Flying Transitions

Welcome back to Acra Yoga Family. I'm Devin and I'm here with my brand new friend, Nikolai. Did I get it right? He's 10 and we are going to go into a little tiny warm-up that gets us ready for flying and I think it's a little bit of fun and then we're going to go into some flying transitions. Sound good? All right, here we go. So we'll start in hands and knees and you want to make sure that you're not too close and you're not too far away and then we'll step one leg back and the other leg back to come into everybody's favorite plank and then we're going to go for high fives. Let's do two more on each side. One more, one more looking really good. Okay, we're going to hold here for 10 breath cycles. 10 breath cycles and I want you to lift your right leg up for five, four, three, two, one. Place it down, other leg up for five, four, three, two, one and you got a couple more high fives. I like it. Here we go. Okay, two more, one more, one last one and child's pose. We work really hard and then we rest really hard. Take two full breath cycles right here. Inhaling together, exhaling together, inhaling, exhaling, letting go. Come all the way up into seated and are you ready to do some flying? Okay, we're going to change positions so I'm going to lie down right here and you're going to step right here. So I place my feet at his just above his waist around his hip bones and then you can lean forward with your hips. You can keep your shoulders over your hips so keep standing up all the way tall like a plank. Perfect. Leaning forward and now we're going to come hand to hand. I bring my heels over my hips and how are you feeling? Good. All right, yeah, we want to make sure we keep checking in. Can you lift your toes just a little bit? Straight legs, lift your shoulders just a little bit and look up at the sky. Awesome. So basically you're in a front plank just like we did before. All right, do you feel okay if I take away this foot? Yes. Okay, that foot comes out to the side. Very nice. We come back to center leaning a little bit more over here and lift your toes, straight legs, push into your hands, shoulders to the sky. I'm going to take away this foot. Very nice. We come back to center. Yeah, keep breathing and let's come down. So this is what we call a calibration where we can get warmed up and we have a little idea where we're going. Really good. Do you want to do one more? Yeah. Okay, me too. Great. Here we go. Leaning in, we're palm to palm, push into my shoulders, or sorry, push into my hands, lift your shoulders up, looking up, point your toes. Very nice. And now I'm going to take away this foot and I want you to bring this knee to your armpit. Yep, knee to your armpit. Yep, and I'm going to place this foot here, wrap that foot in front. Look at that foot, wrap it in front. This one. Perfect. Wrap it right there. Yes. Now lean into this one and you're going to lift this leg up towards your armpit. There we go. Wrap that one in front. And then I bend my legs as he comes up to seated. Yep, all the way. Can you place your hands on your knees? Awesome. So there were a lot of little things that I did to support him as he was figuring out where we're going. One of them is that I keep my arms straight so he has a solid foundation to push out of. I also keep checking in. Are you feeling okay? Yeah. All right. Now we have Nikolai's dad, Kai, here to spot. So he's gonna hover his hands around Kai's hips. And that's in case anything gets really, really wobbly or crazy, he can catch Nikolai and make sure that he doesn't come to the ground. Nikolai's job is to hold his shape and really commit to whatever he's trying out. He's not allowed to grab for a spotter because then his spotter can't catch him. Okay, you ready for this transition? You're gonna unwrap your legs. You're gonna place your feet on my shins like this. And now I'm gonna bend my legs as you stand up. So here we go. I'm gonna push you down into my feet, into my shins, and then you just stand up as I bend my legs. Okay, here we go. So strong.

Nice job. Yeah. And now you're gonna sit back down. So that's a big trust muscle squeeze right there. You did such a good job. And now we're in a slightly different throne. Do you feel how this one's different? I have my hands under his feet and my feet are parallel to his legs. So I have one more transition that I think is really fun with both kids and adults. You ready for it? Okay, I'm gonna lean your weight to this side first. I'm gonna adjust a little bit. Lean your weight back to this side. So I like to squeeze the side that I want him to lean to because you might not know right and left and we might be upside down and backwards. So now we're gonna hold right here. I'm gonna take away this foot, this foot, and then I'm gonna slide it up your back. Okay, so you can lean back onto this foot. You're gonna do a little back bend. You're gonna lean back and behind you. How are you feeling? And then I can transition my hands to the back of his legs and we're in high flying wheel. Ta-da! Do you want to come down to the ground or do you want to transition back to throne? Okay, so he bends his legs. I hold on strongly to the bottom of his feet and I'd love the spider to come in one big step closer. And now I'm gonna move this leg. There we go. Sit up on that foot. Oh, that was amazing! Thank you so much for trusting me right there. Okay, and now I'm gonna place my feet back here. And do you want to come to bird or do you want to come to the ground? Okay, so I'm gonna place your feet on my shins. And now hands in between. Place them in between your legs. Flyers fingers are forward so we can strongly press into palms. And now you're gonna sweep this leg back in behind you. Oh, this leg? Okay, that sounds good. And then this leg back in behind you. Push into my hands. Shoulders lift to the sky. Toes lift up. Straight arms. Nice. Look up at the sky and we'll come on down. Good work! Thank you for spotting. Okay, so let's take a quick moment in closing if you gentlemen want to come to sit with me. It's nice to do a little bit of partner yoga or take an om at the end just to really let things settle and calm down. So if you want to take your palms together or you can take your palms together, whichever feels most comfortable for you, and we'll breathe in and breathe out. Let's breathe into one om. Om. Thank you Kai. Thank you Nikolai. Thank you all for flying with us today.