Lyra & Silks

Doubled up on aerials yesterday. First up, private lyra lesson at 1pm. I hadn't sent my teacher any requests. We worked on single knee cinch, she's challenged me to time these, extending the length of time I can hold it. I worked on getting my leg up and over the hoop in inverted prow. The idea being to do splits, but my splits? yikes. I bailed on momentum to seated during the first warmup, which was disappointing. My straddle was hard. I couldn't even cheat ball to the top of the hoop, we had to move on. It was just kind of messy. And I came away not feeling like I worked all that hard because things were just too hard.

The plan was to meet a friend for hooping after, she had expressed interest in learning how. So I had loaded up my hoops in my car. En route, she texts to cancel. Figures. I had still wanted to go do some hooping on my own, even though I forgot my baton, but by the end of my lyra lesson, I was feeling a little weepy, so I just came home.

I decided to go to silks last night at 7:30pm, to get more workout in. I talked to the teacher a bit about focusing more on the conditioning rather than the pretty poses, since I don't feel pretty when I try them, but I do enjoy feeling strong in conditioning. Last time, I had that meltdown with leg roll up. I was like, I'm never doing leg roll up again!

There were only two students, so it ended up being like a private lesson. And it went great! I did both warmup conditioning exericises with single wrist wrap: straight arm hang, knees to chest and shoulder lockoff, L sits. I did all four ball flows with single wrist wrap. I'm faster with russian climb, can get pretty much to the top with two climbs. By the time I've done the second climb, my hands are about a foot from the top.

I attempted leg roll up again, my demon. But only a single wrap. I did a basic footlock from the air, then one roll up. I'm discovering that footlocks can be tricky. From the ground, they're easier to get right, but it's still possible to get a bad footlock, which ruins anything after. From the air, they're even harder to get right. If you don't get your footlock right, you could be in for some pain.

Worked on clothesline #2 a bit. I have a distinct good side and bad side with this. But I didn't let it get to me.

We had a few mins at the end for free time. I wanted something on video. I got a hipkey. I want to get these consistent. So that I can do them from the air and be a bit higher off the ground. For now, this is what I have. And praise from my teacher! She gives such great praise. She even gave me a sticker for my accomplishment with leg roll up. I got a nice puffy hot pink eighth note and stuck it right next to that pose on my sheet. My teacher said that was the perfect sticker because I'm "rockin' it!"

100th

Today was my 100th day of lyra. Like a nerd, I've been tracking when I go to practice, however long.

They're closing down lyra classes at the Pineville studio. I wanted to go to some before they go away. Forever? Who knows.

And I did a scary thing! I did single knee cinch from the super high hoop. I can't touch the floor with my hands that high. So if my knee cinch isn't tight, I could fall on my head.

Sail and T lean out. It felt less awkward getting up into this than previous tries.


And something I've been working on. Single hip hang, no hand assist on the hoop. Also, to progress with this, I would grab my leg with both hands. I've graduated to just one hand now. Looking forward to showing my teacher during our private lesson on Tuesday.

Miss MoJangles

I got to take workshop with this lady last night. She's a celebrity among hoopers. She's super nice, too! I learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and am super sore today. Gee, sometimes hooping can feel just as strenuous as aerials.

Here's a lil sneek peek at her mad skillz.

Chin Up

Holy shit, y'all! I just did a chin up. First time ever! well, the video is the third time. I just decided to try it and did it and was like, did that just happen? So I waited a few minutes and tried it again. OMG, I totally did it again! Now I need it on video. I can do a chin up! AND I'm PMS'ing this week. I'm so stoked! Then I did a fourth and tried to pull my chin even further once I got up, to totally get into lock off. Now it's time to start incorporating chin ups into my training. Woot!

Balance

I've decided to ever so slightly scale back my aerial training and increase flow art training. I recently ordered a baton. I've always wanted to learn baton. I had one as a child, but never did much with it. I lacked discipline big time as a child. All I wanted to do was play. Focusing on any kind of practice seemed like work.

Starting in January, I plan to utilize this open area space for hooping and baton, twice per week. It's free, open 24/7. It's minutes away from the uptown studio, so it's a bit of a drive. And it's a bit public, which is nerve-wracking, but I think there's enough private-ish space that I can jam out peacefully. Like when I'm at the ice rink, and I get paranoid people might be watching. It's silly, but it happens.

My hope is driving there will give me the structure I need for hooping. I'll think, I drove all this way, I'm going to make the most of it. So, I'll scale back aerial training to twice per week, not three times. That would be way too much driving.

Ideally I could do both in one day. But I don't see that happening. I see myself too tired from one apparatus and will just want to go home after. Maybe someday I'll have the stamina...

And stay tuned for new adventures in baton! Here's hoping I don't suck.

Leg Wrap

Yea...I shouldn't have gone to silks tonight. Was a disaster. First, gridlock stressing me out, making me almost late. Then leg wrap. Goddamn leg wrap. I got seriously stuck and no one could really help and I just needed it off my foot so I started panicking and crying. I calmed myself in the bathroom after. But the damage had been done. I have been suspecting PMS onset for the last day or so, I really shouldn't have gone. Plus that time slot. I'm so over the traffic at that time.

New rule. No 5:45pm class. And no bothering with silks when I'm PMS'ing. fer fucks sake...

Visual Consumption Diet

My best friend says not to be ashamed of my emotions. It's actions that matter. So unless I'm sabotaging their hoops....lulz

I have body image issues. And performance issues (hello, derby and now lyra). And comparison issues. I have issues. I hate the phrase, I can't help it. I feel like I should be able to. Like, why can't I just be happy for these people and be patient and hopeful that it'll happen for me, too? But I can't. Or I'm not. Something.

I'm going on a visual consumption diet. I'm unfollowing certain facebook friends and instagram feeds that trigger ANY sort of negative thinking in me. Childish? Petty? Lame? Could be. But until I can stop being sad seeing so many people promote to intermediate lyra in a ridiculously short amount of time, while I'm still so far behind...so fucking far behind...I'm cutting out any and all potential heart hurty things.

Clothesline & Fang

Silks won out over lyra last night. I knew I wanted to do aerials, just wasn't sure which, until the last minute. I'm glad I went to silks. The heater was fixed (it was super cold Monday night). Aerials is no fun when it's cold. And I usually like cold. Hello! I used to be an ice skater.

Class went well, actually. I've had a couple rough classes recently. Even working on sideways middle split (#3)...which I wholly cannot do. I can't even get into position. It feels like I'll never get it, that feeling. Because it's so comically bad. I dislike any pose with the word "splits" in it.

My bad side for climbs seems to have switched. Teacher always says start with your bad side. So I did. It felt strong. My good side, not so much. Same with every round. I also saw marked improvement on hipkeys. The first couple rounds were a struggle. But something sorta clicked, and I ended up higher on the silks, with nice leg position, and that hipkey felt very solid. I wish I'd gotten video.

Straddle...I hate straddle. But my teacher showed me a trick to work on my stack. Spiderman pose. Invert back but catch both feet on the "pole" (that's what it's called in silks, don't ask me why). Then from there, I can work on pushing out the right muscles to get a good stack. It's a lot harder to get a stack on a pole. Then bring one leg out and eventually the other. Once I brought out the second leg, I came right out of it. But progress.

My videos are not great. The angle was bad. And I don't look as good in clothesline as I thought I did. Oh well. And my hand slipped off my foot, but not to worry, my knee cinch is well trained from lyra. All that slipped was my hand. But my teacher says this is a hard one and that it's impressive I was able to do it my first try. It's probably the knee cinch. This is called clothesline #2. Added bonus, a badass footlock from the air, yay!

This is called fang. My teacher wasn't even sure at first if I should try, she said it's a bit advanced. But we had just worked on a move called birdcage, which is just like bird's nest in lyra, so she said, watch me demo for the others, and if it looks like a lyra equivalent, you can try. And it's bent arrow. Which I was just working on to the top the night before. The video I got is of my bad side, and the angle isn't good for a nice screen capture. But I could do it. Well, with a double wrist wrap. It's fundamentals...we were all sporting double wrist wraps, even the more advanced students.

First Ball

Mark this day. Or...yesterday. I would definitely not say I have a DIB ball inversion under the hoop yet. Hell, I have had a semi-consistent DIB ball to the top for oh, a couple weeks now. Ball under? Not so much. Not at all, in fact. Until I tried overhand grip. And my teacher thinks that if I aim to catch my foot, it helps. And it did last night. Although, this was the only one that worked. Air quotes, worked. No other attempts happened. So DIB...is not there yet. But it's my first ball. Technically.

Such an awkward camera angle for pretty pictures. But more fun with bent arrow to the top.

Hi Carol

I'm a dork. You can hear the silks teacher say hi to me as I walked in for my private lesson last Monday...and my lyra teacher is doing this as I came in. And it makes me very happy that I'm somehow in this video.

Working on some super fun (and not at all painful) momentum in single hip hang today 😁 . . . . . . #singlehiphang #halfhiphang #lyra #lyraloveaffair #cerceau #hoop #momentum #hiphang #frontbalance #circus #circusfit #circusinspiration

A post shared by Satya (@satya_performance_arts) on Dec 4, 2017 at 11:41am PST

Tweaks

I hurt my back this week, on Wednesday. I was finishing up my second set of weighted hip thrusts. I was setting the dumbbell back in its cradle, 40lbs. And something happened. I froze, it hurt so bad. I've thrown out my back before, years ago. This wasn't as bad. But it was reminiscent. It subsided quickly and just remained as a slight tweaked feeling. Know that feeling? yea.

I did nothing Thursday, rested. Friday, I did my usual running intervals in the AM. And that fitandbendy video in the evening. I modified some of it, but the stretching really seemed to help. Today, I went to lyra. I wasn't sure if I should, but I'm so glad I did. Immediately into my hoop warmup, any traces of tweak went away. My back felt awesome. As I'm writing this, that little tweak feeling has returned a bit.

I saw someone do a pullover and use my cheat to pose with it. I decided to try. It's cool. Makes a cheated mount look somewhat intentional. At the end, you can see my struggle with ball. I just don't fit under the dang hoop. How the hell am I supposed to invert into it if I can't even fit to dismount out of it? le sigh...

And behold, a really awful attempt at ball to the top. But it's not totally cheated. I do get some lift to my ass, catch my foot, and fold on over. And my back is not super bendy in bent arrow, either. But this is an improvement, I think. It FELT like an improvement.

And then this, so pretty...

Peek

Yours truly, hooping...can only see me for a hot second at the end, in the black top with the black hair, but I'm there!

First indoor flow jam of the season was so much fun! New faces, new props, new things to work on. I adore these beautiful minds. Featuring @jami_e_lizabeth being her adorable little self 😍 @cj.strickland @coreypetrossnyder • • • #cltflowarts #cltfringearts #spineveryday

A post shared by Kathleen McNamara (@dilly_dabbler) on Nov 20, 2017 at 11:37am PST

Lovely

This is lovely...

Russian Climb

So...I still love/hate silks. I thought two weeks off would help. Class always starts off great, though. I really enjoy the strength stuff in the warmup. Climbs. Hipkeys. Ball flows. Straddle...not straddle. Straddle can eat shit and die. Footlocks from the air. All stuff that makes me feel amazingly strong.

I was too slow with my climbs last night, apparently. The teacher asked if I had finished. I still had one more each side. She asked if I minded moving on, acted like it was the best news ever, that no one would ever mind skipping out on climbs. I minded. I wanted to do them more. But I bit my lip. I didn't want to be a nuisance.

Then we moved onto poses. I hate every pose. I feel fat, ugly, awkward, clumsy...sometimes I'm in pain. Sometimes too much pain. I hate everything about every pose. Except standing lean. And you fucking learn that in your first fucking class. Well, letting go comes later. I like letting go. And maybe sail. Sail looks pretty, if I can keep my locked leg straight. But nothing else I've learned looks or feels good.

I wonder if I can email the teacher. Ask her if it's OK to just extend my warmup during class. When students are doing three hipkeys each side, maybe I'll do five. Or six. She wouldn't need to babysit me. These are all safe things, don't need guidance. I just want to feel strong.

I got video of russian climbs. Yes, I'm liking these more. I'm still split on whether I like them more than basic. It's a toss-up.

Hipkeys were terrible. I need to work on these more.

And I got video of footlock in the air. Well, sort of from the air. I'm standing on the ground. I eventually want to climb once, then try a footlock.

I also tried single footlock from the air. Mainly because the teacher wanted us to do sequencing. uhh, no. Can I just work on footlocks instead? She suggested single footlock from the air, since I'd never tried it before. This requires hanging by each fabric in each hand. I slip. I needed a wrist wrap for that. Maybe I can extend my warmup conditioning, straight arm hanging and lockoffs without wrist wraps.

So...by the end of the night, I weren't doing too good. Mentally. I have a motto...don't cry until you get to the car. I was emotional but held together. I was gathering my stuff, putting on my shoes, when a student I'd shared classes with many times arrived for the next class. She turns to me and says, we've never been properly introduced and held out her hand. I nearly lost it. Such a nice gesture from someone, nearly did me in. I hope I get a chance to take classes with her again.

Almost

Another quick update on my private lyra lesson today. I ALMOST got ball to the top. I had to swing a bit, but I totally caught my foot with my ass in the air. I need to get some video of my bad attempts so I'll have a reference point for when I do get it.

We also worked on bent arrow to the top. My back got super bendy. Maybe that horrible bendy video I've been doing is paying off.

She also wants me to work on getting into single hip hang without holding onto the hoop. We tried this. I grab one leg in front of me and lift the other leg out. But my free hand stays free. It's super scary. But I can work on this with the low hoop until I feel more comfortable.

I had also sent her two new pose requests...

We're calling this one twisted splits behind. (this is not me)		And then inverted prow, on a single foot. It's pretty. (again, this is not me)