you know ... for kids!

Tonight's hoop shenanigans while listening to Wish by The Cure.

This was my fave discovery of the evening. Most things feel more natural on my left hand except for rolls. I've been more casually practicing on the left side over the past couple of years rather than any dedicated training. But look!

Josh a.k.a @techswan on IG taught some chest roll fakeouts, which tie right into last night's happy accident during practice. This one is not one of those but an interesting twist.

After about 10 minutes of it not working, I took one of my kid sized hoops and focused on a spot in the framed art on that wall.

This move is going to be incorporated into twins class in some sort of 5 beat weave formation. There's no post of it up yet.

I'm trying to start doing drills every week. I'm just getting bursts of movement in when I can. As you can see, we're still unpacking.

Ha!

I did two attempts to follow along and this is my first one. I actually dropped the hoop less the first time than the second time.

This is the same hoop that is in the video from a 2017, I just re-taped it in 2020.

I realized that a lot of the 2017 video is waist to chest hooping, which isn't what I did in today's video at all.

The lighting is bad and I didn't really pay attention to being in frame, but it's interesting to see the side-by-side.

I started cleaning up my saved hooping videos last night. This is from September of 2017.

I originally picked up waist hooping in middle school in the late 80s and did that on and off through high school, but I'd just hoop in one direction and could not achieve it in the other direction. This is and was bad. I basically overdeveloped one side and it's been an effort to balance myself out.

In 2008, I was interested in the hoop resurgence and got a beginner hoop but didn't really get far. YouTube was not was not what it is now and it was hard to find tutorials. I did get some hooping DVDs which helped, but it didn't stick. I would still waist hoop on and off but didn't know or realize there was a hooping community nearby I could tap into.

In late September of 2016, I saw an ad for a hoop flow class during the month of October. in my local online newspaper's site. It was every Sunday at 2 pm and the yoga studio that was hosting it was maybe a 10 minute drive from my house in GA. I signed up and learning with that instructor was a huge step towards this being my primary hobby.

Though this video is 11 months in, I had surgery in June of 2017 to remove a huge ovarian cyst. I didn't hoop for about 3 months and had experienced pain while hooping for maybe 6 weeks before doctors figured out what was going on. This is my long-winded way of explaining why it's so beginner-y.

I was a beginner in terms of understanding moving with the hoop and getting comfortable with it, even though I knew how to waist hoop. It's been interesting to watch these in order to determine what I want to keep or delete. I'm trying very hard to not cringe at my awkwardness. I'm doing a lot of t-rex arms, which I will sometimes still do if I'm tired.

What cracks me up about this video are Diva and Gigabyte, my two then-senior kitties. They tolerated each other. Diva had just turned 19. Gigabyte was 13.

I love how Diva immediately appears after Gigabyte comes out to see if she can get my attention. Diva was SOOO jealous of Gig. That box Diva settles into is HER box. I found it at Walmart and I think I had kitty toys in it but repurposed it for her with a cushion so she could feel safe, though Gigabyte never was the aggressor.

Most of Thursday's twins hoop combo minus the extra toss.

Inner hoop arm roll to shoulder

That same hoop drives the barrel roll. Then there's a swing down/ placement on elbow

Outer hoop does a sneaky z-spin to get that hand in the correct position for the windmill

Windmill (that move above my head) to what Emma calls a butter-flop (where you extend your arms out, thumbs down and cross the hoops in front of you and then extend back out but thumbs up

The rest is just me faffing around (handspin to ocho-grip)

We learn the combos piece by piece. At the end, Emma will add something on that's more of a challenge for folks who have been taking classes with her for a while. One gal in the class shared this move from another hooper with Emma and she incorporated it into this combo.