Cool Honey's Sunday Circus

Today was our weekly hoop group day! Instead of Rowan's class at Discovery Green, it was Cool Honey's Sunday Circus at Menil Park, a tiny park in the Montrose area. The park was full of people picnicking, taking photos, playing with their dogs, and in general hanging out and having fun! A big group of hoopers apparently attracts the interest of other park-goers. From hipsters to little kids, everyone had a blast giving the hoops a whirl. 

At one point, we probably had 8 or 9 strangers working hoops! Some of the strangers brought beer, and challenged me to chug one while hooping. Here's the poor quality video of the poor quality attempt.

Menil park is tiny, but gorgeous, with the most amazing atmosphere. It has some gorgeous plant life there, and one of the trees nearby was perfect for climbing. I couldn't resist. Then someone handed me a hoop!

All in all, a great day. Made some new friends, got to try slack-lining (which I suck at), and someone is going to bring a Go-Pro camera next week so we can shoot some hoop perspective videos! I'm super excited.

Stop Light Isolations

The street name for this move is procrastination! I have a paper due tomorrow that I am just stuck on, so I decided to take a little hoop break. During this break, I found myself doing this new move when playing with isolations. My boyfriend Nick thought it looked pretty neat, so I decided to share it with you, faceless internet! I call it, the Stop Light Isolation because you make three vertically stacked circles.

This move starts with an isolation centered at your belly button, then throws in an isopop at both the top and the bottom of the circle. Since I have my paper due tomorrow, I'm not going to break this move down for you, but those two tutorials linked above are from some great teachers that taught me what I know! Give them a view. 

Let me know if you like this move! Also, have a bonus video of me hooping to more Shakira.

Scissor Switch

A lot of people have trouble with this move. It's really hard to just keep the hoop level as it switches back and forth. Here's some tip, pointers, and an example video! (Again, for some reason, not letting me embed.)

To start, make sure you can hoop at the knee. Use a small, lighter hoop for this trick as well. Initially, I would practice placing the hoop between your legs and just practicing the reversal part. Work on keeping the hoop as level as possible. I find this is easier just at the knees and below the knees, but if the hoop is placed just above the knee, then it starts flying in all sorts of directions when you attempt reversals. 

When you start incorporating pulling your knee out and putting it back in, there a few tips that really helped me. First is, when you're hooping on one knee and going to drop your other leg in to begin reversals, have your leg behind you and sweep forward to meet the hoop. The energy from your leg will transfer to the hoop and give it the push it needs to change directions. From there, you just keep control like when you were practicing just the reversals, focusing on keeping the hoop level.

When pulling your leg out of the way to continue one knee hooping, its a very quick motion. You have to make sure your leg gets out of the way before the hoop has a chance to come all the way back around after giving it that final push. When doing reversals, you keep contact with the hoop on your outer leg. When giving the final push, you need to give it just enough push to get the hoop moving in the other direction, then get it out of the way!

Best of luck everyone! Let me know below what tips helped and feel free to post additional advice!

Multi-hoop body hooping

I finally had some luck with multi-hoop body hooping! It's not so much different from regular hooping. Before attempting to hoop at both the waist and chest, you need to be able to hoop at the waist and chest individually with ease (obviously)! You also need to be able to do the waist to chest shimmy with no hands. If you're having some trouble, a great tutorial can help!

Some tips to start: use two large, heavy hoops that are the same size. Start them on your waist and perform the shimmy up move. If both hoops move up, let one fall back down to your waist. Usually if the hoops are heavier, only one hoop will come up. I generally have both hoops start coming up, then stop doing the shimmy halfway through. The bottom hoop will fall, and the other hoop will continue up.

The movement to keep the bottom hoop moving will be your body shifting weight from foot to foot. You shift your entire body back and forth on the balls of your feet to keep the waist hooping going. The movement to keep the chest hoop going will be very similar to regular chest hooping.

If the chest hoop is spinning at the same rate as the waist hoop, then you'll just need to continue shifting your weight back and forth. However, the chest hoop will eventually start spinning split time with your waist hoop. At that time. you're going to need to push your chest out and in opposite the movement of the hoop. This is where the heavier hoop helps a lot. The heavier hoop will put more pressure on your body, so you'll have a better awareness of its position on your body.

If this helped you, or you have any other tips, post them below!

Vortex Brakes

I love this move that I've seen in a few of Neon Emu's videos. I've never seen a tutorial for it, and I don't know what it's called. I'd dubbed it a Vortex Brake. It's a really good transition between on-body and off-body moves. It's also changes your spin direction, so you can use it to change if you are spinning off-body opposite your natural direction.

To do this move, start in lasso above your head. If you're spinning with your right hand, the hoop should be travelling to the right. I switch back and forth in this video so you can see both ways. So as the hoop spinning above  you, grasp the hoop when it is directly over you with your thumb facing the direction the hoop just came from. Bring your hand down across your chest to your side. 

When the hoop reaches your side, make sure you have a firm grip on it. You're going to sort of rebound the hoop off your palm to reverse the hoop direction. Use the bouncing movement of the hoop to change direction, then bring your arm back up in across your chest and continue hooping above the head. It needs to be a very quick movement so the hoop doesn't lose momentum. 

Using a lighter hoop will help a lot for this. Also try to do this move in a mirror (that's why I'm constantly looking to the side). You'll be able to see if your hoop looks level and pretty, or if it is drooping down at one end. 

Let me know if you have any luck!

First Hoop Group

Today I went to Discovery Green to hoop with the Houston Hooper Stahs. I really enjoyed hooping with a group and being silly with some new music. Rowan is an incredible organizer and teacher, and there were several other very talented ladies there, like Sassyraffe, Moxi, and Karen, and Kelsi.

There was an amazing gentleman named Tom who was there for both the hooping class and the yoga class following it. This is Tom doing a headstand! Tom is the kind of guy who refuses to act his age, and he's amazing for it.

If you're new to hooping, I'd definitely try to find a community of hoopers to learn with. Try searching Meet Up, Hoop City, and Facebook for groups in your area. Don't be afraid to go alone, but take a friend if it makes you feel more comfortable. Most of these groups are focused on helping beginners get into the sport, so anyone could go and have a great time!

Some Latin Groovin'

I love Shakira, and I love reggaeton music. I love the beat it gives, and the tempo is perfect for hooping. Its a great beat to dance to, and I had more fun with this song than any others so far.

If you want to look good while working on your flow, make sure every movement your body makes is intentional and shouts confidence. Confidence is the key to nailing flow. As you can tell from the video, I'm still trying to work on that. Particularly I need more confidence when doing vortexes and knee hooping tricks.

When knee hooping, try to do something with your arms that *doesn't* look like you're flailing your arms about (my attempt is weak). In general, not just for knee hooping, turning in circles, taking steps, pointing your toes, extending your arm, bending at the knee are all things you can do to look more confident while hooping. I'll work on taking my own advice. It's a lot harder to focus on when hooping, and I have zero dancing background.