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Hi, i’m so glad I read this. I just got a Lil Mynx pole about a month ago. I have felt so discouraged because I feel like i’m so bad on it… I’m constantly wiping it down. I am rarely able to climb up it, even though in my class I shockingly made it all the way to the top.

I have problems climbing as well when it’s being tempermental even though it’s something I’ve done a million times. My main problem is air inverts, though. I invert from the ground, hook a leg, and then pull myself up to invert again and I slide all over the place, especially as I get closer to the top of the pole, which is actually where I like to dance. Yesterday I was trying to practice going into a star from a scorpio, and I was really struggling to pull myself up once in the scorpio. It was just ridiculous.

Your fingers are probably sore from overgripping; if you’re new to pole that’s pretty typical anyway, but having a slippery pole makes it worse; I’m sure I overgrip a lot because when you start to slip your fingers automatically grab on for dear life, especially if you’re trying to pull yourself up. I don’t really have problems with finger pain, but I have a pretty strong grip, so I’m sure that helps.

Oh, and what amy means by warming up the pole is just warming up the metal. If you grab onto the pole and keep walking around it for a while, you’ll notice the metal should begin to heat up where your hand has been. You can also slide up and down it to try and warm it up with your body.

I’ll let everyone know how sanding it goes. I’m feeling pretty under the weather today, but I will pick up some sandpaper the next time I go out, which should be either tomorrow or Saturday.

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I also felt like I injured myself on it a couple times because of the slip. I would try to do a spin and almost fly off the pole so I’d tweak a shoulder muscle or something. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_mad.gif

I’ve had a couple of near misses because of the slip. I remember I went into a reverse hook once and my hand slipped and I almost fell very awkwardly onto one of my legs, which could have been really bad. Somehow I twisted just right and made it out without injuring myself–probably from years of karate training and practicing falling safely a lot. There have been a couple of incidences like that.

It is grippier when it’s warmer, but there seems to be this perfect sweet spot that you have to hit, and that only happens once in a blue moon.

Billababe, I will definitely let you know how it goes. I completely feel your pain–I barely practice as well because I know every practice is just going to end in extreme frustration.

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Thank you so much for responding! I will definitely try that, because it is seriously to the point that either I do something about this pole, or I give up dancing until I can afford to buy another one, and who knows how long that will be. I really don’t want to give up dancing for that amount of time.

I’ll try what you said and be very, very careful–I’m waaay https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif too cheap to ruin $300 worth of pole.

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I wish you luck. I think you’ve got some good ideas here, and I have full confidence you can pull this off. I think you need to look at it as ‘I’ve still got two months to pull this off; I’ve got this.’ I really think everything will come together. It may take a little time, but I think if you implement some of the suggestions here, you’re going to have one awesome show. I’d come if I could!

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Great performance! I wish I had aerial lessons available somewhere close to me–it looks like a lot of fun.

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Perfect song! I am definitely going to have to dance to this.

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Well I’m looking forward to trying it….hey if its that powerful, maybe I could wear it between my thighs and stick em together before I go to sleep so the mister leaves me alone!!! LOL sorry buddy shops closed. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif "this product may also be use as a form of birth control" https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_safesex.gif

LMAO! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif Well, you do already have four kids…thigh fusing is not entirely out of line. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif

Charley, Dry Hands was sucky for me too. I’ve tried using it a few different times and it’s always lasted through about one spin and that’s it. Grrrip wasn’t much better, although it does last a little longer.

And I have to say, I HATE No Sweat–even after waiting for it to dry, it always seems to leave this greasy film on my hands that just makes everything worse. However, I know it’s a popular one, so it seriously does just come down to body chemistry. What is awful for one person may be the best thing in the world for someone else.

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Woo! Glad to hear you guys are moving up in the world. I have to make up another e-mail account to make a new Facebook account anyway, so I’ll try and remember to vote for you guys from that one too.

And just because I’ve never used this smiley before: https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_safesex.gif Gotta’ love Mr. Condom Head. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif

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wooo hooo my sample of the level 4 came today. Can’t wait to see if I can finally get a grip on my stainless slippery as a greased pig lil minx!!!! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_compress.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_bounce.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_cheers.gif

I feel your pain; I’ve got the stainless steel Lil Mynx too. I actually ordered some level 4 and just got an e-mail today that they shipped it out first thing this morning, so I should be getting it pretty soon. I don’t have dry hands the way you do–I have really, really sweaty hands, so I’m curious to see if it’ll work well for both of us.

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There was a forum post up about a girl getting kicked off FB cuz of her pole pics, that freaked me out!

Yup, that was me. A word of advice for you all: make sure the people viewing your pole pictures are supportive of your poling. What happened with me was that I thought my pole pictures were friends only, because I only had about a dozen friends on there and all of them already knew I poled and were fine with it, but there was a pic of me doing a CKR that was actually viewable to the public, and someone on a friend’s friend list flagged it. It was a big hassle; FB deactivated my account for a week, then just a day and a half after it was reactivated, the photo was flagged again, by the same person, I’m sure. It then took me two weeks of contacting FB to even get a reply from them, only to be informed that I was permanently banned from FB for posting ‘pornographic content.’ I was in just a regular bathing suit, and not doing anything in violation of their policy.

Just keep in mind that if your photo gets flagged, Facebook does NOT review the situation even though it says they do in the form letter they send you. If someone decides they are offended by your pole pictures and reports you, there’s a chance you could get kicked off, even though you’re not in violation of their actual policy. It seems as though FB’s policy is deactivate your account on the first offense, then ban you if someone happens to flag you again.

I’ll be making up a new account whenever I get around to it, but I’m thinking maybe I should have two as well, and strictly just have pole dancers on one page and everybody else on my other. At the very least, I’m going to be very careful to make sure my pole pictures really are all friends only this time.

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I really just can’t do the booy stuff…but I feel a burning need to do this challenge. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif I guess we shall all have to see what horror comes from it. I already found my song. It’s actually a song I really hate, but it helps with the butt wiggling more than anything I normally listen to.

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Love the triple knees pic! Looks like you ladies had a blast.

BTW, loved your performance, Veena, and god damn–those legs!!

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I’m very sorry to hear about your grandma; I’ve lost two grandparents to cancer in the last couple of years, so I know what it’s like to go through that. It’s a horrible disease. At least know that when she passes, she is no longer suffering. It is very hard at first; my paternal grandpa was the first to die of cancer back in ’08, and then my maternal grandma last year just a few weeks before Christmas. My grandpa’s passing was hard for me–because of a lot of family strife that is a very long story and is too much to get into right now, I never got to say good-bye to him, and I carried that guilt with me for a long time. The first several months after his death I spent time swinging between guilt over not seeing him before he died, and utter disbelief that he was actually gone. But eventually, it does get better; it took me a long time, but now I can just think of him in a happy light–I remember just him and the kind of man he was, instead of the fact that he’s gone.

I was never particularly close to my grandma because she and my mom had a lot of issues between them, but when we found out her colon cancer had returned and spread and that she had about six months left to live, my mom, dad, sister and I went down just a little while after she got the diagnosis. We also visited a few more times while she was still living at home, and then when she was put into an assisted living facility when she got really bad. I’m warning you right now–if you haven’t actually seen your grandma while her cancer is in its final stages, prepare yourself; it is a horrible, horrible sight; it was hard for me to see, and I was never as close to my mother’s mom as I wish I had been. I can’t imagine what it would be like for you. Honestly, it was almost a relief when my grandma passed because we knew she wasn’t in pain anymore.

Your grandma has had a long and fulfilling life and passed her knowledge and wisdom along to you; now it’s your turn to use that and eventually pass it along to someone else. Remember that you are doing her proud, that she has left you with an entire lifetime of memories for you to cherish, and that when she goes she will be at peace after fighting for so long.

I’m glad you got everything moved quickly. At least you don’t have that to stress about right now. Now go put on some music and lose yourself in that beautiful pole room.

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Nah, that’s normal. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif I don’t know how I’d survive having my pole down for a whole month–even if I’m not really practicing pole dancing that day, I always do a few slinky walks around it and a few spins throughout the day. In the mornings when I’m getting ready for work, I am constantly playing on it. It’s a compulsion. I just can’t stay away from it for very long.

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I like the way Nymphdancer put it–if you decide you don’t like pole dancing, you can always just sell your pole.

And like many people have already mentioned, if you’re not going to attend classes on a regular basis, subscribe to Veena’s lessons; they’re a great deal, and they are sooo helpful. I signed up for them a few months ago and have never regretted it. Do NOT just learn from Youtube–I’m not saying it can’t be done, because you wouldn’t be the first one to do it, but you’re opening yourself up to so many more potential injuries. I also hear lots of good things about the Art of Pole DVD series. I don’t personally own it, but I’ve never heard one negative thing about them.

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I’ve used up my ‘extra things HC really really wants’ budget for this paycheck so no more grip aids for me at this moment, but in another week and a half when I get my next paycheck I’ll pick up some Tite Grip and see how I get along with it.

Just out of curiosity, why the caution about using very little? Does it leave gunk on your pole if you put on too much?

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They are VERY stuck up, you’re right. That was my first thought reading through all those comments. If they want to be snooty about it and not participate in it themselves, fine, but I don’t know where they get off making comments like the OP might as well suck off the postman and assuming that she’s tacky, whoreish, and a little bit stupid just because she’s got a pole in her living room.

All penis/pole jokes aside, I have never looked at a pole in a sexual manner. Yes, obviously I know strippers dance on/around them in clubs, but never once have I looked at a pole and seen anything sexual in nature about it. It’s just a pole–it’s what I do around or on it that is sexy, not the pole itself.

For instance, my friend brought her 2-year-old boy over a while back; he’s been to my apartment before, but this was the first time he’d been there since the pole went up. He immediately ran to it and tried to climb it, so we picked him up and held him a little ways up the pole until he grabbed on, then let go (keeping our hands right there to catch him if he were to fall, of course,) and let him slide down fireman style. He had a blast! He kept wanting to go higher and higher, until finally we were putting him as high as we could safely get him. It was obviously one big jungle gym to him; is that wrong? I mean, are people honestly going to insist that my friend and I are morally bankrupt for allowing her two-year-old to slide down a pole?

If someone sees sexual connotations in a child playing on a pole, than they are the ones with a few screws loose, not pole dancers. It is they who cannot separate the sexy side of pole from the artistic/athletic side, not us, and that is their problem.

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Yoga babe, I think that’s a great idea! Also, just to clarify, I was just going to show her the specific lesson that I thought she was ready for at the time. As in, load the video of the specific lesson that I wanted to show her, and show her nothing else, otherwise, you’re right, I’m positive she’d want to learn the hardest, coolest-looking moves despite repeated warnings that she wasn’t ready for them. I do feel like I could break down all the moves that I myself know and teach them, however because I haven’t been poling that long, I don’t feel like I have any business teaching anything more than pretty basic stuff. I’d just feel more comfortable making her watch Veena’s lessons when she progresses to a more intermediate level, which she is still a long ways off from.

You’re definitely right in that it’s a tough situation, though. Unfortunately, I think she will still need an ultimatum, because even teaching her a routine, I don’t think it will distract her enough to prevent invert attempts. I think the routine will give her something fun to concentrate on, though, and hopefully take some of the sting out of it. I don’t want to discourage her from poling, but I also don’t want her getting hurt on my watch. I also find it a little disrespectful that she is ignoring the safety guidelines I’m laying down, particularly when it’s my place and my pole that are being used for practice. I wouldn’t go into her house and do something she specifically told me not to just because I really wanted to do it.

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No, because you can’t sign away your right to sue. Basically I think a waiver is used in any activity where there is a potential for injury to show a sense of responsibility. So if someone tries to sue you, you have the waiver and can say something along the lines of ‘Look, they knew they were engaging in a potentially dangerous activity and chose to do so anyway.’ However, if there is neglect involved, that waiver/sense of responsibility doesn’t mean crap. I’m not saying my friend would do this, but it’s just an example: in my situation, if my friend were to hurt herself doing something I explicitly told her not to (like an invert,) and then tried to sue me, I could easily say that I’d warned her several times not to attempt the activity that hurt her, but it’s really just a he said/she said type of thing at that point because she could just as easily claim that I didn’t tell her tell her anything of the sort. I believe all a waiver would do for me is show that she did indeed know pole dancing in general was something that could injure her, but it doesn’t necessarily prove that there was no neglect on my part.

Whether you sign a waiver or not, if someone is injured directly because of your negligence, that waiver is pretty much moot and they can sue to their heart’s content. While we’re not in a classroom setting and I don’t consider it to be negligence when I’ve warned my friend several times not to do what she is doing, I cannot physically stop her when I turn around and find her halfway into an invert, and if she gets hurt, I am potentially liable if she decides to push it. So I really think the best option for me is probably to give her the ultimatum, and if I catch her doing something I told her not to even one more time, she’s out. Permanently. Like I said, I like having someone to pole with and I want her to learn to pole, but not if it’s going to potentially create a lot of problems for both her and me.

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Really, really wanting something can sometimes blind you. I completely understand wanting to teach, but you’re worth a lot more than the crap this guy is dishing out. There will ALWAYS be other opportunites in life and other ways to gain something you want if you’re really determined. It is not worth pandering to some d*ckhead who is beneath you to achieve something you want–go out there and make it happen, without this scum. You’ll feel a lot better about yourself and your decisions if you’re not leaving your pole studio every night with a bad taste in your mouth.

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I actually just bought a pole without ever having been to a class. The nearest classes to me are a three hour drive each way, so that definitely factored in, but I knew it was something I really, really wanted to do and was sure that I would enjoy it. I’d been interested in poling for a couple of years before I ever made the investment, and I’m really happy I finally took the leap in September of last year.

I don’t know if you’re the same way, but generally if I’m really, really interested in something, I usually really like it when I finally get to try it out. I bought my first motorcycle without ever having been even a passenger on a bike before–actually, I don’t think I’d ever even touched a motorcycle before, but I’d been dying for years to own and ride one. I’ve got two now, so it was definitely a worthwhile investment.

I say either take a deep breath and go to that class, or if you’re just too shy to manage it for now, take the leap and buy a pole. You only live once, right?

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I just want to add to this thread, that for all these…ahem…’people’ keep referring to the pole as some kind of phallic symbol, not once in the almost 10 months that I’ve had my pole have I looked at it and gone ‘Holy shit, there’s a giant penis in my living room!!’

I don’t know about you guys, but I have yet to see a penis that is about 2 inches wide, eight feet tall, and shiny. I think I would run from it if I did. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif

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Voted for you guys. Good luck!

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https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif Veena, I haven’t seen that video yet, and I have to say I was giggling my butt off through the whole thing. Your boys are all really cute, and they’re pretty good on that pole already! (You better be careful though, or they’re going to grow up to be sexually exploited by men. It’s not their fault, it’s that damn evil pole and it’s no good dirty slut vibes.)

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https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif Lulu’s in her CAR, bouncing one foot up and down in the air just waiting–ok, I’m sliding, I’m sliding–wait, what the crap?!

Surprisingly enough, I don’t have an issues with my legs not sticking. The only time I slide a little bit in leg holds is if it’s on purpose, or my head is up my butt and I haven’t squeezed my thigh muscles tightly enough. It’s shocking, really, considering how much my hands and my arm pits sweat. (Again, lovely imagery I know.) The problem is climbing the pole or even just pulling myself up from the ground to get into those positions–it doesn’t matter if my legs grip well when I’m sliding all over the place. I sort of think someone in the universe is mocking me–sure you can grip just fine with your legs, but let’s see you get up there, heh heh heh.