Climbing tips

Runemist34 started this discussion · 8/22/2012

Hey everyone! It's been a while! Life sort of took me away from my pole for a while (I've lost all my callouses!), but I'm certainly missing it, so I'm going to be making a specific effort to do more! More weights and stretching while away, and a specific trip back home whenever I can to get back on that pole! I've been wanting to pretty-up my climb, however, and I can't seem to figure out how it's done. See, when I learned to climb, I was just starting to become self-taught, and I looked at the videos online and went "Oh, I get it!" and off I went to climb that pole! It wasn't too hard, but I wasn't thinking about how pretty my foot was... or how NOT pretty my foot was! I flex my foot, and by doing so, create pressure between my foot and my knee, giving me the stick and strength to lift up and stay there. If I didn't flex my foot... there's no pressure, and thus I cannot get the stick on my pole. I feel like I've been doing it wrong all this time! So, any thoughts? How does one climb without that flexed foot? Do you just jam your shin bone into the pole and push as hard as you can? 😕

13 replies

Sassypants · 8/22/2012
Just use a lot more pressure between your ankles, and make sure your legs are turned so that you can grip between the knees, too. Keep those toes pointed!!
Runemist34 · 8/22/2012
Sassy, if I only have one leg on the pole, how do I keep pressure on BOTH of my ankles? I'm talking about the initial step up... otherwise, I'm fine! I can't climb too high on my pole, anyways, so it's the first step that I'm mostly worried about ;)
JeHanne · 8/22/2012
For the initial step up I like to position my shin across the pole at a diagonal... so on my right foot leading the climb my ankle would be to the left of the pole and my knee would be to the right. That gives me a whole lotta surface area for my 'push' motion with leg. Occasionally I will do a climb where the pole is between my ankles and above the tops of my knees so I do not have the shin as the main contact point. It just depends on how I am climbing. My biggest issue when learning climbs was 1) I did not do push/pull motions (push with shin, pull with upper body) 2) I didn't use a strong grip above to top of my knee to keep my body contacted well to the pole 3) My rear end would drop down before I would lift up. For now keep your foot bent if that helps you with contact point and the mechanics while you pretty your climb. Once you get that down... practice a climb with toes pointed down. Also, if your pole is short at home and you can only get one good climb in before you run out of room... release your tension to slide down a bit and then initiate your climb again after you've slid down a few feet. You can build great climbing strength this way and you don't lose contact with your pole so it sort of simulates a longer pole. This is a really nice free tutorial from XPert called the 'Single Climb Squat' https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3334107026172 Keep at it... you will do great!
Runemist34 · 8/22/2012
JeHanne, that exercise looks awesome/brutal! Wow! I'm gonna have to try it though. The way the lady steps up in the video, with her foot bent, is EXACTLY how I do it. I find that my foot is the one on the left of the pole, and my knee on the right... can you actually get your ankle all the way over? That seems... impossible Oo; I'll have to pay more attention to my push/pull with my upper body, though, maybe that will take some of the pressure off my shin. What do you mean by "rear end would drop down"? Isn't it lower than your knee when you're stepping up? Or am I just reaching too high? ;) And the idea for practicing more climbing by sliding down... I TOTALLY should have thought of that! Oh man! I'm gonna try it next time I dance. I've been able to climb for a few years now, but always with that bent foot. It's trying to find the pressure between my knee and another contact point other than my foot that I need!
Sassypants · 8/22/2012
ooh, my apologies! I didn't understand. :P So I just got on my pole to see what I did for the initial step up, and I think most of making it look pretty is using your arms for the step up. I point my toe and then press the top of my foot/ankle into the pole for support while i use my arms to pull my body up. Also important is to push off with the other leg. I'm a newbie though, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I hope it's not considered "jumping." 🌸 but like Veena says in her lessons, theres a push and a pull. The pull is with the arms and the push is with the second leg. :| I hope this helped at least a little...
CapFeb · 8/22/2012
I totally have this pet peeve with myself. The intial step up seems really ugly to me. So I cheat! Let me try to find a video of Jenyne to show what I do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrBliExJ9-4 ; :30s. I use a split grip lifty thing to put myself ON the pole. It looks impressive, and classy.
JeHanne · 8/22/2012
Hi Sassyboots! All contributions are welcomed and we never know where our 'ah ha' moment will come from. Keep on contributing. :) Hi Runemist34, yes... the Xpert tip is a toughie but what is amazing about it is it will get your body to really get a great grip with the lower body and then you can do really cool things with your climb. Maybe I should have said the outside side of the ankle has some contact... I was trying to say get as much contact on the length of the shin as possible and use that to 'push'. The push/pull and the leg grip (like in Xpert video) was really helpful for me. There are many climb variations! With my rear end... it would take a while for it to 'get up'... lol! If you have a really high reach with your shin yes it will be lower. My deal was I 'lingered' with it lower too long and it just wasn't pretty. I actually had an instructor run behind me once in a climb and grab my seat and push it up. Point taken!!! ha ha... I realized... huh... I need to lift my @ss up. LOL! I love the climbing slide... I can't remember where I learned that but it isn't my idea. Still a great tip to share.
JeHanne · 8/22/2012
I've been doing that climb at :30 too CapFeb lately and I love it because you can throw in a really nice body roll when moving up! A little hard to see in this video but a tip to help with that one (for those that are practicing it and might not know) is notice how her right arm is extended high (but shoulder engaged) and her left arm has the pole against her left forearm. So the left hand is to the right of the pole and the elbow joint is to the right of the pole. You push with the left arm and pull with the right. That creates an amazing anchor to then completely pull your lower body up and make that pretty contact point between ankles and above knees! The options are mind boggling... and beautiful!
suigintou · 8/22/2012
Humm...here is something really weird, when I climb, I actually barely use my foot on the initial step. Anyhoo, I'm more of a noob than a seasoned dancer but here's how I do it, I put my shin diagonally across the pole and keep the knee of the same leg almost right next to the pole. I find that you get the maximum surface area of shin to the pole that way. You don't really have to press your shin too hard either, just enough so that if you were drag your leg across the pole, you'd give yourself a bad indian burn. Try thinking of your shin as your "foot" stepping up on a step stool. I don't know how much this helped but I wanted to post because I also wanted to say hi to a fellow B.C.-er! =]
poledanceromance · 8/23/2012
It's good that you're getting used to that shin grip as a beginner. You'll eventually be able to work on climbing using just the shin grip with both feet pointed like Jenyne. It's hard to learn if you get really dependent on that flexed foot (like I did when I was learning lol)
jade s · 8/23/2012
The x-ankle climb is my favorite. The funny thing is that i started doing this climb because i felt that i had no upper body strength to do the regular climb, and i ended up looking like a struggling monkey. I usually get into it from a standing fireman spin. Veena has the lessons for the x-ankle climb on here. What's worked for me is to pull with the extended arm and push away with the bottom arm.
LillyBilly · 8/23/2012
My teacher doesn't allow us to flex our feet when we climb :) The other girls already covered climbing with pointed feet, but one thing I wanted to add is how to make your first climb prettier: - Make sure that you have upper body strength, keep your shoulders down and your back straight while you climb. - Point feet (duh!) - Bring your other leg frem the back, completely extended, in a large round motion. This will give your movement a lot of volume. Only when your leg is pointed forward and your knees are together, bend the other leg.
Runemist34 · 8/23/2012
Wow, so many suggestions! Thanks so much! :) Sassyboots- being a beginner just means that you pay more attention to these kinds of moves ;) Your insight is always useful! I've actually never thought to push much with my other leg... and my arms do SOME work, but not much compared to the one leg I'm stepping up onto! I'll see if I can reformat where the power is going. Suigintou- YAY! Hello, fellow BCer! Wonderful to meet someone nearby, as always ;) And as I said to Sassyboots- you are a beginner, so you pay more attention, and your insight is always useful! I'm definitely going to be trying the X-ankle climb today, and the explanation of arms and how they are working in that video is really, really helpful! Thank you :) LillyBilly- I'm going to write these things down for myself... so that I remember. No class for me, so this stuff is really helpful!