Aaron Koz
Movement, Circus, and Aerial Coach
Work with me
1-to-1s & Monthly
Work with me online or in-person
7
Retreats / Intensives
Maybe a week somewhere sunny?
7
E-Manuals
All the technique written down.
7
L1/L2 Teacher Trainings
Learn to teach & perform straps.
7
About Aaron Koz
Aaron Koz is a world-class aerial coach and mostly retired performer with 10+ years coaching aerial, fitness, and wellness drawing from current research in human performance, motor learning, and exercise science.
Koz has taught students on every continent (yes, including research scientists in Antarctica), ranging from happily recreational to Cirque Du Soleil performers. Online teacher/performer training courses and workshops have spread a unique science-backed training methodology to hundreds of coaches and thousands of students worldwide.
Read more about Aaron
Koz has authored several comprehensive e-manuals, including “All Apparatus C-Shaping,” “The Aerial Spinning Reference Guide,” “The Aerial Swinging Reference Guide”, “C-Shaping At Home,” and has co-authored e-manuals on advanced 1 & 2-arm swinging as well “Couch To Aerial Fitness” and “Aerial Straps Level 1 Teaser.”
Aaron currently works as a health, wellness, and performance coach with clients of all ages, backgrounds, and goals outside of his aerial coaching work. He uses his background in neuroscience and his extensive experience in strength and skill training to empower individuals to unlock their full potential for Fount.bio, a human performance optimization coaching service.
Aaron’s fitness and longevity coaching approach is supported by his past work in the Fitness, Aging, & Stress Lab at UCSF in San Francisco, where he delved into the effects of cortisol on telomerase and other blood marker levels, and whether coaching could support high cortisol individuals in getting the CDC-recommended guidelines of exercise.
Aaron’s personal training journey in aerial arts and coaching began in Washington, D.C. before he ventured to New York City, where he embarked on Circus Warehouse’s intensive program. Seeking continuous growth, he sought training under elite coaches in San Francisco, Montreal, and Mexico, further refining his skills and expanding his repertoire. Drawing from his background in neuroscience, Aaron brings a unique perspective to his coaching and personal training informed by his natural utter lack of motor control, all while effectively integrating scientific principles into his pedagogy.
In his pursuit of constant learning and growth, Aaron actively collaborates with other experts in the field, ranging from physical therapists, performance psychologists, and occupational therapists, enriching his coaching offerings. This collaboration ensures the physical and psychological safety and well-being of his students while optimizing their progress and preventing injuries.
Aaron Koz – Performer
Aaron Koz is an aerialist specializing in aerial straps, hand-to-hand, and duo aerial.
Most recently, he performed aerial straps in Saudi Arabia with The Tap Factory. He has been in shows up and down the west coast for festivals, clubs, corporate events, lead aerialist for Cedar Point’s nightly show as well as local cabarets and full length circus shows. Moving from Washington, D.C. to NYC, he began at Circus Warehouse’s intensive program, and has since studied under different coaches in SF, Montreal, and Mexico. He enjoys adding comedy through clowning and puppetry to his straps and hand-to-hand acts.
1-to-1s and Coaching
1-on-1 online or in-person coaching
These are for you if you want expert assessment and guidance on:
- how to unlock a specific movement or skill;
aerial straps, aerial rope, swinging/spinning, c-shaping, or rings - evidence-based guidance for your own aerial, circus, or fitness program
- general fitness and personal training for life, aerial, circus, calisthenics
- sleep analysis + sleep coaching
- pain science education to reduce pain perception
- injury risk reduction strategies and tools
- how to modify/adapt/structure your life to optimize for circus gains
- bloodwork analysis for sports performance optimization
Reactive Monthly Custom Programs
Customized monthly programming based on your current level for all your physical training goals!
No program should stay the same over the course of 4, 6, or even 12 weeks. Unless your life is static and you’re training for a scheduled event, planning 12 weeks out isn’t truly ideal for allowing for the changes you may experience in life and training. Monthly coaching gives you an open channel direct to your coach so your program adapts to the different wins, progress, and challenges you’re facing in your life.
Trainings & Retreats
MTL Straps Lab Levels 1 and 2
July 2nd – July 15, 2025
Last year’s was a blast. This year is going to be even better. With a student:aerial point ratio of 2:1 and a student:coach ratio of 10:1, the lab is focused on providing a years worth of straps material in 5 days. Take home skills, drills,, cues, and pathways and new straps friends from all over!
Tropical Straps Party Mexico!
February 8th – 15th, 2025
Escape dreary winter for a beach-side aerial straps & handstand retreat on the Oaxacan coast in southern Mexico. Warm sunny days, tropical smoothies, on an outdoor aerial deck raised above the beach, and aerial straps friends the world over!
Portugal Straps & Rope Retreat
April 6th - 13th, 2025
Join Koz and Alex Allan for 7 days of pastel di natas, aerial straps and rope on an outdoor aerial rig raised above the Portuguese beach, a hot tub (aka the Think Tank), and a heckin’ dang good time.
Testimonials
I took an aerial straps workshop when Aaron was traveling on the east coast. He is an incredible instructor with such important knowledge about the body and how it works.
He was great at spotting and I left the workshop feeling much stronger and capable than before it. I also worked on skills that I thought were completely out of my range and felt successful. Aaron is an all around great instructor and I am so glad I had the opportunity to train with him!
Aaron’s knowledge of anatomy and movement is vast and well applied in how he sequences teaching handstands. He is warm, personable, well-organized and thoughtful with his instructions. His approach is inventive and reflects a deep understanding of the body works.
I always enjoy his classes and am left with a feeling that i have worked worked harder and more intelligently than I could have without his expertise. He clearly knows his stuff which he offers with light-hearted inspiration.
In my own aerial journey, I had a move I had been working on for ten months (an arduous ten months!)–the flare to flag. He had developed his own scaffolding for that particular move–a variety of warm-ups and “floorial” and isometric positions. I went through it in the space of one workshop, a few days of training, and then a private lesson, and then, on video no less, at the end of the hour I did it for the first time in my life. Other coaches and tried to get me there, but the cueing was all the same–because it was all the same thing their teachers had told them.
Teacher Training
Aerial Straps Level 1 Teacher & Performer Training
• Guest Lectures by Max March-Steinman (@bo_ties), Sebastian Rojas (@aregularpieceofasparagus), Francesco Lanciotti (@ceccofoile), & more!
• Participants will receive the Aerial Straps Level 1 Skill Reference List for use after the training
• Skill reference (with 100+ videos) of static positions, dynamic techniques, skills and transitions
• C-shaping, swinging, spinning, and strength training foundations and Analysis for ALL aerial apparatus
• Spotting and un-spotted teaching technique discussion
• Progressions/regressions using multiple apparatus geared towards training straps-style skills safely
• Curriculum development and class planning practice
• Identifying common problems in static straps techniques and pathways
• Developing effective teaching practices based on current learning research
• Focuses on both strength and conditioning as well as movement patterning
• Fun and varied warm-ups and lesson guidance to use in the future
• Functional anatomy/physiology/kinesiology
• Shoulder/thoracic spine health/injury prevention
Aerial Straps L2 Teacher & Performer Training
• Participants will receive the Level 2 Skill Reference List for use after the training
• In-depth skill investigation for: 1-arm switches, 1-arm swings, 1-arm spins, intermediate/advanced sequencing like split grip, sling, and open-handed transitions, intermediate drops, waist rolling, and 1-arm strength skills.
• Ergonomic and effective spotting technique for: all 1-arm switches, 1-arm inversions, spotting intermediate/advanced swinging skills, and waist rolling.
• The benefits and tools to implement effective off-apparatus training
• How to use sport psychology principles in your coaching practice with intermediate/advanced performers
• Private lesson/workshop programming
• Identifying common problems and things that can increase injury risk in DYNAMIC techniques and pathways
• How to approach (re)patterning of skill pathways that are limiting the athlete’s success.
• Tendinopathies and risk management strategies
• Skill Acquisition strategies (segmentation, fast vs. slow., guided inquiry vs. discovery, external cueing, etc)
• Advanced in-depth anatomy/physiology/kinesiology for 1-arm skills – what is happening during skills.
• Using an “occupational therapy” framework to coaching around/through injuries
CircSci: A podcast on the science of circus training and performing.
A podcast on the science of circus training and performing. Each episode hones in on different areas of practically applied research to use in your own circus training.
If you’re curious about a subject or question related to circus training, email your questions (which WILL be answered) to: koz.circ@gmail.com.
If you’ve got comments or feedback, see the email above!
Check out aaronkoz.com/thoughts for long-form posts looking at the research and how it applies to circus and aerial training.
Have you ever wondered if you might benefit from structuring your training based on your hormonal/menstrual cycle?
In this episode, we answer that questions with Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple. We discuss what she found in her Ph.D research (and the broader literature) when it comes to hormonal cycle changes, performance and strength metrics, and injury rates.
We also touch on how the hormonal cycle interacts with hypermobility, and what, if anything should change in response to that.
Listen in to find out if you can (or should) adapt your training to reflect what the science says about cycle-based changes!
Disclaimer: everyone’s experience of the changes that occur during a hormonal/menstrual cycle is different, but regardless of what the literature says on strength and performance, how you feel is likely going to be quite individualized.
Comments, questions, concerns? Email me at aaron@aaronkoz.com
Check out Lauren below:
MASS (Monthly Applications in Strength Sport)
Upcoming opportunities to work with me:
L1 Aerial Straps Teacher & Performer Training
Lauren Colenso-Semple Ph.D., CSCS
- Ph.D. Integrative Physiology (McMaster University), M.S. Exercise Science (University of South Florida), B.A. Psychology, Nutrition (State University of New York at Buffalo).
- Regularly publishes peer-reviewed articles in exercise science journals with a focus on female physiology and endocrinology, sex-based differences and mechanisms of muscle growth.
- Expert fitness professional with years of practical experience and certifications in strength & conditioning, sports nutrition, group fitness, and personal training
Subscribe to the Podcast
CircSci
Gallery
E-Manuals
These manuals go into every minute detail you need to understand and follow along with all of the skills and conditioning you need.
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Couch to Aerial Fitness – 12 Week Program
$10.00 – $80.00 -
Aerial Straps Level 1 Teaser
$10.00 Add to cart -
Warm-up Cheat Sheet
$1.00 – $10.00 -
The Aerial Spinning Reference Guide V2
$85.00 – $120.00 -
How To Train C-Shaping At Home
$40.00 – $80.00 -
The Aerial Swinging Reference Guide L1
$125.00 Add to cart -
Advanced Aerial 1-arm Swinging – L2
$120.00 – $200.00 -
All Apparatus C-shaping L1
$55.00 – $75.00 -
Advanced 2-arm Aerial Swinging – L2
$120.00 – $200.00