Training Through the Fear of Heights

Our weapon against this intangible mental aerial problem is a feeling of CONTROL in the air. There are lots of reasons why a person might experience a fear of heights, but this idea connects most of the common triggers. To gain confidence and command in your body, aim to train for the circumstances that you’ll perform in and to do that, you’ll need a set of tangible tools. Simply put, if you’re high up on the fabric and start to go into panic mode, then you need to height train.

Height training

My general rule is to train the same skill at 5-10-15 feet while making a visual relationship with whatever is even to your sightline at each height level. Whether you are in a brightly lit studio, training outside in the open air or on a dark stage, the sea of air around you can be disorienting. Making a visual connection with physical landmarks while in the air acts as a mental anchor.

Start with what I call the “Sit In It” exercise. Climb to the first height that you are training, tie a regular foot lock, separate the poles and take a comfortable seat. Wrap your arms around the poles to prevent you from falling forward or backwards and take measure of what is around you. Acknowledge what is at your eye line and make friends with it. As you take five deep and slow breaths, look down, up and to both sides. An old wives tale tells us to not look down if we’re scared of heights. That’s great if you’re not actively engaged in keeping yourself alive like on a roller coaster or in a harness, but we need look down to execute some skills, so getting comfortable is the only option.

Transfer the “Sit In It” exercise to your simplest skills that you know like the back of your hand. Practice the same skill at 5-10-15 feet (and higher) and take notice of how the difference in height changes the feeling of the skill and your ability to execute it. If you are fine at 10 feet but at 15 you start to panic, backtrack and train at smaller intervals until the emotions subside. This exercise will help you avoid potential shock to your system because you won’t be training at 5 feet then 20 in one training session. It can take just a couple classes or months, but there’s no right or wrong. Just be consistent with the height training and your experience will shift.

When do you need to be high when training?

This is a skill specific decision. When learning something new, I have students practice wraps low to the ground the first couple times, which includes drop wraps without doing the drop. The first time you try a drop, sometimes you have no choice but to be high on a fabric if there’s a risk that you might hit the floor. For other skills where you’re not dropping your center of gravity, being high up to practice isn’t necessary at the beginning. 

Perhaps your panic mode only turns on with specific skills. For some, prepping for a forward dive roll where you have to drop face first is super scary but dropping from an inverted position is totally fine. Maybe you’re just fine climbing to the top, but doing a wrap at the top makes you super anxious. You’re already high but now you need to buckle up to drop down. 

The ground isn’t your friend if you’re dropping, yet when most of my students start working on simple drops, they always ask, “Am I high enough to drop from here?” Meanwhile, they’re 5 feet off of the ground. They experience comfort with the ground when they’re working on something new but the truth is the polar opposite when dropping.

How strength and grip training play a role

If you get halfway through your planned choreography and your forearms and grip start to give out on you, there’s a good chance that your confidence will decrease and fear may increase. As you build strength, your fear may just fade away. Your confidence will have an anchor because you feel in control of your own safety.

Ride high

For beginner and intermediate students, silks is way more difficult if you are constantly riding low on the fabric and can’t seem to get higher than a couple feet during your act. If you do the majority of your act at half or 3/4’s up then life will actually get much easier. It’s a bit counter intuitive, but you won’t be fighting for height while trying to execute your tricks. Therefore, after you do your height training exercises, try your simple skills in combination a greater height.

Aerial is a marathon rather than a sprint. TAKE YOUR TIME. Ask yourself, what actually is the rush? Finding a sense of control in the air isn’t going to be fixed in a day. Examine your practice and see what may help. Perhaps you need to take time off from learning new stuff until you feel comfortable with what you already learned and doing it at height. Maybe some video homework will help your confidence with wraps or carve out time to just strength train. You’ll have the feeling of control in the air if you’re 100% sure of your wraps and choreography, have enough endurance and strength to execute everything you’ve planned and practice at the height you are performing. It may not be a quick process, but if you do the work, there’s a really good chance your fear of heights can be a thing of the past.