Pole Competition Training

The Bristol Pole Championships are just over two weeks away. I am competing in the advanced category and I’m already terrified! I feel really underprepared as I only wrote my routine at the beginning of the week (although I chose my music and had a good idea of what combo’s etc I wanted to include weeks ago and have been working on them for some time). I can do all of the sections (except for the spinny pole bit, but more on that shortly) when I do them on their own but as soon as I start putting it all together to the music I just seem to lose it completely and end up messing it all up! I couldn’t even manage to shoulder mount on Tuesday when I attempted a run through and my shoulder mount is pretty strong as it’s something I’ve been working on a lot.

The competition has two poles, a static and a spinny. Competitors have to use both poles in their routine for a minimum of 30 seconds. I will be doing the bare minimum of 30 seconds on spinny as I hate it! I really struggle with it. I suppose it’s because I’ve done very little spinny work. I had one hour long lesson as part of a workshop day with Jamilla a couple of years ago and have played around on it on occasions at pole jams or on my own but nothing serious so it just feels so different (and so much harder!).

So lot’s of work going into practicing my routine over the next 2 weeks. Hopefully I’ll be able to pull it together in time! I feel much more nervous this time around than I did when I entered Pole Divas last year. I think that is partly because I know what to expect this time. It’s silly but I enjoy all aspects of competitions except for the actual competing bit! I love the focus it gives me, when training for a competition my poling generally improves so much faster than if I don’t have anything to work towards. I like picking out music and writing the routine and I even quite like deciding on the outfit (although I find that quite difficult).

I know quite a few other people that are entering. They are mainly in the other categories. Robyn is in the same category as me defending her title from last year. Daniel who won the intermediate category last year (who I have never met but have seen perform a few times) is in the advanced category this year. I don’t know who else is in the same category as me but I think it is full so there will be ten competitors in total.

I’m likely to give up competing after this as I don’t think I can stand the nerves again! We’ll see if there’s another post like this one in a years’ time!

UK Professional Pole Championships

Yesterday I went up to Birmingham to watch the semi final of the UKPPC and to support Robyn of 360 Pole Dancing in Bristol who was competing in the Professional Level.

The journey up was nice and easy and we found parking and the venue easily. We got into the venue and had really good front row seats.

First up was the instructor category. The standard was really good and I enjoyed all of the performances. My favourite was definitely that of Emily from Emily’s Pole Fitness in Swindon. She did a fabulous Saw themed routine which you can see here –



After a short break it was the turn of the Professional Competitors. Again the standard was really high and there were some fantastic performances. You can see Robyn’s routine here –



In addition to the competitors we also got to see two guest performances which were doubles acts. Bex and Emy with their Tomb Raider themed routine and Dan and Steve with a vampire themed routine. I never used to be a fan of doubles but I do quite like it now (although I still much prefer singles).

Six competitors from each category were selected to go through to the final which takes place in the same venue on 11th December. I’m pleased that both Robyn and Emily made it through to the final which I am very much looking forward too. For the final there will be the Instructor and Professional categories along with the Elite category which consists of previous winners of national competitions.