The Bristol Pole Championships 2011

Well, last weekend was the Bristol Pole Championships which I competed in. I have been training hard for the competition and it has been quite a journey to get there. I have suffered from terrible nerves weeks before hand and on several occasions came really close to pulling out but hung on in there thanks to the encouragement of my friends and pole students and in the end I’m really glad that I did go ahead and compete.

As I said I was training hard , making sure I practiced my combos every time I was on a pole and then as the competition got closer running through the full routine a lot. It was the routine run throughs that really kicked off my nerves. The combos that I was managing to do perfectly every time on their own were all going wrong when put into the routine! I think I actually only managed two successful run-throughs the whole time. The three days before the competition I was struck down with a nasty cold type bug. Luckily it was short lived and by the day of the competition I was feeling a lot better and was no longer relying on lemsip capsules!

On the day itself I was really nervous. There was a problem in my category with the pole being slippery and some of the competitors that were on earlier than me had problems and had to go on again and re-do their routines which wasn’t helping the nerves at all. Eventually it was my turn and luckily the pole was pretty grippy. I didn’t make any major mistakes and was reasonably pleased with how it turned out. Watching my video back I have decided that I really need to work on pointing my toes and that I need to hold the positions for longer. I held my hip hold for what seemed like ages at the time but watching it back that’s actually the only one that I held for the right amount of time so I will be working on those things for future routines.

You can see my performance here –


Robyn from 360 Pole Dancing was defending her title in the competition as she was last year’s winner and I’m pleased to say that she was successful. You can watch her winning performance here –


Before the competition I had said that I was never going to enter another one again but now I’m not so sure! I’ll see how I feel next year!

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!

Pole progress

It’s been a whole month since I last posted! Oops! I’ve been quite busy with my poling and feel that I am making progress (albeit a little slowly). My aysha is coming along. It still needs a lot of work but I’m getting it more regularly now and I know where I’m getting it wrong when it doesn’t work out right so that’s good. My genie is there now, I just need to remember to point my toes! The shoulder mount lift is coming along slowly. Sometimes I can manage to lift it all the way up from sitting but mostly I’m getting part of the way up. I had a practice session on my own at the studio on Friday night and was pleased with that. I videoed it all which was helpful as I can look at the footage and see how the moves are looking and spot what I’m doing wrong.

I went to a mini pole jam / practive at 360 pole dancing in Bristol on bank holiday Monday which was fun. There was a Chinese pole up as well as the normal poles which was good, especially as it was a 3 meter one. I haven’t had a chance to go on a decent height Chinese pole for ages.

Corde lisse is going well. I couldn’t go on Monday night as I was ill which was annoying but hopefully will be back to normal by Monday. I hate missing classes.

I have finished bootcamp for a while now as I am going into full pole competition training mode. As my Friday night practice worked out so well last week I plan on making it a regular fixture for a while so Wednesday has become my rest day.

My pole classes are hopefully picking up a bit now that August is over. I’ve had quite a lot of new enquiries over the past week or so, so with any luck the classes will get a bit busier.

Bristol Pole Championships

Last night I went to watch the Bristol Pole Championships which were held at The Bierkeller in Bristol. Several of my students came along with me to watch as well. I was glad to just be watching this time and not competing! The competition was made up of three categories – Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced / Professional. I knew several people that were competing across all of the categories.

There were some excellent performances across all three categories. The professional category was won by my friend (the owner of 360 Pole Dancing in Bristol where I go for my Thursday lesson), Robyn Rooke, whose routine I loved. I also particularly enjoyed the performance by Emily Smith of Emily’s Pole Fitness in Swindon.

I love watching competitions, they always inspire me to continue improving.

Here is Robyn’s performance –