wingbeats5429 started this discussion ·
Been poling 4 months. Have a very stronf basic butterfly. Have been training extended butterfly for 4 weeks now!!! This is closest i get. Just cant straighten my leg on pole -am stuck on calf no matter what!!! Please help.
Sign in or create a free account to reply.
Ok I'm sure some else can be more helpful than me, but this is a favorite move of mine so I'll tell you what I I'm thinking.... And I hope it helps some!!! :) I'd love to see your basic butterfly. In that picture you seem like maybe you're too horizontal. You'd need to be more vertical. It's possibly you're not stacked enough in you're basic butterfly... It's also possible you're very stacked and you lose it when you try and slide out into extended butterfly. I also think your leg is resting on you're top arm. I'm not sure how to remedy that, but it may be holding you back. Many people do this move differently, some people open up more, as if they were going to iron X, and others stay much more square. Veena has a quick lesson going over various leg and hip positions... It's very helpful! For me personally if I was that sideways I wouldn't be able to hold it. :)
I should add that I also had issues when I first started doing this move and if you go back in my pictures and my videos you'll see I asked for help. There may be some good tips there too.
The middle one to me looks the most stacked... but in that one you might be a bit too close to the pole. I always think that that looks super pretty!!! But you might not be able to shift back to extend from that position. I'd work on bringing the hands closer, but staying very vertical then trying to shift back without loosing the stack. It looks like youre off to a great start though... especially for 4 months in!
Thanks very much for your help. So try starting more in the middle pic position but with arms closer together so i can push further from pole? For some reason when i push further away i go more sideways :s
Yes, exactly. You may just need to build up a bit more strength in the right muscles, or you might just need to get used to that position. You might find it helpful to try and get a feel for it in a split grip caterpillar type position, then maybe a split grip Inverted D.
Veena ·
How strong is your caterpillar, and how are you entering into the butterfly? I teach caterpillar before butterfly because it helps you learn to stack the body and improves strength.
I'm following this thread cause I struggle with extended butterfly too...
Yeah. Exactly what Veena said. Caterpillar is super important. This is a pic of me about to do a butterfly.... Being really stable here before you even go into the basic butterfly helps a ton, especially when you want to extend :)
Omg my leg does the samething lol there is a trick i was taught.just try to straighten your leg up the pole
Casi ·
If you have been working on apprentice, you could try to go straight into extended butterfly from there. Basically, in a split grip, use your knee to lever up the outside leg and get your ankle around the pole. From there, when you are stronger, you can push up and out into extended butterfly. To build up to that, you can get into the position by just sliding your lower hand down the pole after hooking your ankle, so that you are just pushing away from the pole, but not up. Whether this is doable or not would depend on your apprentice, but it might be something to try since you'll be starting with your ankle on the pole rather than having to get your stuck calf to release, Just an idea.
HonieT ·
I like Veena's response in that she teaches Caterpillar first. I think my extended butterfly got a lot stronger when once I achieved a caterpillar climb but never though about it 'til now>
Thank you all i think i am improving it!
