[MilienElayne]

Tried a SM to Brass Monkey in class (haven’t been taught it, shouldn’t be showing off) during freestyle and had no grip whatsoever on my legs… forgetting I had put lotion on to shave earlier and that the pole was still a little cold…lost my hand grip trying to catch myself…and plummeted to the floor. Landed on my shoulder, legs over my head, and I was pointing my toes so hard one of my 6" heels half came off, hanging by the strap from my ankle. Spent the rest of freestyle time getting right side up and trying to get my shoe off before throwing a hurried back arch pose like nothing happened and before the song ended. Graceful! My instructor acted as if she didn’t see me fall (maybe she didn’t), and everyone else seemed to be too busy working their own freestyle… Lucky escape!

[MilienElayne]

Ooh, if I had a foam mattress to use, I’d cut it in half and then cut a slit from one side to the centre on each and then just slide the pole into the slit until it sits right then do the same with the other on top… maybe cover it so it doesn’t get sweaty? I’ve thought about buying a crash mat, but my couch cushions are thick and four fit around my pole like a treat. If I want them to stay together, I’d probably sticky tape them for that pole session https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif I spend far too much on lessons and workshops and workout gear as it is.

[MilienElayne]

ok. omg. first move a standing over split into split grip holds. just… I can’t watch this… I can’t NOT watch this. 3.09 she looks like she’s popped her leg out of it’s socket to get that… but looking closer it’s like a split with a backbend. 3.34 no handed split. whhhaaat. ok, sapphirecatzeye said it best: her legs are crazy!

I thought ice-skater when I saw her outfit, but they’re all fully covered in mesh and fabric and have skirts. Then I thought gymnast, but then they’re pretty covered and one-piece too. Balera does some cute and funky seperates including sparkles and metallics…

[MilienElayne]

GLOVES: Firstly, I don’t use gloves or any grip product for spins. Despite sweaty hands, I can barely get enough momentum (overgrip) with bare hands, let alone with grip aids! I heard recently that gloves don’t allow your hands to strengthen as much as using bare hands. Perhaps, your grip can be more relaxed in gloves as they grip for you? I’m weaning off them so I don’t end up at a loss if I for some reason don’t have gloves when I pole and I don’t want to lose any ounce of potential strengthening. I’ll use them as a last resort or a new scary move backup.

PAIN: I make sure I am really motivated and can be distracted by getting into the music, having an audience (in class, or my camera) and focusing on my form…and I somehow vacate the area of my brain that focuses on the skin pain. I feel it, but I just don’t care. ‘Yeah, this hurts a bit, but I rock this!’

The lessening of pain, I think anyway, happens over time as you get used to it and as your muscles and form develop to better execute the move (as others have said). If you do now exactly what your started out doing, I reckon it would still hurt the same.

I’m not a believer in physical desensitisation. Yes, I am slowly building small, thin callouses on my hands (after 1 year of dedicated poling and recently starting assorted aerials apparatus), but I still blister over and under them. Plus, I still bruise a crapload (more than anyone else I know who’s not anemic or has clotting issues), even doing a move very well and having done it several times a week for a year. My diet is good and nothing else bruises me like pole contact. A strong fall on my shoulder, a torn hamstring, a bad sprained ankle, a high speed run in with a table, smashed in the head so hard I see stars with a play tea tray… no bruises.

However, I love every pole bruise and ache because I know where it came from and enjoyed getting it!

[MilienElayne]

Nice!!! Awesome. Wish more general pubs/clubs had poles and that I went out https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif

[MilienElayne]

Sure you can do a Brass Monkey drop… I do it all the time… I end it in a *smack* on the floor. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif (Cold pole or slippy legs.)

But seriously, you could do a Brass Monkey, let your grip go (and you’d plummet) and catch it with Reverse Inverted Thigh Hold into some other move, re-grip the Brass Monkey (though, I’ve never managed that, I’m sure it might be possible?), or swing into a Pencil or straight edge style hand grip (do you have super strong and grippy hands? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif) ? Can handstand down from it from a height? (Ouch.)

I’d love to see a deliberate and well caught Brass Monkey/Funky Monkey/Marley drop!

[MilienElayne]

No minding here https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif Would love to see anyone’s videos of this move! I am SO jealous you got to take classes at Bobbi’s, Caitlin! I am the same, I would take every single class available if I had the time and money. My skin is crawling today because I have to have a pole free day as I have a big beading deadline and I also start aerial preparation at NICA on Monday night and don’t want to be sore or worn out for that. My pole is sitting 3 metres from me in the living room and it calls to me. Oh dear.

[MilienElayne]

I’d say always keep trying/practicing every method of getting into and out of a trick and doing it on both sides if it’s at all possible. Just switching sides…it is sometimes amazingly easier on the other side…or I learn something new about how the trick and my body works doing it on the ‘gumbi side’. I can’t superman properly either, but I can do it from the floor and from a hip hold pike, and I can bend weird ways and do heaps of other things… so I CAN superman! I figure it’s a mixture (for me) of lack of practice, lack of exposure (to more vids…MORE!), lack of seeing it done live (rather than in videos, it’s so different) and all resulting in incorrect positioning or movement on my part. If I can’t do a move, it’s ‘not yet’, not ‘I can’t do it ever because…’. I hope every trick can be modified and worked at until it’s doable to some degree unless prevented by injury or flexibility.

I’m pretty tall, so my superman balance is hard to hold and getting into it means I have a lot more leg to swing around. I need to start way up the pole (rather than from a floor invert) for some moves and definitely for combos, and flipping around is a bit slower and I can sometimes lose height just concentrating on getting all my limbs around https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif

[MilienElayne]

How’s the practice going?

I’ve never gotten into it from a caterpillar… they still scare the crap out of me… Caterpillar and Straight Edge/Aysha are moves I still haven’t gotten yet, but Butterfly and Extended Butterfly, easy. Weird, non?

From the ground I invert and hook my gemini leg and keep the leg I’m going to extend straight and already out, keeping my top hand on from the invert, then put my other hand in split grip below and twist to a Butterfly. If I’m doing it aerial I do a chopper, then hook the gemini leg and do the same thing. I’ve never even thought to go from a caterpillar. Should do that!

[MilienElayne]

Voodoochild, Ooooh. Let us know how it goes!

Sapphirecatzeye, Great vids!

I start my first mixed apparatus aerial classes on Monday!! Eeeek.

verucablue, aerial silks for the house?! Do you have massively high ceilings? How are you anchoring them? I would die to have my own aerials rigs.

[MilienElayne]

Hey girls!

I was a natural Australian 14F (US 36F), before I started pole dancing. I’m going to be blunt. ‘Natural’ for me means saggy… and they’ve been saggy (compared to the media…lol) since I grew them. So agree with the needing help to keep them up point.

Now I’m in a 12E (US 34DDD/E) and that’s starting to feel loose, so I can probably drop down to DD soon. SO FRICKING HAPPY! If I get down to a D, I will be ecstatic.

I don’t fall out of my bras unless they’re not properly fitted. If I can find a nice bra in my size at BNT (Australian chain store, Bras N Things), I always get the professional ladies at the store fit it for me and they’re great helping me find something else if what I first wanted isn’t perfect. They really know what they’re doing.

However, seeing as I am not made of money (proper non-Kmart bras cost $50 and up) and as my weight has ballooned since moving out of my parents’ at 18 to start life as an adult and then dropped when I started poling seriously, I usually only have one properly fitting bra at a time… So, that means I often wear a crop top/sports bra over the top of my non-fitting normal bra to ensure I don’t fall out just from bending over to pick something up. Oh, and if I go to classes, they makes us do a full cardio warm up, and I wear two bras as I prefer not to be hit in the chin…lol. I keep all my bras and jeans now, because who knows what size I’ll be next year…

Yes, bigger often means they’re ugly, and I have a very hard time finding something that fits right and will always wear a singlet/spaghetti string top over bra and sports bra to hide it, and hoick it up if I need tummy/hip exposure.

At the moment I have a gorgeous satin red bra (in a 12E or 34E US) and pants set with black detail on it that I would so wear to pole if I didn’t have bikini line issues, shyness over my not perfectly flat belly and if I wasn’t on the verge of DD right now. There are heaps of bras I can fit now and want from BNT.

I use this site when I travel and bra shop, or talk to people online who aren’t from Australia: http://www.85b.org/bra_conv.php . It’s an international size converter, might be useful https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif

I covet cute tiny bras. Would LOVE to see some bigger sized pole fashions!

As to moves, I haven’t had too much trouble that I’ve actually noticed or had to think about (besides falling out of a too big bra, which has never happened in class, thank god). They just move out of the way. I’m not very conscious of my boobs and their movements (if my bra fits, or I have a crop top over one) unless I am jumping up and down… Childcare has done that to me… I’ve had kids touch my boobs unconsciously every single day. I am just so used to being upside down too, I guess, and am way more worried about getting a wedgie… my tiny butt doesn’t hold my pants at all unless they’re tight and tight makes bulgy and I hate that… uuuuuuuurrrrrgggg!!! *breathe*

Anyone else feel like they’re boobs are disproportionally large?

[MilienElayne]

I’ve taken my X-pole apart once. A and B were stuck and the extension was (and still is) stuck to the base.

For A and B I tried with the x-pole manual floor method: with books for leverage and making very sure I was turning the right way and had all the right angles etc. by obsessively matching the book diagram every time I readjusted stuff, and when that didn’t work I went to the x-pole website and saw what they suggested… I lined everything up and made sure everything was flat and tight using my legs and books and the diagram (it’s pretty easy to get it wrong, I found)…then I went absolutely NUTS with a hammer to smash at the chopsticky release tools until something gave and I could easily turn them by hand. Very soothing that…smashing pole tools with a hammer after wrestling on the floor unsuccessfully for two days being gentle. Not sure my neighbours appreciated the twang twang *cuss* TWANG TWANG *cheer* at 10pm, but I was quiet afterwards for two weeks not being there. Banged up my release rod something wonderful, but the pole is still perfect. Well made!

For the extension and the base, I have no hope because there are no good points for leverage except the hex screw bits, and I don’t want to break those. But I don’t care because I only had to get it apart enough to fit in the car, which it now does.

Do you need it to come apart?

Anyone seen one of the new ones with the x-joint?

[MilienElayne]

I drop into an inverted thigh hold, it’s like my safety catch for everything…lol

[MilienElayne]

Ok, this is probably extreme TMI… WOMEN ONLY ZONE…

… let’s talk lady business!

I’ve done some thinking and experimenting after the last positioning comment (thanks bebeducky! you nailed it!) and it seems that I unconsciously do laybacks further out (towards the knee) so NO part of my lady business can show out the front of my hotpants/undies. I have been wearing bike shorts to class for this reason, which can only be hoicked up so far, which limits the extreme inner thigh from contact. I have a really tiny butt (which has gotten smaller along with my thighs) so gripping with the very inner thighs ends up being further forward towards my business than back towards my butt and if my business gets caught in there now, it gets pulled out a bit / shows out with the layback. EEK!

Tilting the pelvis (thanks, Mindy!) helps secure the grip and hide things again, but that can only happen after the layback and after I’ve already flashed people.

A brazilian would probably help. My skin would KILL me though (extremely sensitive…I bruise from any waxing, get rash from any hair removal and bruise from all pole contact, still), and there’d still be business showage, only less obvious.

I am going to keep working on it to see if I can tilt as I layback. Does anyone else freak out about showage? What do the pros do about it? I want to be able to wear tiny little undies too!!!

I make it impossible to help me, don’t I?

[MilienElayne]

Mine has dog hair stuck all in the bottom and I can’t get it out, so it spins slooow compared to the regularly maintained and replaced ones in the studio I take lessons at. I really have to watch my control in class (which is a good thing to learn), when at home I can fling it! It’s still a smooth spin and I like it this speed… so not paying to have it cleaned or replaced https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif

[MilienElayne]

I know! In my head I am always like ‘yeah, I can so do that!’ and watching other people I go ‘I can do that too!’ and then I get on my pole at home without the motivation of a class behind me and an instructor in front and I go three moves in succession of an imagined routine and *flap*, I’m on the ground having slid out of the last move ungracefully and lie there out of mojo. Might not help that I always practice at home AFTER work and classes, and there are great distractions like the internet and dvds and way more excuses too. *sigh*

I just had to try this one to see if it was physically possible. Sometimes I’ve ‘come up’ with something and go to try it and work out half way through that I am an idiot and the human body does NOT bend that way… I hang my head in shame a lot for the benefit of my furry audience…heh heh.

Do you pole daydream ALL the time? I can’t stare into space or close my eyes without seeing me or someone else nailing a move or sequence. My mp3 player is set permanently to play my pole practice music and I’m always scribbling lists of moves I know, need to practice, need to smooth out, want to learn, want to combine…on the bus and train. I YouTube view way too much and have gone a little crazy on here with the posting and reading and watching. I go to two back-to-back classes and have to calm myself down that there’s no third class to jump right into and have to physically restrain myself from going to reception to book in for more. I can barely afford the current extent of my fully blown addiction as it is. So, I feel a little ashamed sometimes that my ability does not as quickly match the level of my enthusiasm and ‘pole exposure’ as my instructor would have it. Aaaand…I’ve done it again and gotten carried away.

[MilienElayne]

Since this has turned into a superman thread… Here’s a link with lots of superman combos. She doesn’t do the apprentice->superman, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltLB7cqTbmE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Julie — Jenyne advised us to work on the turn for apprentice/superman on the floor first to understand the body movement. I still can’t do it that way, but I thought I’d pass on the advice! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

Mindy

That vid is a crazy superman marathon! I’d be red raw 1 minute of the way through that. Damn, I have to go watch that again!

Tell me if I get this right:

Gemini tuck at 0.21
Split Grip Flip at 0.48 .. or is this a starfish slide as it’s not from a cradle and her hand is on the outside?
Apprentice to Hero to Superman at 1.01 (bypassing the threading)
Gemini tuck at 1.25 and 1.45
Handstand entry at 2.07
Gemini tuck 2.24 and 2.42
Up-pole basic invert/inverted crucifix at 2.51
Gemini tuck 3.08
Spinning 3.21, 3.31, 3.41
3.52 flatline scorpio to superman… is that gemini tuck technique too?
Hiphold pike flip 4.10
SM to invert to superman 4.28 – is this what is meant by shouldermounted?

[MilienElayne]

Have you checked Veena’s CKR lesson? She’s got such good pointers, I love them! In some of your photos your bent leg’s thigh doesn’t seem to be in contact along the pole. Both thighs should be grabbing it. Your third CKR photo on your profile looks the most secure where you have the pole right next to your knee and both thighs are touching the pole. I personally don’t think a CKR takes a huge amount of strength…getting back up does though! You’ve got a CAR, so you should have enough strength for a CKR, imo. Love your CAR, looks nice! And the happy face with your pole sit. My face is an ouchy face when I pole sit… https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

[MilienElayne]

Ooh, saw a rubber foot lock move: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG75RdeYEbc&feature=sub at 1.38 … (rubber reverse thigh hold?) which could be great dropped from an anchored diva too, but not as ‘droppy’.

[MilienElayne]

Veena has Spinning Superman up. Didn’t see that. Oops. I’ll try that when I get a smooth and consistent aerial superman and not a figurehead.

[MilienElayne]

Oh yeah! I use a facial cleanser (that really dries my skin out and attacks blemishes) on my hands and legs if I’ve been using lotion or am just really sweaty and that works a treat too! I’ve used toner on my legs too. The thought of one day performing or competing and horrifically having a sweaty hands attack freaks me the hell out.

[MilienElayne]

I go into a foot lock, then a Half Moon, an Archer or Pencil/Iguana Grip Bow and Arrow, or just sit straight up. Can also do the foot lock and release it to do other stuff from a pencil grip. I’ve also just handstanded down using forearm grip (feel like I’m going to land on my head though).

[MilienElayne]

Resin/Rosin (yellow crystal powder stuff) like ballet dancers use, they have it in pole studios
Gymnasts’ chalk
Gloves in matte (so you can spin with them on) or gloss (so you stick tight)
Itac or other wax based product

It depends what type of pole you’re using and how old/scratched up it is. I have to use gloves a lot of the time at home on my relatively new x-pole, but in the studio I can sometimes go a whole class without any product (but then of course, I can also sweat SO bad with anxiety that my gloves get soaked inside out, the tac doesn’t work, dry hands doesn’t work, resin doesn’t work and I just slip slip slip all day long)

[MilienElayne]

Got the combo every time with SHOES on in class today. YAY!!! Shoes help my ankles lock better? Took shoes off and I slipped out of one. Oh well.

I asked my instructor if I could do the cross knee variation and she said NO. There are combos I need to be in CAR for coming up later.

Oh well, I’m happy with wearing shoes, as we’re supposed to anyway for testing.

Thanks everyone!

[MilienElayne]

thats a pretty combo.,.
by the way that "half moon" picture that you have on your page is reaaaaally cool!! I don’t think i’ve ever seen that move before!

Thanks! I put up a vid of the Half Moon too: http://ver3.studioveena.com/lessons/view/2612. I saw a photo of the move here: http://www.triagedesign.co.uk/wikipole/index.php5?title=Pole_Move_Picture_Directory#H and tried it. It’s funny how it feels more secure than a CAR, but it’s further out from the pole and with less contact.