The Fountain

 Three months of practice and a song with the perfect tempo...

Pretty Hoops

These are from Saturday.

Pretty popsicle...and some hooping

Circles

Happy 4th! I've taken a few extra days off work, nice 5-day weekend. I can think of no better way to spend it than inside a circle.

Yesterday was lyra followed by flexibility private lesson. Flexibility is tough, y'all. I can see why it's ignored mostly. I can see why even weight training would be more appealing. Flexibility is a discouraging, slow, painful process. I just hope it's worth it.

I played around with this lyra sequence, on the low hoop.

And then today, I went hooping for a nice, long session. I tapped into some creativity to come up with choreography. I always feel more polished when I know what moves come next. Flow is an elusive bitch.

New Hoop

Learned a bit of a flow session and tried to make it my own. Yea, it's a bit clumsy. But I was having fun. Isn't mah new hoop so purty?!

Moving Along

I'm still in a lyra rut. There's so much I still can't do. Especially inversions. This bothers me muchly. I feel like I'll never get them without cheating/jumping. I start intermediate classes soon, and my anxiety is telling me, they're all gonna laugh at you! You know, on the inside. I don't believe anyone will actually say anything mean. They'll just think it, like how in the hell did this chick promote, she can't even invert properly.

I learned profile shoulder stand, transition to a deep man in the moon. It's quite fun.

Then as per usual on Saturdays, after lyra, I went hooping. With mah new hoop! Just arrived yesterday. I love it. It's 35" so a bit smaller than I'm used to. But the 37" was starting to feel a bit too big. Such a pretty color!

Oh and some backbendy progress from last night, attaching April's photo again.

4/24/18

6/29/18

Rachael Lust 2.0

Another Rachael Lust workshop last Saturday. This time, BREAKS! She's ahmazing at them. Me, not so much.

Pullover!

Pullover SUCCESS! I did it without catching my feet on the second warmup run through. Of course, not on video. I tried again like 9 or 10x with video, and nope. Still catching my foot. Until I tried once more, got an ugly version but still a success. And then this, a much cleaner version. Yay! I hope it stays with me so I can show my teacher in person at our next lesson.

Then I went hooping. I can't use my phone camera because it stops the music playing in my earbuds. So I use a regular camera but woefully did not have a good angle. Gah! But still, I can see how into it I am, how spunky I feel. There were moments of pure joy, losing myself in the music, in the flow.

All things Hoop

Is it fall yet? I swear, it was warmer inside the studio today than outside. And it's summer in the south. I was dripping sweat everywhere. And my favorite double tabbed hoop has been temporarily made into a single tabbed hoop for the current intermediate unit. I don't have a lot of experience on a single tab. It's a lot less stable, very shaky.

On Saturday, I went hooping. I finally unlocked windmill into 2- and 3-beat weaves and back again. It needs some smoothing out. And I'd like to get better at reverse weaves, too, to make it even more awesome. Check out my space! I love hooping in here.

Cruel Summer

I have been training hard for a few months, shoulder hooping and breaks, with my 32" hoop. It's a touch too small for my frame. But good for a challenge. Switching back to my 37" today, suddenly everything was so much easier. Had a fun session, got good and sweaty. Decided to film a bit at the end, totally freestyle. And except for a few sloppy bits, I'm pretty pleased with the performance. I wish I looked as good as I feel while hooping. Cuz I feel pretty fucking fantastic!

Flow

When lyra is cancelled, and the day is beautiful, one hoops. Some clumsy emo freestyle here. I can't tell if I look totally awkward or totally cool.

Painful Beauty

I had the day off today. What do I like to do on my day off? Lyra, of course. I also did a bit of hooping.

Behold, the ugliest ball ever. BUT while I've recently been able to catch my foot on the super high hoop, I hadn't yet been able to on the medium-height hoop. Something about the height making it harder to catch my foot. But I did it today.

And then a bit of ball to the top, with some splits under the top, into clock splits. Very pretty. Too bad the sun was shining directly on the spot.

To end session, I tried ankle hang. I was wearing thick socks due to the cold. It just hurts so damn much. This is the quickest of screen grabs. It looks so cool, but it hurts so much. The painful beauty of lyra.

Additionally, my timed single knee cinches are 10 and 12 seconds, bad leg and good leg, respectively. I can hold a double straight arm hang for 60 seconds. And I even attempted a single arm hang. Could hold with either arm for a few beats.

Afterwards, I went over to that atrium space to try some hooping. I felt SO EXPOSED, so self-conscious. I hooped for a short bit then bailed. That is not an option when I'm by myself. It's a great space. But I need privacy. I felt so nervous, and when I'm nervous, I'm more clumsy.

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.

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

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?

Rachael Lust

Star struck. Got to meet Rachael Lust last night, at her workshop. It was intense, much of it advanced, but so much fun. I learned a ton. Some I picked up quickly, some will take work. I'm so glad I went.


By the way, if you don't know who Rachael Lust is, check this out...

Sunny Hoops

Positively beautiful day. I just had to get outside and hoop. Working on some more twin sequences. Also have been practicing this bit of choreo...

HoopSkating

What the hell, I'll post this, no one's reading anyway. My camera was acting up, turning itself off after about a minute. I didn't get much video because I didn't realize it was no longer recording. I have this video, a 30 second video, and a 16 second video. Stupid camera.

This is the whole video, it cuts out on its own. It's not pretty. Hoopskating is difficult. My garage is not ideal, the ceilings are too low. And it's hot. I suppose if I had an outdoor practice space, it would be just as hot.

Anyway, here's my attempt at hoopskating. Without an ideal practice space, not sure how quickly I'll improve. But it's fun!

Hoop Choreo

I finally brought the camera out with me. I've been hooping a lot lately, working on my flow, also working on a bit of cute choreography. And finally got it to video, after a few false starts. I swear, once my mind knows the camera's rolling, I become an even bigger klutz.

p.s. Aerial Hoop beginner class starts next Tuesday. It's an eight week course. I'm stupid excited. Hopefully I have some pics and video to share.

Vacation

Gorgeous weather this week! Yay vacation! And yay, ankle almost healed. Went for a 5 mile walk along the river with my husband and dogs. Came home and just couldn't resist going outside for a bit of hooping. I've been working hard on twins. And put together a little bit of choreo with the single hoop. Yay hooping! (Yes, I've had a couple beers. Yay!)

This might look familiar. It's all moves and sequences I've been practicing.

Twins are FUN

I love this twin hoop challenge I joined. Deanne Love is an amazing teacher. I've been working on learning her sequences and have got this so far. I feel compelled to preface the video with, it's clunky and needs work. Not sure why. But I do. And it was quickie practice, didn't bring any music outside with me. Also, it was friggin COLD outside. My hands got all red and chapped. Next time, gonna try moving the cars out of the garage and see if I can hoop in there. At least no tossing but perhaps could be a good hoop space for me. At home. Which is why I like hooping. It's a hobby I don't have to leave my house to train for.