When I talk about pulling stretches in a stunt I am talking about the flyer. You don’t see bases holding a flyer up in the air and trying to pull a scorp. I mean there are time when in practice the stint group will mess around and try cool things, for example at the bottom of this post I put a picture of my stunt group all doing heel stretches, this means my bases and my as the flyer. This you do not see in a routine or anything but when we are cheering on our University teams we will mess around and show off with this kind of stunt.
Well lets see, the first pulling skill acquired by a flyer is usually an arabesque. This is one of the easiest skills and it does not require you to be extremely flexible. This is when the flyer is on one foot, leans forward and sticks the other foot out straight behind her. To met it looks like a flying airplane. I have photos for you to see and understand what I am talking about at the end, so stay enlightened.
All the pulling skills that come after the arabesque require some well established flexibility. Next pulling skill to acquire is the heel stretch, which is demonstrated in the above photo on the right hand side. The heel stretch is also done on one foot, and the other foot comes up by your head. Its doing the splits standing up right. Once you have a good heel stretch you can start stretching for a bow and arrow. This is a heel stretch but then you grab your foot with the opposite arm and put your other arm around the leg the is straight up and down. This skill needs a lot of flexibility.
Next pulled skill would probably be the scale. This is where you are on one foot, you rotate your hips sideways and pull up on your foot with your hand getting your leg to stick out the side. This is demonstrated in the above photo on the left hand side.
The last pulled skills to require are two of the toughest and require a maximum flexibility in your back, legs, and shoulders. They are a scorpion and a needle. The scorp is done by standing on one foot and pulling the other foot up to the back side of your head. This is shown in the above photo in the centre. Once your scorp is good you can pull harder on the foot that is behind you back until your leg is fully straight up your backside. This pose when then turn into the needle when your knee is straight. This is a very hard skill to get and needs lots of flexibility in all parts of the body.
All these skills are done by the flyer when her stunt group has her in the air. As you can see all these skills are done on one foot so you would be in liberty or in torch to be able to do these skills. Oh and yes they hurt and you are probably thinking that dosen’t look to bad, but I promise you they are!
My stunt group playing around at a game all doing our heel stretches:
My first attempt at pulling my bow and arrow: (Today it is a lot better)
Pulling an arabesque in lib:
The World of Cheer 