Aerial switch tutorial

Entry data:

Class: Aerial
Alternate names: Sometimes called a sideswipe.
Description: An aerial that lands on the second leg instead of the leading leg.

Variations:

Prerequisites: Aerial and brandy
Equivalent variations: Negative, none.
Advanced variations: Altered setups: Possibly a reverse take off or a swing through kicking take off.

Assisted learning:

Move preview: A single short clip or multiple short clips for observing the skill.
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Demon switch

This move is fucking BRILLIANT! It adds a whole level of diversity to aerial swing through combos. In fact, I think it makes the aerial swing through combos. Sure, you can axe2aerial all over the place, but the switch doubles the possibilities! This has been a personal favorite since I learned it, this move rocks!

Aerial to Aerial switch

Actually, I feel the transition is better from a brandy. It's better to go from brandy to aerial switch because these two moves are more similar than an aerial and an aerial switch. To set it clear, here are the execution differences between the aerial and the aerial switch:

In an aerial, the torso can face the front at the very end of the move and still work. In an aerial switch, the torso must face the front from a very early point. That torso MUST open up towards the front very soon.
In an aerial, the initial lifting leg lands. In an aerial switch, the initial lifting leg flies up and rotates with the early torso opening; Then the jumping leg jumps and quickly kicks through underneath you.

That's really all there is to it! Just open the body up sooner and farther, and get that base jumping foot to finish through. Bah... Let's stay consistent and go through the slides.

Prepare yourself!
I will be doing this on my left side, but as you may already know, when your aerial progresses you are actually not settling on a sideways takeoff.
Get your arms up and take a deep breath, expanding your ribcage.
Well, here's the first step. The left arm will elbow up behind me, just like it does on an aerial. My other arm is going to reach out, turn me, and then join my lead arm in 'elbowing' up to keep my body suspended above earth.
So at this point, what's the different between this move and an aerial. Not much, except I'm putting in a lot more force. The transition to what looks like an aerial and what ends up being an aerial switch is very, very, very, very brief. In fact, I might go so far as to say the style I do this move is almost exactly like the straight aerial except I just turn farther and sooner, and land on the switch leg.
Things are looking good. They are looking familiar.
SAY WHAT?! Here we go, the difference. One more step...
AH HA! Bingo. The aerial doesn't normally evolve like this. The arm that was slung across went WAY over and then even pulled up. Think of it like someone poking you in the center of your back. You squeeze the shoulder blades and lats together, the arms open up and squeeze like this. This makes it pretty easy to get the switch leg through.
Freeze the high leg and bring up that switch leg, but don't just bring it up, jump off of it and lift it STRAIGHT BACK BEHIND YOU! Just as the lead leg lifts straight back, the switch leg does the same. While you jump and open up the torso that leg must JUMP and lift UP!
Very, very nice. Let's switch gears.

Switching gears.

Here is a frontal view. This is the dip prior to the jump.
Jump and get that swing arm over and up.
Continue.
The slant is normal, it fixes itself.
Kick through, no problem.

Switching gears again.

Now the arms squeeze towards the front and the kicking leg continues it's path.
Keeping the first lifting leg behind you, continue pulling the kicking leg through.
Get it underneath you.
Consciously split the legs at the end. The split gives the other leg more path to swing through for another move, and it looks nicer.
*Swinging*
*Through*
My god, I made way too many slides for this tutorial.

Things to look for:

When watching this move, look at these things INDIVIDUALLY - then piece them together.

Watch the neck. Watch where it turns to look.
Watch the shoulders.
Watch the upper body, this is a BIGGIE! Watch how it turns to face the front very quickly.
Watch both arms individually.
Watch each leg individually, especially the switching kick leg.
Finally, catch the tempo and pace of the trick. It's an EXPLOSION!

Summary:

So, this is very simple. With a setup like a straight aerial, we use a quicker turn over and a switch. Don't even bother with this trick if you can't do an aerial towards the front. If you are still working out the kinks in your b-kickish aerial, I doubt you'll have much of a chance of throwing this properly. This is totally easy, a natural progression of your aerial. In fact, having an axe2aerial or reverse aerial can help in addition to the aerial or brandy. All these moves are good for the others. Just continue to practice and evolve your aerial, this will come easily.

My experience:

Actually, when I began learning this move, it was hurting the ever-lovin-crap out of my landing foot. The switch leg wasn't coming all the way underneath me, it was coming short a tad and it was seriously hurting the talus of the foot. A lot of people complain of this problem actually. Well anyway, after giving it up for a bit my brandy began improving. When this happened my aerial switch began working out for the better. I was using a running takeoff at this time, I couldn't do it standing. Well, fast-forward March 2004 and one day I just began throwing standing ones. A week later I had it so well, I threw it with a swing gainer! These are in the Mablung sampler by the way. Now it's become one of my staple tricks.