Hart
Attack / Helicopter
click
here for the Chris Denison video
...and
for the Steve video
CLICK HERE for step by step instructions with pictures.
To
accomplish this amazing contortion, its a prerequisite to be good at
supermen seat grabs.
Working
up to it: When you take off from your jump, pulll your legs and hand
off, grab the grab hole (just like normal) but don't kick your body
and legs far behind (or above) the bike. This time, make a motion
where your head stays low and forward on the bike, not any further
back than the middle of the seat. Work on getting comfortable with
moving your head and torso down and use your hand not to extend and
push the bike away, but to pullyour body up on the bike. When you get
this down good, work on curving your legs behind your back a little.
This will familiarize your body with the feeling of being inverted.
Once your can do these motions, your hart attacks will look like
funny, contorted supermen seat grabs (see pic above). They won't be
full out extended. To work on extension, you must push off with your
hand when in the position described above. As you push with your
hand, straiten your torso and kick those legs high above your head.
While extending your arm, its a good idea to pull yourself forward at
the same time to keep your body above the center of the bike, that
way you won't drift back into a standard superman seat grab. To get
back on the bike, you must pull your legs down while rotating your
torso, and when the legs are parallel with the bike you must pull
your legs back on with the grab hand, just as in a superman seat grab.
Helicopter:
Hart attack indian airs, also
known as "Helicopters" are a combination of a hart attack
and, well, an indian air.....
To learn these, get comfortable
on your hart attacks, or hart attack look backs (whichever you are
comfortable on)
Work on doing a fully extended
hart attack, then rotate your hips a litle after your full extension.
Practice this several times until you can get your feet slightly
sissor kicked (indian air). Once comfortable, you can try changing
your technique a little to help your extension, like so:
As you come off the jump, keep
your body and head low to the bike when you make your grab. At the
point when you normally would rotate your upper body into the hart
attack position, instead rotate your shoulders and torso like a fully
extended indian air. As you are rotating, instead of pushing
backwards (like a normal seat grab indian aid) keep your arm (thats
holding onto the bars) bent slightly, and push your body (with your
seat grab arm) up off the bike while your rotating. This will get you
into an almost-hart attack position. The real extension on
helicopters comes from when you look back. Don't rotate your head
sideways like a conventional indian air, look back underneath your
body while rotating. As you do this and thrust your legs to be
crossed, allow your hips to move with your legs. However, you can see
from the video that when I would do Helicopters I hardly would twist
my hips; which gave my helicopters a distinct look. However, most
riders will want to twist their hips at least a tad - which makes the
scissor kick of your legs come easier. As you twist (either your
hips, legs, whatever) you'll then push down with your upper body, and
that will elevate your shoulders (which are now inverted) off of the bike.
Now you have a fully extended
hart attack indian air!!