Posts Tagged ‘hula hoop questions’

QUESTION: Should you just hoop in one direction?
ANSWER: Hoop BOTH Ways!
Here’s why you should expand your hoop dance to utilize Both Directions (hooping to the right AND hooping to the left).

Hoop Both Ways…It Has It’s Benefits!

1. Work your Body.
   If you lifted weights, you probably wouldn’t just do right arm bicep curls. You’d work both sides equally, for strength and balance. When you practice utilizing both sides, you train your body to develop stronger muscle memory.
2. Work your Brain.
   The right side of your brain controls the left side of your body, and vice versa. Also, when you challenge your brain with new learning, you create new neural pathways.
3. Variety and Expansion.
   If you are able to get into a variety of moves from both directions, you will exceptionally expand what’s possible in your hooping practice.
4. Extra Ah-Ha Moments!
   You may get something on your non-dominant side that you were previously struggling with when you were hooping in your comfort zone, aka “favorite side.”

Hooping in your “favorite” or “dominant” side is often referred to as your “current.” I like to hoop in both currents. I also highly encourage my students to regularly hoop in both directions. It increases what’s easily possible and accessible. If you can only get into a move or transition from one direction, then you limit your flow dance options to only what feels comfortable and accessible from your favorite direction. By working both directions while hooping, your creativity can become exponential!

How to get that “other side” when it doesn’t feel as natural?

Often we refer to our opposite current as our “bad side.” Those words actually makes me cringe, because that side did nothing wrong to deserve that ill-fated moniker, other than it doesn’t get much practice time. Also when you keep speaking those words, you can come to believe it as truth. And it’s just not fair to put something down about yourself.

So I call my so-called non-dominant side, “My Side That Needs a Little Extra Love.” So give that side more rotations, so that it does feel more comfortable. Muscle memory takes time and repetition. Practice is the key. It may not feel great while you’re first trying it, but as you practice, it will start to feel more natural, and eventually even second nature!

Warm, Cozy, and Stuck

Lastly, know that your current/dominant side can become a warm and cozy comfort zone. Sometimes of not trying new things. It can also become a rut where you get stuck. Often we develop an unconscious habit of how to do something. If you are stuck getting a new move, switch up the direction, or side, that you are trying it on. When you engage in this “beginner mind” methodology, you are way more open to discovering and trying a new technique, than the habitual patterned brain is.

Enjoy hooping in both directions. May your fun incorporating both sides, build your hoop dance tool box of possibilities.

Want to see how to “Go Both Ways” in your hooping? Check out this YouTube video now: https://youtu.be/c2NTraAbeP8

♥ This article is especially dedicated to Kat and the FabOver40hoopcommunity ♥

*****

~Che’ Rippinger is Hip The Hoopla‘s CHO (Chief Hooping Officer)/Owner/Founder and head humorist, with heart. She’s been hula hooping since 2008 and founded Hip The Hoopla in 2011 – while teaching, performing and making pro custom dance hula hoops. A dancer most of her life (30+years), Che’ has also been a humor writer/columnist, illustrator and cartoonist for The Denver Post and her Touché! Cartoons have been featured in PLAYGIRL Magazine.

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