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Permalink Reply by Willow on October 26, 2009 at 2:22pm

I Picked up the hoop almost 3 years ago. I saw someone at a festival fire hooping and she had a very basic workshop the next day. I told her I can't hoop she told me anyone can blah blah blah. One hour later I was hooked and bought a hoop to take home. From then on I just played and figured out what I could do with it. I had already been spinning Poi for a year so I had some idea's of off the body moves. I didn't start looking online till the beginning of this year. The most amusing part was seeing tutorials where I already knew the trick and finding out names for everything. It made it much easier to teach friends when I wasn't calling the moves the twisty thingy and the spinning one.

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Permalink Reply by Jojomo* of LiveLoveHoop on October 28, 2009 at 7:03pm

In reply to Safire and others who spoke about being disheartened by other newer hoopers picking up things quicker than you did.

I definitely used to be like that, to the point where I wouldn't be happy sharing 'my' new tricks with other people. How bad is that? But the more involved I got in the hoop community, the more I realised just how much more fun it is to share, teach and bounce off people.

Something that always stuck with me, and something I like to share with my students, is the idea that you shouldn't compare yourself to others and their skill levels, but compare your current self to your past self. Look at how much you've progressed, how much you've learnt and how much more comfortable you are with certain tricks or moves. Look how confident you are now compared to when you started hooping. Be proud of your progress and happy with your journey. I try to remember that anytime I have those 'I'm not good enough' thoughts whispering around my head :)

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Permalink Reply by Sue on October 30, 2009 at 3:33am

What an interesting thread this has turned into.

I think it holds valuable information too. That this is such a good community. But hooping is "popular" right now and will stay that way for a while and when that happens the sudden rush of people entering the field will rocket and with it comes the competition and squabbles for placement. Then after the main rush of new hoopers gets disheartened with the competition or the fact that they didn't drop 3 dress sizes overnight or get abs like an athlete without much effort and goes onto the next big exercise thing, the dedicated hoopers will become visible again and the community will reform and continue.

I'm a slow learner and I've done it by watching things (other hoopers vids mostly rather than tutorials because there weren't many of those when I started) and just continually trying. Playing with the hoop. My neighbours must have thought me crazy at first, but they are used to me now and I've made a lot of hoops for them on request. But still I'm the only person in my village I would call a hooper. The only person who hoops on their own for hours. The others get the hoops out if I organise the village hall space and the music for them for an hour or two.

My biggest problem in the early days was wondering why I couldn't do what Sharna Rose was doing. But I stuck at it and I realigned my expectations (mostly!) and just took from her wonderful repertoire what I could and enjoyed watching the rest. The hoop gods and goddesses out there are all very creative people in many ways. That is how they achieved what they have achieved.

I'll stop rambling now, but there's nothing like a good hoopy ramble first thing in the morning. Sets you up for the day.

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Permalink Reply by Charley on November 13, 2009 at 7:44pm

I haven't really hooped much. Once I realized I was interested in learning I bought hoop making stuff and since have been making hoops for everyone as presents.

I watched each hoopnotica DVD - found it pretty easy to do most of the tricks and haven't really bothered much to search youtube for tutorials because I just like dancing with the hoop and doing a few things. I don't think I'll ever want to be an extreme hooper.

Which brings me to this - I really enjoy hooping when I have, the tricks were pretty easy and I like the dance aspect of it - but my heart is really in pole work. I have been doing pole work for 3 years. When I started pole I didn't even know there were places you could take classes in it - I just wanted to go upside down. I found some gorgeous dancers on youtube and a small handful of tutorials on very basic movements. I was someone who took to the tricks easily enough but struggled with the art as a whole. Now 3 years later in our community there are people doing dangerous tricks in less than a month of lessons and practice. I personally do get upset about this because of the level of danger posed to the person just simply watching people perform (not tutorials) and then trying to teach others - it's plain out dangerous. It's not that I am angry that they are better than I am after 3 years to their few months - it's that they are doing so many things wrong that can cause injury or falling - it really does a lot to hurt the industry. On the other hand a friend of mine is competition ready and has been at it a year to my 3 years and I couldn't be happier for her - but she does push the envelope of safety.

While I suppose hooping wouldn't be as dangerous - it seems that is a systematic approach to learning and if you aren't careful you can really fling that hoop into things, people, cars, tv's, etc. I bruised from hooping, I had sore insides and certainly have flung that hoop at people. SO I think it's important to stress a safe progression with anything you do. Plus, there certainly is an art to hoop dancing - I think it should be respected.

So, I totally get why veteran hoopers would be weary of new comers with a lot of tricks. I don't know much about hooping at this point but as with anything you have start somewhere, you should allow yourself to slowly immerse yourself in it and learn as much as you can about it.

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Permalink Reply by Tangled Macrame on November 13, 2009 at 8:52pm

Interesting point about safety. As hooping's popularity grows our community must make sure to be considerate of one another and the folk around us. Hooping takes up a LOT of space and whirling hoops, especially in new hands in crowded spaces, are sort of dangerous. No one likes being smacked in the head, you know? If we are not friendly, mindful, and considerate I fear hooper over-population. I've seen two hoopers clear an entire dance space. They rocked their dance, but nonetheless (unintentionally) took over community space.

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Permalink Reply by InnerSpin SharnaRose on November 14, 2009 at 9:37am

When I first started properly hooping at the start of 2006, the UK hoopers who were visible on the internet were few and far between. I watched and absorbed the video's that were out there, mostly hosted at hooping.org. I very quickly observed that people hooped in one direction only. I am a Libra and have always felt a strong desire for balance so it was natural for me to develop strength in both directions immediately. I also played a lot, I put less emphasis on what it looked like (I had no mirrors - which was why I video'ed myself). So I developed a strong personal style....Not always pretty.

Then I discovered tribe.net. It was great for me, I felt virtually alone in my new found passion and the network potential and then the hoopingvideo's tribe was just a revelation for me. I posted my first video on tribe.net and then continued to share my journey. In the meantime Christabel came to the Uk and taught me how to be a teacher...even she would tell you the vast improvement in my self confidence from that first training.

I continued to grow by watching others but always putting a twist of my own onto something I admired. I have grown tremendously and I am proud of my journey and my abilty to stay true to me. As far as possible always giving credit to those that inspired me. As more hoopers have come along I am amazed at their learning curves...but why get sad about it? We want this amazing thing to spread... Hoopers generally are kinder more considerate people with a strong connection to source... The world is a better place, I just hope that with our obsession about how we look that we don't all end up looking the same, that we retain our uniqueness, for without that it would that would be truly a tragedy.

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Permalink Reply by SaFire* on November 14, 2009 at 9:47am

Amen!

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Permalink Reply by l "lady lamb" to the inz on November 15, 2009 at 2:22pm

you tube you tube you tube..oh yes and did i say you tube. i just kept watching and then ran into tutorials and just practice practice. then i hooked up and found more help on hoop.ca talking to people etc. no matter how long you are hooping resources are always good there is always somewhere to improve or perfect or to make something new.

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Permalink Reply by Jane "Electric Blue" on November 20, 2009 at 2:28am

I started at a one day Womens circus work shop and then kind just taught my self from there.

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