Can’t nail that ONE trick you’re working on?

The first day I tried pole, I loved it. I immediately went down an internet rabbit hole looking at photos and videos of cool tricks, and then I saw the one move I wanted more than anything: ballerina. It looked so pretty and so simple! I asked my trainer if we could work on it right away.

Getting humbled by the one "simple" trick you saw someone do effortlessly is a rite of passage in pole. What we don't see on Instagram or TikTok is the years that person spent training, or that they might've been a dancer, cheerleader, dancer, or weightlifter before they ever touched a pole. We all come in with different strengths and weaknesses, and my weakness is my tight shoulders! That made ballerina brutally hard for me, while someone else might get it on their first try.

I wasn't even close to having the mobility I needed. I could barely reach the pole from a floor ballerina and I was supposed to hold my bodyweight too?! So I gave up on it for a while, assuming it was years away. And I wasn't wrong! It took over two years.

I didn’t drill ballerina obsessively; I just kept working on my shoulder and hip mobility, building strength, and exploring other spins and movements. Then one day I decided to try again. And somehow, I got it. I was so proud I teared up watching the video back. (That video is below!)

So if a trick has humbled you: don't give up on it, but don't force it either. Instead, get curious. What's actually holding you back? Is it strength, flexibility, something else? If you’re not sure, chat with me or your coach! Work on that missing piece and revisit the move every now and then and see what's changed.

There are probably moves I'll never get, and I've made peace with that. But it doesn't hurt to try again. And shifting your thinking from “I can't do this” to “I can't do this yet” makes more of a difference than you'd think. ♡