Difficulty: Advanced

The Half Flag is an eye-catching pose. It’s a very graceful move when performed properly, while at the same time showing demonstrating impressive strength and core control.

About the Half Flag

You’ve probably seen advanced pole dancers pivoting into a Half Flag at the top of a pole and holding it with impressive control. Start at the bottom! Once you feel confident performing the pose, then move it up the pole to wow the crowds (or your cat :). It’s also an easier pose to get into from the floor than when hanging onto a pole.

There are a number of different Half Flag poses, and they don’t all have straight legs. It’s more important to focus at first on turning your hips and keeping your body horizontal and flat. (So if your left arm is hooked and your right arm is down the pole, you need to turn your hips left, and vice versa.)

You can try attitude legs (bent legs and pointed toes) as Libby does in the video. This shifts your body weight inwards and is much less strenuous to hold — and it looks really pretty too!

The Half Flag isn’t that difficult technically, but it does require a lot of strength and confidence to master. After you’ve perfected the pole grip, work on raising your legs in a tucked position to get safely in and out of the move. Then try holding that tucked position for longer and, when you’re comfortable with that, move on to the attitude legs pose. Finally work towards the straight Half Flag as your core strength — and overall strength — allows.

In detail

1. Stand next to the pole and wrap your inside arm around the pole, gripping the pole in your armpit and locking your arm on the pole.
2. Point your other arm straight down the pole, with your wrist facing up and your elbow bent and resting on your stomach.
3. Leaning forward and, engaging your core muscles, slowly lift your legs off the floor. Tilt your hips away from the floor so your body becomes horizontal.
4. As you get more confident with the move, lift your legs higher and twist your hips so they’re flat to the pole, keeping your feet together to create the perfect Half Flag pose.

In action

Top tips

• Try the move with the pole on both sides to work out which side feels more comfortable for you. Some people can do both, but almost everyone has a favourite side.
• If you cannot lift your legs at all, try lowering your initial arm grip so your body is already in a flatter position, then raise your legs into a tucked position to check your arms will support you.
• Breasts and nylon tops will cause problems with the Half Flag. Take care of your boobs by making sure you grip the pole with your armpit and don’t squash any delicate breast tissue. Make sure your clothing around your armpit is nylon free (or, better yet, wear a strappy top for extra skin contact).
• Another great variation on the Half Flag you can try is bending your legs together and then running in the air — an impressive display of your core strength.

Find this move and 65 others on Pole Exercise DVD 1.

Difficulty: Intermediate

There’s no doubt about it: inverting on a pole for the first time can be scary.

Perhaps you’ve been pole dancing for a few weeks, building up your move repertoire and now you really want to try some of those amazing inverted poses.

But there’s just one problem…

I’m scared of falling on my head!

First, let’s talk about why inverting is not actually that difficult. I’m sure you’re already comfortable holding yourself on the pole with your legs in the Icon Pose or when sitting on the pole, and once you’ve inverted you’ll be gripping the pole in much the same way.

There’s a lot of grip on offer, and the Basic Invert leaves your body wrapped around the pole so it’s a pretty secure pose too. In fact, if it weren’t for you being upside down, this move would almost be too boring to discuss.

Preparing to invert

Usually the worry about inverting is a much bigger obstacle to success than actual ability, so take some precautions to make yourself feel better. Get a friend or partner to spot for you: have her stand close to the pole and press her hands against your back once you’ve inverted to help you hold the position.

Steal the sofa’s cushions and put them around your pole, or think about investing in a specially designed pole mat.

Your pelvis should be leading the move, not your feet. Stand next to the pole and tilt your body back while letting your arms straighten to get a feel for the movement required for the Basic Invert.

One of most useful training moves can do is the High Kick, as you’ll pass through almost exactly the same motions when you do a full Basic Invert. Practice the move a few times in a row and try to get your feet higher off the ground each time. Make sure the kick is explosive and remember not to cartwheel your legs.

I know it can be tempting to take a run up to get into this move, but please try not to. You’ll get little extra lift over kicking up from a single step back, and there’s a danger that you’ll have less control if you fling yourself at the pole.

Taking a step back is OK if you need a bit of extra power, but eventually you should be able to do a dead-lift invert with no kick at all.

In detail

1. Place your dominant (stronger) hand high on the pole and your other hand just below. Stand with the pole on your dominant side.
2. Step forward with your inside leg and kick up with the opposite leg (if you’re right handed, this is your left leg) and hook your ankle around the pole above your head.
3. Bring up your other leg and cross the ankle over the one already on the pole. Push your hips up, straighten your legs as much as you can and extend your head backwards.

In action

Top tips

• Allow your upper body to drop backwards and your arms to extend as you lift your legs up. It’s much harder to invert if you keep your body upright and close to the pole.
• Once you’ve got into the move, extend your legs up the pole, push your hips up and drop your head back so you can see the floor. (I know I’m not looking down in the pictures!) This makes it easier for your arms to hold your weight and stop you sliding down the pole.
• If you do begin to slide down the pole, allow yourself to descend slowly until you come to rest on your upper back. Resist the temptation to flip out of the move by dropping your legs as this can hurt your back.
• Make sure you don’t bang your hips when inverting. Ladies’ hips tend to be more prominent and whacking them against a pole is very painful. Start with your hips in front of the pole if you’re not kicking into the move; otherwise remember to allow a little room to clear them as you swing up.

Find this move and 65 others on Pole Exercise DVD 1.

Difficulty: Intermediate

About the eye opener

The eye opener takes your pole workout to a more intermediate level of difficulty. Lucy and her fellow instructors are big fans of this trick! Balance and technique are very important to perfecting the move and achieving a strong pose.

In detail

1. Start by sitting on the pole.
2. Lean back while holding your arms straight, then straighten both legs and cross your ankles while squeezing your thighs on the pole.
3. Place your dominant hand under your bottom, but don’t turn the hand upside down – make sure you grip with the standard grip. Try to feel your thumb resting on your coccyx bone (the bone in the middle of your body) to make sure you’re centred on the pole.
4. Gently pulse your legs to check your balance, then open your legs wide into a full straddle and the eye opener pose.

In action

Top tips

• Remember the hand grip! Your bottom hand should not be twisted with the wrist facing upwards, as this is a weaker position.
• Keep the top arm straight. If it starts to bend, your weight will shift from your bottom arm to your top arm and make the move very difficult.
• Keep your legs as high as possible. If they start to drop towards the ground, you’ll slide down the pole.
• Don’t worry if you spin slowly round the pole. You’ll be able to stop this happening as your technique improves.

Find this move and 65 others on the Pole Exercise DVD.

Eye opener full video

As promised, we’ve also put this move on YouTube. If the embedded video is a little small, click through to watch it in glorious HD.

I found this incredible video via one of the lovely people on the Body and Pole forum. Take a look:

His energy – and the speed at which he blasts through the moves – is astonishing.

• After (literally!) somersaulting onto the pole and climbing, watch his controlled übervert (0.25). Impressively, he starts this by kicking off from the pole, not the ground.
• A little later he gets into the knees variation without holding his foot (0.28) – much more difficult as you need a great deal of core strength to hold your body in place with just your legs.
• There’s a really unusual double knee hold (1.08), followed by a novel take on the recliner (1.13) that he performs on the side of the pole.
• He does a standard gemini (1.18) and then moves into a really interesting crescent moon grip invert (1.25) that I’m going to attempt myself once I’ve finished writing this!
• And it’s not a pole move, but his twisting and contorting around the pole (1.30 onwards) is mesmerising to watch.

Update: Here’s a more recent – and amazing – mallakhamb performance.

Wrestling roots

The origins of mallakhamb can be traced back to the 12th century (possibly disputed), though the art lay largely dormant until it was revived in the first half of the 19th century.

Mallakhamb traditionally forms part of a wrestler’s training regime. In fact modern interest in the sport is said to stem from a young challenger who studied mallakhamb before soundly thrashing two famous opponents in a wrestling bout. Today, 14 states in India compete in national mallakhamb championships.

One for the boys

Perhaps surprisingly from a Western pole dancing perspective, mallakhamb is predominantly a male sport. And boys start early too – to perform competitively, the recommended starting age for training is 8 to 10 years old, while those not interested in winning trophies can wait another couple of years before jumping on the pole.

The mallakhamb pole

Though they’re used in similar ways, a mallakhamb pole is quite different from the pole dancing poles we’re all used to.

Standing 225cm (7' 6") high, the main section tapers from 175mm (7") at the bottom to 95mm (4") at the top, with a narrower 20cm high neck above that. The knob at the top (which the boy in the video stands on) is just 13cm (5") across.

The pole is usually made of teak, chosen because of its toughness and smoothness. Before starting exercise training, both the pole and performer’s body are smeared with castor oil to reduce the friction and harshness of the wood. (Apparently it provides a great massage too!)

Other types of mallakhamb

There are actually two other mallakhamb disciplines as well fixed (or pole) mallakhamb.

• In hanging mallakhamb, a smaller version of the pole is suspended in the air by ropes. Used for balance training, the swinging and rotating instability of the pole makes the exercise even more challenging.
• Rope mallakhamb uses a rope instead of the pole, and is very similar to cordalisse. I’ve trained in cordalisse myself, and can vouch for the difficulty of knotting the rope around your body while getting into yoga or gymnastic positions several metres off the ground! Rope is the only form of mallakhamb in which girls take part – here’s a video of the 2007 championship.

Mallakhamb shmallakhamb…

Maybe it all seems a bit easy for you? Want more of a challenge? Well, you could try these:

• Hatyari mallakhamb – performed with just the arms
• Palita mallakhamb – mallakhamb with a torch
• Candle mallakhamb – on the pole holding candles in the hands or on the head
• Blind mallakhamb – yes, with the eyes closed!

Links

• Yoga in Air – source for quite a bit of this entry
• Mallakhamb India – competition rules, photo gallery and a list of moves (I have no idea what they are though; any ideas?)
• Maharashtra Amature (sic.) Mallakhamb Association
• Some history and other info
• Times of India article on the spread of mallakhamb to other countries

Photos in this article are thumbnails taken from Mallakhamb India.

Difficulty: Beginner

About the seated spinner

The seated spinner is a simple but beautiful spin that Libby (in the video clip) has always performed with style and poise. The spin helps to develop your arm strength, and works out your core muscles too as you move round the pole.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the most popular video I’ve put on YouTube, a pole routine starring Sarah, a former student of mine. Sarah had been doing (and teaching!) gymnastics for several years before she started pole dancing with me, and she puts a lot the skills and techniques she learned there into her pole work to create striking – and amazingly bendy – performances.

The video

Pole moves in detail

• Shoulder Mount from sit – A nice variation on the shoulder mount. Kick off from the ground to help you get up. Make sure you can perform the shoulder mount comfortably before attempting this.
• Pole Push Up – Use this as a transition move to mount the pole.
• Drop leg splits – Keeping the tension on the pole the whole time, drop one leg to get into the drop leg splits.
• Basic back bend – Arch your back as far as you can comfortably go. Stretching every day will help increase your back flexibility.
• Climb – To increase your hand strength for climbing, practice the Hang Tough grip, lifting your legs off the ground and then lifting your legs into the climb position. Repeat as many times as you can.
• Invert to Serpent – If you normally kick into an invert you’ll need to use your abs a lot more from this position. Start by inverting on the ground without kicking up.
• Handstand Away From Pole (straight edge) – Practice this move with your legs vertical. Slowly increase the distance between your legs and the pole as your strength grows.
• Brass monkey – Arch your back and lock in your armpit for greater grip.
• Transition Up Pole – Keep yourself locked to the pole by really squeezing with the leg gripping the pole.
• Superman – Keep your hand low on the pole when you start the move, and lift your leg nice and high as you get into the superman.
• Climb
• Fang – Getting into the fang quickly looks really dramatic, but start slowly until you’re comfortable with the move.
• Full Moon – Depending on your back flexibility, this move can help stretch your back and increase arm strength.
• Bow & Arrow – Arch your back and lift your head up to create a curved line with your body.
• Back Bend with leg Hook – Hook one leg and repeat the back bend.
• Splits lean and transition into Backwards Showgirl – If you aren’t flexible enough to do the back bend, try doing this move from an arabesque to give a similar effect.
• Back bend
• Floater – Sarah performs this with slightly straighter legs than the typical floater position, making her legs look longer and allowing her to arch her back even more!
• Splits lean and transition into Backwards Showgirl
• Splits back bend into floor – Practise stretching to gain the flexibility to do this move
• One handed Handstand – Use the pole for support when you first try this move. And make sure you’re comfortable with normal handstands too!
• Yoga arch with splits – This is similar to a handstand, but keep your elbows on the floor for support instead of your hands. Practise with your legs on the pole for support.
• Forward roll into splits – Sarah says this is “a rather difficult move requiring lots of bendyness.” Probably one to skip initially then…

Want more tips from Sarah?

Sarah will be covering some gym and flexibility techniques here in a lot more detail soon. Do leave a comment if there are any moves in particular that you’d like to her to go over for you.

Sorry for the long delay between this post and the previous one – we should be back on our normal schedule from now on.

Difficulty: Intermediate

About the gemini

The gemini is a dramatic pose and stretch that’s relatively easy to perform as you keep your body against the pole throughout the move. If you’ve mastered the Basic Invert, there are just a couple of extra steps to get into the gemini.

In detail

1. Place your dominant hand high on the pole and the other just below.
   
2. Kick into a basic invert.
   
3. If you inverted on the left side of the pole (as Libby does in the pictures), your left leg should now be hooked at the ankle to give you support. Shift your legs to the left so that your right leg is now crossed over the pole above your hands. (If your left leg is dominant, perform the move in mirror image.)
   
4. Your dominant leg is now wrapped around the pole to stop you sliding, so you should be able to release your left hand. Bend your free leg down at a 90° angle. Depending on your flexibility, you may be able to grab your foot with your free hand to increase the stretch.
   

In action

Top tips

• Take your time transitioning from the basic invert into the crossed leg grip. It’s important to keep tension in your legs so you maintain a firm grip on the pole.
• If you want to increase the stretch of your free leg, gently pull it towards you.
• Once you feel comfortable with the basic move, you can try the No-Handed Gemini. Starting from the standard hold, slowly remove your other hand from the pole. Make sure you keep your hand close to the pole at first so that, if do you start to slide, you can grab the pole quickly to regain control.

Find this move and 65 others on the Pole Exercise DVD.

Here’s the breakdown of a pole dance performance I put on YouTube a few months ago, together with tips for each move that I’ve found useful myself or when teaching. I’ve often been inspired watching other people’s pole work, sometimes even taking my own performances in completely new directions. So I hope it inspires some of you too!

The video

Pole moves in detail

• Floater – Keep good body tension while pushing your hips forward.
• Variation of the Pole Pull Up – Lift up onto the pole, release your non-dominant hand and take your non-dominant foot. Hold this as a pose. You could even add this to your own pole strength training for a bit of variety.
• High Kick – Imagine you’re kicking two people you don’t like (just imagine please!); this will make your leg thrusts much more explosive.
• Backwards Showgirl – Arch your back and look at the ceiling to help your body position.
• Climb – Take your time with the climb; controlled climbs are harder as they require more strength.
• Crescent Moon – Hold this pose for as long as you feel comfortable, reach out to increase the stretch in your back.
• Teddy – Lock in your arm as tight as possible and make sure your bottom is resting on the pole. Don’t wear synthetic shorts – this will make you to slip down and really hurt your armpit!
• Chopper – I pulse my legs down and lift up and over my head (really pushing my hips up) to help me invert.
• Variation of the Half Chopper – A simple but effective transition into the next move. Take your time and make sure your legs are secure before removing your hands.
• Hercules (no handed chopper) – Look down to the floor to create a nice line with your spine on the pole.
• Knees (with added arm wiggling!) – Practice wearing thigh high boots to get through the initial discomfort this move causes on the knees.
• Shoulder Mount – Experiment with different grips on the pole; try the dominant hand above or below to see what feels best for you. Some people use a clasped handgrip (link your fingers together behind the pole with your palms pressed on either side), though a split grip is more secure when you’re upside down.
• Serpent – If you’re a little uncertain about this move, practice getting into it with your hands on the ground.
• Gold Rush – Arch your back and lift up towards the ceiling to increase the line of this move.
• Pole Push Up – experiment with different leg positions, first on the pole for more support and then towards the split legs which becomes much harder.

Difficulty: Intermediate

About the icon splits

The icon splits is a fantastic pose and stretch. You don’t need to be able to do the full splits to do this move. No matter how flexible you are, this move will help to increase it! It will also help build your arm strength and grip on the pole.

In detail

1. Place your dominant hand high on the pole and the other just below. Now place your dominant foot against the pole, with the knee and foot on opposite sides of the pole – this is your anchor foot and must push really hard against the pole.
   
2. Make sure you gain enough momentum with your free leg to kick up and place it diagonally across the pole.
   
3. When you’re ready, lift / jump up and, as you do so, kick forward and up with your other leg.
   
4. Hook your ankle across the pole. Now take your non-dominant hand off the pole and hook it round your foot so your ankle is now between your hand grip.
   

In action

Top tips

• Make sure you push your anchor foot hard into the pole. If this foot begins to slip, the move becomes very difficult.
• For those with less flexibility, letting your upper body lean back as you kick up will help you get into position.
• Once you’ve got into the split position, allow your bottom foot to relax slightly while still keeping a firm grip on the pole. This allows your splits to increase, using your body weight to stretch your legs.

Find this move and 65 others on the Pole Exercise DVD.