[Charley]

I love your post Meaganoff – you make some very good and interesting points on criteria.

I would like to point out the single comp I have done was very good at telling us which moves were compulsory – they even had a video channel for us to watch showing examples. With pole, it’s impossible to show every example of a move or variation so it’s up to the competitor to ask. I actually did have a question about if a specific move would count as a compulsory move and was given the answer. Choreographing a compulsory routine was the hardest part of the whole competition – going up and dancing to a song you love for 4 minutes is easy – hitting your marks and holds within the time alootted and making it look good is super hard.

I’m hoping Keex will join this thread as someone who has done a lot of judging and can give feedback from that side of things.

Roxy makes a great point of even if someone does an amazing routine and it might even appeal to you more than someone else’s – competitors are not judged against each other – that’s why the point system is so great. So, someone might have this great routine but if it doesn’t include all of the qualified compulsories than that person would lose points for that round. So it’s not always who has the best routine but who did everything correctly – that really counts for a lot.

Meaganoff – A lot of what you are saying is basically how comps are done and you’ve added some extra things that I think are important too. I think knowing the type of competition you are in is very important. I think a lot of times we just want to get in and be accepted into a competition without thinking about what criteria we need to fulfill – that is just as much on competitors as it is organizers though. I like the outline you have here, that must have taken forever to do. I think its a good system and outline.

[Charley]

Additionally, I don’t think you can have a competition and have everyone happy with the outcome – we want our favorites to win and that’s great. I think it’s equally important to congratulate everyone who does well and places even if they aren’t your favorite because they worked hard too. Competitors have no control over where they place.

At USPDF I never once felt in competition with anyone but the poles and me. It’s up to ME to do a great job, it’s up to ME to hit my points and holds, it’s up to ME to do all of the things it takes to win or place. If I don’t do those things then that’s on me, I think that’s why we should all be friendly and supportive with the other competitors.

Mini – Winter was really sweet. I was so glad to meet her and get to know her a little better.

Empy – I know you are doing your best to put things in order to provide a very transparent and fair competition and really working hard to make it as diverse as possible. Thank you for doing something so huge and putting the midwest on the map.

Thank you to all of the organizations and organizers for your hard work to provide these competitions…without them we would still be so small, these events bring positive PR to our passion and puts it out there for the world to see.

[Charley]

I am so happy to see how respectfult this thread has been! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_cheers.gif

Veena – you have great questions!!!! I think we should be able to use grips but I do think ones that are difficult to get off the pole shouldn’t be allowed on the pole. Pole sizes? I am not sure why 45’s are popular for comps??? At worlds they had a 38 and a 50 which I know is tough to work between but as Pantera pointed out "you have to be able to work anything." So maybe a good solution is to use both 45’s and 50’s.

As a competitor it was really hard to stay warmed up. A warm up pole or something would have been great, I should have packed heavier track suits and sweaters though because that would have helped a ton, things like legwarmers, heating pads..etc – I never thought of that.

As a competitor I think it’s important to realize that a lot of the responsibility rides on me. I should be asking questions and when I do I should get a prompt response, I should know ALL the rules and if I am not sure I need to ask. We should never be Diva’s about it. I think it’s a fine balance between what the competitor needs to provide and the organization. It’s very easy to look at the organization and complain about what they didn’t provide rather than look at yourself and say wow that’s my fault I didn’t think of that. Look at all the things they do provide.

FEEDBACK – whoa Litlbit pointed out a body builder gets feedback 6 months later?!?!?!?! WOW! How can feedback that old be of much use? At the same time I gues when you are dealing with multitudes of people it’s hard to get them all feedback. I think that because pole comps deal with less competitors that we should get feedback within a few weeks…but then if other sports don’t even provide feedback???

Judes have my utmost respect because I do think its hard to see and enjoy the whol performance when you are trying to write notes and scoring as well asSEE every nuance. I have to agree I think 5 judges is a well rounded panel because I can totally see where a competitor might lose a lot of points with one judge andthat could really hurt them. I don’t think pole judging is done in that way I assume the judges probably score each competitor closely to on another. But it’s a good point.

When I do showcases I cannot tell you guys how much stress that is. I can’t imagine putting on a full competition! You have people changing things last minute, their drama becomes your drama and you have to take a deep breath and say I know this person doesn’t mean to do this, I know this person is dealing with their own things but it’s my job to fix this. Music gets mixed up, you get sent the wrong files, computers fail and die. People want to change the order they are up, there are so many things that change even while the show is going…that you are so worried your friends will end up hating you. You have a lot to answer for because you are in charge even if those things are beyond your control. This is small time compared to the issues with competitions and I feel like the organization and by organizations most of these comps are put on by 1 or 2 people, the organization rarely gets a thank you just a lot of negativity being thrown their way. I would hate to be them, I would hate to see my hard work demeaned by small issues. I can’t imagine comps bring in that much money or these organizers are making a ton of money. It takes hours and days to put together a show…and to end it all with "well that was political" is wrong of us. The term political is an all to easy term for us to use but it demeans the winners and it demeans the people participating. Did I not place well at USPDF because I am unliked? I didn’t do well because I was scared and nervous and my own snafus. I would hate to think that its because of me personally, it makes me feel better to think okay not my best performance…I have the chance to do better next time.

[Charley]

https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif It burns! hahaha I love it!

Madi did so great! Good luck! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_cheers.gif

[Charley]

YAY!!!! I am soo in! Sounds fun!

[Charley]

I don’t really like gloves as much as I thought I would but they are great for sweaty hands or performances that make you nervous. I think I see the biggest danger in that you have to adjust your grip because they are super sticky then when you don’t have them you have readjust your grip again. That can be confusing to newer pole dancers.

I would only recommend them for advanced moves, not spins or anything because you need to get used to spinning and feeling the pole and learning how to grip it properly and I think gloves would hinder that.

[Charley]

Hey Ember,

I can make a video later today of some very conservative, more modern dance based stuff we do. I am so not flexible so don’t laugh at me but I think a lot of it would look good on you.

[Charley]

What Amy said https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif

The poles are never really warm at comp and the grip on the pole also helped my hands stay drier. I have very sweaty hands and without grip poling is impossible. I actually took a lot of more advanced work out of my original uspdf routine because I was afraid of the poles and what the grip might be like.

I always pole with atleast antiperspirant on, I sweat that is something I cannot sure so I use tite grip religiously. If for some reason I need more griping power I use some Grrrip lotion. I also look at it this way – gymnasts don’t practice with out chalk so why I should I work without antiperspirant.

I have tried grippier aids like Itac and I so hate saying this but those aids just turn to slipperiness for me. I was scared someone before me would be using Firm Grip or Itac, lol!

I had my pole prepped with Grrrip, covered my body with Grrrip and used tite grip on my hands to avoid weat and my poles were okay. Not the best but I didn’t have any slippy problems. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif

As part of USPDF training I would actually only runthrough my routines cold (i.e having only minimal warm ups and stretching.) So that I could replicate the scenario I would be in. I even poled in a cold house so my pole wouldn’t warm up so I could get a feel for how the grip, the pole and my body would work under those circumstances.

[Charley]

@Anngie We did have time to try the poles before the show and I went through my spin sequence a handfull of times and I just didn’t feel stable or comfortable with the amount of spin so I decided to not use the spin. I changed my poles at the last second and tried to hard to mentally prepare a new routine but I ended up forgetting the last minute changes and freestyled. The stress of all of this caused me not to think about my angles so I think my tricks got really lost because you couldn’t see them. Oh well…live and learn I should work on spin more.

[Charley]

Videos and pics weren’t allowed. I am under the assumption video is strictly prohibited because of music licensing.

I am going to strap on my costume and film what my performance would have been later. I actually had to make some last minute changes (like half the routine) based on the poles – I’m not such a good spinner and those poles had crazy spin https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_compress.gif

I hope everyone else will tape their routines too because I didn’t get to anyone https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_sad.gif I was too scared, lol!

It was a great experience!

CONGRATS to Rebecca, Heidi, Allison, Winter and Roxy for taking top 5!!!!! I am so happy for you guys. It was so good to meet you all and share the stage with your greatness https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_cheers.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_cheers.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_cheers.gif

[Charley]

I am interested in the stability – I have the star pole and it’s okay but has some flaws that I’d like to see done away with. Our studio JUST got the X-stage and I didn’t realize the 45’s were so close to release. I love the X-stage i cannot believe how much punch that thing can take.

I hope you come to east coast – I’m bringing a pole!!!!!

[Charley]

Do you know if you will be able to use the 45mm pole on the current stages? Like swap them out? Just a curiousity – I can always find out too.

I am interested to see the x-pole lite.

[Charley]

I had my belly button peirced for years and I eventually removed it for safety reasons. It will scratch against the pole and it can get caught – plus mine was getting irritated by the grip aids I was using.

I think as a general rule belly button rings should be removed and replaced after pole. I require them to be removed in class for safety sake and for the sake of our poles. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

Please be careful if you are poling with them they can get caught in the old x-poles.

[Charley]

Is there any way you can tell him you are going out to get milk then just come to the comp? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif

[Charley]

Here’s the lunchbox! I adore this move so much!

https://www.studioveena.comhttp&#58://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s125/charleyisagirl/2323232327Ffp53645nu3283495WSNRC-1.jpg