Pole was very slippery today 🙁
Conditioning:
1) swan hold x 2 (20 seconds x2)
2) side pull-up, tuck, pike, v-legs, pike
Technique:
1) pencil mount technique (verbal walk through. i didn’t do it): bring head quite close to the ground, as much of the back onto the pole as possible, bring legs wide apart, stand on tip toe, and bring feet closer to pole if possible, roll hips up towards pole, pull down on the pole with arms
2) superman (from eagle, hook, starfish) x 5 : was really struggling with it at first, but almost managed it a couple of times. Key is to: i) slide lower (left) hand really low, ii) keep lower (left) leg low / in line with pole, iii) bring pole close to the hips (hip bones), iv) shift upper hand slightly lower if needed to *lean away* from the pole, iv) bring upper leg towards the body, then twist and bring feet together quickly, v) let legs drop and release lower hand and extend out / opening the chest.
3) handspring tuck (twisted grip) / jack-knife x 5 : the first couple tries were quite good – nat was helping me position my hips. I tried a couple of times without nat’s help, but failed big time – kept over-shooting. Was better the fifth time when nat helped position my hips again. Was struggling to hold myself up though, due to grip issues with my upper / right hand.
4) half-flag x 4, aerial half-flag x 2 : was okay with half flag from the floor. The upper (left) arm needs to be really high – 90 degrees or higher – and gripping the pole with the armpit / side of arms very tightly. Need to position right / lower arm such that elbow is digging into the side of the waist / rib than in the middle.
5) shoulder mount (on the other side) x 4 : did shoulder mount with pole on my right shoulder (instead of the usual left) with open-close cup grip. Was quite surprised I managed it. Was struggling a bit with getting the legs into caterpillar position though. Key is to: i) keep hands higher (for open-close cup grip), ii) Keep shoulders down, iii) target right area of the shoulder to press against the pole (fleshy, muscular part of shoulder – the pole will sometimes slip to the shoulder bone), iv) lift chest up (imagine a string through the chest pulling it up to the ceiling), v) keep head back and let head tilt back when kicking up (ie. Don’t keep looking up at feet /legs) so that the legs can get onto the pole (ie. Same mistakes and fixes as with the caterpillar), vi) slide heel all the way up to have a high caterpillar).