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Routine/freestyle endurance
I often get frustrated that I can’t do tricks (I say I’m freestyling, but it’s probably more a choreo because it’s nearly always the same) on pole for a whole song (4mins) non stop without at least one of the following happening: failing to aerial invert, having to cut corners on a climb (as in, hooking leg on from standing rather than lifting both legs together) or wiping hands on shorts. I can manage a sequence of 1-1min 30.
I was wondering, if I’m being unreasonable to want to manage 4 minutes? Or how long should I be aiming for at an intermediate level (tricks I try to use involve flatline scorpio, allegra, jade, superman, bow and arrow, gemini, pike).
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4 Replies
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4 minute is a long time! Most competition routines are about 2:30 and sometimes less. 1 mins is actually very good and the more often you freestyle the easier it will become.
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I love free styling all the tricks you’ve mentioned – intermediate pole is where all the goodness is in my opinion – and I find 60-160 second spin passes are the gold spot. To make it into a 4 min freestyle without an invert/climb fail/pole shorts bum wipe etc is pretty much impossible. A successful four minute freestyle therefore in my opinion works in recovery/bum wipe hand drying time and isn’t nonstop tricks but involves some rolling on the floor, leg caressing, crafty wiping of sweaty hands on hair, languid armmwafting whilst bending and arching leaning on the pole etc etc. Keep moving and breathing but don’t kill your self tricking! It’s DANCE not gymnastics 🤸ðŸ½â€â™‚ï¸
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You do not and should not do tricks for the length of a song. Give yourself (and your audience) a breather incorporating some floorwork. As others mentioned, competition songs are usually capped at less than 4 minutes (3:30 for level 3 -intermediate- PSO), besides, you’ll need to move from the static pole to the spinning pole and there is where floorwork comes into play, at a minimum.
Besides, in my opinion a balanced pole routine should work all pole levels: floor (most of the body on the floor), grounded (feet on the floor) and aerial. This will keep it interesting.
So do not make yourself your life more difficult 🙂 One minute is more than enough for a pole pass/combo/routine section. Then do some floorwork, have a little rest, and tackle another 1 minute combo!
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Thanks guys…next session will have to have a floorwork focus then!
I get lazy practising floorwork partly because my ceiling seems instable so I train on an Xstage, so I only have a metre around the pole, and it’s cold metal. Probably will have to find a non slip solution for that, but removable/strong enough to withstand heel use. Also every time I try floorwork it looks anything but graceful/sexy.
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