Pole 2.6&7

I missed 2.6 due to some back issues. But was back and ready for (painful) action the next week.

I went to open pole Sunday and Monday to try and make up for my missed class.

Erica supervises on Sunday so she taught me the new moves:

• Spin into Pole Climb - hop on as if you are doing the fireman spin, but start to climb. It looks better than just standing and climbing.
• Inside leg fireman - Throw your outside leg as if you are going to wrap and spin...but keep it straight to the side and grip with your inside leg around the pole.
• Inside leg fireman to spiral - see above to start.Once you are spinning, bring your straight leg around the front to hook in spiral, and release the inside leg and put spiral position. It's almost like a pendulum motion.

Spinning into the climb was harder than I thought it would be. I kept over spinning, so once I slowed down my arms were too tired to climb. And I always ended up starting my climb just a few inches off the floor. Not cool.

The inside leg fireman/spiral combo isn't too bad. I can do it going right, but not left. Ugh. I need to work on my weaker sides!

I ran through spins the rest of the time and worked on simple transitions with Honey.

Before class I made a stop to exchange my latest pair of shoes. Last time they were out of the sizes of the ones that I really wanted so I had to settle for a different pair because I had limited time to break them in. Luckily they had my second choice in my size! And they are probably going to be the death of me.

How awesome is the tip slot? Seriously.

We ran through our pole circuits and I felt rusty. Which means I went to my signature move of the pelvic thrust. Also, whatever is going on with my back makes it very difficult to move my hips.

New Stuff:

• Crab Crawl (Totally made this name up) - Basically it's the sexy bicycle except you are sitting up and you move forward or in circles as you do it. Pretty tricky. If you roll to the sides of your butt more then you can move, but it's hard.
• Chair to back hook - Similar to the mermaid. Instead of hooking both legs around the pole, you only do one a la back hook style. I need a lot of work on this one. My arms were not wanting to hole me to the side so that I could do the turn into the back hook.
• Spiral to one legged fireman - As you spiral you bring your back leg around to the pole, straighten and point. easy peasy.

Level 2 and I had a rough start, but I have really come to enjoy it. Probably because I can now do the roley poly and side winder (although not to perfection). I love learning new spins and working on them. It's def upped my strength because I can tell when my arms and back are contributing to the lifting which will def come in handy as we move onto inverts in the next level (seriously, can't wait!).

I really need improvement on my floor work and improvising. I try to study Erica every week (she does set the bar pretty high), but I don't think it's working. Luckily she'll be teaching some floor dance classes this summer that I can't wait to sign up for! This girl is seriously the bomb.com.

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Sunday I met up with Cierra and Liz at open pole. I made a lot of good strides this week! Finally!!!!

I had spent some time watching pole videos on YouTube, and I think that really helped. I figured out how to successfully spin into the climb! When you swing into the spin it's very important that you use your arms to lift you as high as possible while crunching your body so your legs start higher on the pole. (I know you were dying to know.)

We have graduation on Tuesday, and I'm not looking forward to it. I have to switch a few parts of the dance to accommodate my handicapped back, and if all else fails? I'll just do spins for 3 min. Haha.