Day 142 - Summer 2013 Hooping Video

Another video I've uploaded to YouTube to share.  This one is long, I started hooping and didn't feel like stopping when the first song (or the second) had finished, so it's a three song video.  I love going back and watching my hoop videos.  Yes I scrutinize every detail and criticize the small things, but at the same time I am always proud of myself in each one for keeping at it and continuing to grow.  Here we've got some OKGO/Metric/Bjork going on.  Last summer, back before I knew many off body moves and so I rocked the core hooping more often.  I'm trying to get back into the on body stuff, it really is awesome.

Day 141 - Summer Kick-Off Hoop Workshop

Summer Kick-Off Hoop Workshop is booked!  In this Intro to Hooping workshop I plan on covering all the basics of hooping on the core:  waist, hip, chest/shoulder, and neck hooping.  We'll have a go at knee hooping just for fun, though that is definitely a bit of a tougher move to learn (took me months!).  In addition to the core work we'll play with spiral up and down and try to put them together into a vortex, and dabble in some off body work too like hand spins and weaves.  Then we'll try to put it all together for some fun mini-sequences, and as always there will be playtime at the end of the workshop. 

Learn to hoop and never be bored this summer!

The details:
When:  Saturday, June 21, 2014 2-4pm
Where:  Head Over Heels Gymnastics in Collingwood
Cost: $25/person
To register contact Martina 7058889681 martina_rae@rogers.com

It's going to be lots of fun!

Day 139 - Hoopalicious.Was.Amazing

I changed the name of my blog.  Everytime I think of my life, two things come to mind:  My family, and my hooping.  The challenge has been trying to find a balance between the two.  I find myself somewhat in the minority of hoopers, being a mom.  That is not to say that there are not any other hoop mamas out there, I've just noticed there are less of them than non-moms.  Of the two major workshops that I've been too, I have been one of only a few other moms (I think at HoopPath there was only one or two others).  This does make me feel different in a way - the way you approach your passions is drastically different when you have children as opposed to if you don't.  I've mentioned this before, prior to having kids I could dive deep into the things that interested me and spend as much time or money on it as I could.  Not so much with a young family.  I'm also still relatively new to the hoop world, or even motherhood one for that matter, so I'm sure things will evolve over time.

I love being a Hoop Mama.  I love that I have found something that I'm so passionate about that is also fun and can fit into my family life.  It helps me reconnect with my inner child, because really I'm not very good at being child-like in any other ways.  I look forward to the days when my children can hoop with me more.  My oldest is just starting to get the hang of it and will join me sometimes.  My younger two try as well, and while they are still young to be doing it I enjoy seeing them give it a go.

Anyways, I hadn't actually intended to write about hooping and my family except to mention the title change.  I could probably go on a bit more but there have been more pressing things that I have wanted to write about.

Hoopalicious!  Aka Anah Reichenbach, or as I am now referring to her, the most beautiful hooper ever.  She is just glorious is person.  I have always been amazed by her hooping when I saw it in videos, but the way she moves is really something that needs to be experienced first hand.  She was stunning.  Just in case you have never seen her dance:

The workshop ran over two days, 3hrs on each day.  It was absolutely amazing.  I really connected with her style of teaching, and had so many breakthroughs over the course of the weekend.  Anah really focuses on core hooping, as she puts it she feels core hooping is the main course and tricks/off body stuff is the spice.  They are both important for sure, core hooping without spice would be bland, but you definitely wouldn't want just spice and no substance. 

I will admit my own core hooping has been lacking lately.  I have been guilty of moving away from it, towards more off body work and isolations.  I don't know why, but I almost feel safer with off body work, like I have more control over it.  Whenever I would core hoop, as much as I liked it, I would find myself getting bored, or that I made a lot of mistakes, so I would just go back to doing off body hooping.  Anah really showed us the unlimited possibilities of hooping on the core, and that there are so many ways to move within and through the hoop that are beautiful and interesting. 

I have never seen anyone dance within the hoop the way she does.  It is like she is dancing, and the hoops just moves around her.  If you took the hoop away, she would still be dancing so beautifully.  Sometimes I feel like if you took my hoop away, I'd look ridiculous!

I totally fell in love with core hooping all over again, and feel like a stronger hooper for having had the opportunity to work with her.  She showed us how to move all around the room dancing in our hoops, how to hoop on the hips and move our chest around, how to shoulder hoop and do hip circles at the same time, how to properly do angle hooping (something I have needed to work on!).

That's not to say she didn't have a few tricks for us.  We learned some cool behind the back isolations, how to do a pizza toss, and a funky move she called the Noble Stag which I can't even begin to explain!  We worked on shoulder duck outs and for the first time ever I was consistently able to duck out to the left with the hoop rotating around my right shoulder, something I have been trying to do for probably close to a year.  It was like the energy of the room helped me do it.  Now to see if I can keep doing it!

Another awesome thing about this past weekend was that I got to meet many other hoopers that will be going to InFlow as well, and it was nice to connect with them and start building friendships.

These past few weeks have been amazing for me and my hoop.  Even before the workshop I was starting to find more flow and nail some new tricks.  I've got the chest rolls down pretty consistently, and have started to get a few shoulder rolls as well.  I'm unlocking more flow and finding new ways to move through my hoop.

I can honestly say that my hooping every day this year challenge is paying off.  My hooping has made more progress in the last few months than it did in the first two years combined.  It's an amazing feeling!  I will leave off with the next video I have uploaded to YouTube, the first time I managed to figure out the three beat weave.  It isn't an exciting video, but this was a move I really wanted to figure out and it actually hurt my brain trying to work out how to do it, but when I finally got it I was so thrilled that I had my husband come out and video it.  I don't think he was as impressed as I had hoped he would be, but you can see in my face that I was pretty happy about it!  Now I'm trying to work out how to do a reverse three beat weave, which is definitely proving to be tricky!

Day 133 - The Hoop Mama Life and my first hoop video

I'm not even sure of my math anymore when trying to figure out what day it is!  But the most important thing is, I'm still hooping every single day!

The shock of being selected as this year's FlowBot has not worn off, but life is so busy that I often forget.  I will be running around and then all of a sudden I will stop and remember that I am going to In Flow and it's like, "OH YEAH!!!!!"  Amazing!  I'm still in awe, and so thankful to the powers that made it happen for me.  I'm already making and connecting with new hooper friends, and it feels so nice so see my hoop community starting to open up a little bit more.

Last Sunday was so amazingly beautiful that I did my hoop class outside.  It's just too hard to resist outdoor hooping, I have been longing for it all winter long!  I've had some really lovely ladies and their daughters in my group, and I am really enjoying seeing them progress and have fun while hooping.

This coming weekend I will be at the Bean2Tween Expo in Collingwood doing a hoop class on Sunday from 2:30-3:30.  I'm really looking forward to that as well.  I love getting out there and connecting with people through my hoops!

I'm also cooking up some great ideas for the summer!

Oh, and you know what else is this weekend?  HOOPALICIOUS!  Once again I have been too busy to really process this fact, but when I do think about it I get so excited (and maybe a little bit nervous!).  It's just going to be a wonderful, hoop filled weekend all around.

The Hoop Mama Life is amazing.  It's crazy, and it's stressful, but I'm really loving it.  Hey, that would make a great name for this blog, maybe I will change it!

One last thing, I am finally figuring out how YouTube works, and am slowly going to upload all my hooping videos there (if nothing else for safe keeping, so at least they will be there in case my computer crashes!).  So, I will share them here as well so you can see my hoop journey.  Even though I technically started hooping in January 2012, I really count my journey as starting from the beginning of 2013.  Here is the first one I made, I think in June or July of last summer.  The song is Dare by the Gorillaz.

You know what one of the things I love most is when I'm watching my hooping videos?  All the 'family/kid' stuff in the background.  The clothesline, the kids toys, even a kid here and there.  These videos sum up my life pretty well.  :)

Day 127 - And the Winner is........... (oh and I figured out how to add my entry video here)

And the recipient of this year's FlowBot Award is.....Yours Truly!  AHHHHHHH!!!

I would say that there are no words to describe how I feel, but the truth is there are lots of words.  Too many words.  So many that I get all jumbled up trying to pin them down.  Yes, I am thrilled, ecstatic, excited, proud, and even a little nervous.  I've never been to an event like In Flow before, and while it has been something I wanted to do since I started hooping, I am still feeling a little intimidated.  But this year has been all about me stepping out of my comfort zone, and accepting new challenges. 

It means so much to me to have this opportunity.  Before I had kids, if I had just wanted to spend money pursuing my hobbies and interests, I could have just done it.  I didn't think twice about spending my entire wages on horseback riding, tattoos, and bellydance clothing and classes (yes those are the things that interested me before kids!), and if at that time I was into hooping and heard about In Flow, I would have gone in a heartbeat.  I would not have batted an eyelash at spending $360 to go on a hoop retreat for the weekend.  Things are so different now, and often in such cases there just isn't the money to be selfish, to want to spend it on me.

I would not trade my family for all the horses, or tattoos, or hip scarves, or even hoops in the worlds, but I would be lying if I didn't sometimes feel sad that I couldn't just be selfish and think of me and do what I want for a change.  I don't know if that makes me sound harsh, but it is the reality of it.  Not once have I ever regretted having my children, but I can tell you that more than once I wished I had even just a sliver of the freedom I had back then returned to me. 

The freedom, time, and money to immerse myself in my passions, to connect with others like me, to learn from them.

Now, through this amazing opportunity, I get the chance to do that. 

Only 3 more months to go!  The In Flow Festival is taking place August 1-3 in Muskoka, Ontario.  You can find out more about it at www.inflowfestival.com.

And, I finally figured out how to upload my entry video on YouTube!  So here it is:

On any given day my mind is racing with thoughts about hooping.  I can't control it.  Hooping I'd like to be doing, hooping I am doing, hoops I plan on making and selling, classes I am teaching, classes I want to be teaching, ideas for events and workshops, building my hoop business, workshops I want to be taking, etc.... The list goes on and on.  It can be overwhelming sometimes, but amazing at the same time.  When I get all caught up in the tangle of hoop webs, I just take a step back and remind myself why I do it, why I love it, and that always puts a smile on my face.

You know what else puts a smile on my face?  Winning the 2014 FlowBot Award.  :)