Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by monica howard on April 21, 2011 at 7:07pm

just keep practicing. practice chest hooping for a straight 20-30 min. take a break and pick it up later. do that twice a day, and thats how i get it down. you can do it =)

Permalink Reply by Sara Durán on April 26, 2011 at 9:18am

I'd recommend working on chest hooping first, then moving on to shoulder hooping. Practicing moving my chest around in isolation, without the hoop, helped me a lot. In the Hoopnotica videos, they suggest you imagine that you have brushes sticking out of your torso and you're trying to paint the inside of a big barrel (aka your hoop). Also, I think most new hoopers forget to push with their back, which is just as important as pushing forward or sideways with your chest. Once I got chest hooping, it took me about a week of practicing every day to get shoulder hooping. It was so frustrating! I kept thinking to myself why the heck can't I get this? I can chest hoop forever and I've watched a ton of tutorials on shoulder hooping! What made it click for me was closing my eyes and responding to the hoop, instead of anticipating it. When I closed my eyes my arms relaxed and were able to move with my chest, which clenched, tight arms can't do. It also helps me to think of my shoulders as passing the hoop to eachother. I hoop clockwise, and I think of my left shoulder pushing the hoop forward as it comes by and the right one pushing it back, if that makes any sense. It will click for you, I promise.

Permalink Reply by andshespins on May 3, 2011 at 1:01am

i learned shoulder hooping way faster then chest alone, i still cant get that down for some reason. practice a lot and what helps me is practicing with my eyes closed. it really does help!

StudentPermalink Reply by Amanda Elenai Styles on July 23, 2011 at 5:29pm

I just figured out the key to this the other night, and felt SO freakin happy hehehe! I don't have it down pat , but I did discover the secret.  Its the shoulders.  Its all in the shoulders.  If you keep your back like crazyyy straight , almost arched like with ya tummy pushed out and you shrug your shoulders ^V^V the hoop automatically comes up your body!  I took SaFire's advice last night to teach my friend too and he got it right away,,, what I did was tap one shoulder and made him touch that shoulder to his ear, then tapped his other shoulder and had him take that shoulder and tap to that ear, then the other , then the other back and forth to get the motion down ^V^V with the shoulders.  Then he waist hooped and did the motion and immediately the hoop came up to his upper body and over his shoulders.  Thats the basis for keeping the hoop going on the upper body is the shoulders.  Its more shoulder hooping than "chest" hooping if you ask me ;)  TRY IT!!! ;)

Permalink Reply by Razzle on October 28, 2011 at 6:38pm

hi! i posted this question awhile back and someone gave me some really helpful advice. this was a reply to my question by "Melanie"; "Safire has a great tip in one of her online classes:  practice chest hooping while on your knees to remove the "hip effect".  Somehow it allows your upper torso to rotate much smoothly and helps building muscle memory.  :)  That trick did it for me.  I now can chest hoop in both currents, arms in & out!!  Hope this helps!  Good luck :)"

that little piece of advice worked wonders for me, and i can chest hoop perfectly now.

Permalink Reply by Caitlin Morrow on February 18, 2012 at 8:55am

i will totally try this idea thanx :)

Permalink Reply by Lindsay F on July 20, 2012 at 11:21am

I never even considered that. What an awesome piece of advice! 

StudentPermalink Reply by Danielle Starshine on February 17, 2012 at 10:21pm

definitely try chest hooping with arms out first just so you get the general feeling of isolating your ribcage whilst keeping your hips still. Just thrust your chest out so that your shoulder blades are close when the hoop meets it, and arch your back like a cat for the back push.

when you want to put your arms in, try hooping with one arm in and the other out. I found that this was easier for me than going for both arms at once.  When you try with both arms in, you are going to shrug the opposite shoulder than the direction of your dominant current (I hoop to the right, so this would be my left shoulder) FORWARD. Let the hoop glide across your chest, shrug the other shoulder backwards (this would be my right shoulder) and let it glide across your back. IMO, the front/back pushes are not as important as the side/side motion you are making with your shoulders. Too much front/back force will make your hoop all wonky.

And remember, practice makes...improvement. It took me a couple of months to get my chest hooping looking fluid.

Permalink Reply by Licia on July 20, 2012 at 12:04pm

What really helped me when I was trying to get shoulder hooping down was the fact that everybody told me to arch my back, to push my chest out, to shrug the shoulders... all the usual advice. And then some girl on YT said it's all BS anyway and that you only need to move from side to side. After hours of practicing catbacks, it was the thing that finally worked for me.

So: Keep your back somewhat straight, don't try to push outwards with your chest and only sway from side to side with your upper body while standing still and slightly shrug your shoulders. If you hoop to the right, give your hoop a harder shove with your right shoulder and if you hoop to the left, let your left shoulder do most of the work.
If it works, you can round your back a bit to make the motion smoother.

Hope this helps a bit :)