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Permalink Reply by Lealyn on April 2, 2010 at 1:09pm

I had those same probs and now I am an expert at both. I promise, promise, promise, YOU AREN'T DOING ANYTHING WRONG!! Just keep doing them over and over and eventually they both become easy as pie! Just like learning handwriting and swimming when you were a kid... and now it comes natural. It's cool for me to read posts like this, because I WAS THERE! And nothing worked better than practice. I can't believe how easy these two tricks are for me now when they were such headaches not to long ago. Hoop on girlfriend! And ENJOY THE PROCESS!!!

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Permalink Reply by Siren of the Circle* on April 2, 2010 at 2:11pm

My 2 cents on the escalator: too small a hoop and it won't come up high enough to catch in your hand; when you push off at the start, pull it back against your thigh so it has some 'spring' to it; keep the hand in tighter toward the body, with the elbow pointed behind you. As far as the getting it up from the knees, how big and light exactly is "medium to large, but light hoop"? Diameter? Tubing - size & psi? You may want to try a slightly heavier hoop - but not too heavy. And as always, try turning with it. I personally don't use a kick so much as a shimming of the hips, with a little occasional nudge from the knee.
Good luck!!

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Permalink Reply by Feral/Mina on April 2, 2010 at 3:57pm

Two cents?...
On the escalator I find that if I'm really consistent in where I push the hoop into my body (for me, into the rib cage right below the breasticle) and consistent with how much force, then I can expect the hoop to fall into my hand above my head at the same spot each time. I mean, the diameter of the hoop doesn't change, so the length between your push-into-the-body-spot and your catching-spot should remain consistent, as long as the speed of the hoop is consistent. Maybe try a piece of tape on your shirt where you want to push the hoop in on your ribcage? (But then that wouldn't work if your shirt moved! LOL) And try being really aware of where you're pushing AND how hard? This might be where videotaping would be helpful?

Also, for knee to waist... I'm not a "knee nudger" or "foot hooker". That sounds funny. lol I tend to angel my pusher leg out a bit more to widen my stance and then do a hip shimmy to bring it up (like the shoulder shimmy to bring the hoop from waist to chest). Since everyone's built differently, you may just have to experiment and practice to see what works. But be patient, it takes a while. TRUST!

As fas as size... yes, larger and heavier, to a point, is usually easier. So if you have another hoop to experiment with, it might help. For escalator, as long as you can slowly trace the hoop through the path of the escalator and it clears your head, then size should be fine as long as you're pushing into the appropriate spot. But since you have a lighter hoop, you may be able to practice knee hooping more before you have to stop due to bruising/soreness. So... pro's and con's. =)

Just some thoughts! Good luck! The journey is more important than the destination. (But you couldn't have convinced me of that when I started! LOL)

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Permalink Reply by Feral/Mina on April 3, 2010 at 1:08am

What great advice from Lealyn and Lindsey Siren of the Circle! Anyone else have any ideas?

Also, I'd like to figure out the timing on the "knee nudge" because I've not been too successful with that method but think it would be good to have in the repetoir. And tips?

P.S. Lealyn's video is the one I got the escalator from! THANK YOU! You're a very talented, beautiful hooper!

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Permalink Reply by Urbana Banana on April 8, 2010 at 7:37pm

My favorite tutorial for the escalator is by Babzrobinson on Youtube. She slows the trick down, but she also has verbal instructions to accompany the visual demonstration, which really helped a verbal learner like me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft5AeFOwFWg

As for getting the hoop from knees to waist, someone on the Livejournal hooping community posted a similar question. One of the helpful commenters said that moving the hoop from knees to waist and back again requires a "Samba booty shake." That helped me a lot. A little booty shaking goes a long way. She also described it as a "side to side shimmy."

http://community.livejournal.com/hooping/38171.html

Hope this helps!

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Permalink Reply by circularlogic on April 8, 2010 at 8:20pm

For the knee to waist move (shimmy method), here are my tips:

Learn to leg hoop with both legs active, that is, not one dead still & the other doing all the work. You can move the hoop with either leg & the sooner you get this concept, the more you can do while leg hooping. (Not just knee to waist, but dancing while leg hooping &c.) Also at any given moment the "stable" leg needs to be pushing back while the "pusher" leg goes around.

Understand how the shimmy works: with each rotation you are ducking your hip down to catch the hoop, then raising it as it rotates, to move it a little higher onto the other leg for the next catch. Keep doing this & the hoop has to come up!

Turn in the direction of the hoop-- as always this slows things down & gives you more time to learn the move.

Practice leg hooping in your non-dominant direction. This has helped me with every leg move I've learned. I'm not entirely sure why, but believe me, it helps!

Practice moving the hoop down from the waist onto the legs just a little, then bringing it back up. Keep doing this & lowering the reverse point (that is when the hoop comes back up) a little at a time. Eventually you'll get it all the way down & back!

Hope this helps!

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