Hello!, It’s great to meet you, can you tell us more about yourself and your biography

My name is Sebastian Pickering, I use Circusebas as my name on social media. I am currently 27 years old and I originally come from Buenos Aires in Argentina. I'm currently finishing my second circus qualification in ESAC in Belgium with the speciality of handbalancing.

I started doing circus at 16, doing some juggling in a cultural center as a hobby, while trying to find my passion and I was lucky enough to find it there. When I realised that all these amazing skills people were doing were just abilities that I could also learn. Realising over and over again that I was capable of achieving more with my body than I had ever imagined possible is what kept me on the path.

How did you get into coaching?

I started coaching really young, at 19 years old, just by helping my old floor Acro teacher. I remember the first time she asked me to explain exercises, I was so confused when people couldn’t do moves that for me were simple or natural and I had to learn how to teach little by little, things that for me were natural or automatic in my body. I had to get an understanding of how it works differently in different people’s bodies and how skills are experienced differently.

Solving this puzzle first in my body and then in others is the best way to learn a new ability, how you should train it. Also gaining information I could from other people and with my own experience of my body, creating exercises to try to fit each individual case is what made me want to have coaching as an important part of my life. I’m addicted to finding solutions to the puzzle of learning something new or fixing a specific problem.

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What is your coaching philosophy or method?

I think my philosophy is that I have to show students so they can see by themselves the potential and the things they can accomplish, so they surprise themselves and stay motivated.

My method is to try to learn students' specific goals and see what they have already done to try to fix it. I then propose my solutions based on a variety of sources; what I have learned from my own experience, learned from other teachers, from scientific studies and from my past experience with other students. 

I want them to understand how I think about their specific problem so between what I know, what I see and their reality, we can try to find a fun solution for them so they stay motivated and have fun while getting better.

If they don't have clear objectives or exercises that they find fun, I believe they don't stick to any training program, and that is why I try to find ways to see how to keep their desire active.

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What would you say is your specialty in coaching?

Finding lots of different exercises until we find what is best for my students. I’m always on the look out for more possibilities, methods or things to try to keep the training interesting, so we can both keep invested in it.

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How do you go about understanding a student's flexibility? What does a training session look like?

I start by seeing how their ability is first to do some movements that require some essential mobility like deep squats, big range of motion movements as well as have a look at overhead range of motion and cobra. Then I try to evaluate how strong the student is in these ranges and in general. After this I ask them specifically their objectives and how is their life and realistically how much they want to versus how much they can train.

After this, depending on the objectives I would work in different exercises, see how much they can do, if they get really tired, or not at all. I used this to tailor the exercises I give them with clear objectives so we can measure progress in the long run.

I give some exercises that require a lot of energy and are very active and some that you just have to relax to do them. This gives some variety for them to be able to train when they are at home and choose if one day they feel more motivated or if they feel really too tired, at least to be able to do some exercises. A little work is better than no work because the work is too hard. Consistency is key and we have to find a way to achieve this consistency.

In the end I would do some relaxing exercises and some core activation exercises just to come back to a calm state and breathe a bit before continuing with their life in the day.

Do you train contortion yourself? How do you apply your training techniques to your own training?

I train for contortion, currently I have come back to a strong training of contortion about 3 times a week, in a strong way. Every day I work a bit on my flexibility in my handstand practice, but not always in my maximum.

There are some periods when I train more often and more consistently and others when I let it go a bit, depending if I have other projects that are demanding a lot of time and effort or not.

I try to always find more exercises or ways to keep my training interesting. I try to find sequences that I think would look nice on stage and practice them, so I can imagine movement on stage and have a clear reason to practice them. If I don't see a movement as interesting for the stage it is hard for me to train it. 

I try to think of flexibility as a part of my life, so I try to put this moves and ranges in my other training, like doing some contortion acrobatic movements, or using it in handbalancing, or even in dance or theatre lessons, I try to apply a bit of this so the consistency and motivation stays on its own.

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What advice would you give to someone starting contortion training?

I would recommend just starting! Seeing what your body is able to change is just amazing.

Don't be afraid of breaking your body, just be prudent, try different exercises, but always in a safe way, get to know your limits, minimising the risks. Search for progressions and exercises from people that are not hypermobile gymnastics girls from YouTube. Learn, search for information and try to have fun. 

If you can have someone to spot you, you will be safer, but if not, use objects. Yoga blocks, pillows, weights, a chair, get creative! If you understand the concept of what you are doing, you can find solutions. All of this can help you scale your work to progress little by little in the safest way possible.

Also, less is usually more. It's better for you if you are not sure to push a tiny bit less, but often. Push your body consistently and it will get stronger and bendier with less risk. It’s better to do 4 sessions of 30 min in the week than 2 sessions of 3 hours. Mostly if you are not completely sure of what you are doing. Less risk of injury and more consistency. Win win.

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