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shoulder mount vs dismount
Which is a safer/easier way to learn it? Been working on it like crazy from the floor, and can comfortably do an ariel invert. I know there've been threads on this, and from what I read it's a matter of whether you're comfortable with the hand position for the dismount. Assuming you are, is the dismount safer? Thanks!
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14 Replies
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I'd also like to know about this! If I kick a little bit I can occasionally get a crappy shoulder mount, but I don't know a way to practice it better…I've tried the shoulder dismount, but stopped because no matter how far I try to push myself out, I always roll over my collarbone.
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I heard Veena said once that you should not dismount if you're not already good at dismount. If the pole don't get in the right spot you might hurt yourself and if you're not strong enough you will have hard time going down slowly. As i'm not really good at it i'm not sure what else to tell you. I do kick myself i little since i not strong enough to dead lift. Maybe trying from lower on the pole and work higher when you're good.
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Tiggertail is right: Veena, understandably, doesn't recommend that you learn the dismount first. But the dismount is how some people – myself included – got the shoulder mount. You have to be extremely careful: be close to the floor so you don't fall and hurt yourself as badly, be sure of your shoulder placement, be very familiar with your grip, and go slow (think of it like you're doing a forward roll off the pole). It's easy to become disoriented when hanging upside down like that. If you get up there and are uncomfortable or unsure in any way, don't do it. It's not for everyone – try it Veena's way first because even if you aren't able to actually do the mount, it will still build your strength and help you become familiar with the positioning and grip and such.
I used to try the SM and it was extremely crappy – kicking and flailing and… it just wasn't pretty. Just for the heck of it, I tried the dismount and it just clicked. I could feel ab muscles engaging that I wasn't aware of before. And now that I knew what I was shooting for, I was able to jump right up and do an awesome SM. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif But once again, that was only because I had been working on the mount previously and had the muscle memory and strength to pull it off. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif
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I teach both mount and dismount together. I have to preface this with I haven't been teaching shouldermounts for very long at all.
We do a series of qualifiers/conditioners before anyone even sees a shouldermount/dismount.
If you don't have someone with you I suggest working on sm FIRST because the dismount is a little harder in the sense that you have to keep your shoulder in the same spot on the pole and bring your lower body down to meet it – typically students I have worked with seems to slide their shoulder down as they bring their legs down making the move near impossible.
I think it's always best to know the beginning and ending positions first then work on the technique later. I'd suggest working on this from the floor, I very literally mean the floor and begin getting a working understanding of how your legs need to grab the pole and pull your body up on to it and lock in crucifix position. Once you understand the end goal of the mount I suggest to work from either a sitting or squatting position. Even though you are working this close to the floor I highly suggest the use of the mats on this one – it's easy to tip back or lose grip and you don't want to smack the back of your head.
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I too teach the mount & dismount together. The dismount really helps to build up your strength for this move, & at the same time can be performed really close to the floor, so that you end up sitting on the floor. A really good tip for this move to make sure that you slide your ankles all the way down as close to your hands as possible (so that your butt is sticking way out, & your body is already at a horizontal position) before releasing your legs. This helps to prevent rolling over your collarbone, & is also safer since you'll already be halfway down.
Also make sure to keep your knees tucked into your chest after releasing your legs.. once this becomes easy, you can work on dismounting with one leg straight, and then with both legs straight in a V.
And as others mentioned, make sure to use a mat, & a spotter would be even better!
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I have the lessons right beside each other I don't think there is anything wrong with working on both at the same time. But you do need to at least learn the proper positioning for the SM before jumping right into a dismount. For most people its harder to think upside down so learning the positioning from the ground first is my preference for teaching. The dismount is a great way to work on building up muscle to control your Shoulder Mounts. I'll be talking about this more when the new versions of the lessons go up soon https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_flower.gif
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We teach them concurrently but we build up to them in various ways.
For example, students are working on SM half lifts for a long time before they move into trying to lift higher.
We will usually be TRYING out lifting higher than 90 degrees before they attempt a dismount and then shoulder dismounts may be attempted after they are secure with double leg hang (inverted crucifix) but it depends on the student.
The difficult part is keeping the shoulder from sliding down and simultaneously piking the hips out away from the pole – these two work together where if they take too long to pike, they lose the shoulder grip/pressure and slide down.
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In learning (not teaching) shouldermount and dismount, I found that I will more often tweak my collarbone on dismount than shouldermount. I still have to make sure that I position myself absolutely correctly for dismount, but shouldermount never seems to be the problem.
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I Have this problem also. I can not do the dismount but can shoulder mount very well. It hurts my collar bone so bad and actually broke skin one time. Is there something I am doing wrong in the dismount?
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It's the "pike" position. If you are rolling your collar bone you are not piking your hips away from the pole promptly enough ( I hesitate to use the term "fast enough" as you don't want to rush this) and are therefore spending too much time on the front of your shoulder when you need to get over so that you are resting on the trap.
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You can also have issues/pain with the dismount and mount if your off too far towards the edge of the shoulder and not close enough to the neck. In the dismount you really have to curl up before you release the legs from the pole.
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I just want to add to that, that when learning to shoulder dismount to definitely curl up as opposed to slide down into the SM position. What you want to do is "caterpillar" up so your butt is as far out as possible, and then curl your body up to put your shoulder on the pole. After that you can start lowering your body (shoulder dismount). When you've mastered the shoulder dismount this way you can start to try to get into that same starting position by sliding down with the butt out.
I hope I explained that right…
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Hey, ladies! I'm glad I found this topic, I have a question about it myself. Do you guys use the same shoulder to dismount as you use for the shoulder mount or the opposite? I tried doing the dismount few times and I noticed that I feel more comfortable with the positioning if I use my opposite shoulder but I'm not sure if this would be the correct way to learn it. So does it matter?
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I mostly use the same shoulder for both. The end goal would be to do both comfortably on both shoulders though. It sounds like a good starting point for that. I'm working on desensitizing the other shoulder, and I started doing that by sometimes dismounting on that side. For some reason that's less painful than mounting on my non-dom. shoulder. So basically, as soon as you're comfortable with mounting and dismounting, try to start learning on the other shoulder for each, so you stay balanced and versatile. Good luck!
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