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Level 6 unlocked! Pole up!


Tonight was my first official level 6 class in pole, and it was a major success. Aside from my arms being too tired in the beginning to do either a normal pole sit climb or quality handspring, I was able to do every move we learned.

What helps me more than the other girls is that: A) I dropped in on a level 6 class once before, so I've already been taught some of these things; and B) I learned a lot of these moves before I left pole dancing 2 years ago and before the classes were restructured.

As I've mentioned before, the level structures are totally different now; so some of the harder things I struggled with in the upper levels before are now being taught in the lower levels and vice versa. We learned a caterpillar climb and extended butterfly in level 4 before, so I have those down pat; but we didn't learn shoulder mounts until old levels 6 or 7, so that was difficult for me to pick up in new level 3. But that means that when we do caterpillar climbs now, I already know what I'm doing, which looks impressive to the other girls. But there are a ton of things I'm still learning.

To my best recollection, this is what we worked on:

- Pole sit climb
- Hands only climb
- Caterpillar climb
- Handspring/Inverted D
- Jamilla into butterfly
- Walkover into bridge from forearm stand
- One-handed walkover/cartwheel on the pole
- Reverse shoulder mount
- Brass monkey from flag

Image result for brass monkey pole trickI was determined to get that f-ing brass monkey today, and suspected that what I needed to do to get it was look down and over while I was kicking and just trust that I wouldn't fall on my head. That last part is what's prevented me from trying to do this, because it honestly feels like you're going to drop right on your head. But I had a good grip and said to myself, "give it a shot."

It worked! After trying that method, I got it on the first try! And then I got it a second time! I didn't have enough time to try it a third time, but now that I have the technique down, I don't think it'll be a big problem. High five to me for getting my longest-lasting nemesis move!

I now can't think of any nemesis moves that I have left, which is a good feeling. There's the Remy sit layback, which I can technically *do,* it just hurts so much that I don't do it. I guess that's kind of a nemesis move... I think Iguana will be my next one. I have a feeling I'm going to have trouble getting it.

As I was looking for pictures of a brass monkey online, I found a bunch of transition moves from brass monkey that I didn't know existed and that look super cool. I'm definitely going to try some of these out:



 

  

Can't wait to try them!

Also, there's a combo I want to try at my next class: Jamilla --> Butterfly --> Extended butterfly --> Bat --> Caterpillar climb

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