and passes through the legs. This way the flyer can perform this maneuver from half height. Base holds flyer at arms length, pops her up a little, then she swings though. Do a lot of these. They will help you get this move.

6: Catch and Release.
We are doing the whole Tarzan now, but catching in the back. We catch in the back to make sure you are going high enough in the back. If you catch low then the base pushes the flyer up higher and then the flyer swings back.

7: One Tarzan
Try a whole Tarzan now. If you are having problems go back to previous steps. The first part of the Tarzan can be a challenge for base and flyer. The flyer has to wind up for the swing. The wind up is when the flyers upper body is tilted up before she swings down. In the swing down the flyer has to stretch her body out. As she swings down she has to round her upper body. This shortens her upper body so she can fit through the base's legs. The movement of stretched out to rounding gives the flyer speed. This is like how an ice skater will spin faster when she is spinning and then pulls her arms in. This is difficult before the flyer has to be stretched out just long enough to gain momentum but she must curl her upper body before she hits her head on the flyers chest.

8: 3 Swings
If you manage to get one Tarzan then you should try stringing several together.

Tarzans are often the first whip you learn in acro. Once you have this move down you can move onto more interesting whips like a Tarzan whip to Bird on Hands.

The only bad thing about this video is that I don't show spotting. The flyer needs to do a "catch the baby" spot. This is where the spotter kneels down basically facing the base's butt. As the flyer goes through the base's legs there is a chance that the base will drop the flyer onto her head. The spotter spots the flyer's head as she goes through the base's legs.