Evolving Your Hooping

That's me (in the middle) teaching new friends how to hoop at the Wanderlust Festival in Vermont. (photo courtesy of Timberland)

Hooping. I am definitely a hoop girl, but sadly, a sporadic one.  I’ll go a week or two between practicing sometimes, especially during the winter, and when I get back inside my hoop, it takes a while for me to find my flow again.

As with everything, if you want to do it well, you need to do it often.

Recently at the Wanderlust Festival, I had the opportunity to take four hooping classes and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I got to hang out with other hoopers, be inspired by their moves, and even had the opportunity to turn some new friends onto hooping. Three of them even bought hoops of their own to play with when they returned to their lives.  How cool is that?!?

I was reminded that a good instructor can go a long way to help improve your skills.  I have taken a handful of hooping classes over the last couple of years, but I mostly learned from watching hooping YouTube videos.  Yes, I have an advantage as a Pilates Instructor. I can break down moves better than most, but I was still doing a few things wrong because I had missed a cue or a bad habit had snuck in.

One simple suggestion from a Hoopnotica teacher and I instantly improved my chest hooping.  Yay!  I also learned some cool new tricks from Shakti Sunfire, one of my teachers, and was inspired by the two-minute demo of her skills at the end of class. I’d love to get to that level and I know the only difference is practice.

So if your hooping has felt stuck lately, the best thing to do is find a meetup or take a class.  Being with other hoopers is always inspiring and you’re guaranteed to pick up a new trick or refine a current one.  If you’re not sure there’s a class in your area, Google it. Hooping is expanding quickly in the US and there’s a good shot something is being offered near you. If not, there’s always YouTube.

Are you new to hooping?  Here’s why I’m a hoop girl.  My best piece of advice if you begin hooping: always take extra hoops with you to the park because invariably you’ll be making new friends and teaching others how to hoop.   You never know who you’ll inspire.

Cheers,

Lisa