MdawWat
Forum Replies Created
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I drilled and drilled and got there a little faster than some of my friends on handsprings, but I think I probably would have been better served to have worked on a larger variety of skills like they did instead. Learning that one thing did not open as many doors for me skill wise as being a better rounded pole dancer would have. It sounds like you might be interested in learning the move, so maybe you should consider checking back in to see how it feels for you after a nice long break from trying. I remember thinking I would never be able to shoulder mount when one day I was just playing around and my body let me know it was ready.
For what to do in class, I think it depends on how you feel. If an instructor is teaching something that I feel uncomfortable with but offers a progression that I feel okay about I have no problem telling them I am sticking to the early step. If the instructor is teaching something that I am not afraid of but do not think that I will be able to learn I will give it a try just to check in again to make sure that this is still the case before working on other things in the class. If I don’t feel comfortable with either of those options I will sometimes ask for a spot in a totally different move when they come around the class. For handspring classes though I would suggest that a good alternative would be to spend the time working on pole assisted handstand moves.
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Seconding the Mighty Grip ones because I like the fit. I do find that the cushion compacts over time though which is a bummer. I just got a pair of SuperFly Honey knee pads which I am not as sure about the fit on but are gel based so might be better over time.
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Following up on Amelia’s idea- over the knee boots 🙂
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I may have ordered mine too large because when I climb I can feel a small shift of my leg in my pants which is okay I guess but a little unnerving. I also have a pair of the stirrup ones and have the opposite problem of Veena where my legs are too short so I am thinking of having the bottoms altered.I rarely wear mine, but having the option gives me an odd since of comfort so I won’t say I regret the purchases though it has turned out to be an indulgence.
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Not sure about the rest of your questions, but xpole also sales a permanent mount
The X-Pert Permanent Mount for 40/45/50mm X-Pert Poles only with Flat or Vaulted/Slanted Ceilings.
https://xpoleus.com/product/x-pert-block-mount-404550mm-silver/
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Maybe it is the pole community at large, but Veena and StrangeFox you both say things that make me wonder if there is a common denominator subset of the pole community captured here. I love Veena’s emphasis on safety and a number of the things that I can do on pole are only because of having the detailed breakdowns Veena provides.
In the studio environment, they teach a basic move, and often the approach is that if you can do it, then on to the next thing. You keep getting moved up until you are in a group of athletes that is not common despite how you began and how you got there. I sympathize with the pressure to always be teaching something exciting and new.
Lately though I have noticed a trend on this site. We have learned moves but are wondering how to take them to the next level. How do I demonstrate total control of this move, make it look effortless and flawless? In studios you get this a lot as beginners because there is enough people to make it work, but as the crowd dwindles when you stick around in pole if you are not doing the harder version of the trick then you are often just left behind. Instead of the harder version though what about the better version? If we learn that maybe one day we will be ready for harder skills which is why so many of us identify with where StreangeFox began this thread I think.
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I totally relate to this entire thread, and the strength that I see from everyone is why I love this community. Early in my pole journey people would encourage me to do other activities, and I just wasn’t interested. Now I love to get to other types of classes for cross training. It makes me come back to pole loving it more than I did before only with more things in my toolkit. I used to look at it as time I could have been poling, but now when I am in those classes I tend to think of how what I am working on is going to make this or that pole move look so much better.
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The advice that you outlined seemed curious to me too. I am thinking that she has had students that tried to straighten their arms and kind of ‘dropped’ so she is emphasizing that the initial tilt is not a result of straightening arms maybe? Dirdy Birdy says it that when inverting arms straighten as the crotch comes into the pole which matches with what I see mostly.
So this might be more frustrating than helpful, but one way to feel that initial tug down on the pole and crunch that is needed for a completely controlled tilt back is to sit on the floor besides the pole like you are going to invert with your knees tucked and lifted like you have already done the first half of the exercise, and then try to lift your butt off the ground. There are methods of momentum that you can take advantage of while standing that this will not give you access to, but on the other hand trying it might give you a new drill and a way to measure progress short of a full tilt back. Also it might let your brain sort out that pull/crunch without having to focus on holding yourself up at the same time.
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🙂 As for the superman spin, I could have sworn the first time I ever saw it was a Veena tutorial but that is really reaching back. I did find this video to give you a basic idea. I feel like Veena taught it as cup grip. Also I find doing dip/half spins where I get really low helps me get more down to achieve a flatter superman look when I do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVjnA_d_JW4
Searching for the spin, I saw this superman tip video which you might find helpful though.
https://www.studioveena.com/videos/view/51fbb772-81dc-477b-987a-5f910ac37250 -
ciaosara- I just want to send some words of encouragement because I know how frustrating it is to watch people get things immediately that you have been working at for a long time. One thing I remind myself of when I see that though is that we don’t all start at the same place. The person who walks in and is immediately doing harder skills probably has a lot of other physical conditioning under their belt so if you really think about it they have been training for a long time to get to that spot.
For me personally, I didn’t come to pole even knowing about inverts and when I learned about them I had zero interest. I was lucky enough to be in classes though where we took it really slow. I didn’t want to invert, but my teachers would have me go into the hold and pull my knees to my chest repeatedly as a conditioning exercise. We would lay on our backs and bring our legs up to the pole like you see DirdyBirdy do in her invert prep video. I worked on that stuff and other skills like you will find in Veena’s program until one day the notion of going upside down was not scary to me because I had spent so much time conditioning for it that my body said it was ready.
The “basic” invert can still be a real struggle when I ease up on my conditioning. It might help for you to work on other ways of getting upside down like descending into it or walking up into a handstand with belly to pole to feel less stuck if you haven’t done that already.
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Seconding Veena’s suggestion. The kind with laces so that you can make them wider are the most forgiving.
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From hip hold, I assume you mean where you are already in a pike, and you reach up above you to pull your body up I assume? That one was the first I got because I feel like it requires a little bit less release/flip to get into which is the part of superman that scares me the most. Have you tried from flat line? I think one of the reasons the butterfly flat line superman combo is so popular is that it has a good flow to each of the entries. I know it is not quite what you are aiming for, but Veena’s lesson on superman spin might be a fun thing to do in the meantime as well.
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Dragonfly Brand has nude in the Xenia top that I consoled myself with when I was unable to get the Bad Kitty nudes either. I don’t have the Bad Kitty to compare it too so I don’t know how well it would match.
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In my opinion this brand runs a little on the small side, but it does have a lot of stretch which makes it fairly forgiving when it comes to band sizing. My band size is around 32, and there is enough stretch that I can wear from small to large in this brand without it being too loose like a lot of companies will be when I try to go up in size to achieve my desired level of coverage. I choose my sizing more based on cup size like they list on their webpage. I wish more brands would stretch around the band size to accommodate different sizes like this one does. I find this pic helpful in depicting that https://www.instagram.com/p/BSY4SKjDtsN/?taken-by=jessalynnmedairy
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Full disclosure I might be a little biased since what you are describing is my current setup, but I think the second pole might be a good investment for you. There might be times that you want to turn up the music and dance without bothering him, and he wouldn’t need to feel guilty about watching you haul the pole down to the basement to do that. I helped assuage some of my guilt about getting another pole by buying a different type than the one I already had as well.