Pole Dancing

Attempt at an Inverted-V.

So I went outside the box on this one: 

My housemate's girlfriend Sinead is an instructor at Pole Sessions in Worsley and had been challenging everyone in the house, or at least one of us, to attend a session for well over a year now. As we all play ice hockey, she felt our strength would give us an advantage making it easier to learn. And she just wanted a laugh, let's be honest.

I stepped up to the plate with an odd enthusiasm as I'm always up for trying new things -- not to mention six lessons for £20 on offer helps. Pole dancing had to be the most interesting experience and it's easy to say I have never done anything like it before. I woke up the following morning with sore forearms and calves. Also, my right hand is currently useless since tearing a bit of the skin on my palm. Hashtag pole dancing wounds. 

My instructor, Claire Henderson, who also owns the studio and is close friends with my housemate's girlfriend, was on strict orders to "put me through my paces". I worked on the side with the other beginner/intermediates who were on week 4-6 moves, but I quickly caught myself up to speed. 

My first task was to simply hang from the pole whilst supporting my weight -- easy. After that, I was taught to climb the pole, which I could do with ease. One of the girls was adamant I help her learn. The next two moves that could be connected were a forward and backward hook spins. These two are also my favourite as it feels I'm working towards a routine of sorts. The most awkward thing that I need to improve on is the leg not hooked onto the pole. At the moment, it just dangles behind me doing whatever it shouldn't be.

I also learnt how to do a handstand against the pole starting from the floor. It required trust that I wouldn't fall past the pole with the use of my core slowly letting my body unfold towards the pole. It was the most satisfying of all the moves from session one because of the trust factor. I'll brag. I did it first try.

The hardest move for me personally that the group was tasked with was to support yourself on the pole without the aid of your hands. I could only briefly do it, but it's something that would be neat to achieve.

Following the hour -- Sinead says the class always goes over -- the other girls in my group pressured Claire into "torturing" me with harder moves to see if I could do them. It was during this time that I began to fight gravity and fatigue more and more. I learnt how to do an inverted-v and the flag (with decent success).

A few things about the session made me chuckle. The first being what I was to wear. I decided on my hockey socks/cup supporter pants and gym shorts over them. Midway through the lesson, I was  struggling to do one of the handless holds. One of the girls chimed in, "You have too many clothes on" so I was made to lose the gym shorts. You don't expect that. The other thing that made me double-take in a way was when my instructor said, "You're really working me tonight" -- in the way that I'm a visual learner, so I was asking her to show me things two or three times.

Overall, a unique experience with five attempts still left to be great.