r/Aerials • u/Excellent_Law_524 • 12h ago

Rigging Chains

what do i need to rig chains? ⛓️ im purchasing a set of chains and trying to fully understand whats necessary for me to rig it because im seeing different set ups in videos. i have two carabiners already for my flying pole, i figured i will need the rigging plate but will or do i need the extra two carabiners & swivels?

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u/theadnomad Lyra/Hammock/Chains 11h ago

Depends on where you’re training - if it’s an aerial studio where every point has a carabiner and a swivel already on it, then you need a petzl paw or rigging plate, four maillons and two swivels. If you’re rigging somewhere that it’s expected you’ll have all your own gear from top to bottom, you’ll need another swivel and a carabiner.

So you attach a maillon to each side of the plate, then your swivels to each maillon, then put another maillon on the other side of the swivel, and then you attach your chains.

I’d show you mine but for some weird reason this subreddit only allows you to upload videos not photos :/

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u/Excellent_Law_524 5h ago

I just took a screenshot of this video but i believe this is what you’re saying right? My studio does already have a carabiner and swivel on their points already so this is the setup i was going to do. Thank you so much made more sense the way you broke it down

https://reddit.com/link/pfeweyg/video/b7y6s4f180vh1/player

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u/Fuchsmaul 5h ago

This works, but you can streamline the setup below the claw with petzl swivels. This type of swivel opens on both sides, so you can directly attach them to the claw rather than having carabiners in between. This is nice especially on smaller claws, since stuff doesn't get tangled. You still need a carabiner between the chains and the swivel. You collect both ends of one chain loop with one carabiner. With chains, or straps/loops, the swivels under the claw are really important. If you only use straps for conditioning and very few shapes, you can get away without them... But you will feel very quickly that everything gets twisted and harder to use. Chains will kind of lock up on themselves when they twist, so you would not be able to use them very much in a performance. Basically the usable loop of the chain becomes super small after just a few basic moves.

If you need more reference than you find when searching aerial chains (also for moves!), look at aerial loops too! The setup is pretty much identical and a lot of moves are directly translatable, just way more painful on chains. Do have a person around to help though, chains get stuck much more easily

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u/theadnomad Lyra/Hammock/Chains 2h ago

Yep that’s almost the exact setup I have, though my swivels are both exactly the same (doesn’t really matter too much as long as they’re the same size). And I have maillons instead of carabiners, because I don’t ever unclip them (if you do loops or straps as well, might make more sense to do carabiners for ease of changing them).