1. Use your momentum.

When I started well over a year ago with my current instructor, I was coming off some shoulder problems. I didn’t want to give up pole, but I was loathe to reinjure areas that had taken a long time to heal.

The problem was, this left me with an undercurrent of anxiety and distrust in whatever move I was doing. Not exactly the best way to proceed. So, when my instructor encouraged me to give in to the momentum of the spins and let them swing me around, I held back a bit, worrying about my shoulders.

What I didn’t realize, though, was that this was causing my shoulder more aggravation – and holding back my spins.

Once I let myself trust that all would be okay and I should really swing my leg around the pole, it was like magic. I flew. I soared. I had speed.

Letting yourself give in to the momentum in your spins is a great way to see improvement in your pole dancing. Spins and twirls are such a fundamental part of pole dancing that anything that makes them prettier automatically makes your whole performance more beautiful!

2. Fully finish each move.

Knowing a move means more than having the skills to execute the move; it also means knowing how to transition it to another move.

Practice coming out of each move smoothly, never allowing a pause in your dancing.

Practice transitioning from a spin directly into another move. Same with inverts – practice getting out of them gracefully and stepping into the next move.

The best way to do this, I find, is by turning on the music. When I do a practice session just to drill my moves and maintain muscle strength, I find I too easily forget about transitioning. But once the music is on, it feels natural to dance through each move – and often helps me figure out new combos I hadn’t tried before!

3. Go back to the basics.

Learning to pole dance is not a steady progression. Everybody struggles with something and everybody has days where nothing seems to go right. In fact, I find that a prerequisite to improving is often going through a phase in which everything seems to fall apart.

When that happens, it can seem like nothing you’re doing makes any difference. It can seem like the very idea of learning to pole dance is positively futile.

But that’s not the case.

In reality, old ways of doing things sometimes need to break down before new ways can be learned.

When you find this happening, don’t lose hope and don’t give up faith. Instead, return to your basics.

Have you gotten sloppy with your foot placement? Your grip? Have you lost focus on shoulder position or where your legs should be? Revisit the basics and you’ll find that your pole moves will come back stronger than ever!

Try these tips out and see the difference it makes in your own pole dancing!