Today I did a move that I've had trouble with for a long time. For me it was ten times harder than it looked like on videos, I just couldn't seem to figure it out. Since I started working on my leg-hangs I've slowly been working towards this special move. For a lot of polers it's a milestone, and for some even the mark itself between beginner and intermediate. Do you know which move I'm talking about?
Today I finally landed the superman!
Screenshot from vid, you can watch the vid on instagram
My particular struggle with this move at first was getting into it. I just couldn't find a way that was right for me to move into it from. Then I watched Jamilla Deville's Art of Pole dvd's and got my eyes open for the possibilities of the gemini and started practicing. I had never really thought about the outside leg-hang as important, and generally I had been avoiding it because of the pain, but when I watched her dvd's I saw the possibilities, and started to work hard on my leg-hangs.
And when I got comfortable in my leg-hangs, I started to work towards superman. The problem now was the legs. I wasn't able to turn my hips from sideways to the floor without massive pain, so much that everytime I got close I had to break it off. Annoying and frustrating.....
Then I turned to youtube. Started to watch videos, tutorials and so on. Anything with the superman in it. I was busy analyzing everything when I noticed how a girl used her arm to push herself from the pole while in gemini. That was what I was taught too, except she held her hand higher, pushed herself further from the pole and she held her hand in a different way. Could it really be that easy?
My biggest bruise yet, on the inner thigh
Of course it wasn't easy. It hurt like a bitch, I was scared of letting my hips drop, felt like I had no control and so on. Took a couple of tries before I got it. But oh, what a glorious moment it was when I finally did it. I still remember the smile on my face, the tingeling feeling in my stomach of pure joy and victory. And everything I had to do were those things. Holding my hand different, higher, and pushing myself further from the pole.
I feel that I'm in a good pattern now. Every time I get a little better, a little stronger, and I feel like I'm finally able to harvest the fruits of my hard work. I came up with another combo the other day too, that I'm working towards. Looking forward to the day that I finally get it!
Otherwise I'm happy to announce that I've officially signed up for the instructor-program! And I even got an appointment with the bank next week. It's nothing huge, just a kind of counseling meeting about maybe opening my own business in pole, how I'm gonna go about it, where to start, how to get the money and so on. But I'm really excited! Stuff is happening yo!
If there's one thing I think is super important when poledancing, it's keeping track of your progress. I have this blog, I have a pole-diary, I try as hard as I can to take photos and record videos, and the last part has been particularly hard. As I said before, I've lost the screw that connects my SLR-camera to my tripod, and I just can't find a place to buy single screws... Looks like I have to buy a new tripod then.
And I really want to be more active on Instagram. The girl that inspired me to try poledance posts videos of herself regularly on IG, and I really want to do it too. But on the other hand I'm to lazy to bother with getting my phone balanced up on books n' stuff. Sooooo here's my new toy!
It wasn't expensive at all, 300nok (norwegian kroner) or about 50usd. And it's pretty handy, for those of you who aren't familiar with tripods and camera equipment a GorillaPod has bendy "legs", so I can wrap the tripod around lamps, doorknobs, trees, maybe even up on the pole etc. So now I'm hopefully gonna get better on posting videos and pictures, both here and on Instagram. My IG account is @liandcats, and if you want me to check your out you can just leave your account in the comment-section (:
Since I've started teaching the girls, I've gotten better at practicing regularly myself. When the girls come over I want them to have as much fun as possible, so I work out an hour or two before they arrive so the pole is warmed up and ready to go. And today it really paid off! I've been stuck practicing leg-hangs for a couple of weeks now, which is fine cause I need to perfect them. But after a while it get's boring to just do the same thing over and over, so today I wanted to try something new.
I tried brass monkey, which I got at my first attempt! Or kinda, it needs a lot of work before I would call it a good brass monkey. And then.... That effing butterfly. It's been bothering me for a while now, I've just never found the proper way to get into it, and every time I thought I had it I got stunned by fear and couldn't let my leg go. But I watched a video where a girl went from gemini into butterfly, tried it myself and it was just ridiculous how easy it actually was.... Here I've been the whole time, perfecting my leg-hangs and struggeling with my butterfly, and this was the solution the whole time? REALLY?! But of course I'm happy I finally "cracked the code" and got it! The moves needs a lot of work, but at least it's a start.
Then the girls came over and we got a lot done today! They're starting to get really good at sitting and climbing, so I decided to teach them the hangback with bridge and inverting. And they did sooooo good! Very proud of how much we did today, they're really getting somewhere!
June in hangback bridge & inverted
And even more pole-stuff happened today! We have decided that June and Maria are going to practice regularly with me, and tomorrow I have another girl coming over for a try. It's almost starting to get a little out of hand, if the new girl want's to continue training and she also needs to come regularly I'm getting a lot of busy evenings. I also see a lot of other people who want's to try pole, but I can't take them all.
Soooooooo I emailed the only woman in Norway who has instructor-lessons. Like, you get a license and everything if you pass the exam at the end of the lessons. I want to start my own studio when I get good enough, and the next instructor-program is in August, so I emailed her some questions about the program and if everything goes as planned I'm signing up!
I had met this girl once before, and started reading her blog, and the other day she published her bucket-list. And one of the things on the list was to learn poledance.
So I thought about it for a while. I really want someone to practice with, to dance with, to learn with, to talk and obsess over pole with. Just someone to share my hobby and passion with. I couldn't really see any problems or downsides to invite her over for a try, so I contacted her on facebook and asked her if she wanted to come over and try. And so she did, and she also brought a friend along.
I was really worried that they wouldn't like it. Maybe the pole would just be super-slippery, and we wouldn't get anything properly done. Or if they had applied body-lotion, or had way to dry skin. Or if they would feel like they didn't do any good and get discouraged. Or if they felt uncomfortable with exposing their skin, or if I turned out to be a bad instructor, and they never understood anything I tried to explain, or something.
Maria in angel-pose
But that didn't happen! They we're surprised over the amount of strength it takes to just do regular spins, but over all they seemed to enjoy it and they said they had a lot of fun, so we agreed that they would come back on tuesday. I'm really excited about this, I finally have someone to share share all this stuff with!
It was also a lot of fun to play instructor for a day, I really like teaching. What's a little challenging about poledance is that everyone have different preconditions, and therefore the workouts needs to be adapted to each individual. The girls didn't have much arm strength, so most of the spins I had planned out teaching them got thrown away. For now at least. I really wanted to make this as fun for them as possible, so instead for making them struggle with spins they don't have the muscles to do, we focused on things that requires engaged legs. Taught them some different variations of fireman, how to climb, how to sit, front-hook spin and angel spin, and one of the girls even inverted into crucifix!
Next time we're mostly just gonna practice the same moves they learned last time. Since the basic moves builds the foundation for the next levels I want them to perfect the moves a little more before we move on. If they do very good I think we might try out hangback and layback from the sitting position, and maybe some more inverting, since it's fun and strengthens the core-muscles.
The huge difference I see between people who attend classes at studios and myself is that.... my progress is oh so slow.
There are a lot of differences between us. They have a instructor. The students have each other. They have spotters. They have professional equipment. They have a community. They have schedules. They push each other to keep on going. They share tips and tricks with one another. They have fun together. They learn to pole properly from the beginning. While people like me. We are mostly on our own.
Picture borrowed from cherryblossomstudio.ca
I take some pride in the fact that I am self taught though, but at times it gets really tough. These are my few tips to make poleing at home easier for you who are doing it, or are considering it.
1. Never EVER give up! I was so close to giving up myself, but it's possible to push past the hard times. If you're feeling down, frustrated and discouraged, take a break and come back stronger.
2. Try your best to schedule your practices, or keep track of how many days it's been since your last swing on the pole. The biggest mistake is to give up to laziness and/or forgetting about it.
3. Always take the right precautions, especially if you're practicing alone. Get a real, safe, good pole for poledancing and polefitness (I recommend X-Pole), and be sure to set them up properly. Buy a safety-mat or use mattresses or lots of pillows when doing new inverted or dangerous moves. Get a friend or family member to spot you. Plan a safety-exit for every new move.
4. Keep your motivation up. Listen to music while picturing yourself poledancing, doing all the tricks and moves you one day will be able to. Watch videos on youtube. Keep up with the community on the internet. Talk pole with your friends, even if they don't pole. Look for nice, sexy polewear to buy online. Follow awesome poledancers on instagram and facebook. Try to always stay inspired and motivated, it keeps you going!
5. Take pride in being self taught. I especially like that I'm probably the only one in my town who's practicing poledance. Maybe I'll start my own studio one day.
6. If you feel lonely and want to share your passion with someone, get a friend to come over for a try. Ask on facebook if someone wants to learn poledancing. Ask on reddit/r/poledancing or another pole-forum if someone wants to be internet-pole-pals.
7. There are lot's of online lessons and dvd's to purchase to help you on your journey, and if you're having trouble with a move, don't forget to google or youtube it. You might be lucky and someone has made a free tutorial on that move.
8. Watch and learn. If you see a choreography or move that you like really well, break it down into parts, analyze it and try to do the same. How is she holding her hands, and which foot did he hook around the pole? Then, you try and do it!
9. Keep track of your progress. Take pictures, record videos, keep a diary or blog where you write about your accomplishments, new combos and moves, a song you're hooked on etc. This one is GOLD!
This is how deep I can get into the splits, will be fun to look at when I get into them
10. Accept the fact that you're by yourself, and therefore your progress might be slower than the ones who are attending lessons at studios. But don't let it bring you down, instead of comparing yourself and your progress to everyone else, compare you with yourself. Think about all the things you have accomplished, the progress you've made, and remember - you did it on your own!
For the pole-practice today I decided to set up my camera and get some action-shots of my leg-hangs. First problem - I've lost the screw that connects the camera to the tripod. So I had to improvise with a ordinary screw that was way too long and didn't fit properly. But it just about worked. Then the battery was out of juice, so I had to let it charge for 20min, hoping that it would last long enough to get the shot. When the battery was charged I figured it would be best to try out my new remote for the camera. So 5 minutes was spent to learn how that worked.
When I finally got the camera up and running, I had to face a different kind of obstacle - getting a GOOD picture...... well, that never happened. Either I got zombie-arms, forgot to stretch the inside leg out, forgot to point my toes, my tomato-red face came right up in the camera, or it fell out or the frame or something. And when I finally started to get the hang of it the battery went dry. But I'll share anyways.
Well, at least I've nailed the move!
Didn't really learn any new moves or tricks, just practiced the leg-hangs and tried to get my pretzel-spin..... That pretzel-spin though.... Is my back really so stiff that I cant do a proper pretzel-spin, or am I doing something wrong? Other than struggle with mr. Pretzel, I got into cupid from gemini! One step closer to the choreography!
On Thursday I'm having a couple of girls over to try poledancing! I'm very excited and hope they enjoy it. Reeeeeaaaaally want a friend or two to talk pole with, dance and share my passion with, so looking forward to it! And maybe they can take some pictures for me, since these turned out so crappy x)
New outfit - top from Nike, shorts from Lulu Lemon
FINALLY I got the outside leg hang!!!! I'm so happy, maybe I'll soon be able to transition from gemini to superman and cupid! The outside leg hang has really been bothering me, since I've been able to do the inside one for quite a while now, but never the outside... until today!
I have a little choreography in the back of my head that requires gemini to cupid to superman, which I'm practicing for. But first I'll have to get all these moves perfectly, one by one, before starting transitioning into them.
I also managed to do the cupid, I even let go of my hands. I wasn't able to do it from the gemini, so I just jumped on the pole and hooked the right leg around it. Of course it didn't look particularly graceful or anything, but just a preparation to know what the move feels like when it comes to balance, skin contact, etc.
Sadly I didn't take any photos.... Really need a training-bud or a audience to take photos for me. Wanted to ask my mom to help me out, but at the end of the practice I swear I had almost no skin left on my left thigh, or at least it felt like so. Lot's of burns today, but the progress and pride makes up for it. I'll try to set up a camera next time so you can get more of an action shot instead of a half-assed tired, after-workout mirror-selfie x)
I've dreaded this over and over in my head. To start a poleblog or not. I think a blog would be a wonderful way to share my pole-adventures, my experiences, keeping track of my progress, connecting with the community and just talk pole. The only reason I find not to start a blog would be if I forget about it after a couple of posts, and let it wither and die. But as my new years resolution was to not let negative thoughts get me down, I've decided to try this. So here we go (:
First, a little about myself and how I slowly, but steadily fell in love with poledance.
My name is Lisabeth Marie, but I usually just go by the nickname Li. I'm 20 years old and live with my mom in a small town in Norway. For a couple of years I had to move to my dad, who lives in a slightly larger city. Large enough to have a poledancing studio.
I had heard the terms poledancing and polefitness before, but never really thought about it. In my mind it was just like any another activity people fill in their sparetime with. But at my second year at highschool, there were some flyers about a poledance-studio lying around in the hallways. I picked one up, read it and thought "this sounds interesting, wouldn't mind trying out a class or two". And that was the first time I thought about getting into the art of poledance.
Due to circumstances I never got around to the classes, and soon after I moved home to my mom.
A year after I moved home, a girl I knew from the time at my dads started posting pictures and videos of herself poledancing. I was in awe. Mesmerized. She had started taking lessons at the studio a couple of months ago and was already THAT GOOD! Unfortunately, I just got hit by the negative thoughts. I will never get good at poledance. I will never be able to do those things. There's not even a point in trying. There isn't even a studio in my town anyways, so its better to just forget about it.
But I kept following her progress in social media. Still in awe. Still hypnotized. Wishing that I could have a talent like that. Slowly I started obsessing over pole, watching videos on youtube and reading up on it on the internet, while cursing myself for not giving it a try while I had a chance.
And then, another girl I knew from the years at my dads, posted a picture of herself in a gemini-pose. She had also started at the studio. And that was the last little push I needed. If all these ordinary, no-superpower girls, whom I personally know, can do it, then so can I! The only reason I can't poledance is beacause I haven't had a chance to learn it yet.
So I took my laptop, read as much info as I could find about poles, grabbed my mastercard and ordered an X-pole 45mm Chrome. I know myself very well: if I didn't order it there and then, I might never have done it - EVER. And to this day I have never regretted the impulsive order that ensured me to get to know poledancing. And I am deeply thankfull to the girls who pushed me to take the chance. They don't know it, but I would never get my ass around to do this if it weren't for their love for pole, and sharing their progress with me on facebook.
Since there is still no studio in my hometown, I'm teaching myself, which is pretty hard, but I think I will save that story for later (:
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
