Pole (PDS) L5 : 16 november 2011
Hip hop warm up, no conditioning.
Technique:
1) butterfly, plank, inside angel x 4; x 2 with a climb at the start: I didn’t feel super solid with my butterfly, but was better than before. I think I did quite well with the series when starting from the ground. Lower (left) arm was reasonably high (higher than usual), and plank was quite flat / horizontal. When I started from a climb (E was watching all the girls), E asked me to bring my hand lower (I think to get my body more aligned with the pole), and to keep my head back in the plank position ( I was bending my head forward to check my alignment).
2) split heel x 3 : start from a split grip (undegrip), it should be easier if the hands are wider apart. In any case, I failed miserably with this. Need to straighten lower leg, lift upper leg, then look at the upper hand and swing upper leg over and hook upper / right heel in front of the pole.
3) outside angel, star, thigh hold x 4 ; 1 with a climb at the start : very happy with this. Am finally doing the star quite confidently, and managed the transition to thigh hold too. Yippee! I always started with an outside angel, though E taught it starting directly from a star. Transition to thigh hold is to clamp legs into caterpillar on the pole (from star), and to move body around so the pole is in front of the body instead of the side.
4) climb, pole sit, v-sit, extended pose, lean back x 3: was struggling with lean back, particular with confidence / letting go of upper arm to rely on lower (left) arm. Need to bring left hand lower down, and Really push down on the feet and open up the chest and stretch right arm out. Need to work on the lean back in particular.