Pole Practice

I had a wonderful, awesome, amazing practise yesterday! There have been a few things that I've been working on incessantly for the last 6 months. Really, I should have been doing this a long time ago - I think there's a bit of a flaw in the student directed progression I had going (where I just kept going up in levels when I hadn't quite mastered a couple basics). About six months ago I had come to the point where I just wasn't progressing anymore in pole. I felt stuck. I was hard on myself. Why was I so weak, why, oh, why couldn't I get these new moves? And the answer, I think, was simple. I had holes in my basics. There were moves that I hadn't gotten, either due to slippage, lack or flexibility, lack of strength, and in one major case especially, lack of balance.

In short, my nemesis move - the one I just couldn't get, no matter how many times it was explained and demonstrated to. The tipover 'v' (here's a link to a pic, in case you want to know what it looks like: click)

I finally figured out how to do it right before christmas, and it was partly figuring out what muscles actually pull your hips up, as well as keeping balanced while you're up there. Everyone else I knew got it really really easily - I thought maybe my butt was too big or something. Then I got sick in the beginning of January and completely lost the move again.

Now I finally have it back, and building from that, I also finally got some moves that I only half-assed got before. Like the gemini, or outside leg hang (click). Mine doesn't look as pretty as this one, but now that I can hold it, I can play with the positioning until I get it right.

Other moves I've recently mastered (finally) include the reverse superman and the cross leg release (click and click)


Both of those I only got because now that I'm an instructor/assistant instructor, I'm always looking for new ways to explain and tweak so students can understand the body position of a move. So when I'm sitting in a move and it's not quite there, I literally think to myself 'if I were teaching myself, what would I tell me to do?'. I absolutely love teaching, but it's also the best thing I could have done to improve my own abilities on the pole! Here's a photo from my last photoshoot. Now that I'm starting to improve again, I look forward to the next one!