This is a reply to Weddingdance:

I hope too I am not coming too late into this discussion.

In my younger years, I used to compete in swing nationally (in 1975, I was rated 4th in Switzerland after receiving training from a 3 times world champion, famous for the complexity of his aerials) and internationally as well. I practiced, performed demos and competed with my partner for several years, training 3 hours per week just for aerials and lifts, and this is what I have learned:

1. The more petite the female partner and the better it is. Most successful female partners are typically under 5' 2" and weigh no more than 110 Lbs, although there are exceptions. The small size of the partner is particularly important when she performs aerials that involve a spin around a horizontal axis. In such cases, successful female partners must have the ability to unnoticeably jump high (with timely assistance from their male partner)and start rotating only when they reach the highest point. At that point, a female partner initiates her rotation by:

1. Arching her back and neck in a pronounced manner, with her free arm(s) pointing in the direction of the horizontal axis of rotation.

2. Grouping her legs so that the upper portion of her thighs litterally touch her tummy and her calves touch the back of her thighs, with legs touching one another over their entire length and while pointing with the toes.

This grouping is intended to decrease the inertia during her rotation in the air (a principle of physics). So, the smaller her size, the tighter the grouping and the faster the rotation.

Approximately half a turn into the horizontal rotation, the female partner progressively starts opening up (with legs still pressed against each other), and having gauged the distance of her body with respect to the floor, descends on slightly flexed knees, which at the time of landing will act as shock absorbers.

Needless to say that, although the female partner executes the toughest job, the male partner's role is extremely important in assisting her (with appropriate timing) to reaching the highest point during her jump, helping her initiate the rotation, and assisting her during the landing phase. The fact that, contrary to what most beginner female partners believe, they must gracefully jump with the assistance of their partner (and not wait to be lifted) makes the male's partner requirements in strenght not as critical as many think. Aerials are executed on the principle that the female partner's body litterally swings in the air. Nevertheless, it is extremely important that the male partner weigh sufficiently to secure stability during the execution of the aerial. A rule of thumb saids that for aerials of "beginner" to "intermediate" difficulty, the male partner must at least weigh 40 Lbs more than the weight of his lady partner (please, refer to my monogram under the discussion topic "lifts"). However, in the case of "advanced" complexity aerials, more than 40 Lbs may be needed, to control the kinetic energy or "swing" of the female partner.

By the way: Aerials are executed both in 6 count swing and 8 count swing.

I hope this answers your questions. However:

1. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU NEVER ATTEMPT AERIALS WITH YOUR PARTNER WITHOUT TRUSTWORTHY SPOTTERS AROUND, UNTIL YOU HAVE DEVELOPED CONFIDENCE AND RELIABLE PERFORMANCE WITH YOUR PARTNER FOR EACH ONE OF THEM.

2. NEVER PERFORM AERIALS WITH MORE THAN ONE PARTNER DURING THE SAME TIME PERIOD. THEIR TIMING MAY BE DIFFERENT, AND YOUR EXPECTATIONS OR AASUMPTIONS DURING THE EXECUTION OF THE AERIAL MAY REMAIN UNFULFILLED, RESULTING IN A POTENTIALLY TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.

3. TRAIN ON AERIALS WEEKLY. WHEN YOU GO ON VACATIONS, START OVER YOUR AERIALS PROGRESIVELY, WITH SPOTTERS AROUND.

Enjoy aerials, ONLY AFTER APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION FROM A QUALIFIED INSTRUCTOR AND REGULAR TRAINING. IN MY OPINION, LEARNING AERIALS FROM TAPES IN THE ABSENCE OF A QUALIFIED INSTRUCTOR IS INADEQUATE.

Good luck!

Thanks so much for answering my question. You were really helpful! My husband and I were planning to seek out an instructor that we could take private lessons from, to teach us aerials. I've been worrying about being too tall. I am a former ballet dancer, and am interested in really training for dance competition. My favorites are latin and swing... If I want to compete, I have to think about finding myself a partner with similar interests. If I ever do find myself thinking seriously about competition for swing, I'm going to need to find someone tall, aren't I?

Height wasn't such a bain in ballet. We were supposed to be long and thin. Now I'm wishing I were more compact.

This message is a reply to Joy Kelley.

What is more critical in aerials is the height of the lady partner, rather than the height ratio between female and male partner. As I mentioned before, rotational inertia is proportional to the square of the distance of body parts with respect to the axis of rotation. Consequently, a height differential of just 10% between two female partners having same weight results in a 20% higher rotational inertia for the taller one. With a 20% slower rotation, a female partner who wants to successfully and reliably land such aerials (involving a rotation around a horizontal axis) must reach (with the assistance of her partner) a much higher distance from the floor prior to initiating her rotation. This requires an extremely high degree of synchronism between partners during the aerial, and the ability of the female partner to gracefully and unnoticeably jump very high.

When I competed with my best partner, I was 5' 8" tall and was weighing 153 Lbs; my partner was only approximately 4' 6" tall and weighed a maximum of approximately 110 Lbs. But, she was a 16 year old gymnast. We have been told by our coach that the extremely high degree of synchronism of our timing helped us achieve an uncommon performance, even in advanced aerials. I remember flipping her in the air as if she was a feather (so great was our timing and, especially, her balanced posture in the air). But, my fortune of finding such an unbelievable partner to train from scratch has been exceptional. Believe me: For a guy as short and light as I was, the odds of finding an extremely talented, graceful, double-jointed gymnast and good looking female partner with the right proportions in height and weight were less than one in a billion! Was I not incredibly lucky?

As opposed to aerials that involve rotation around a horizontal axis, static lifts are somewhat more forgiving with respect to how tall the lady partner is. Please, refer to my monogram on lifts.

I hope this is not too discouraging. As you can see from my case, there are always exceptions. Enjoy dancing!

[This message was edited by jgengin on 02-20-02 at 10:28 PM.]

[This message was edited by jgengin on 02-20-02 at 10:36 PM.]

Snow8517, thanks for enlightening me

I wasn't aware there were two styles of Lindy Hopping, although I do know that some of the steps my instructors taught us have different names from the ones used in other countries. Actually, not quite different names, but I'll have to explain in the words my teachers used. Apparently, their 'swing-out' is a 'lindy turn' in some other country (I've forgotten) and the 'lindy turn' is a (guess what?) 'swing-out'.

And you're right I started out learning social dancing, but I think I like the Lindy Hop most of all.

I have a question. I just received a Swing Aerials video I ordered from amazon.com. I haven't watched it yet. What do you think a good size ratio is for lifter vs. liftee?