A Prodigy Aerial Hoop doesn’t necessarily need taping. The premium coating is long-lasting, grippy and very durable. However, working with bar apparatus like our Lyras is varied, and often (like with a pole, or other bare metal bar apparatus) the hoop will need warming up first. Tape removes this need, and also adds some extra grip on top. As an added bonus, it makes your hoop a snazzy new colour.

When you’re taping one of our hoops using our Prodigy Snake Tape, it’s important to note the location of the rigging points of your shackle hoop. We recommend that you undo your shackles and leave your hoop as a 0 point for the taping process, as this makes things neater later on. then make sure you are sure of where your central shackle point is. you can mark this with about an inch of tape, as reference.

You should only require 1 roll of the extra-long Snake Tape to cover your hoop.

Starting at the bottom of the hoop (the opposite side to the central point you just marked) wind your tape up over the bar, overlapping half the width of the tape at a time until you reach the top of the hoop.

Now for the other half, start again at the bottom, overlapping about a hand’s width, start wrapping in the other direction in the same spiral fashion.

Now that your hoop is completely covered, find your shackle holes and punch them out of the tape, make sure to clear the tape away from the edges, as this can cause the shackles to get stuck later on. this can be done by cutting an X in the tape, peeling it back, and cutting the hole back to a square.

Now you can reinsert your shackles and you’re good to go!