Every November, I ask my clients the same questions.
Did you set goals this year? Milestones? And have you achieved them?
It is not a test. It is a review.
Those questions are not there to catch anyone out. And if the answer to the first one is no, you did not set any goals this year, that is useful information too. The questions are there because November is the best moment of the year to take a clear look at your aerial training, while there is still time to do something useful with what you find.
This post walks you through how I review a training year with my clients, why aerial goals so often miss, and how to set up 2027 so your goals fit the life you are living.
Why November, not January
January plans the year you hope for. November shows you the year you had.
By now you have ten months of real information. You know which weeks were busy, which months you travelled, when your energy dipped and when training felt easy. That information is far more useful than a fresh set of resolutions written on 1 January with no data behind them.
There are also six weeks left. That is enough time to close one milestone, finish a block of training properly, or simply notice where you are before the holidays and the darker evenings change your routine.
So this is not a deadline. It is a checkpoint.
How to review your aerial year without judging it
A review only helps if you can look at it without flinching. The goal is information, not a verdict.
I use three questions.
1. What moved?
Start here, because most aerialists skip it.
Think about skills, yes. But also strength, mobility, confidence on the apparatus, and how your body feels in training and in everyday life. Shoulders that no longer complain overhead. A climb that feels less effortful. Choosing your own conditioning exercises with confidence instead of guessing.
What matters is how you feel. A lot of progress is marginal to look at and significant to live in. Write it down anyway.
2. What stalled, and what was happening at the time?
Now look at the goals that did not move. Not to blame yourself, but to find the context.
Were you injured? Was work heavier than usual? Did your training plan ask for more sessions than your week could hold?
A stalled goal is not a failure. It is information.
3. What did life get in the way of?
Travel, family, work events. In my clients' weekly check-ins, these are the challenges that come up most often. Not lack of motivation. Not lack of talent. Life.
That is not a reason to give up on goals. It is a reason to build them differently.
There is good evidence that this kind of review works. A meta-analysis of 138 studies, covering almost 20,000 participants, found that monitoring your progress towards a goal makes you more likely to reach it, and the effect is stronger when you physically record that progress (Harkin et al., 2016). Reviewing in your head is helpful. Reviewing on paper is better.
If you want a structure for this, my free Goal Setting Planner walks you through the review and the planning in one place. Download the Goal Setting Planner here
Why aerial goals miss
After a decade of coaching, I see the same patterns year after year. None of them are about trying harder.
The goal was built for someone else's week
Most aerial advice comes from younger athletes training full time. Most generic cross-training programmes assume five or six sessions a week, an hour or more each, with recovery and sleep to match.
If that is not your life, the plan falls apart by February, and you conclude the problem is you. It is not. The plan was built for a schedule and a capacity you do not have.
There was one big goal and no visible steps
"Get my straight arm invert." "Get my splits." "Get stronger."
These are good goals. But on their own, they give you nothing to measure until the day you finally get there. That makes the whole year feel like waiting, and waiting soon turns into comparison.
There was a goal, but no plan for when and where
Wanting something and deciding exactly when you will work on it are different things. Research on implementation intentions, plans written as "if this situation happens, then I will do this", found a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment across 94 independent tests (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006).
In other words, "I will train more conditioning" rarely survives a busy week. "On Tuesday after work, I do my 30-minute conditioning session at home" has a much better chance.
Milestones over the single big goal
Milestones make big goals tangible. They give you something real to measure yourself against, which is the most effective answer I know to the comparison trap.
Take a skill goal like a clean straight arm invert on the hoop. Instead of one finish line, break it into visible steps:
A strength milestone, for example a set number of controlled hanging leg raises or pulling progressions
A mobility milestone, for example the shoulder and hip range the shape asks for
A drill milestone, for example holding the key positions on the floor or on a low apparatus
A skill milestone, for example the first assisted or partial attempt
Each one is a win in its own right. Each one tells you where you are. And when one stalls, you know exactly which part needs attention instead of feeling stuck on the whole thing.
The same works for any goal. Splits, a new sequence, coming back after an injury, or simply training consistently through the year.
Plan around the week you have
This is the part that changes everything.
Before you write a single goal for 2027, look at the year you have reviewed. When did you travel? When was work busiest? Which months did your energy drop? Which weeks did family take priority?
Then build your plan around those weeks, not in spite of them. Lighter blocks where you know life gets heavy. Shorter sessions you can repeat. A travel version of your programme with little or no equipment.
Across my clients' weekly check-ins, most report feeling on track with their goals. Not because they are more disciplined than anyone else. Because the plan was built around their actual week, and adjusted when the week changed.
Structure that fits your life is not a compromise. It is the strategy.
Practical ways to get started this week
You do not need to wait for January. Here are three steps you can take this weekend.
Step 1: Review your year in writing
Set aside 15 minutes. Answer the three questions: what moved, what stalled and why, and what life got in the way of. Write it down. The evidence on progress monitoring is clear that recording beats remembering.
Step 2: Choose one theme for 2027
Not ten goals. One theme. Strength foundations. Mobility for a specific shape. Consistency. Coming back to the apparatus after time away. Your goals for the year then sit under that theme instead of competing with each other.
Step 3: Set your first milestone, with a when and a where
Pick the first visible step towards your theme and decide exactly when and where you will work on it each week. Then track it.
Be patient with the process. In one well-known study of how habits form, it took participants an average of around 66 days for a new daily behaviour to become automatic, and missing a single day did not undo the progress (Lally et al., 2010). Consistency matters more than perfection.
Frequently asked questions
Is it too late to hit my aerial goals this year?
Not necessarily. Six weeks is enough to close a milestone or finish a training block well. And if a goal is not realistic before the end of the year, it becomes the first milestone of 2027 rather than a failure of 2026.
How many aerial goals should I set for next year?
Fewer than you think. One clear theme with a handful of milestones underneath it is far easier to follow through busy weeks than a long list of separate goals.
What if I did not make any progress this year?
Look again at the first review question. Most aerialists underestimate what moved, because they only count skills. Strength, mobility, confidence and how your body feels all count. And if something did stall, the context around it is the most useful information you have for next year.
November is a review, not a verdict
It is November. Maybe you set goals and hit them. Maybe you hit some of them. Maybe you never set any, or life had other plans.
Whatever your answer, it is information. And information is exactly what you need to plan a 2027 that fits you.
Download the free Goal Setting Planner to review your year and map out your first milestones. Download the Goal Setting Planner here
And if you want a training structure built around your real week, with someone checking in as you go, the Aerial Performance Lab is where we do exactly that. Membership starts at £27.99 a month on the Foundation tier. Find out more about the Aerial Performance Lab
References
Gollwitzer, P. M. and Sheeran, P. (2006) 'Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes', Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, pp. 69-119. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1
Harkin, B., Webb, T. L., Chang, B. P. I., Prestwich, A., Conner, M., Kellar, I., Benn, Y. and Sheeran, P. (2016) 'Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence', Psychological Bulletin, 142(2), pp. 198-229. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000025
Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W. and Wardle, J. (2010) 'How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world', European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), pp. 998-1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674
