poledanceromance
Forum Replies Created
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Just offering another view on the flip, I hate HATE my flip and can’t wait to get rid of it and get something else. It has a short viewing angle and you cannot flip the camera sideways as the software has no way to rotate the video, so unless I am in a HUGE room I can’t get both the floor and the top of the pole in frame. Windows movie maker would rotate video for me, but it always compressed it to a terrible vid quality when I do that. I also am not a huge fan of the video software that comes with the flip.
I’d be eager to hear from anyone else who has this same issue with the flip and got something they like better.
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Caffeine is a drug and I know of a few pole people who have gotten paid to rep for red bull! Some people definitely use caffeine to a dangerous extent as well. And that 5 hour energy stuff, don’t even get me started. And I think we’ve all seen it repeated that 2 drinks makes you “better” at pole.
My point I guess is that even the legal substances people use in conjunction with workouts are still drugs and do have health drawbacks. And each athlete has to weigh what training means to them and if it’s more important to get certain gains on a time frame or to train with health always the primary concern and sacrifice quick gains, and that decision affects more than just drug use. But look at Lance Armstrong as a good example, because I think it’s impossible to deny that he has the talent, even with steroids he couldn’t have won all those titles without the talent and ability as well. In other words ONLY taking steroids would not make me a world champion cyclist.
That said I totally agree that what steroids generally do to your body would not be very compatible with succeeding competitively at pole. Even the epic strength gain would certainly not be a magic elixer for pole championship wins because the sport has evolved such that people expect more than just brute strength or high endurance.
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I’m totally grossed out by the idea of pageants. Maybe it’s just my opinion but I would rather my kids “meet people and make friends” by doing activities focused on learning a skill or sharing learning like book clubs, theatre groups, non-competitive sports environments like dance etc. I think that’s a lot more useful for a kid’s life skills because that’s how people meet and bond in real life. I believe those social skills are more valuable if they come in the context of learning to DO something.
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For the windup to corkscrew you don’t catch it with your leg though, you have that overhead kind of grip but your legs fly out and you pull around to the body spiral.
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Well I call it a windup, haha. It’s the spin where you have both hands on the pole over your head, lean your body and back leg out and sweep that back leg in catching the pole with your inside leg. It’s that super fast spin Nadia Zarif does all the time.
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My favorite low level spin combo is a step around/half spin to a pirouette, to a fireman, to a back hook in one smooth motion. When you come out of the pirouette from the half spin your hand and legs are right where you need to be to start the fireman so it’s like one long combo visually. Another one like that is a half spin to a chair prance to a windup.
As a beginner thing I also honestl love the visual effect of a really slick double stop to a back bend, where you get multiple rotations on your pirouette so it’s like spinspinDROP into the dip. So cool and classic.
My favorite advanced spin combo LATELY is the extended windup around to a corkscrew/body spiral but all with planked legs as Michelle Mynx teaches it.
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My favorite low level spin combo is a step around/half spin to a pirouette, to a fireman, to a back hook in one smooth motion. When you come out of the pirouette from the half spin your hand and legs are right where you need to be to start the fireman so it’s like one long combo visually. Another one like that is a half spin to a chair prance to a windup.
As a beginner thing I also honestl love the visual effect of a really slick double stop to a back bend, where you get multiple rotations on your pirouette so it’s like spinspinDROP into the dip. So cool and classic.
My favorite advanced spin combo LATELY is the extended windup around to a corkscrew/body spiral but all with planked legs as Michelle Mynx teaches it.
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I am super sweat monster and stainless is honestly the only finish I really stick to like glue. Chrome is the worst of all finishes for me grip wise unless someone else has warmed it up to the point where it’s hot to the touch, but even then once I start sweating it’s game over.
A good, broken in, well used stainless pole is like magic for me. I can do absolutely anything I try on a good stainless pole, even when I start to sweat. It doesn’t become a problem until I’m literally dripping.
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Ladies, keep in mind there are NO MUSCLES whatsoever in your fingers. It’s tendons doing the work in the tips of your fingers, where muscles do the work around the palm of your hand and the base of your fingers. This is part of why we see so many hand and finger injuries with pole. To strengthen your grip you have to strengthen tendon which is a different process from strengthening muscle. It’s very easy to push those tendons too far and wind up with serious hand injuries.
Be patient with training your hands. It’s a lot more slow and difficult of a process than just doing some pushups to get your arms strong.
Grip devices are a good place to start. Look into the squeezers they give to patients recovering from carpal tunnel surgery as those are specifically meant to increase tendon strength (which is weakened by the carpal tunnel from the pressure being exerted on the tendons of your fingers where they meet at your wrist)
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Dude, welding is awesome! That is not easy to do and a good welder is like a metal surgeon. That’s about as skilled a trade as blue collar gets. Way cool!
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Small clarification that Amber does her handsprings and split bracket work in a standard split grip and doesn’t really work with twisted grip due to the stress on her shoulders. If you look in my profile pic it’s Amber and I, you can see we have a very similar frame and body size and I also have experienced nothing but pain and discomfort working with twisted grip. I have good strength and great shoulder flexibility yet even working twisted grip descending from an invert feels extremely uncomfortable for me.
Twisted grip is one of those things that is NOT for all of us and that’s okay. Obviously Amber does just fine without TG dead lifts.
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Ps, omg runey, LOL @ dusty hooker, you just made me almost choke to death on macaroni! Hahaha!
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Taffy is a sweet stage name! I really like that!
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Oh my god, I can’t even get over this thread. EVERYONE IS SO COOL!! Seriously, Tina Fey was right. Bitches get stuff done!
When I started poling I was working on my undergraduate degree in Philosophy. After I graduated, I worked for two years as a pole instructor with some bartending on the side.
On the professional side, I landed a major gig as a free-lance Technical Editor when I was 19 doing an awesome project for the state of NY. I have worked on and off in writing and editing ever since. Most recently, I helped develop a state high school system’s comprehensive test prep programs for AP classes.
And this year I start law school at Northern Illinois which I’m sure will nearly kill me. But hey. 🙂
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Exactly right, if you have to bring the hips open and off square to get it flat that can change how you feel the grip on your torso though it shouldn’t affect the way you pull the front leg forward and over the pole, it will just rest differently on your side. I do the stag and try to practice it with square hips so that I can at least illustrate the difference to a student since I can’t do an full jade squared up.
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I didn’t know that’s what caused that. I have nasty calluses on my feet because I dance on carpet and I’ve been getting these horrifying blisters making huge pieces of skin come off and it’s raw underneath and takes weeks to heal. So. Gross. Not. Fun.
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If alcohol is expensive in your location, I’ve had very similar results with plain white distilled vinegar. It just doesn’t evaporate as quickly so you want to use a very lightly dampened towel and of course it’s a little bit stinky. But it’s super el cheapo, doesn’t irritate my skin like alcohol, and makes my pole feel nice and clean and sticky just like alcohol.
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I should add in full disclosure that I haven’t tried x-pole’s brass. I have used the TG x-pole in 50 and 45 and I have used poledanzer brass permanent poles in 50. I found both to be a little scary under certain sweaty conditions, but I prefer the TG to brass definitely.
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As a person with sweaty hands, I’ll say that I’m not a fan of brass or TG. As soon as I start to sweat they become impossibly slippery in some places and dangerously sticky in others. Don’t believe everything you hear about there being some standard progression of surfaces. Usually you’ll hear basically that stainless is slipperiest, then chrome, then TG/brass and powder coat. But that doesn’t apply to everyone! Stainless is grippiest for me.
I suggest poking around a little and trying out other people’s poles. Just getting your hands on the finish for five minutes will probably tell you more about your own pole preferences than anything you’ll figure out from us saying what we prefer.
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This usually means that the pole is over-tightened. Typically if the pole is over-tightened, the easiest way to tell is that you’ll feel it spin “unevenly,” like there’s a bump in the middle of the spin or something when you turn it with your hand. I would try loosening the adjustor a bit and see if that helps. It’s very easy to over tighten, I still do it all the time and let’s just say I’ve put up and taken down many a pole in my time. 🙂
If that doesn’t fix it, give x-pole customer service a buzz, you can ask them about possibly directions for greasing the spin mechanism or making sure there’s nothing mechanically wrong.
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And if we say “OMG THIS IS DIRTY AND YOU SHOULDN’T BE DOING IT” that is going to send some very slut shaming messages to an 8 year old who is fast approaching that very confusing time in her life.
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I’m also very sensitive to the sexualization of kids, but keep this in perspective y’all. There are several studios out there that let kids take pole and aerial classes, in fact I can think of five just off the top of my head.
Keep in mind that if a kid wants to grow up to compete at an elite level, that training usually starts younger than 8. I might not push my kid to be an elite athlete because that in and of itself threatens childhood, but that’s reality for people with that goal.
Moreover, I see this as exactly identical to training for cheer leading, ballroom dance, rhythmic gymnastics, or modern/hip hop dance. In ALL of those sports, kids learn some kind of sexy moves, especially with modern dance, because it they want to be competitive, they have to know it. It’s the 18 and 19 year old dancers who get a lot of the work out there, and there’s a certain modern dance style that is marketable and has some of those sexy moves and you can’t expect someone to make a living dancing if you don’t show them any of those moves until they’re 16 out of fear that it will corrupt them. Frankly, this girl’s dance was NOT what I would call “sexy style.” And if I had done that particular dance she did I would NOT have been ashamed to have an 8 year old in the audience. It did have some movements that could BECOME sensual movement when she’s old enough to be aware of that, but this dance was not sexy, it was more demonstrating fundamentals of pole.
As long as the girl isn’t out there dancing in strip clubs, if she’s performing for these supportive “pole people” crowds, I don’t see any harm being done to her.
In these situations, I think we need to remember that we are looking at her performance with an adult understanding that the dancer herself does not have and is not aware of. And I think whenever you have a kid training in a sport that does have some sexual connotations, and all the ones I listed certainly do just as much as pole, what’s important is that a kid has good supportive adults in their life who are willing to help their kid grow in understanding of their sport and prepare for the adult world they are entering.
At the end of the day, I wouldn’t have a problem with my daughter poling from a young age and as she approaches adulthood incorporating that into discussions about adult sexuality and what sex and being sexy means for responsible and empowered adult women. I would feel like it’s my responsibility to show my kid that there is sex and some people with bad attitudes about sex out there. I would rather my kids grow up with sex as a TOTALLY open topic with me rather than trying to shelter them as long as possible.
FWIW, I grew up in a house where I was “protected from sex as long as possible” and it backfired HUGELY into my adult life because no adult ever talked openly with me and I wasn’t prepared. I think if you started a kid poling early and they stuck with it as they grew older it would be an amazing tool for teaching about healthy adult sexuality and keeping that topic open with my kids so they know they can come to me first.
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Glitter and I just hijacked bendy buddies yesterday for a video pole jam 🙂
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I made mine with some spare PVC pipe I had laying around and a $5 firm but squishy floor mat from wal-mart and duct tape. Works great!
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That ring of silicone going round the top dome is just soft enough to contour to your ceiling-that’s what it was designed to do. Same with the floor plate. When you think about it, knowing how many people have textured ceilings or slightly imperfect hardwood floors, it makes sense that they would make the mounting pieces able to work with textures without destroying them.
That said, when I put my xpole up on popcorn I did see a few little pieces flake off when I took it down, but you would have to know where the pole was and go look up close to see that it was there.
