Tag Archives: pole training

The Spiky (Dragon) Tail Of Social Media

  By bexackland@ntlworld.com • November 20, 2020

I love social media. I like Facebook, mostly because my profile has basically become an online forum for pole dancers who share advice and photos.  I like Instagram, where I share exactly the same photos as I do on Facebook but with arty filters. I like twitter, where I largely retweet stuff by people who are infinitely funnier than me, and where I am guaranteed to be the first to know about dead celebrities. But I also hate social media. Facebook and I have fallen out several times, and once we didn’t even speak for eight months. Now we agree to give each other the space we need and bear in mind that getting too close is not good for either of us. 

Here’s the wonderful thing about social media – it’s an amazing and endless resource for pole dancers. All these people at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse who understand your relationship with the pole. While your friends and family may get it, or try to get it, or tolerate it, or roll their eyes and sigh about it, there are thousands of polers out there who know exactly what you are on about. Can’t nail your Marion Amber? Join the online club. Proud that you finally managed to invert? There’s a whole group of polers waiting to congratulate you. Want tips on moves, products, clothes, or anything pole related? You have an endless bounty of advice right there behind that little f or that teeny blue bird. 

But while social media drops you right into the heart of a community and shores you up with its likemindedness and support, it can also, sometimes, make you feel like the loneliest person in the world. While 90% of the time I am inspired by what I see, and driven to push my own boundaries and edges, sometimes the pressure to keep up can drive you to distraction, in an already competitive industry. For every week when I feel inspired and motivated and amazed by the pole world’s achievements and latest developments, I’ll have the odd day where I can’t help but think: Oh get lost. Go away, and take your quirky inverted anastasia variation thing with you. And don’t come back until I’ve perfected my cup grip straight edge too. And two fingers to your chest stand and bendy back.

I discussed this recently with a friend and fellow instructor.

“Look who’s talking” she said. “You post your fair share of new moves we can’t do either” 

And she’s right. Without realising it I have become a Self Indulgent Over Sharer of Pole Achievements – or SIOSPA as I shall call us, for the sake of my word count.

Thing is, I can honestly say I never, ever post photos with a bad intent – that is, I am not a SIOSPA to show off, or brag, or make anyone feel bad about themselves. I feel happy and excited by new moves, and I want to share them for several reasons. I want my friends and family and non-polers to see that pole dancing is tough and athletic and challenging. I want students to know that there are many places that pole can take them, and to know that I work hard myself and expect great things from myself and not just from them. More importantly I am looking for feedback from the pole world, and a whole collection of people who can do the move way better than I can. The advice and tips from the pole community are invaluable. I remember once posting a photo of what I thought was a jackknife. Wooo hooo jackknife! No it wasn’t a jackknife at all. In fact it took me another two years to manage a jackknife.

So I have to assume that other SIOSPAs are the same – nobody can really be posting pictures to make us feel bad about ourselves? But am I inadvertently making others feel that way? Should I stop sharing, and keep my SIOSPA habit in check?

My dragon tail contribution

This past fortnight on social media has been remarkable for the latest Move Of The Moment – the dragon tail. This was first posted by Charlee Shae Wagner, and within hours it was being replicated globally. We have seen Moves Of The Moment many times before – the sailboat, Janeiro, Anastasia – but never this fast or this prolifically. This is where social media really comes into its own – I have seen the community take this move and share it out, looking for tips, sharing hints, posting videos, and all the while acknowledging where it came from and how we came to be able to do it. Being able to teach a move that two weeks ago none of us had ever even tried is remarkable. Far from making me occasionally feel bad about myself, SIOSPAs are in fact helping me on every step of my pole journey. Without them, I’d have never been doing the things I am doing now. 

If you don’t want to see someone’s statuses or pictures, hide them from your newsfeed. If you really don’t want them at your social media party, unfriend them. But I’ll be leaving my fellow SIOSPAs right where they are – because it’s not their fault I sometimes get down on my lack of strength or inflexible spine. They are there to show me what I can do, and I am grateful for their amazing talents. I have learned more from my social media friends than I ever thought possible. You have no idea how many photos I have on my phone of you lovely people. So keep sharing Self Indulgent Over Sharers of Pole Achievements. I can only hope to inspire a single poler as much as you have inspired me. And if I’m guilty of over sharing too much – well I’m sorry about that too. But don’t feel you have to look. 

BEXIITA

In Pursuit Of Handsprings, And Other Advanced Moves

  By bexackland@ntlworld.com • November 20, 2020

Every one in the pole world who knows me well knows how much I struggled with handsprings. I just could not do them.

 I believed it was due to a lack of strength (as strength is not my… Err… Strength) and that my upper body just wasn’t cut out for it. But in truth I think it was largely down to fear – that upside down flipping over thing – and of course, lack of technique.

At every masterclass I went to – and I go to a lot – when we got to the handspring bit, half of me was thinking – oh no. Here’s the bit I can’t do. The other half was thinking – maybe today is the day. Maybe this is the time when someone will spot where I’m going wrong and steer me onto the right track and I’ll nail it. And every time, when I asked “can you have a look at my technique and see if I’m doing something wrong?” They’d say “no, you’re absolutely fine. Just keep practicing” Grrrr. How frustrating.

But they were right. It was just practice. I was hoping for some magic wand moment, where they’d say ah! You’re doing it completely wrong! And the problem would be solved. But pole isn’t always like that. I’m not naturally strong. I have to work at it. And sometimes, hard work beats natural talent, when natural talent doesn’t work.

First handspring. Not shown: victory dance afterwards

It took me 17 months to handspring, from the first time I tried it to managing it, just once. Just four weeks short of a year and a half. However, I have spoken to pole icons, world champions, who admitted that despite their amazing strength and talents and all round awesomeness, it also took them a year and a half to handspring too. If it’s good enough for a world champion, then it’s good enough for me.

What seems to have happened in recent years is that advanced moves – like handsprings – have been “demoted” down the difficulty scale. Girls want to handspring in six weeks. Instructors want to jam those girls up in legs-off positions and photograph them to make themselves look good. It seems to have turned into a race for the super advanced moves, rather than building up to them.

If I had one piece of advice for students of pole, it would be this: SLOW DOWN.

Slow down your moves – less kicking and jumping and more lifting. It will make you stronger and fitter, and improve your technique- which means that when you come to attempt the more advanced moves, you will be ready, and prepared, and able.

Slow down your performing – don’t rush, we want to see what you are doing and appreciate it and feel it. Hold your moves, even if you are not on stage. It will look better, more polished, more beautiful. And if you can hold a gemini or a scorpio with no effort or struggle, then moving from there up to the next move will not be such a stretch. It will feel challenging, sure, but it will feel possible, and most importantly, safe. 

Slow down your pole training – spend time nailing each move, perfecting it and holding it, not rushing on to the next one. I know it’s tempting to want to invert on week one and handspring on week two but THERE IS NO RUSH – You are in competition with no one. You have the rest of your life to spend on this journey. Savour it, enjoy it, and you will be a far better poler for it.

The world of pole has come so far. The moves are crazy now, as these athletes take it to the next level, with gravity defying feats, mind blowing strength and flexibility that would put an elastic band to shame. Those moves are amazing and inspiring. But those moves are not the norm – a handspring is still, in fact, an advanced move. Just because more people can do it now who have been training and learning for a long time, it doesn’t make it any less of an achievement.

For me, I realised that being self-taught and trying to handspring without a spotter probably wasn’t the best way to learn, and I invested in some lessons with a fellow instructor I trusted. Boom – I got that handspring in about 15 minutes with her. A combination of technique, support, time, continuous training and getting over the fear. I was so happy, but not as happy as when I taught a student to handspring for the first time myself. It’s a big landmark, as it is nailing any nemesis move, as is inverting for the first time, as is just getting your feet off the ground, as is just walking into class for the first time. 

It’s all a personal journey. It’s about hard work, support and fun, There are no shortcuts. There is no competition

BEXIITA

Are We Not Drawn Onward, We Few, Drawn Onward To New Era?

  By bexackland@ntlworld.com • November 20, 2020

We pole dancers, are we not drawn onward to a new era of pole moves?

OK, don’t panic. This isn’t really a poetic and pretentious blog topic about the dawning of the age of a million new pole moves. As an English scholar, former journalist and word geek, I kinda have a thing for words. This doesn’t mean I am silently judging your grammar. But it does mean I have things like a “favourite palindrome”. In fact, I have a top three. But my favourite is:

A palindrome, for those not as desperately nerdy and tragic as me, is a phrase that reads the same backwards as it does forwards. You’re checking it now aren’t you? Go on, check it. It really does. Unless I have made a typo which occasionally happens, even with grammar nazis.

But what does all this have to do with pole?

Whilst reading lists of palindromes on holiday (yes that happened), it got me thinking, about things that work backwards as well as forwards. And this applies hugely to pole.

I am a strong believer in training down as well as up. There are so many different forces at work during pole training, from strength and lifting to gravity. We all know how to work up to an invert, lifting, pushing the hips up, using the arms and the core, the change in weight distribution. But what happens when we get there? Do we – or our students – slide down the pole (controlled and steady of course), or do we unhook the legs and go back down the way we came?

I think there is great value in the slide-down-the-pole technique – it is a safe way down (tuck chin to chest, thereby arriving at the floor on your shoulders and not your head); it improves and practices grip, and teaches how to release it a little, but not too much; and it is a reassuring way down for the nervous student, easy for an instructor to spot and a good go-to comfort move for students progressing on to more inverted moves.

However, as students get stronger, I like to introduce “training down”. I don’t mean let go with the legs and *splat*. I mean engaging the core and upper body, and trying to reverse the invert, coming down slowly and controlled. Take, for example, the chopper/overhead straddle/flying V/whatever you call it. Anyway this move:

Now, this move looks great when a poler lifts into it, with straight legs from ground to air. But we also know that’s hard, and it’s much more likely that – certainly whilst learning this move – there will be an element of kicking and/or bent legs going on (I’m not going to get into whether we should or shouldn’t kick into inverts – maybe another day. But suffice to say whether we should or shouldn’t, people WILL kick into this move).

My favourite way to train for the straight leg deadlift into this move is to train DOWN. Take this position as the start, and slowly, slowly, lower down, using the abs, the arms, the shoulders, the back, hell using ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to lower, lower, lower. You may only lower a few inches before *splat*, because gravity will be pushing you down. (Don’t be hard on gravity – that’s gravity’s job. We just have to fight gravity. In a nice, pacifist way of course. Let’s not forget we need gravity for many pole moves) But the more you train this move down, the further you will get.

Now let’s apply the same principle to other moves. Before learning to handspring or ayesha, lower into those moves from an invert. That way you practice the move without relying on momentum. When you are familiar with those positions, then work on training up into them – and don’t just work on lifting up into headstands or handstands – bring them down slowly.  Don’t just kick up into handsprings, come back down in a controlled manner too. LOWER you shoulder mount until eventually you can lift it. Lower your ayesha to the ground until your can deadlift it. If you want to take it further, lower it and HOLD it there, in a shoulder mount planche, or an iron x. Go back up if you like, and lower all over again , you badass b*tch. Get into the habit of lowering EVERYTHING, every invert, every move, instead of taking the *splat* onto the crash mat option.

Remember pole is 90% training and 10% show. The final move will be a great achievement, but that isn’t what’s making you fit. The training towards it is what’s building your strength, your ability and your fitness level. Build training down into your 90% and your 10% will be easier, faster and more awesome. Make gravity your friend, make her your b*tch if you like, but make her work for you. Gravity is a law, and like all laws it can be broken. Some things work just as well backwards as they do forwards. Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era? Yes, of course we are.

BEXIITA

Ten things to do from the very beginning of your pole journey

  By bexackland@ntlworld.com • November 20, 2020

Ah, your first time on a pole. Can you remember yours? Chances are, you were smitten from the very start. And whether you are still an absolute beginner, or you are now years down the line, you will have invariably learned a great deal, not only on the pole, but about the process of learning itself, and how to be a better poler. Here are ten things I wish I’d known from the very start of my pole journey. 1. Train both sides Without doubt, this is the single biggest thing every poler wishes they had done from the start, so let’s start with this one. Train. Both. Sides. Even if you don’t read the rest of this piece, take this piece of advice with you, tuck it in your hotpants and keep it there. Take it to every lesson, as reliably as you take your grip aids and water. Think about it. Everything feels weird at first. So it may as well fell weird on both sides. Even left handed people will be stronger on the right If that’s how they learn, and vice versa. It’s not so much to do with your dominant side as it is to do with muscle memory and what you are used to. So you may as well get used to your “bad” side from the start. When you become more advanced and want to start linking moves together, finding that you are ending up on your bad side for a brass monkey or Ayesha or whatever can put an end to the combo of your dreams. If only you could do it both sides! And of course, training both sides means you won’t end up lopsided, with one bicep like Popeye and one like Olive Oyl. But quite apart from that, having even strength will prevent injury and help with balance and even weight distribution.   I do teach everything both sides now. Everyone moans and hates me for it, but in a few years when they want to iron X on the left I can at least say I tried to take them to the dork side. Both sides people! Got it? Good. Let’s move on. 2. Stretch In many ways when you are a beginner you are the perfect candidate for stretching. More often than not, a beginners basic level of flexibility will not be massively high, and increasing flexibility will possibly be one of the things that is attractive about pole. It’s a bit like a yoga class but with more fun stuff and less philosophy, right?? And all the other beginners will have a similar level of flexibility and not be all scarily intimidating. OK, there’s usually some bendy circus type freak – but apart from them, most beginners are not doing the splits, bending in half backwards or even able to touch the floor, so making stretches a part of your regular warm up and and cool down is going to make a difference. The problem is when those stretches don’t change and develop as your flexibility increases, taking your flexibility to the next level. When you are super comfortable with your jade, Allegra, cocoon or whatever, you are going to want it to look flatter, more splitty, more bendy. Wouldn’t it be great if you had already been working on that flexibility for months, rather than waiting until you achieved the move? But flexibility isn’t just to make moves look amazing. It helps to make holds strong, and prevent injury. As you build muscle and get stronger, those muscles become bigger and bulkier, and flexibility is often compromised as a result. This can cause issues with range of movement, making certain moves potentially painful or at risk of causing harm. Typically pole dancers build muscle around the shoulders and upper body, which is great and we all love memes of Barbie dolls with massive biceps, but without consistent stretching those muscles will reduce shoulder rotation and flexibility. Congratulations, you are strong and bendy enough in your back to do a seahorse, a dove, an eagle, a Phoenix! Oh though. You need someone to push that shoulder round. Stretch after EVERY pole lesson, especially those shoulders.

3. See pole dancing performed at a show or competition First and foremost, shows and competitions are BRILLIANT. You get to hang out with cool people who don’t mind that you bang on about pole endlessly, and there’s always loads of good stuff to buy. But for a bit of inspiration, you cannot beat watching others perform for a crowd. It’s totally different from what you see in a pole studio, showing the difference between exercise and fitness, and an actual performance. It doesn’t even have to be a massive national competition. Go to a small local competition, or a showcase, or even a strip club. See how your sport looks when it is polished and practiced and covered in sparkles. You will come away with ideas for things you haven’t tried before. You may even be inspired to give it  go yourself. 4. Spinny pole Spinny pole seems to be something that is considered to be for advanced students only (and Australians). Outside of the occasional lesson or one-off work shop, It’s rare to find beginners regularly practicing the art of the spinning pole. What tends to happen is someone buys their own pole, puts it on spin mode, jumps on and spins at 800 rpm, tries to invert, feels sick, has to go and lie in a darkened room with a cup of tea until the world stops moving, then declares “I hate spinny pole” and never does it again. But what shame! spinny pole is a wondrous thing of joy and beauty! If only polers were introduced to the delights of controlled spinning early on and practiced it regularly. Just look at the Australians. They train on spin from the start and make it look easy and amazing. Who doesn’t want to look like Maddie Sparkle on a pole? Nuff said. Get dizzy bitches.

5. Find your own style When you start pole and eagerly, excitedly, breathlessly check out alll the polers on social media, you’d be forgiven for feeling a bit disheartened at the sight of thousands of girls doing amazing things with the caveat “sorry for my rubbish phoenix/crap splits/poor iron x”, especially when you’ve only just learned your first spin. Being good at pole takes time, patience and perseverance. Some students have a background in dance, gymnastics or even contortion, and they will pick things up fast and make them look awesome, but most are average women or indeed men who are not taking the pole world by storm just yet but they are making amazing progress and getting stronger and fitter week by week. Everyone’s journey is different. Find your own style. Don’t try to be like someone else, not your teacher, not your classmates, not your pole idol. It’s fine to be inspired and influenced but there is only one you. Don’t push yourself too hard. Be kind to yourself. Appreciate different strengths and weaknesses and that you don’t have to excel at everything. Spins, floor work, inverting, climbing, spinny poles, combos, flexibility… there are so many disciplines. Be encouraging and supportive and you will be encouraged and supported. And if not, you are in the wrong training space 6. Find a good teacher Or rather, find the right teacher for you. You don’t have to stay at one studio out of loyalty. Maybe you want to work on slinky floor work but your school is more about conditioning or vice versa. If you feel that you could benefit from another teaching style, it’s OK to train somewhere else. There’s no reason you can’t go to two different schools and get the best of both worlds. Even if you train alone, you can still benefit hugely from masterclasses, workshops, pole jams, private lessons or the odd group class elsewhere. 7. Take photos. Taking photos is a great learning tool. It’s the easiest way to track progress, to see how your gemini now varies from your very first one, how much your flexibility has improved, or how much that old hair colour absolutely did not suit you. Photos are also a great communication tool – when you are upside down clinging on for dear life, your instructor’s cry of “leg down! leg down!” is likely to make less sense than those websites helping you with HTML. But with a photo in front of you, your teacher can point to the leg in question, and explain where she would like to see it instead. Ahhhh it makes sense now! Photos are also great when you want to revisit a move but can’t remember the name. “Can we do that one where you’re upside down and your leg is on the pole and the pole is here… or is it there… and the arm is up here somewhere and oh I can’t even remember it now…” A photo here saves everyone’s time and sanity. Plus, it’s always amusing to look at what people are doing in the background. Just don’t get distracted by text messages, Snapchat and Facebook.

8. Freestyle, and dance it out. There’s more to pole than just tricks and competitions. Freestyling is a thing, but it’s unlikely this will be taught at the average pole school, as it’s such a personal thing, and it feels weird to pay for classes but essentially be told to make it up as you go along. You can dance without learning what to do first , you can just let yourself move and flow and roll on the floor and spin and see what happens. Many, many advanced student never learned the art of freestyle, and can drop a fonji without breaking a sweat but freak out at the thought of a two minute freestyle, Add a movement flow practice at the end of every session and learn how your body moves. Do it in the dark if you feel self conscious, or even blindfolded. It will make a world of difference. 9. Don’t get into bad habits Don’t flex your feet. Don’t run and jump into inverts. If you do get to a level where you want to perform, compete, or even teach, it’s going to be really hard to break those habits. No one is saying you have to be perfect, and every invert must be deadlifted with perfect straight legs from day one (a pretty unreasonable expectation for most), but as soon as you are strong enough, get into the habit of doing moves to the best of your ability. It’s harder to do it that way because you are using more effort and muscle technique. So guess what – doing it that way all the time will give you a killer workout, washboard abs, thighs like Wonder Woman and buttocks you could crack walnuts with. Who doesn’t want that? 10 feel free to ignore all of this completely Let’s face it most people go pole for a fun fitness class. For most, getting to a competition level or even an advanced level of pole is not really a priority. If you just want to turn up once a week and have a great time having fun with a bunch of like minded individuals and at the same time get a bit fitter and stronger, that’s absolutely brilliant. Do not feel you need to embody those bullying “you just have to keep pushing yourself” memes. You only have to push yourself as far as you want and do what you want. So feel free to ignore all of this advice completely, and make pole your own personal Journey. But seriously. Train both sides.   BEXIITA ACKLAND

Break Dance (Or Rather, Bruise Dance)

  By bexackland@ntlworld.com • November 20, 2020

I once broke  my foot whilst teaching a pole dancing class. I did a cartwheel and landed awkwardly, and my 5th metatarsal (made famous by David Beckham in the 2002 World Cup) snapped like a twig. It sounded like a twig snapping anyway, or possibly a lolly stick. I also bruise very very badly, especially when in training. Those of a nervous disposition may want to look away now.

When this photo was published in a blog, it was inundated with comments from readers concerned for my health and personal wellbeing. (I’m OK guys, I just bruise very easily). DO NOT WORRY. You will not end up with legs like this just because you pole dance. Let’s take this picture as testament to my clumsiness, awkwardness, lifelong tendency to bruise badly, and a habit of continuing to train long after I should really go home for a nice cup of fruit tea and a hot bath. But the fact is, while broken bones and serious injuries in pole are thankfully rare, minor injuries – bruises, abasions, body parts that just feel “a bit ruined” – are pretty much part and parcel of what we do.   So, ladies and gentlemen, with this in mind, I present, for your delight and delectation, the roll call of pole dancing injuries. Gaze on in wonder as your image of pole dancing as an easy leisure pursuit or male fantasy vanishes before your eyes! Marvel at complicated ways to injure your body you never thought possible! Admire the women who put themselves through such things, and then photograph it and upload it to Facebook!What’s interesting is how much people love a dramatic injury. Nothing gets people quite so excited as a photo of an injured body part on social media. There could be a number of reasons for this: a genuine interest and concern for your fellow poler’s health from friends and wellwishers (possible) or that people love reading about pain and suffering and misfortune (much more likely). Pole dancing is hardcore. When starting out on the pole odyssey (by which I mean starting lessons but let’s make it sound Herculean) most students are surprised to find pole dancing is difficult, and it hurts. This is one of the reasons polers can be so defensive, and get annoyed when it isn’t taken seriously as a sport The first thing to deal with are the bruises. Pole dancers can spot other pole dancers a mile away. A rash of little bruises sweeping up the inner thigh? Superman. Top of the foot where your flip flop sits? Learning to climb. (There was a girl on The Apprentice in the UK a few years ago who wore a skirt one week and revealed some very suspicious looking bruises to the beady-eyed pole enthusiast)

Did I mention I bruise quite easily?

Pretty soon on your pole adventure you will come across pole burn – friction burns caused by skin-on-pole contact. This little pleasure really comes into its own when learning to pole sit. Oh, to hold your entire body weight clenched between your inner thighs! This is where it’s good to carry a little bit of meat on your thighs – more to grip with. I call this my KFC Pouch. Watch in awe as ladies climb, sit, hold, release and rub their inner thighs in agony whilst taking the Lord’s name in vain and cursing all his cherubim and seraphim to high heaven. You may also come across the joys of floor/carpet burns when landing your spins. And it’s not just knees – when executing a floor move pushing back from a press-up position I have experienced carpet burn on the chin – which is not easy to explain at the school PTA meeting. For those who still maintain pole dancing is about titillating men, ladies and gentlemen I bring you callouses. Spinning around the pole will wear the skin on your hands – and when your spins get fast, you will wear the skin harder, until eventually a little line of callouses will develop. These may extend to the little patch of skin on the inner side of your wrist. These double up as exfoliating pads when treating your significant other to a nice scratchy massage. Callouses are good and are to be encouraged as they will protect your hands, in much the same way a guitarist must develop callouses on their fingers to hold down the strings. If you pole dance a lot, the delicate skin on your inner thighs may start to toughen up too. My inner thigh skin resembles rhino hide, and it no longer tans in the sun, but on the plus side, I can hold both my and my doubles partner’s entire body weight on my thighs without even wincing, so every cloud.

One day, you too can have thighs that are a different colour to your body

If you still think pole dancing is sexy, let’s talk about dry skin – moisturising will cause you to slip off the pole. Oh and some find stubbly legs grip the pole better – like velcro, possibly. On the other hand, all that walking about in shorts means bikini waxes are a regular feature, so there may be a porn-star-Hollywood meets Wild Woman of Borneo dichotomy going on. It can also help to keep your nails short. When changing grips and body position you may find your hand ends up somewhere it doesn’t normally go, and gouging a chunk of flesh out of your thigh (or worse) is not much fun. This goes double if you have – well – a doubles partner, or if you are an instructor. Carving into someone else’s flesh isn’t pleasant for anyone. All this, plus the fact that it’s obviously uncomfortable to wrap your nice soft body around a metal pole and stay there. New students often say “Is that right? It feels weird” and it does – because really, when would you have ever done anything similar before? On the plus side, you see a difference in muscle tone fast, within six weeks or so, and learn something new each week. You see your strength increase much faster than in any other fitness class I’ve been to, and all of the above hazards decrease as you perfect your technique. Or maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m just clumsy. I’m the one with a million bruises after all. BEXIITA