Successes from last week’s instructor jam at The Secret. The Batwing, Cheba/Lolo split, and The Anastasia — meaning that my Winter/Spring 2013 pole dance goals are COMPLETE! I’m hoping to film a freestyle soon with all of my new tricks *jumps around*

No idea what this trick is called, but I want it!

Almost as important as doing your routine as many times as possible before competition day, it’s very important to watch footage of yourself. Video playback is a great tool for catching all the little details you might not even be noticing as you’re running your piece. 

During training for my last competition, I discovered that YouTube is a FANTASTIC tool for this. Too many times while watching I had to take mental or physical notes to remind myself of certain things like my hands, to point my feet in certain places, to go slower, etc; which I would then forget, mostly because I’m a visual learner. 

You can add notes to your video real time and play them back using Youtube’s annotation tool (the interface is in the featured image if you get lost). To do this, load up your video’s page and click the handy little annotation icon beneath the player to load the annotations page. Put your notes up and mark the times, play them back, and press save. Best of all, you can do this on a private and unlisted video. 

Personally, I like to make a private playlist of all my rehearsals for a performance. All the videos in that list are annotated so I can see my progress in context. This is also great for sharing with friends and teachers so multiple people don’t point out the same mistake in your videos. 

If you’d like to see an example, check out one of my rehearsal videos for Pacific Pole Championships 2013. Feel free to laugh at my annotations (ESPECIALLY 2:20), they get more specific after the 0:57 mark. If you’d like to see the final result, check out my PPC video!

Pink Puma demonstrating “Catch the Tail” at The Arnold Pole Panamerican Championship 2013, 2nd Place. (x)

Remove those pesky pole dance bruises by rubbing them away!

Kris of Kiki’s Pole blog is running 2 scholarship programs aimed at giving polers access to online pole fitness lessons through Studio Veena.

You can read and enter at Kris’ Blog. The scholarships’ entries will be accepted during the month of April, so be sure to submit and win yourself some pole lessons! 

Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong. It may not be on competition day, or it might be. The best you can do is prepare well in advance for the unspeakable to happen. Here’s a list of things that commonly go wrong during a competition program and how you can avoid them.

Costume Malfunctions

Choosing something pole friendly doesn’t have to be hard. Remember the three key points: coverage, fit, and fabric. 

• Coverage: Get something that will cover your entire bikini line area, all the way around. If the bottoms of your choosing are too risky, there are still a number of options available to you. Michelle Shimmy has outlined a number of them in her Foreigner’s Guide to Australian Pole Dancing. Same goes for the top. Make sure the cut doesn’t go uncomfortably low or is too short. You don’t want to raise or lower your hands only to find that your top went with it. 
• Fit: Now you’ve got your tops and bottoms and you’re ready to really start the process of making it into a costume. Try dancing with it on first, making sure to try it out in your ‘big tricks’. Write down what happens to the costume as you dance in it.
  Does it shift, does it snag, does it prevent you from doing certain tricks? It may need to be altered to fit. Additionally, you can also add silicone or rubberized grippers (It’s the same stuff that they use on strapless bras) to the inside of your costume so that it doesn’t move around as much. It can be found at craft stores and fabric stores.
• Fabric: Beware of costumes that aren’t double-lined. Stage lights have a tendency to shine right through the fabric to reveal everything. You can test this by holding the costume up to the lights in your house, if you can see through it, that isn’t a good sign!
  Make sure to get something that won’t wear too thin or stain super easily — you want it to last through at least two dress rehearsals. If your costume has a lot of rhinestones, buy an extra pack of ‘em to put on your costume in case some come off during rehearsal. 

If you’ve found a top and bottom but are in need of inspiration to dress it up, I highly recommend building a pinterest board with makeup, hair, and costume ideas. It’ll help you get an idea of what you can do within the limitations. 

Be mindful that some competitions have specific rules about how short your bottoms can be and if you can remove excess clothing during your routine. 

Costume malfunctions are heavy deductions at some competitions. Even with all the checks in place—on competition day, take a roll of double stick tape and line the inside of your costume. That way, you can focus on everything else going on. The costume should be the least of your worries!

Hair Disasters

Hair up or down? That is the question! If you are deciding to compete with your hair down, be sure to train with it down to get used to it. Hair can sometimes obstruct your view, cockblock a move, or even get pulled (I’ve gotten my hair stuck in my armpit in an Allegra before. It sucked!). 

If you’re planning to perform with your hair up, hairspray and bobby pins are going to be your friend! Preemptively plan for a secure hairstyle. French braids rarely come apart, as do double pony tails, and cornrows. If your hair does come apart, ROCK IT (If Nadia Shariff can do it, you can too).

Getting Tired Midway Through Your Routine

In the weeks leading up to the competition, you should be able to run your piece multiple times a week without getting too tired. You may also want to try training with a pair of ankle weights on so that you get used to the endurance necessary to run the routine. 

Before you go on stage, try your best to calm down and get your heart beating at a normal pace. Take a deep breath give your hands a small massage and do some jumping jacks. It’s important not to go on and hyperventilate. 

Maybe you went too hard during the first half of your routine and now you’re completely tapped out of energy. To finish strong, remember all the points in your music that you took to breathe and use them. They can be moments where you’re looking at the audience or during a pause. Move slowly and thoughtfully and try to inhale as large as you can. Remember that your routine is only 3-4 minutes long! You can make it!

Forgetting your Choreography

Say you blank on stage and forgot what you were supposed to be doing. First of all, DON’T FREAK OUT and look at the audience. They’ll know because they will sense your panic.

If you think you can recover because you will catch the choreography at another point in the music, your options are to either freestyle until that point happens or go into a “time suck” move. Time suck moves are safe moves that you can use to hold the audience until the right moment that your choreography comes back to you. For example, a nice long pole sit while extending your arms and legs full out can save you a good 5-10 seconds. 

If you’re really lost and definitely will not remember your choreography, freestyle it. It’s important to take away the key points in the music and still make them look big. The audience won’t know you’ve forgotten anything if you keep them entertained! 

Planning “Bail Out” Moves

Every big trick you do should have a bail out move. For example, if you feel slippery on your extended butterfly, bail safely into your inside leg hang. This may already happen for you unconsciously!

The audience won’t know when you mess up, only you will. An often cited example is Jenyne Butterfly’s performance at Pole Sport World Fitness Championships 2010. Many argue that it was a terrible fall while most say that it was a dramatic ending to the piece. She keeps the tone of her performance and smiles super bright. No one will ever know besides Jenyne! 

Kirstyn Rawlings of Kelly Yvonne’s Girl Next Door cast.