Lyme Lyte started this discussion ·
When doing an extended butterfly, is your dominant (stronger) arm towards the floor? I can not get this figured out, even after watching all the butterfly lessons. I invert with the pole on my left, my right arm is higher (so my right hand is by my leg) and I lower my left arm. But I just seem twisted around when I start to extend my leg. It seems to go in front of the pole!
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Veena ·
Can you do the Butterfly really well and is your caterpillar climb strong? Don't worry about dominant arms listen for cues like inside arm, over head. Your using the same hand placement for the Extended Butterfly as you are the Butterfly.
Thanks Veena. Yes, I can do the Butterfly and the Caterpilliar and hold them (the Caterpilliar climb is a little iffy). I will continue to try! :)
Just try to straighten your leg and hold with your ankle when you're in butterfly. Instead of going straight into it, get the jist of it first.
Thanks for the pointer....I will give it a try!
tarah ·
hi lyme, i always have my dominant (right) hand on the bottom, which means i invert to the left of the pole. the best advice i can give for not letting that leg drift away, is try to keep your chest square to the pole. i had the same problem.
I tried ex butterfly last night for the first time- been doing butterfly for a while and never tried to extend! I was amazed to find that I could do it! found it easier to invert into gemini, then butterfly, then straighten my leg and as heathalynee said- really pushed my ankle into the pole for stability. I invert on the left of my pole too. My right arm is lower not higher. May be where you are getting twisted. I invert into gemini then bring my right arm down over my head ,push up into top of caterpillar, then right leg comes off for butterfly. I know lots skip the gemini, but for me, I have always found that to be easier to push into from there. Someone showed me that tip when I was first learning butterfly and it worked! I hope you get it and post a video! I'm really gonna work on posting videos. I got a new tablet and haven't figured it out! The gemini to butterfly is one of the only videos I ever posted on here before I got my tablet. lol
azriel ·
She said she inverts with the POLE to her left, which means that she is to the right of her pole (not to the left).. so her hand placement is correct. These terms can get confusing! Seems like everyone has great advice, but i'll give my 2 cents :) 2 other things things that may be the issue: 1) Like tarah said, make sure hips are facing the pole. This means, make sure you have turned your whole body to be facing the pole, so that you are completely straight & vertical. Face should be right in front of the pole! A tip that i have found to work with my students is that sometime you need to lower the upper hand just a bit (slide it down an inch) while you are trying to straighten your body. This helps to get you squared. Then release the leg into butterfly, then extend. 2) Make sure the hooked leg is engaged while extending. It's easy to think that the ankle just rests against the pole in a relaxed way. Really engage through the quads down through the calves, while of course pulling with upper arm and pushing through the lower arm. If everyone's advice doesn't seem to help, maybe you can post a video! Good luck & let us know how you do! xx
Paulette, thanks for posting your video on extended butterfly, gives me another persepctive. And Azriel, thanks for the advice. I am going to work on it a few more days and if I don't get anywhere I will be sure to post a video!
Yes show us a video! Cantw ait to see it!
Don't wanna confuse the issue but when i extend my butterfly i turn my hips away from the pole and open out the chest. I am not facing the pole.
Don't wanna confuse the issue but when i extend my butterfly i turn my hips away from the pole and open out the chest. I am not facing the pole.
Veena ·
Yes, whatup that is the end position.... But when learning you stay squared until you have your balance then you open up turning the hips. If you turn too soon and your not strong enough you'll end up sideways :)
Of course yeh you do end up sideways if you can't hold it.
I was wondering about this myself. I see a lot of pictures of the extended butterfly but mine doesn't quite look the same. I don't think it makes it wrong, per se, but I'd like to hear an opinion or ten. :-) It's my profile pic. Thanks!
Wow Miami, ur ex butterfly looks great to me! Wish i could do that....whether it is right or wrong!
Kind thanks, Lyme. You'll be there before you know it!! :)
