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Help pole blues
Hey I have been poling now for 5-6 months and have really enjoyed it up untill now. I dont know whats wrong with me. I have always enjoyed learning new moves no matter how long they have taken. But recently I just cant seem to do anything on the pole. I really want to practise but dread it when I do as I have no strength, this then makes it worse as the more I try the worse I'm feeling. I really dont want to quit but cant seem to get out of this rut. HELP https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_sad.gif
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12 Replies
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I've been there before, and I wonder if you're experiencing the same thing I did. I had a look at your profile pics and you have learnt an impressive amount of stuff very quickly and with some nice lines too! That, plus how you mentioned you enjoy learning new tricks makes me wonder if you're very achievement-oriented like me?
What I found was happening was that I started being too hard on myself and getting very focussed on learning new tricks, and progressing. I'm naturally quite self-critical and I started comparing myself to other, better polers and getting frustrated that I wasn't as good as them. I suspect this all had a lot to do with frustrations in my non-pole life as well.
What I did is make a very strict rule for one practice that I was going only do stuff that was fun. No goal setting, no "shoulds", no strength practice, no drilling weaker skills to improve them, no trying stuff that I feel I should be able to do but just can't get (helloooo knee hold). Just doing whatever tricks I felt like doing and doing goofy dancing to the music.
If you do this kind of practice every day you won't improve as quickly as with more disciplined training. But, it will keep you from quitting. You might find you don't care about more disciplined training and just want to have fun every session. Or, it might reconnect you with you love of pole, so that then you can start setting goals and being more disciplined again without being so hard on yourself.
The other thing you can do is just change up the kind of training you're doing. So if you've been learning tricks, switch to learning how to freestyle. If you've been inverting a lot, switch to learning booty-popping or getting flatter splits. Or something like that.
Hope that helps 🙂
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I would stop "training" and just enjoy what you know. Play with new songs. Play with extending your lines on moves you already know and just have fun with it . Too many people get bogged down in I have to know every trick right now. I can tell you from your photo's you have more tricks to do after 5 months then I do after 4 years! Enjoy those moves play with them and you will still be building your strengh to add to your future moves.
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Hi, Thank you so much for all your advice, def need to have fun with the pole and stop stressing over all the stuff I cant do, sure it will all come with time. I am quite determined so when I cant do something it does get me down and I find it hard to put it behind me and focus on something else. And I suppose the constant trying makes me ache all over so I get mentally and physically worn out. I am very self critical and sometimes dont know how to relax with the pole, even if I try freestyling I'm constantly stopping/starting correcting myself. Think I'll try a bit of fun dancing about being silly and not caring what I look like (easier said than done) let the inhabitions go a bit. Thanks again really appreciate your advice xxx
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hi jorgi https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_flower.gif just wanted to write to tell you that you are not alone! i feel like i am going through exactly the same thing you described, and i don't understand it. after taking a week off to go on vacation with my family, i seem to have lost all of my strength and feel too tired and weak to pole. i'm at about 11 months in my poling and thought i was making pretty good progress, until now. thanks nymphdancer and cinara for the helpful advice!! xoxo
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You've hit a plateau. This is totally normal and will go away! Here's a really good article on it (and I'm sure you can google more):
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/conditioning/a/aa020102a.htm
Plus, thinking "must do this now" or "must learn this now" is really easy to fall into with all the different pole moves out there, but in a four minute song, just how many of them will you be able to do anyway? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif Pole should be enjoyable, not stress-inducing! Take Cinara's advice and change it up. Maybe find the silliest song you can think of to dance to and see what happens!
Good Luck!!
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Hi Tarah, scary isnt it you think your proggressing well and enjoying learning then all of a sudden it goes tits up and for no apparent reason. Wanting to get on the pole but cant find the get up and go, and when you do give yourself that much needed kick up the butt you cant do anything. Big downer! I'm not gona try anything new for a while now just gona take the fab advice off Cinara and Nymphdancer (thank you ladies) and have some fun with the stuff I have learnt so far. It can feel like a jungle sometimes so many moves to learn along with fluidity, grace, your own dance style. Funny you should say you've just been on holidays I went away in June and it was 2 weeks after coming home that I started feeling like this!! Perhaps its not pole blues its post holiday blues??? Who knows?? Keep smiling and enjoy your pole, hope you feel better soon xx
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Wow that was all awesome advice! Think I need to take all that on board too! I have got pole blues coz my pole is broken 🙁 I’ve been without it for, um, about 5 hours now and even though I can go for a week or more without using it, now I want it more than ever!
Think I’ll be working on strength and flexibility for awhile :-/
Hope you get out of your blues soon jorgi 🙂 xo -
Yeah, it's scary https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_surprised.gif lol. I think part of the problem was being on holiday – not taking my usual vitamins and green drink, or having the organic fruits and veggies that I buy at home, PLUS having tea and cookies every day, eating out at restaurants, and not working out… it all added up, and as soon as I got home I realized I felt like crap. I didn't think one week would make so much difference, but it did. It made me feel like I don't want to go on holidays any more. hopefully we will get our strength back soon!! 🙂
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Hi 5 butterflies, I posted this before my 1st routine I was so stuck on moves etc so I took the advice and thought I'd work on the dance element of things, thats when Mr Nice (the other half) gave me his pole dancing tutorial haha. Blues much better now had some excellent advice from here, theres so many lovely people on here I really cant fault it. I really do hope x pole sort it out for you. God I know how it feels (without the expense mind). I had a my sexy little pole beginning of the year and booked my first private lesson just before mothers day, the weekend before my lesson I over turned the spring loading system and completly ruined my pole. Massive panic on, I had an instructor coming to the house with no pole!!! Luckly the genorous Mr Nice bought me an Xpole just in time (he's not all bad). But my 1st pole was a cheap spring loaded thing not an expensive x pole. xx
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Hi Tarah, watched your vid WOW xx Do you think the hol had something to do with it?? Mad coincidence.
I had a lush mess about on the pole today, no standards, no inverts just playing about with lots of bum shaking and looking a bit silly, the best bit was my smile and positive energy the whole time I loved it. Did try one strength move and it wasnt happening but just let it go and carried on having fun. xx
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Tarah I will say my god poling is so adictive haha on hols I was eyeing up lamposts, scafolding, pretty much any thing that looked like a pole haha, so I dont know what happened when I got home xx
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hey jorgi, so glad to hear you had a good time on the pole! you will get your strength back soon. to answer your question, yes i think it was the holiday. I know some people can eat whatever they want, but in my case I seem to need good nutrition in order to function well. will be more careful in the future…. 😉
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