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Spotting Heavier Students on the Pole
Looking for advice on the best way to spot heavier students on the pole… any techniques or helpful hints would be much appreciated. I have a variety of students I teach one-on-one and this area could always be improved.
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2 Replies
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Spotting should never be done in a way that you are fully supporting a student’s weight. You should simply be guiding them, and giving them the support required to make them feel safe.
For example, with myself learning to do an inverted crucifix, I am fairly heavy (200 lbs since I started running 2 years ago) and have quite a lot of fear about being in that position. My instructor had her hands on my hips, but really didn’t add any force or anything else. I feel safe with her being there, but I know I don’t require (or want) her to hold me up. Were she to try to hold me up, though I’m certain she is capable of completely lifting me off the ground, I may not have had an appropriate understanding of how my body hangs on the pole, and the force of my weight falling may have been too much for her, if I were to fall. Lifting me up is a very different thing to catching me when falling.
For any falling situations, you will want to guide them into a position where they will land safely on a crash mat, by pushing their hips or shoulders away from you.
Taking their weight, either when they are lifting or falling, could place you in danger of injury as well. They may become dependent on your support and not be able to execute moves on their own (or learn new moves without you). They may also attempt to compensate for any accidental movements by you, or even be placed in a poor position that you may not notice, resulting in injury for them.Otherwise, I’m not sure what else would be needed. If they are moving too quickly and need to be pushed up and supported, they should not be doing the move. If they cannot support themselves, they aren’t strong enough!
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Trish, upatv.com used to have a video taught by Roz Mays . It had tips for teaching pole dance to plus size dancers. They changed their website and I can’t find it currently. You may try contacting Roz Mays herself through Facebook to see if their is another way to access the lesson. I have found her to be very responsive on Facebook so it’s worth a shot.
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