What’s the Hardest Pole Dancing Move?
In this episode of the Science of Slink podcast, Dr. Rosy Boa explores the question, 'What is the hardest pole dance move?' She explains that the answer depends on various factors such as individual physiology, training background, and specific adaptations. Dr. Boa discusses different challenging pole moves categorized by flexibility, strength, and athleticism, emphasizing the importance of specialized training. She also offers insights for hobbyist pole dancers on achieving impressive performances without extreme movements, and provides encouragement for those pursuing advanced techniques.
Citations:
Hawley, J. A. (2002). Adaptations of skeletal muscle to prolonged, intense endurance training. Clinical and experimental pharmacology and physiology, 29(3), 218-222.
Izquierdo, M., Häkkinen, K., Gonzalez-Badillo, J. J., Ibanez, J., & Gorostiaga, E. M. (2002). Effects of long-term training specificity on maximal strength and power of the upper and lower extremities in athletes from different sports. European journal of applied physiology, 87, 264-271.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Science of Slink
00:19 What is the Hardest Move in Pole Dance?
01:17 Specificity of Training and Adaptation
05:33 Flexibility moves
08:26 Strength moves
10:51 Power moves
14:12 Impressive (but not necessarily difficult) moves for Performances
16:56 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
Transcript:
Hello pole nerd and welcome to the Science of Slink podcast with me, your host, Dr. Rosy Boa. As always, this podcast is brought to you by my members in the Science of Slink Home Pole membership. I love y'all. Thank you so much for your support. And I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you so heart.
Today I'm gonna answer a question that I get mostly from people who don't pole dance themselves, but also sometimes from pole dancers.
And I think it's a really great way to get into some of the things that I talk about a lot, about specificity of training and adaptation. So the question I get a lot is, what is the hardest move in pole dance? And I'm just gonna save you the episode. The answer is: it depends. Thank you so much for coming here.
I'm only slightly kidding. If any of y'all are, are big into science communication. You've probably heard the joke that, like the answer to any question is, it depends. And in this case, very much true.
But there are some things that it depends on. And so I'm gonna talk about some different movements that are extremely challenging and just try and give you a framework to think about difficulty when it comes to athletic movements and specifically pole moves.
So first of all, I talk about this a lot when we are doing any sort of athletic training, when we're doing any sort of exercise, any strength training, endurance training, flexibility training, balance training, vestibular adaptation, all that good stuff. All of the changes that our body make are specific and not general.
Right. And I think a helpful example of this for pole dancers is you've probably heard about like breaking in your skin, right? Even if we're talking about the same area of the body, you may have a peripheral nerve desensitization, which is what that's called right? When you, you get to the point where the friction and the pressure doesn't hurt anymore, and it does get there if you continuously show up and keep working on the pole movement, that hurts. If it is the heart is coming from skin friction and pressure, eventually it goes away. You get that peripheral nerve desensitization, just like martial artists desensitize their, their fists.
But even if we're talking about that peripheral nerve desensitization in the upper thigh, just because you're desensitized to a pole sit unfortunately does not mean that you're gonna be desensitized to a Superman, even though they're using very similar parts of the thighs. Hawley 2002 is a really good reference for here.
That's, that's in the down there.
If you want to do something that is very, very challenging, your training is going to have to specialize. So as you begin to work on more and more challenging pole movements, the things that work for you, the things that you begin to specialize in generally begin to narrow.
So if you ever watch really, really high level polers. Often if you watch the same polers over multiple performances, they will have sort of a smaller set of signature tricks, right? Things that they're working on that are, you know, again, just. Challenging for most people in their bodies, but, but then for them it really works well.
Right?
So if they've got a really beautiful over split, which is when you have a front split that's at more than 180 degrees, probably they're gonna do multiple movements that require a really beautiful over split because that's an adaptation that they have, that they can make use of in multiple places.
On the other hand, if maybe they don't have a very strong split, but they've got a very beautiful back bend and nice open shoulders, probably they're gonna incorporate more back bend movements in their pole dance
Or if they have a lot of upper body strength that may be very limited upper body mobility, they're not, they're not gonna do the flexibility movements, they're gonna do the strength movements, right.
So. As you get more and more specific in your training as you're working on things that have greater and greater challenge generally what happens is you start to narrow and specialize and there are specific things that you prefer. And that may be due to your movement background. It may be due to facts of your physiology.
Right? I think I mentioned this before. I have very short arms. For me, anything with a back grab like tabletop is pretty challenging. So it's just. Not something I trained particularly right. And if I were trying to put together let's say a competition piece where I really wanted to impress people, I wouldn't put in a bunch of things that are harder for me than they are for someone who has arms that are of a, of a more normal length or has very long arms, right?
So as you get more advanced in pole, as you start to specialize in your movements, the things that you're training on and focusing on, will probably start to narrow. You'll probably start to develop some specializations, which is to say something may be extremely challenging.
But there are a couple things that do generally make movements harder in pole. So in general, things that have fewer contact points with the pole are gonna be harder. The less friction you have with the pole the less surface area you have to push into or pole against, generally those things are gonna be harder.
Generally the further your body is from the pole, the more challenging movements you're going to be. So I think a really good example of a movement that has few contact points and your body's really far from the pole, and I think most people would call pretty challenging, is starfish.
And if you're not familiar with this, this is a pole movement where one of your feet is flexed on the pole the other foot is flexed and you've caught on the top of your foot and then your body is straight out to the side.
So only your feet are on the pole. Pretty challenging movement.
And then more specifically, if there are specific physical requirements that a move has that are well beyond the capability of, you know, the general population, those things are gonna be harder, right? And that could be flexibility, that could be strength, or that could be athleticism and sort of the three bins that I tend to think about.
So let's talk about flexibility first of all. And I will say if you're interested in working these flexibility moves in particular, I would be working with a contortion coach specifically because these require a range of motion that is well beyond the general range of motion you need just to be a human in the world.
And I would say even a fairly advanced pole dancer. So one. Is Eagle or emotion catcher. So if you're familiar with the motion of a needle, right, that's when you lift your leg behind you. You reach behind your head with both hands. And then you straighten your arm and your leg. This can be done as a standing split.
It is a move that requires an enormous amount of flexibility both in your splits and also in your back and your shoulders. So that's building on that contortion level flexibility.
So if you're taking that on the pole both eagle and emotion catcher require that a motion catcher, you are hooking in the knee and the bottom leg is bent. Eagle. It's more straight. Either way, contortion levels of flexibility, very extreme, looks very beautiful. I would say a less challenging version of this because gravity helps you get into the more extreme ranges of flexibility would be cherry ribbon, which is the same thing, but upside down.
Still very challenging. I I can't do that in fact. I can't do any of these that we're talking about today. These are things that like very extreme on the human body. So that is in terms of like shoulders and splits in terms of spine flexibility, getting even deeper into it you've got rainbow marchenko so that is with a, an armpit grip.
You're upside down and you are doing a split. And then something that has an even greater degree of flexibility required from it is a shrimp, which is instead of having a split there, you take the leg that is piked, the leg that is forward and you bring it back.
So it's basically a headsit from contortion again on the pole. Very challenging. This is something that a a, a contortionist who's a backbend specialist and also works on pol be working on.
Another thing that requires a great degree of flexibility. So this actually requires an over pancake. If you're familiar, a pancake is when you are in a straddle, your legs are part and you lean forward in an over pancake, you can bring your, your shoulders and your, your ribs. Pass your feet in that position, and that's what you need to be in to be in Spatch Cock.
So Spatch Cock is like a side split up the pole where your shoulders are in front of the pole. Your ankles are behind the pole. You kind of look like a spatch cocked chicken. It's a, a type of game preparation. That's why it's called that. High degree of flexibility needed.
Those are just some examples on the pole. It is gonna be very challenging to do. You need to become a contortionist and be successful at it. And I think to the sort of general population generally looks pretty wild because again, it requires contortion degrees of flexibility, so that's not flexibility.
And then strength, right? So I, I've talked about this before, right? But adaptation is specific, et cetera. Hopefully if you're training flexibility, you're also training strength. Hopefully your contortion training, if you're doing it, kind of looks like strength training is about moving into and being stable in those end ranges.
But they are different. And these next movements I would say have high strength requirements, not necessarily super high flexibility requirements. So probably the, the sort of the best known that I think even people who don't, not necessarily in pole, will potentially have seen is human flag.
So this is a split group movement. Just like you would do for a hand, Aisha, I'm saying hand Aisha to distinguish it from elbow Aisha here where your hands are split on the pole and your torso is straight out parallel to the floor. Big strength requirement. And of course the strength requirement here is going to be greater.
The further down your body, or I should say, the further towards your feet, your center of gravity is. So if you have wider hips, that's where you tend to carry your weight. This is gonna be more challenging than if you have broader shoulders, and that's where you tend to carry your weight. It'll also be more challenging if you have something like lymphedema, right, where you tend to have just like a lot of mass on the bottom of your body.
And not as much mass on, on the top. So very challenging, more challenging for some people than others. Another variation that's a little bit less challenging because it begins to move some of the mass towards the pole is iron X. So it's that same shape, split grip but instead of your legs being straight out to the side they are open into a straddle. So that you're making an X with your body.
And also in terms of strength, anything that is dead lefty, right? Which means that you are moving yourself into a position just using strength rather than using momentum or force against the pole. Force against the floor, right? You're not jumping into things is gonna be more challenging.
So I would say things like press handstands single press handstands deadlifting from a, an armpit flag up to brass. Anything like a shoulder mount. And then circling your hips, multiple repetitions, anything that you're doing slowly and more controlled requires a great deal of strength is hard.
And in particular, the more mass you have and the further away from the pole it is, the harder it's going to be. So very, very challenging. Again, at the extreme aim of sort of strength demands. If these are things that you want to work on, I would recommend working with, someone who works with pole dancers at that level, like Britta is great and really working on building your strength specifically for these things.
And then final bit of things that I would say require a lot of athleticism. So this is about power. This is about generating a lot of force very quickly and being able to control it. And again, these are things that I cannot do. And a couple of things here that in general I would say are very challenging, well above the level of just sort of power that most people need to get around their lives.
So one would be the Phoenix spin. So this is a reverse grab up into a handspring, basically very, very challenging. Another would be Flick Fla which is sort of similar to Phoenix except instead of going into a spin you go your, your path momentum is parallel to the pole. So you start with one hand on the pole, and then you do a flip and you catch yourself with your other hand, and you're ending up in handspring or an Aisha.
Again, very challenging. Requires a lot of athleticism, requires a lot of precision, requires a lot of power. Also fgi I would say is definitely a another move that requires a lot of athleticism. And so this is from a shoulder mount. You, flip your body towards the pole and you end up catching underneath your armpit in a flag grip.
And this is when I started pole, this was like the thing, like all the super elite polers were doing, and they were, they were busting out at competitions. I, I don't know that it is as much that anymore, but you need power, you need speed, and you need precision.
And I should point out here that training strength moves like deadlifts is not necessarily going to help prepare you for power moves. When you are training improvements in one is not automatically going to give you improvements in the other. So when I talk about specificity and specialization in more advanced pole movements, it's one of the things I'm talking about.
So. If you're training for big strength moves I would have you do different things than if you were training for really athletic big power moves. And I should say none of these things are things that I'm interested in training people in I would pass you on to other specialists in the pole space. This is just to help give you a better conceptual understanding of what sorts of things might need to go into this and why you can't really say there's a hardest pole move.
Those are the three bins that I would sort of think about. You know, extreme flexibility extreme strength and athleticism. Any of these moves are very, very challenging.
I think you could make an argument, right? Like, is is evil harder than human flag? Well, it depends, right? It depends on you, on your body. Would one of them be harder than the other for you? Almost certainly. Would one of them take longer than the other for you to learn?
Probably, and that might have to do with, you know, fat distribution. That may have to do with training backgrounds that may have to do with joint health. That may have to do with just sort of the structure of your collagen. Are you hypermobile or not? It does not necessarily follow that. If you are hypermobile, contortion training is going to be easier for you 'cause it's gonna require more brain power and more, more building proprioception.
This is why I say it. Defense, right? 'cause all of these things require really specific, specialized adaptation that is extreme, that is well beyond just like what I would recommend a hobbyist pole dancer think about and work on, unless you're really willing to put in the effort and the work and the specialist training to do these particular things.
That said I work with hobbyist pole dancers. I'm a hobbyist pole dancer. I like to perform. And also there are lots of things that you can do that are impressive that do not require a lifetime of training. So a couple things that I have noticed in my experience audiences, particularly non pole audiences, get really excited excited about that do not actually require, you know, contortion training five days a week.
A big one is, no hands. So if you can get into a pole movement and you know, pause for one with your hands on the pole and then take your hands off the pole, people are really into that. There's a sit variation, I would call it, it's got a lot of names, but basically it is from a climb. Standing up, having your knees and thighs in front of the pole and then releasing your hands. So you are you are upright. Some people call it an upright crucifix. I've heard it called a goddess sit. I've told it. It called a pole stand. It's got a lot of names especially non pole crowds love that. You, you let go of the pole with your hands. Very exciting for them.
Spin pole in general tends to get, especially lay audiences more excited particularly if you spin really fast. So tron upright or tornado inverted. A tornado is just outside leg hang, sorry. An inside leg hang where you bring your back leg up so that it's close to the pole and you spin really fast. They love that shit. And if you can handle spinning really fast then I would say fantastic. Put it in your pole pieces. People will go nuts for it.
At the things people love drops and this is something that you'll see a lot in sort of professional performance, pole performance. They'll be like, I'm doing a ball drop from the top. And I would say ball drops. Can be a little bit scary very loud, makes like a loud squeak with your body on the pole, people are really impressed by. But in terms of like the, the range of things that I'm talking about here, like human flag and emotion catcher ball drop is not in that that category. You can learn ball drop in a couple weeks. So but fantastic to put in pieces, especially people who don't know much about pole. Love it. Love a good drop.
Anything when you go upside down people are always very excited about inverts. Aerial inverts. Very excited about that, and that does, of course, require a great deal of coordination, especially if you're doing it on spin. Coordination and strength and flexibility. I'm not by any means saying that Ariel inverts are easy, but again, we're, if we're, if we're comparing 'em to like flick flack, they're much easier than that and people get really excited by them. So if that's in your repertoire, if it's something you feel comfortable with, great thing to put in a, just a performance piece.
Heels, people like heels, people like heel clacks. If that's something that feels good to you, something that's fun for you, put that in there. People really like it. Also that's what we're gonna be working on in June on the studio. It's it's heels month. So get excited for that. I always am. Even if you don't wear heels we spent a lot of time working on strengthening and building our connection with our feet and our ankles which is always a good time. And my, my ankles always feel really great after heels month. So if you're interested and also having good feeling and guilts, maybe you can join us.
And then the thing that will always impress an audience is if you prepare to do something. You hold for a moment, you connect with them, and then you do the thing and then you hold for applause. If you can hold in a shape so that people can applaud for it, I don't care what the shape is. It could be a sit and you let go with one hand. And if you are, you know, connecting with the audience if you are looking at them, if you're smiling at them if you are waiting for them to applaud, they love that they will, they'll have a great time. And if you are interested in performing for people it does not need to be the hardest possible movements you can do. It should be movements that you enjoy and that are fun for you and that you can hold. And, you know, people who don't do pole don't really know, right?
The ideal pole movement for me is one that feels good for me and my body. That's number one. And two that looks more impressive than it actually is. So that tends to be what I teach. And that tends to be what I gravitate towards. And if you're looking to, if you're looking to learn fonzi, I am not the coach to teach you that, but know that it is a possibility it is something that you can work towards. And if you are interested in working towards some of these extreme pole movements, know that it's gonna take a while. Know that it's gonna require a lot of specific adaptation and training and conditioning and off pole training. I wish you luck if this is a journey that you are on.
And if you are someone who's like, you know, I've got this wishlist of pole moves I have to do, and you're thinking about that wishlist and at this point you're realizing, Hey, there's a big strength move here, there's a big power move here, and there's a big flexibility move here. It's gonna be really hard to train those three things at the same time. So maybe you. You know, think about removing some of those from your list. Or maybe you're like, okay, I'm gonna take these in seasons, right? I'm gonna think about really, really dialing in on flexibility, really dialing in strength, really dialing in on power, whatever it is that you're working towards.
You don't have to do everything. I've been poling for [mumble]-teen years. I can't do any of the things that I talked about today as being you know, potential hardest pole moves. And it's fine. I have a great time. When I do perform, people enjoy watching me perform. It's fine. You, there is no, listen, this is not a sports anime. You do not have to get, you know, the mega ultra move to have a nice time and enjoy yourself and be successful as a pole dancer. And I hope that that is something that you can internalize in your heart and take with you on your journey.
Thank you so much for joining me today for Science of Slink. I hope you got some ways of thinking about things that are maybe helpful for you. I hope you, you learned something, you had a nice time. And if you're interested in coming and dancing with me I teach drop-ins or of course I have a membership, which is everything that I teach live, you sign up, you get the email to drop into class, you get the email with recording. You don't have to do anything after you sign up. It all just arrives in your inbox. Easy peasy and it's a great time and we'd love to have you.
Otherwise, I will see you in the next episode. Bye.
