Back in the 80s and 90s, you could guarantee every January like clockwork a horde of C list celebrities would release their own workout video. Whether it was the nation’s favourite soap star or the recent Big Brother winner, they would be jumping (literally) on the “new year new me” bandwagon bollocks and releasing a workout video for you and your best mate to gallop around the living room to.
Cast your minds back even deeper into your childhood, and you’ll recall that every one of these workout videos had a moderator doing the easy version of the routine. Whilst the C list celeb would be jogging, old Moderator Mary would be marching, whilst C lister was doing jumping jacks, Mary would be busting out a half jack and so on. Well, I have taken it upon myself to be the proud Moderator Mary of my pole class.
Due to the standard of pole forever increasing at the speed of light (seriously, how many dancers can fucking Spatchcock these days? I swear I used to be able to count on one hand the amount of people who could do it) I feel like I’m permanently nesting at the higher intermediate/lower advanced ability bracket, and that’s perfectly okay. In fact I have even toyed with the idea of dropping back to Intermediate permanently after some particularly challenging Advanced classes to work on getting my strength up. It’s healthy to remind yourself that pole dance is a journey and not a race, nor is it a tick sheet to tick off every move possible in the shortest amount of time. Believe it or not you get no prizes for doing that.
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Baring the above in mind, I’m a firm believer in giving yourself regressions of the pole move to do if it’s a bit too far out of reach. For example, right now I am struggling like a motherfucker to re-achieve my elbow grip Ayesha. Therefore, instead of setting my sights solely on the end goal of mastering that specific move, I am concentrating on being able to get my knees away from the pole in a flower shape before I get my confidence up high enough to take my feet off.
Another classic regression and/or progression move depending upon where you’re currently at would be the Butterfly. If you haven’t yet conquered an Extended Butterfly, you can stick a regular butterfly in there instead. There will be zero consequences and categorically nothing bad will happen to you if you make a pole combo more achievable for yourself, in fact it’s highly likely you’ll get a much needed confidence boost in the meantime.
Also let’s not forget the very important safety element to pole dance, which means that sometimes is sticking a regression in the combo is a pretty wise thing to do. Back in October, the class combo we were working on required a Devil’s Point Shuffle on spinny pole, which is not a move I can confidently do (yet). Therefore, I took it down a notch and did an aerial invert instead. I decided it would not only be easier to include an aerial invert as opposed to spending the entire class agonising over the Devil’s point shuffle, but whilst I’m still learning the shuffle it would be far safer to build my strength by practicing it from the floor on static pole as opposed to whizzing into oblivion on spinny and trying to avoid death from attempting a Genie on my other side. I know it’s an epic feeling when you can finally master a fucking scary move, but as mentioned above, one’s pole journey isn’t a checklist to tick off and it’s far better and safer to work up to your goal move sensibly and conquer it when you’re ready instead of forcing your body ahead of itself and causing an injury.
Lastly, sometimes regressions are lovely if you just want to get a decent video of what you’ve been able to accomplish that day. I’m well aware we shouldn’t be training for the ‘Gram, but sometimes it’s fine to get a video to re-watch, give yourself a confidence boost and as a reminder of what you’ve achieved and how badass you are. I understand how frustrating it is to be stressing over a move for what feels like months (I’m looking at you bastard Superman), so it’s healthy in my opinion to remind yourself that not being able to execute a specific move yet isn’t the end of your pole journey, and there’s plenty more you can do instead.
How do you feel about adding the regression of a move in if you’re struggling with one? Let me know in the comments !
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