"I taught you aerials last year. I want you to forget everything I taught you.” That’s what Melissa Wood is telling her students right now while she’s doing the Aerials Intensive. 🔥 Melissa is in Acro Dance School with us, and she’s also a member of our other Skool group, The Acro Circle, our syllabus and certification group. She told this story on the coaching call this morning, because she’s working through the 30-Day Aerials Intensive with her students right now as well. Melissa coached cheer for ten years. Her own training was gymnastics, and back then cheer + gymn was mostly “just throw it.” There wasn’t much technique behind it. So she taught aerials the only way she knew: a run, a prep, and go. Then she started the Intensive and looked at her students on her studio floor. She didn’t like what she saw. So she started over at Step One, and her students hated it. They kept travelling sideways. “They all looked like birds,” she said. “No, we’re not going across. We’re going up.” 🦅 The 14 to 18 year olds got it fast. The 9 to 13 year olds pushed back hard. They wanted to go back to the old way. She didn’t let them. “We’re going to stay at step one, and we’re going to get this, and you’re going to get it.” 🤩 I know why that matters. At 12, I was taught the run and “wing it and fling it” method for my aerial. By 15, I had grown, the aerial was long gone, and I never got it back. When students push back on Step One, that’s usually a sign it’s working. 😅 Is anyone else getting pushback on Step One yet? Tell me how it’s going so far in the comments. Miss Melissa