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Warm-up: preparing your body before indoor flying

This lesson is part of the Cramayailes indoor 4-line school, restored by QuadKites.org. The text is Thierry Bressure’s, in the first person, translated from French. The video commentary is in French.

The lesson

Section titled "The lesson"

Outdoors, the natural wind is the engine. A good pilot who keeps good pressure does not need to move much. Indoors, the pilot is the engine: constantly on the move. It is physical, so you have to warm up.

Warm-up lesson by Cramayailes

Key takeaways from this video — Warm-up lesson

  • Start every session with a warm-up, including a backward-circle exercise: it is the movement you will make in flight.
  • Side steps are useful during sudden accelerations, notably to recover from a stall.
  • The arms and shoulders, then the hands, fingers and wrists (heavily used in quad-line flying), should not be neglected.

Transcript — Warm-up lesson

  1. Warming up before the session

    0:00

    We always start the training session with a warm-up.

  2. Moving back in a circle

    0:18

    I recommend doing a backward-circle exercise, because it is the movement we will perform during flights.

  3. Side steps

    0:30

    Side steps will be useful during sudden accelerations, notably to recover from stalls.

  4. Arms and shoulders

    1:00

    Warming up the arms, and above all the shoulders, should not be neglected.

  5. Hands, fingers and wrists

    1:40

    Finally, let’s finish by warming up the hands, fingers and wrists, which are used most when flying quad-line.

Video page: transcript, series and other uses

Legs

Section titled "Legs"

The kite’s main engine is the pilot’s legs. Moving backward is not natural and does not use the same muscles as ordinary walking. The pilot must warm up the legs for this particular need.

A few sustained steps backward, as well as side steps, will prepare the muscles and the joints of the foot.

Do not neglect this step, especially beginners, who will literally run backward. With experience, the pilot controls effort and sail pressure, which reduces physical commitment. Even so, after a stall the pilot catches up by accelerating: watch out for a pulled muscle…

Arms

Section titled "Arms"

Arm movements suddenly and momentarily reduce or add pressure. It is also important to warm them up.

Upper body

Section titled "Upper body"

A little less used, but sometimes useful to adjust the pressure slightly and momentarily. Move the spine and the pelvis.

Hands

Section titled "Hands"

In dual-line flying, the hands are not used much. In quad-line flying, you use the handles and the tension of your fingers, not to squeeze the handles but to feel the slightest pressure changes. Fingers and handles are both put to work, so these also need warming up.

Warm-up does not mean exhaustion: keep a little energy for the flight.

What comes next

Section titled "What comes next"

Next step: the 360.

Last updated: — restored Thierry Bressure's warm-up lesson