As summer comes to an end I am left reflecting on how amazing the last several months have been for me and for my hooping. I have made so many new hooping friends and connections this year, but especially over the summer. Between starting up my classes and hoop jams, and having the opportunity to attend the InFlow Festival, I feel like my hoop circle has increased 200%. It's no longer just me anymore, I'm no longer just a lonely hooper.
For over a year I walked my hoop journey alone, with no community or friends to share it with. I felt like somewhere there must be people who were as passionate about plastic circles as I was, and yet I couldn't find any. I was envious of other cities or towns that seemed to have already established a hoop community.
When I started out this year I had no idea where my path would lead, how many people it would bring me to. All I knew is that I loved hooping, and that I wanted to share it with people.
Looking back I can't believe how much I have accomplished in such a short period of time. Starting Hoopla Hula Hoops, becoming a Hooplove Coach, attending workshops with Baxter and Hoopalicious, InFlow Festival..... There is so much to be thankful for.
I would say that I did all of this for others, to share my love of hooping with the world, to reach out and enrich other people's lives through hoopdance. The honest truth is, I did it for myself. I wanted others to benefit from hooping the way I had, but what I really wanted was a community. And since I couldn't find one near me to join, I started one.
There were times when no one was biting. There were times when I thought I wouldn't succeed, that I wondered what the heck I was doing, why I was bothering trying to spread a love of hoopdance at all. There were times when I thought I was crazy. But this little voice inside of me kept saying, "Keep going.... People are going to join you... Just be patient". So I kept putting myself out there, week after week, going to the same places, promoting my classes over and over again.
And then, it happened. People started to take an interest. People started to come out, to come to classes, and hoop jams. Then I realized it, this was really happening. I didn't have to twist people's arms to come hoop with me, they were coming because they wanted to hoop.
I had a wonderful moment yesterday when I pulled into the parking lot for the final hoop jam of the summer, and saw my friend and fellow hooper already hooping away. I didn't have to be there first. I wasn't the only one out there.
Now I am seeing in them what I saw in myself, a desire to continue on this path, to grow and get better, to move, to spin, to lose yourself in the hoop. I knew it! I knew there had to be other people out there like me, I just had to show them what hooping was all about.
I can't honestly say I've ever wanted to be a teacher of anything. Even teaching hoopdance wasn't always something I wanted to do. I would have been just as happy if someone in this town already taught it and I could have joined their classes. But since there was no one, I decided to be that person. I didn't want others to walk this hoop path alone in the beginning, like I did. I wanted for others what I felt I didn't have, this hoop community, people to learn from and to motivate and encourage. If I can be that person for other hoopers, then I will have done my job.
I would have never anticipated that teaching hoopdance would be as rewarding as it has been. I have always felt like I already had the most rewarding job in the world being a mom. Now I feel like I have two rewarding jobs. Seeing my friends and my students love hooping as much as I do, and be as passionate about it, and want to grow and get better, has been the most amazing feeling.
The days are getting shorter and it is getting dark at 8pm again. I already miss the warm summer evenings where I could just pop outside for a hoop after the kids are in bed. I'm getting ready to settle for having to hoop in my dining room once again at home, and I already can't wait for next year. Another summer full of hooping, and laughter, and friends.
Showing posts with label Hoopla Hula Hoops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hoopla Hula Hoops. Show all posts
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
Friday, 22 August 2014
Day 243 - Fall Classes
Fall hoop classes are a go!
10 Week sessions starting the week of September 15:
Hoop Foundations 2 - Mondays 7-8
Hoop Foundations 1 - Wednesdays 7:30-8:30
3 Payment options:
Early bird rate (before September 8) - $90 for 10 weeks
Regular session rate - $100 for 10 weeks
Drop in rate - $12/class
Classes are held at Head Over Heels Gymnastics in Collingwood. For the Monday group there is also the option to stay afterwards for their adult open gym. The cost for adult gym is $5 and you can use the time to practice your hoop skills, or use the gymnastics equipment to work on strength and flexibility.
Class descriptions:
Hoop Foundations 1 focuses on the basics of hoop dance like hooping on the waist, hips, and shoulders. We learn not only how to do these moves but also how to move and dance (or flow) while hooping. We will learn how to coil the hoops up and down our bodies, as well as different ways to bring the hoops on and off our bodies. In addition to on the body hooping, we will also learn many off body movements such as hand spins, passing the hoop around our bodies, weaves, isolations and more. Each week we will put together a short sequence to learn how to transition between moves and link them into flow sessions. There will also be lots of fun tricks in the mix as well. We will learn all this and more!
Hoop Foundations 2 builds on the movements learned in foundations 1. In this class we'll start to refine and smooth out our hoop dance movements and transitions. We will learn some more intermediate skills such as leg hooping and angle hooping, as well as some more interesting tricks and isolations. We will continue to put these moves together into sequences to help us dance with our hoops and unlock flow. By the time you are finished with this class you will truly feel like a hoop dancer!
Contact me for more information or to register.
martina_rae@rogers.com
Like Hoopla Hula Hoops on Facebook to stay up to date!
10 Week sessions starting the week of September 15:
Hoop Foundations 2 - Mondays 7-8
Hoop Foundations 1 - Wednesdays 7:30-8:30
3 Payment options:
Early bird rate (before September 8) - $90 for 10 weeks
Regular session rate - $100 for 10 weeks
Drop in rate - $12/class
Classes are held at Head Over Heels Gymnastics in Collingwood. For the Monday group there is also the option to stay afterwards for their adult open gym. The cost for adult gym is $5 and you can use the time to practice your hoop skills, or use the gymnastics equipment to work on strength and flexibility.
Class descriptions:
Hoop Foundations 1 focuses on the basics of hoop dance like hooping on the waist, hips, and shoulders. We learn not only how to do these moves but also how to move and dance (or flow) while hooping. We will learn how to coil the hoops up and down our bodies, as well as different ways to bring the hoops on and off our bodies. In addition to on the body hooping, we will also learn many off body movements such as hand spins, passing the hoop around our bodies, weaves, isolations and more. Each week we will put together a short sequence to learn how to transition between moves and link them into flow sessions. There will also be lots of fun tricks in the mix as well. We will learn all this and more!
Hoop Foundations 2 builds on the movements learned in foundations 1. In this class we'll start to refine and smooth out our hoop dance movements and transitions. We will learn some more intermediate skills such as leg hooping and angle hooping, as well as some more interesting tricks and isolations. We will continue to put these moves together into sequences to help us dance with our hoops and unlock flow. By the time you are finished with this class you will truly feel like a hoop dancer!
Contact me for more information or to register.
martina_rae@rogers.com
Like Hoopla Hula Hoops on Facebook to stay up to date!
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Day 180 - Having a discouraged moment
I was at a local street festival yesterday and there was a girl hooping on the street. Just hooping. I had brought my hoops, but I had also brought my husband and three kids, and really we were there to spend time together as a family. Not to hoop. But I wanted to, so so badly.
As I watched her I found myself feeling really sad. Sad that I can't do that, at least not yet. The thing is, I want to just take my hoop and go hoop all over the place. On the street, at festivals, in parades. Today is World Pride day and I know a lot of hoopers from all over the province are hooping in the parade. I bet it will be a ton of fun. I can't do that kind of stuff.
My time to hoop is already so limited as it is. I have to squeeze it in here and there, and my big 'blocks' of hooping time (my Wednesday evening and Sunday morning jams) are carefully planned around my husband's busy schedule. Anytime I want to go to an event, I have to coordinate it with him. We have three small children, all of which are on summer vacation right now, and I am a stay at home mom while my husband runs his own very busy landscape business. Unfortunately prime hoop season also falls during his busiest season. He works 6 out of 7 days, for 12 hours or more a day. This is how it has to be, it is not like he works for someone else and can just clock out when the day is done and take weekends off. When you are an entrepreneur, you work pretty much around the clock. I am ok with this and fully supportive, his goal of running a successful business and his 'workaholic' personality are what have allowed me to be able to stay at home and take care of our children, something that I have always wanted to do. For this I am really thankful.
But yeah, it does mean that the success of our landscaping business comes first, alongside the health and well being of our family, and my hooping way after that. Anytime that he does manage to take a day off, that time is spent catching up on work around the house or spending time together as a family, which is the most important thing to me. It is hardly fair that whenever my husband does make an effort to be around, I dump the children on him and run. I do use that time to plan some things for myself, like my hoop sessions, but I make it a point to plan some family activities for us as well. Otherwise it becomes a case of us just passing the kids back and forth but never actually doing anything together, all 5 of us.
Reconciling my family life and my love of hooping has often been a challenge for me. I don't always think of it as a bad thing, afterall they are two very compatible things. What better family activity is there than spending some time outdoors, hooping together? The hard part comes when I do need to divide the two, at the times when I am trying to be Martina the hoop dancer/hoop teacher/hoop maker vs Martina the Mom. I have found that my business itself is not particularly progressing at a steady pace because I'm picking away at it in between my family responsibilities.
Sometimes I feel like I am making excuses for not pushing Hoopla along at a better rate, like a truly ambitious and motivated person would make it work despite also having a family to attend to. If I am honest with myself, this is probably true in a lot of ways. I am not an ambitious, go-getter, business-type person by nature. In fact the only ambition I have ever truly had was to be a mother, and that at least I know I am good at. This whole running my own hoop business thing, I don't always know....
For the most part I can sort through these feelings and am really ok with Hoopla not necessarily blowing up and becoming a huge thing. It was never my intention to grow my business fast and furious, in fact I have taken many measures to make sure just the opposite. With my husband's business being priority and so busy already, I had purposely not marketed myself or pushed my hoops and hoop classes for fear of getting too busy, because the reality is I just don't have the backup and childcare in place for if I were in high demand. The main reason I started Hoopla at all was for the love of hooping, and so that if anyone out there is interested and does want to learn to hoop, they can seek me out and I will guide them. And that is what I have been doing.
Nevertheless, sometimes it's hard to shake this sad, nagging feeling that other people are doing more and being more in the hoop world than I will ever be. I guess you could call it the ugly face of jealousy in a way. Not necessarily jealous that they are better than me, I know better to compare myself to other hoopers, rather jealous that they can put their art first. I often wonder if I would be more motivated and ambitious about hooping if I didn't have a family as well.
I have said it before and I will say it again though, I wouldn't trade my family for all the hoops in the world, and that part is and always will be true. I take comfort in knowing that my true calling is to be a wife and mother, and I am proud of that. And I also know it doesn't mean I can't be a hoop dancer as well, or that I can't build Hoopla and have it be successful. I know that in the grand scheme of things Hoopla is still young, and there is still time. Time to grow, time to learn, time to be successful. There is no hurry.
I started Hoopla with the goal of sharing hoop dance with others. When I get caught up in thinking that I should be further along by now, I take a step back and remind myself that my kids are only little for a short period of time, and one day they will all be in school and I will be twiddling my thumbs wondering what to with myself, and when that time comes my hooping will still be there. One day my husband's business will be more established and then maybe it can take a back seat for a bit while mine gets more attention. One day all of these things will fall into place, and then maybe that day I will be the girl hooping on the street.
See, even just writing it all down makes me feel better. I think some hoop therapy might be in order too.
As I watched her I found myself feeling really sad. Sad that I can't do that, at least not yet. The thing is, I want to just take my hoop and go hoop all over the place. On the street, at festivals, in parades. Today is World Pride day and I know a lot of hoopers from all over the province are hooping in the parade. I bet it will be a ton of fun. I can't do that kind of stuff.
My time to hoop is already so limited as it is. I have to squeeze it in here and there, and my big 'blocks' of hooping time (my Wednesday evening and Sunday morning jams) are carefully planned around my husband's busy schedule. Anytime I want to go to an event, I have to coordinate it with him. We have three small children, all of which are on summer vacation right now, and I am a stay at home mom while my husband runs his own very busy landscape business. Unfortunately prime hoop season also falls during his busiest season. He works 6 out of 7 days, for 12 hours or more a day. This is how it has to be, it is not like he works for someone else and can just clock out when the day is done and take weekends off. When you are an entrepreneur, you work pretty much around the clock. I am ok with this and fully supportive, his goal of running a successful business and his 'workaholic' personality are what have allowed me to be able to stay at home and take care of our children, something that I have always wanted to do. For this I am really thankful.
But yeah, it does mean that the success of our landscaping business comes first, alongside the health and well being of our family, and my hooping way after that. Anytime that he does manage to take a day off, that time is spent catching up on work around the house or spending time together as a family, which is the most important thing to me. It is hardly fair that whenever my husband does make an effort to be around, I dump the children on him and run. I do use that time to plan some things for myself, like my hoop sessions, but I make it a point to plan some family activities for us as well. Otherwise it becomes a case of us just passing the kids back and forth but never actually doing anything together, all 5 of us.
Reconciling my family life and my love of hooping has often been a challenge for me. I don't always think of it as a bad thing, afterall they are two very compatible things. What better family activity is there than spending some time outdoors, hooping together? The hard part comes when I do need to divide the two, at the times when I am trying to be Martina the hoop dancer/hoop teacher/hoop maker vs Martina the Mom. I have found that my business itself is not particularly progressing at a steady pace because I'm picking away at it in between my family responsibilities.
Sometimes I feel like I am making excuses for not pushing Hoopla along at a better rate, like a truly ambitious and motivated person would make it work despite also having a family to attend to. If I am honest with myself, this is probably true in a lot of ways. I am not an ambitious, go-getter, business-type person by nature. In fact the only ambition I have ever truly had was to be a mother, and that at least I know I am good at. This whole running my own hoop business thing, I don't always know....
For the most part I can sort through these feelings and am really ok with Hoopla not necessarily blowing up and becoming a huge thing. It was never my intention to grow my business fast and furious, in fact I have taken many measures to make sure just the opposite. With my husband's business being priority and so busy already, I had purposely not marketed myself or pushed my hoops and hoop classes for fear of getting too busy, because the reality is I just don't have the backup and childcare in place for if I were in high demand. The main reason I started Hoopla at all was for the love of hooping, and so that if anyone out there is interested and does want to learn to hoop, they can seek me out and I will guide them. And that is what I have been doing.
Nevertheless, sometimes it's hard to shake this sad, nagging feeling that other people are doing more and being more in the hoop world than I will ever be. I guess you could call it the ugly face of jealousy in a way. Not necessarily jealous that they are better than me, I know better to compare myself to other hoopers, rather jealous that they can put their art first. I often wonder if I would be more motivated and ambitious about hooping if I didn't have a family as well.
I have said it before and I will say it again though, I wouldn't trade my family for all the hoops in the world, and that part is and always will be true. I take comfort in knowing that my true calling is to be a wife and mother, and I am proud of that. And I also know it doesn't mean I can't be a hoop dancer as well, or that I can't build Hoopla and have it be successful. I know that in the grand scheme of things Hoopla is still young, and there is still time. Time to grow, time to learn, time to be successful. There is no hurry.
I started Hoopla with the goal of sharing hoop dance with others. When I get caught up in thinking that I should be further along by now, I take a step back and remind myself that my kids are only little for a short period of time, and one day they will all be in school and I will be twiddling my thumbs wondering what to with myself, and when that time comes my hooping will still be there. One day my husband's business will be more established and then maybe it can take a back seat for a bit while mine gets more attention. One day all of these things will fall into place, and then maybe that day I will be the girl hooping on the street.
See, even just writing it all down makes me feel better. I think some hoop therapy might be in order too.
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