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Feeling frustrated and very uncertain about new pole studio
Although I have a pole at home, I’m lazy about using it. I recently tried some classes at a new pole studio and was very dissatisfied … and today walked out having a hissy fit (ok, not cool). I’ve trained at one other pole studio in my home country was as super-happy there; I’m now in Turkey and there are fewer pole classes. I haven’t been doing much pole for the last 3 years and so lost a lot of condition. At my first class the teacher (after less than 10 mins of warm ups) asked me to do an invert and then was having people (some who’d only done 6 classes) going into cross-knee release, Gemini and Scorpio. Without any assessment of my strength she was expecting these things. I could do some, but was afraid of injury as the pole wasn’t warm and I didn’t feel that there had been enough conditioning training (as per the 30 day pole kick off on SV).
Today, after I complained about using wrist sits as a warm up, she put me onto walking around the pole and doing turns onto the pole. I don’t consider this strength and conditioning training. She had said that she’d do a more comprehensive assessment of strength etc before the next lesson.
I’m also a bit concerned that people are put into inverted poses very quickly without people spotting for them to prevent injury. I had gone to another studio some time ago and found that superman was included in the very beginner’s classes – before people had built up strength and flexibility.
Am I being overly sensitive and whiny (I’m 45 and unlike the other girls in the class, I am carrying some extra weight)? Would love to hear your views! Thanks! 🙂 -
5 Replies
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I think the teacher should have done a comprehensive assessment of your strength BEFORE asking you to invert. To me that is only logical. That should be the first thing. At the end of the day its your body, and you have to live with it if you jack it up. So don’t feel guilty. You can push yourself and look out for yourself at the same time. What made you walk out, if you don’t mind me asking?
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Omg wowhy. Scary. 3 years of pole and I’m just playing with superman
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*wow
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Even before I started classes at the studio that my friend runs, I had an assessment into my skills and strength. For all of her classes, there is a specific move or set of moves that you have to really be comfortable with before moving up. Inverts? They’re taught at level 3, and there are only 5 levels! So, if you can’t nail your invert, you don’t get to move up to level 4, you gotta keep working at it. It’s about safety!
It sounds like these people aren’t taking responsibility with their training programs. Yes, it is up to us to be able to assess our own abilities, but it’s been scientifically proven (for reals) that people are more likely to go way beyond their own boundaries if they think they’re being instructed to do so by “someone in charge.” Knowing how the body works, and the correct ways to instruct people into a very difficult move like an invert without them hurting themselves is absolutely the responsibility of the person teaching. Assessing the student’s abilities is also the responsibility of the instructor.
Besides that, there are like a thousand other moves that you can do from the ground which would promote better warming up of the pole, more conditioning, and building of strength. Pole doesn’t have to be all, or even a little bit, aerial. I know it looks cool, but there’s a reason we have to work up. It’s the same as not teaching someone how to do a flying roundhouse kick in martial arts on their third day- they’ll probably get wrecked.Personally, I know it’s super hard to do pole at home, but it sounds like it would be a better option than an irresponsible studio. Sorry to say, but pole dancing has no regulations yet, and there are no consequences for these studios if they teach people too quickly, and very poorly. There are a few where I live (like, a few within two hours drive lol) that teach like this, too. I wouldn’t go to them, ever. If it meant dancing on my pole the way it is now (about a foot of space all the way around- ugh!) or going to one of those studios, I’d stay home.
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I have tried two pole teachers in my time, one in my home town, where I don’t live so only went twice but loved it, and another, where I found she focussed too much on what I couldn’t do, which was, and still is, static spins. Having moved onto only poling at home, I could focus more on my strengths- which as a beginner were more poses and climbs than static spins. I have small or lazy hands, which mean that for me, I ideally need a 40mm pole.
There are so many beginner moves which don’t involve hand strength, but promote other strength or fitness, which I never learnt in class.
I found one pole studio near where I live now, which when you book a class, in the terms and conditions, they state they are not responsible for anything, even in cases of negligence! Which proves you have to be careful which studios you trust!
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