Chopper to Scorpio

Tropical, something happened to the text!

Whoops! Has anyone got any good tips for chopper/v invert/spinning v to Scorpio/inside leg hang? My teacher has told me to practice it but it's very messy and I wonder what I'm doing wrong. I've tried the long and short leg Scorpio as per Veena lesson. I can do chopper to gemini, then do leg switches no problem. But only smooth entry to Scorpio for me is from a hip hold. I would appreciate any tips Thanks

What kind of problem are you actually experiencing? Discomfort, something in the way or else?

Can't get leg on pole easily and smoothly - outside leg hooks easily but inside leg I have to move hips, fidget leg into place and it's ugly and pole loses spin.

Yes moving smoothly is crucial if the pole is not going to slow down. If you had complained about the outside leg hang as well I would have thought that you didn't get your hips high enough in the chopper but now I'm not sure it's that. When I do it, in my head, I think that I sweep the inside leg into the hook. While I'm doing that I take care to keep the other leg still. That is to not exert unneeded force to the pole (which may then slow down) and to make it look clean. Just about the point in time when I hook the leg I start to sweep the free leg following the circular motion. I try to pull it down rather than rising it when I do that, again both for the look and the smoothness. To see it, check this out around 1:15 https://www.studioveena.com/videos/view/50aa6dc9-6944-4ef3-8467-673e0ac37250

Thanks that is really helpful. I think I need to bring hands super low and really lean back tipping legs back to get enough space to wrap thigh and calf. It's very automatic now for me to go into outside leg so I'm already moving my hips that way as I chopper. To wrap inside leg means moving hips the other way and getting pole deep in hip first. Realised my contact points with Scorpio vary a lot whereas my knee hook for Gemini is always the same so that doesn't help either, the muscle memory isn't there. I still find Scorpio painful because of having loose skin and very low body fat on thighs after weight loss: there is no subcutaneous fat cushion for the muscle and bone of the thigh and the loose skin gets caught and tears. Thanks Lina.

Everyone has good advice! I personally RARELY go right into scorpio, I usually do a switch into it from gemini.

I'm opposite to veena, I mostly go direct to inside leg. make sure you're not "inverting" yourself too much, and keep the pole in your side/back as you go over. I hook my leg around and my back is parallel with the ground. If I go from outside leg, I have to spin/rotate about 90 degrees (on static pole) to get the pole out of my armpit and into my back, so on spinny pole, maybe you're not catching up with yourself?

Hope it will help some, Tropical! Understand if you're going through some pain and technique issue, but that will be sorted. I also prefer going into the inside leg hang and not and outside one from an inverted V, but that could be because I usually do these kind of moves on spinning, not static. When spinning forward the scorpio hook follows the motion. But if spinning backwards I prefer hooking the outside leg, for the same reasons.

Yeah it was only pointed out to me recently that I always spin and invert backwards! Which is one reason why gemini is so much easier I guess! I always work on spin, have never locked my pole to static. Now I'm spinning forwards I need to work Scorpio plus it's essential entry from chopper to various combos and it's a bit of a pain having to switch from gemini to Scorpio to, say hip hold then jade because I end up close to the bottom of the pole. I'm currently banned from inverts for 7 days due to overtraining rotator cuff/shoulder girdle/forearms which have all locked up/got sore (seeing chiro) so will work with all the tips next week (hopefully). Thanks again

Yes, if you've been spinning backwards it could at least partly explain it :) Understand you don't want too much switching if it's a long combo and a short pole.

Good point on the direction of the spin!

Have you done fan kicks on a spinny pole? If not you should! 1) they're an AMAZING conditioning exercise 2) they are (IMO) one of the best ways to get a pretty invert straight to inside leg hang on a spinny pole, because just before you finish the "fan" your hips are exactly where they need to be and all you need to do is hook that inside leg. Easy peasy!

Aha! I love fan kicks done super slow on spin but never thought about inverting that way! Thanks!

fan kicks on spin is a fave here, too!