Replies to This Discussion

StudentPermalink Reply by Jessica on July 17, 2012 at 2:50pm

You're definitely right when you say it takes time and practice.. I can only imagine how much more patience you must have with having a baby, too! I think the best advice I ever got was to enjoy the learning process.. Once you learn things, you can't go back! It took me a while to learn how to enjoy that feeling, but I now miss it a lot. I would say just enjoy your time in awesome land, and not knowing exactly what you're doing.. Just feel it out!
For tricks, it's all about muscle memory. If you're at all able to try a trick even once or twice while you are still by a computer, it may be help you to remember it later on, after you step away. Don't give up, and just enjoy yourself!

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Permalink Reply by LOCO TOES DREA on July 17, 2012 at 3:37pm

Thank you, your post made me feel better! my day kind of sucked after all the whoobla.

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Permalink Reply by Lindsay F on July 17, 2012 at 4:06pm

It takes soooo much time and practice, but that's ok! If you haven't yet, I highly recommend SaFire's video "Love The Process" on YouTube.

Last week, I got so frustrated, I sat down and cried my face off, just bawled like my life was over. I thought, "I'm never going to get better, I'm never going to make videos or go to festivals or find my flow or graduate to smaller/lighter hoops or be worth anything as a hooper if I can't perfect this trick." I was trying to nail down chest hooping...CHEST HOOPING!! One of the hardest things a new hooper can do on body!!! At that point, I'd been doing it for all of two days(!), I was pushing myself *way* too hard.

I cried to my husband, cried a little more by myself, and then decided to do some searching here on Hoop City for others who had similar frustrations. I posted in the forums about it, and got so many positive, encouraging responses! I felt so much better just getting my frustrations out there, and even more so knowing I wasn't alone! I tried again the next day, and just tried to hoop with joy in my heart and my movements, and had such a good time. I realized that all things that are worth it take time so that we learn to appreciate them more.

I think every hooper comes to this frustration at some point, and I'd bet that it happens even to the most experienced hoopers. For me, when I started to cry that day, something snapped, but in a good way. I had my cry, and then did it again the next day, because it's not the frustration that's the problem. It's letting it stand in your way.

<3

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Permalink Reply by LOCO TOES DREA on July 17, 2012 at 9:18pm

Beautiful thank you.

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StudentPermalink Reply by Kacie Knight on July 17, 2012 at 5:48pm

It is really frustrating when you are waiting to unlock the flow that you know is inside you. When I first started it felt really slow going. In my dreams I was a super ninja baddass who could just bust it dancing and the hoop would magically fly around me. In reality... Not so much at first. The  disconnect between what I wanted to do and what I could do was huge. But being able to visualize it brought it to me so much faster- Visualizing it, and dreaming it is a really important step to being able to do it. The same neurons fire in your brain whether you are visulazing it or actually doing it. So have heart - If you need to be sitting rocking your little baby, you can still be learning and growing as a hooper without your hoop. 

The whole chest hooping thing is crazy. Seriously, it's way harder than it looks and it just takes hundreds of hours of flight time and tons of teeny tiny breakthroughs where a small detail clicks before it starts to really feel comfortable and easy. 

SaFire's 'Love the process video' is really helpful, and so is the idea that it just keeps getting better and better. I thought I loved hooping and had fun doing it when I first started. Then at 6 months I was like- Holy shit, this is even more fun than it used to be. Then again a few months later after reaching another level of competence it was the same thing. Now I realize there are unlimited layers of awesome to discover. 

Have heart though, if you keep at it and just keep dancing with your hoop (and this is the key, spend lots of time dancing as well as doing tricks, with a big heavy hoop preferrably) eventually you reach a point where things all just become easier and the hoop and you become effortless dance partners and you can move the way you want to and be the baddass that you imagine in your head. It might take a year or two to reach that point, but it will all be worth it, cause that feeling of mastery, where your body and the hoop just connect with each other intuitively is one of the greatest feelings in the world!

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Permalink Reply by LOCO TOES DREA on July 17, 2012 at 9:24pm

Wow right on the nose with visualizeing and reality. I watched Safire's video Love the process and It was so beautiful and I cried through the whole thing, then posted it on my facebook. I love your response thank you.

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Permalink Reply by Alexandra on July 17, 2012 at 9:00pm

I have a really big (not sure how big, but big, bigger than 38" for sure) hoop that is 1/2" thick and I've found that It's really hard to do lift ups with it. I do almost any other trick with it, but I can't really get the vortex down. It almost seems too light or something, bc I have another even bigger hoop that's kind of chunky and I can do it just fine. Now, I do have a smaller hoop, 36", and I can do a lot of stuff on that too. Walk-throughs and what have you are fine. Granted, I've only been hooping for about three months now, but for me, It's super frustrating when I feel like I have a trick down, go to do it on a different hoop, and suddenly, can't freaking do it to save my life. I 'm all like "yay, look at me" and I fail miserably. It's like I can only do some tricks on one hoops and other tricks on a different hoop. *Annoying!!!*

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Permalink Reply by LOCO TOES DREA on July 17, 2012 at 9:27pm

I think its great you can at least do any other trick at three months. Yey

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StudentPermalink Reply by Holly on July 18, 2012 at 6:05pm

I've been hooping for over a year and a half and still find myself getting frustrated that I can't find my flow and all of a sudden can no longer do a move that I've done countless times!  Also seeing hoopers who have way less time than me hooping flawlessly with that beautiful flow I still can't seem to grasp with any consistency.  By taping a ton of my sessions it's really helped me see that I have progressed, and also seeing certain moves I *thought* looked pretty cool actually looked ridiculous.  LOL! 

You just have to step back and love where you are in the process.  With time, practice and patience, you'll get where you want to be.

Here's a video I made of myself very early on in my hooping journey side by side with a video about 7 months later to the same song.  I still have a long way to go, but you can see the progress, and sometimes that's all you need to keep yourself moving forward. 

http://youtu.be/KKJ5PDMvVQg

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Permalink Reply by Keseygirll~ on July 18, 2012 at 10:13pm

oh my gosh yes, thiss thread makes me feel so much better! Ive been hooping maybe like five days and i'm trying to do chest hooping (just because i learned the shimmy thing first.. but i might try to do something else now, like off the body stuff)
but anyways, i was trying to hoop outside today in like 30 degree weather (im in canada so figure that out) and i was hot and i just started thinking, you suck, you're never gonna find a groove, you cant even keep it up-  had my moments of doubt, and negativity, then i went inside and went on hoop trix and just relaxed.. i guess what im saying is im glad that im not the only one feeling this way! we've just got to embrace the process, its definitely not an overnight thing.

looove and support <3

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Permalink Reply by LOCO TOES DREA on July 22, 2012 at 1:31pm

video is great thanks for shareing

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StudentPermalink Reply by Anne-Marie on July 19, 2012 at 12:50am

I've been hooping for four months now - still a newbie, but enough to know that eventually I will nail that trick I absolutely can't do right now! I remember wondering how was I EVER going to do a lift-up and drop-down, it just wasn't happening for me. Now it's second nature. So when I struggle with tricks, I know they'll come eventually, if I'm patient and keep practising. I agree that trying out a trick near your computer is a great idea. If you have a laptop or smartphone you can save tutorials to, so much the better.

And one final thing: When I get discouraged, I remind myself that four months ago I could not spin that hoop round my waist. I may not be as good a hooper as I'd like, but I've come a long way!

Good luck with your practice.

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