Can I Compete on Aerial?
YES! There are a number of different organizations that allow you to compete on the aerial apparatus we offer. Aerialympics, the United States Pole Sport Federation (USPSF), and the Dakota Aerial Championships are just a few organizations that offer aerial competitions. A quick Google search will show you that there are TONS of options out there - depending on whether you want to compete in person, or virtually.
Competitions in aerial are broken down into smaller groups in several ways. The first is by age group. This ensures that competitors are within the same general age as those they compete against, and there shouldn't be a huge discrepancy (ex- a 15 year old competing against a 35 year old). This helps to ensure that competitors are at the same maturity level and to an extent physical level.
The second way that competitors are groups is based on their difficulty level. When competing in aerial - the levels are determined by the difficulty of tricks to be performed in the routine. Each competition tends to draw the line of where those levels are on their own - so reading their rules to figure out what level you should register for can be tricky! The difficulty level also determines how long their performance is allowed to be. Music is to be cut within a certain time so all competitors have the same amount of time to show judges what they have.
The third way that some competitions further group competitors is by category. Not all aerial competitions include categories. Categories help to ensure that the style of choreography is taken into account. A very sporty/athletic routine is hard to judge the same as a very flowy/artistic routine.
Aerialympics (complete rules and divisions accessible here) offers competition on hoop, hammock, and silks. They also offer a separate "specialty apparatus" for those who have an apparatus that might be less common (an atom, a moon lyra, dance trapeze).
This competition does not offer different categories, what this means is that all silks routines at the same level are competing against each other, regardless of music choice and overall theme of the routine. They offer Novice, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, Advanced, and All Star as their difficulty levels.
Competitors who place well in their regional competitions are invited to compete at the annual National competition.
United States Pole Sport Federation (USPSF) (complete rules and code of points accessible here) offers competitions on hoop, silks, and pole.
This competition offers two categories for each aerial apparatus - Art and Sport. They also break down levels to two options - Amateur and Competitive. The USPSF hosts two competitions per year. Regionals are held each spring virtually, and nationals are held live (in person) in late summer/early fall. The top 3 competitors for each category and level are invited to compete Internationally at POSA World Championships.
The USPSF uses their different Code of Points when judging routines. They offer regular training for competitors, coaches, and prospective judges on reading and understanding the code of points. The USPSF is one of the leading organizations pushing to get pole and aerial into the Olympics!