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Surprising Body Issues on Pole
Had a discussion w/ a pole buddy of mine kinda recently. She is one of those super-slender, weightless, leggy, awesome at everything she tries the very first time…you get the idea. Well, being that I am so different from her body-type, I was very surprised to find out what her body issues on the pole were.
#1. She struggles w/ flexibility.
Although I believe it’s extremely negligible due to her natural grace and amazing abilities, yes, flexibility is an on-going battle for her. It’s astonishing to me how someone w/ such a toned body and long, spindle-y legs could tell me that “I can’t do the splits yet, I’ve never been able to. The pain is excruciating.” Btw, this girl’s flexibility training routine is at least 3x more intense than mine and she absolutely “hates” me for being able to do that over-the-shoulder leg split Alethea does.
#2. Spin-mode is a nightmare to her.
While I cannot fully comprehend wth she is talking about on this one, I guess, she just doesn’t feel comfortable on spin-mode. I’ve watched her; she’s strong enough, she looks in total control the entire time, there is no indication except in her face that she is experiencing any distress or discomfort of any kind. Her claim is that “I have to think ten moves ahead of what I’m doing in case I need to bail. I can’t keep up because it’s like being in a tornado!”, and I’m just like “…whaaaaaaat? You know how to start and and stop, you’re not spinning out of control, what’s the problem?” Her answer every single time she’s tried spin-mode has been “I don’t like how it feels.” It drives me crazy because I think she’s great up there. *shrug*
#3. Her weight (yes, all 115lbs of her).
Now, as one that struggles w/ being at least 150lbs+ on the pole even at my fittest, this initially kinda pissed me off. That is, until she explained it to me by showing videos. One was of Karol Helms, another was of herself, and the last was one of my early practice vids. It is hard to describe in words but, basically, she has trouble “owning” her body when she dances. The reason she showed me the three videos is because Karol Helms is also very tiny, but she “doesn’t move like a leaf blowing in the wind”. She showed me her vid as if to confirm this, and I said “Well, don’t hate your style. You just move differently.” Then, when we got to my early practice vids, I told her I was pretty much just mimicking the moves on Karol’s Pole-a-Pedia vids and that’s probably why it looked that way. My friend shook her head and went back to her own vid. “I was ALSO following Karol’s Pole-a-Pedia, but you can’t even tell because I’m flinging all over the place.” Then it became obvious what she was getting at. While Karol and her are pretty much the same body-type, Karol has a very solid presence. My friend claims her weight makes this a challenge. She says that she often has to remind herself to slow down and not “flit about” to control her moves and make them look purposeful. That she wants to command an audience’s attention and that if she’s not constantly aware her body she gets too “flipsy”. While I love my friend’s videos, style, and abilities I was able to understand how her body-type challenged her control. It was never something I really thought about, but I see it fairly clearly now. Much like how my weight challenges my ability to lift and transition gracefully , her weight challenges her ability to lift and transition powerfully.
I thought it was a very eye-opening discussion that truly disproves the notion of “the grass is greener on the other side” and confirms that anything in pole is possible w/ a lot of hard work. You have to keep trying and use what you have to get where you want to be. 😉
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