Learning harder tricks

Recently, I took a level 3/4 class at a pole studio on a visit to Boston. The studio had six poles and it was a full class. The instructor had some challenging tricks planned such as Cheba and Russian splits (on spin)!

I’d say I’m a solid level 3 poler with over five years of experience. Yet, I still get fearful to try certain tricks. In this class, I shared a pole with Melanie who completed each move seemingly effortlessly. I watched in awe.

Now, I say all this because it can be frustrating to be in a situation where it seems that everyone is accomplishing the moves easily. It’s true that I wished some of her flexibility and ease of movement could be sprinkled on my limbs (and some bravery, too!). Yet, I recognize that I’m not there in my pole journey and I’m okay with that.

When I tell new people I meet that I do pole fitness, their responses are typically: “Wow! You must have a strong core!” and/or “I could never do that because I don’t have the upper body strength.” To which I reply, “I didn’t either until I started pole and began to develop it.”

All pole athletes start from a day 1. None of us leaped from zero to 100 in the beginning. As a level 3 poler, I feel proud of the tricks I’m able to do, knowing that there are beginner polers who one day hope to be where I am at too.