DIB Profile Straddle

More progress! A tiny breakthrough! I finally got my DIB profile straddle (DIB=doin' it badly). My first attempt was not on video, I scared myself and drew the attention of the whole studio with my audible reaction. My lyra wife was practicing with me, and she thought maybe I'd hurt myself. Nope, I'd just jumped up into profile straddle, and since I'd never been able to do it before, I startled myself right out of it.

Here's one new move I learned recently, scorpion back balance. I can actually hold and let go for a few beats. I'm still on the low hoop, for safety.

Here's the other new move I learned. It needs a bit of polishing, but it's called popsicle, and it's pretty. Then I attempt inverted prow for the first time on the high hoop, yay!

A better view of that gazelle drop to knee cinch. I think I might feel comfortable enough to try this on the high hoop.

And for posterity's sake, a slight bit of improvement in pullover mount. It's the first time I've been able to touch my feet to the bar and almost brace against it.

No Name?

Awesome private lesson today. They're all awesome. My teacher is awesome.

Learned a few new moves that I don't have pictures of yet. One called popsicle. Another is a back balance, called scorpion. Also worked on squaring my hips better in french gazelle. Needs work...

Worked on ball inversion to the top. This is still a fat nope. I can lift myself, so my strength has dramatically improved. But I haven't mentally unlocked the movement of leaning back and inverting. So it's not even close to happening. Oh well.

But here's a new move that doesn't have a name. Wanna help me name it? I'm calling it leg block back bend for now. But it needs something catchier...

High Hoop

I'm baaaaaaack! I shut my blog off for a minute. It's been a rough couple of weeks. If I thought Saturday was bad, Monday was the worst ever. The high hoop was stuck up in its pulley. I had only the low hoop. I stayed for about 20 mins before my brain exploded, and I went home. Nearly quit the whole thing with lyra. I emailed my teacher when I got home.

She talked me off the ledge.

They were able to get it down for Tuesday, so I went and had a great session. But some damage had been done to my brain. I skipped Thursday. Just couldn't face it. But back at it today. Back to the basics up in that high hoop, working through all the moves I know, in order of difficulty, getting comfy up there.

I got some video...

Here's cross leg mermaid. Even man in the moon is a little intimidating that high up, with a bigger hoop.

Gazelle into leg block...and if you notice, there's a girl off to the side taking a private lesson on silks. She's missing a hand. Badass.

and oops, my phone was propped up on the floor by the low hoop, and it slipped. But this is a drop I'm working on. getting there...

Frustrated

Rough lyra practice yesterday. Not sure what was going on emotionally, I almost never know. My period had started, so maybe that. Maybe just general frustrations with my weight, lack of strength, lack of flexibility. Who knows...

And it also could be because when I got there, they had taken down my favorite medium-height hoop, to take to the uptown studio for the performance prep class. Background: the studio puts on 2-3 student showcases per year. A requirement to perform is to take performance prep. And if there are lyra performers, that class needs a spare hoop.

It all came together like a perfect storm of frustration. The two hoops available to me were the low hoop (the baby hoop, as I call it) or the super high hoop. I'm used to a bit lower, so if I get into trouble, I can bail easily. For example, when I drop down to arm hang and need to swing my body back up to seated, if I fail this, I can simply drop to my feet. Not so with this super high hoop. I could potentially hurt my ankle, it's just too far of a drop. Not to mention single knee cinch. I can't touch the floor hanging upside down from my knee, so if my knee cinch is at all shaky, I could fall on my head.

The super high hoop is so high, the bottom of the hoop is above my head. And I'm 5'7. I can get up there, with my DIB straddle. But it's so high....

I let the frustrations get to me during practice. I admit, I succumb easily to frustration. I worked on as much as I could on that baby hoop. Then toward the end of practice, I realized that I'm just going to have to re-learn my catalog of moves on that higher hoop. Starting with the most basic of moves. Performance prep lasts 8 weeks. I can't keep practicing on that baby hoop. It'll be a chore. But I'll be better off, if I can get comfortable with the height.

Homework

An unfortunate similarity between derby and lyra. With derby, I had assessments. Dreaded minimum skills. Prevented me from bouting until I could pass those fuckers. With lyra, I have inversions. They're keeping me from taking intermediate classes. I miss classes sometimes. Fundamentals is a mixed level class, so I slipped into comparing myself to others, and always came up short. So short. Even like brand new students seemed better at it than I was, after months of classes. This private track program, with my solo practice time, and learning some intermediate moves during my private lessons, has been amazing. It's what has kept me here. I would have left ages ago if my only options were fundamentals classes, with only fundamentals moves.

But intermediate classes, we all work on the same moves, that layer upon each move, week by week. I think I would enjoy that more. Sure there might be some students who pick something up quicker than I. But we're all working on the same stuff. And socializing. I miss it. It's lonely sometimes at practice time. I'm lonely, period. I don't have anyone to talk to, except hubs. But he's not a girl. I miss girls.

Inversions are like my assessments. And it sucks.

I had my private lesson today. Learned a new pose by request, a pose actually not in my teacher's list of studio skills, she told me. But I lack the full flexibility in my hamstrings to really get into position. Homework.

More homework with straddle. I'm not allowed to cinch anymore. Basically, I'm to work on half straddles, getting into straddle, but not mounting. I am cinching too quickly. I don't think my teacher realizes how heavy my backside is. She believes I'm strong enough to push further into the straddle and stay there a few beats longer before cinching my knees. I disagree. I know how heavy my body is, and it basically falls into knee cinch. But ok, homework. When I work on straddle, I won't allow myself to cinch my knees.

AerialCLT

AerialCLT, at its finest. It's like having a celebrity crush, but I know them!

Amy on silks, Katie on lyra, and Sarah on trapeze.

Scary

More lyra today. I woke up really looking forward to it. Those are good days. It doesn't always happen. But today it did.

I finally moved this to the higher hoop. It's like leg block, but on an angle. Self taught, so shh...don't tell my teacher. It's probably just a leg block variation. My favorite UK video of beginner and intermediate lyra moves calls this shooting star. Also, the dismount is from pullover. I'm TRYING to remain in shoulder lock off at the end, but I just can't yet. My body is too heavy and drops. But I feel it in all my back muscles from trying (even though you can't really see that I'm trying). Maybe one day...

Straddle back balance. I wasn't comfortable to let go. But as this was my first attempt in the higher hoop, I'm happy. Everything is scarier up there the first few times. I'll get there. Need to be balanced on just the right spot of my back, in order to let go. Also, the straddle inversion into it, I felt that abdominal push into stack, a bit. Never felt that before. I tried it again during practice and couldn't get it. But I think unlocking that consistently will be key.

And finally, mill circle (well, half a mill circle) into arrow. This was surprisingly hard, and I've been working on it a couple of practice sessions. I finally did it! It's a little scary but also feels a little bit like flying.

French Ball

Ahh, lyra. Some improvement tonight.

First up, ball inversion. I've been practicing this a bit on silks. I wonder if this SLIGHT, ever so slight, improvement is due to silks. Tonight was the first time I'd ever gotten my foot to touch the hoop. Sharing for posterity. I'm hoping one day, I'll look back at this and wonder how I ever thought ball was hard.

And then some improvement on straddle back balance and french gazelle. It becomes a nice little transition move that I hope to one day incorporate into a pretty choreo.

FABULOUS news! A whole bunch of new practice times have been added at the studio. There are two. Until now, all the practice times were at the main studio. There's a smaller studio, closer to my house, where I used to take classes. But no practice times. There are 4 now! Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat. All the lyra! Yayness!

Grip Tape

Welcome back to hooping! I bought some 3M grip tape. Like little teeth. Or so they said. They weren't wrong. I mean, I still have to WORK. I'm sweating profusely. (girl, you better work!)

But the hoop stays up. It doesn't slide off my sweaty skin.

After a few minutes warming up, seeing what I was now capable of, I put on a great song and went at it. No choreography. No thought to how long the song was. There's probably only one person who'd want to watch this whole video. Maybe two. It's four and a half minutes long, for crying out loud. But here it is...

And then, first time ever, I was able to do a shoulder duck out. How about three in a row?

Goals

They say not to put deadlines on goals. But I'm gonna anyway. I had set a goal for myself early last year. That by the time I turned 40, I would reach goal. I wanted to look and feel the best ever.

I didn't reach my goal. I haven't lost anything in a year. And it's frustrating as hell.

I'm 40 now. I'm going to set some long-term goals. My goal is to accomplish these by Feb 2018. Why Feb? It'll be my lyra-versary.

• Goal weight. 169.
• Promote to lyra intermediate.
• Hoop every damn day!

I also have quite a few bucket list goals. But I get overwhelmed and then don't work on any of it. So my plan is to prioritize and focus. Once one goal is checked off, I can work on the next. Some of these I can do a little bit each day, like 1-4. Or that's my goal...

1. Toes to bar. I can practice this at home with my pullup bar.
2. Pullup. Just one. I'll need to hold that shoulder lock off position for a few beats. 
3. Splits. Or at least, drastically increase flexibility. 
4. Shoot the duck. I'll need to first train narrow-stance ass-to-grass squats. Then pistol squats.
5. Lifting routine 2-3x/week, whether with dumbbells or a power cage; at my age, I need to strength train. But it's not currently my focus.
6. Squat bodyweight/bench 100lbs...this will need to wait until I have a proper power cage.

A friend of mine sets monthly goals for herself. I think this is a great idea. I feel inspired. Here are mine for September...

• 13 lyra sessions. Mon/Thu/Sat 
• Dial in diet. Weigh myself at the end of Sep. Measurements, too.
• No drinking the adult beverages. Stay focused on what I want most vs what I want now!
• Walking. I need to up my NEAT. 4x/week. 
• Hooping. 2x/week. Sun/Wed
• Social Media break. I need to clear my head and heart of things that might upset me.

I'll check in at the end of September, see how I did.

One final note. I keep daydreaming about performing. I know deep down this will never happen. I'd be too nervous. So this needs to stop popping up in my brain each time I set goals. I need to go ahead and remove it from my bucket list...