Advice (or encouragement!) for a Beginner!

[CrazyKosters]

I just remember always wanting to do pole and my friend had one when I was like 19 or something. Wanted one since but never did it until January 2013. As far as advice and motivation, remember that everyone learns at their own pace and persistence and patience pays off. Watching vids of the pros can be both motivating and discouraging when all you want to do is be like them lol. Some of the people here and on YouTube etc..have been doing this for years and some have gymnastics or dance background. Stay determined and record your sessions if possible. You don’t need to post them but it will help you to see what your doing and what you want to change. My motivation is nailing a move and or watching a vid of myself and seeing the improvement over the long run. Some days will be bad pole days, don’t get discouraged. Sometimes you will loose moves you could previously do. Yes the pain gets better! Lol

[AliceColleen]

Thank you for the encouragement! 🙂
I really like your idea of doing videos to track your progress, and remembering that everyone learns at their own pace. I’m also trying to celebrate small successes – I can now sit on the pole easily and I used to find it so uncomfortable!
Anyways, really appreciated your perspective!

[Stefana of Light]

Welcome! For me my intro to pole happened by watching some TedX one day and stumbled upon “Sheila Kelley Let’s get naked”, that video changed my perspective on self love. From there i found mysef mesmerized by many of the lovely champions on YouTube, luckily i found this site early on and have been loving the support here. I think the most important thing is to do what feeds you, so if it’s tricks do that, if it’s freestyling, do that, hopefully you’ll do it all. Its an amazing sport/ method of therapy, really the list could go on! And yes yes yes videos will really help you! And for me my first full length freestyle that i posted here really helped me push towards feeling my style, (i think i finally felt like my dance could be understand, and really it felt magical) What an exciting journey! For me the discouragement has been mostly with injuries. Being self taught for the first year came with ne way over doing it as far as not resting and cold stretching, i know silly, but then got the lessons after my 1st year, just having trustworthy info to turn to instead of trying to guess or youtube vids has made it easier for me, and I’m progressing much quicker than my first year. Also there are always ladies on here who love to have Skype dates and that for me has been huge to connect and meet other polers:) As far as staying motivated, love the way pole makes me feel… alive, sexy, strong the list could go on. Find what you enjoy with the pole and that will keep you coming, and if you stray you will remember why you love that piece of metal and you’ll get back on!! Good luck and happy poling !

[Veena]

Welcome to the site!! Everyone had great advice. I’l repeat this because it’s something I tell everyone, do not compare your progress with someone else’s, you have your own journey and it will unfold as it’s meant to. Something else to keep in mind, not every move is right for everyone’s body, we all have our strengths. Some dancers may never invert while others will progress very quickly, neither one is better then the other.

[calipolepixie]

I had friends who were exotic dancers, so my husband & I spent a lot of time hanging out at the strip clubs in the late 90’s. I fell in love with pole then(back in those days girls did a lot of pole work in strip clubs–not so many do now) & wanted to do it too but back then there were no pole studios or home poles that you could buy, so about 10 years passed before I actually got to try it (S factor–I wrote a review an online publication) and then another 4 years to actually sign up for classes. Been poling 4 years now 🙂

My first 2 years of poling were the hardest because I worked a 50+ hours & traveled for work, so my progress was slow & I often wasn’t able to pole for 2-3 weeks at a time because of work & then I’d have to build strength back up & gain moves back. Pole can be hard, confusing & frustrating at times but it has changed me & my life & has brought me so much joy & happiness that’s why I have stuck with it for so long!

If you start to feel frustrated, don’t give up…have a pole Studio Veena video pole jam or Skype pole jam with a pole buddies
, seek out other polers in your area & pole jam together whenever you can, video tape your practices, so you can see your progress (this really helps). If there is a studio 1-2 hours from you, see if they have workshops & try to go a few times a year if you can, workshops are great for additional support, tips & you get to socialize with local polers.

And come to SV anytime & ask questions, post videos for feedback…there’s a GREAT support group of gals here!!!

[grayeyes]

@shoogstandley Thanks for sharing the Let’s Get Naked TED talk–loved it!

[Stefana of Light]

Absolutely! I’m so glad it moved you. It touches me every time i watch it, It’s a great reminder for me to live fully in my body bliss:)

[Lucca Valentine]

Yes! Gold star for each accomplishment! Maybe not gold star but in my pole journal if I got a move that day I definitely cover 2/3 of the page with that move in caps, with lightning bolts and exclamation points all over it. So if I skip back through my book, those accomplishments are VERY easy to find

[Lina Spiralyne]

Welcome to pole and the site! Apart from what everyone already said I think it’s important to remember that in pole there’s LOADS of tricks and it will be up to you on which ones you’re going to spend time and energy to learn. Not all tricks are interesting (or even possible) for everyone. Some people think they have to learn everything to check them off the list, don’t see it that way.

If you’re on social media, you may first of all be flooded with tricks and some of them even become very hot topics for some time. Then remember that you don’t need to learn them just because everyone else does. You mentioned “discouraged” in your first post. On social media that risk is quite big because it looks like everyone is doing much better than ourselves and it irrationally almost starts looking like a competition, which it’s not of course. I think SM is very good for inspiration, I’m active there as well, but it’s good to remember that usually we only see the top of everyone’s iceberg. I know some people even deactivate their accounts because it just gets too much. Not trying to scare you off SM, but be aware :).

Then I think that planning your training session is a good thing for structure if you train alone, but don’t forget to be sponaneous as well when you feel like it. Sometimes I totally leave what I initially was planning to do because I got another idea, and I see this as a good thing for the creative process. Be playful and bring back the child in you!