classes

The Bee’s Knees II

Posted on by jennabee25

First, off, I did not have class on Wednesday night because Katie took some time off.  She works so hard, and I’m glad that she is taking a few days for herself.  That worked out for me, as my mom had her gallbladder removed on Tuesday, so I was available if Momma needed me.  She is doing great, by the way!  I did get some of my own practice in Wednesday, too.

Speaking of practice, I’ve been doing that a lot more.  I need to.  I realized I can do a few things inside my house in the living room.  Yay! 

Yesterday, Cindy and I had the second of our knee hooping/other technique lesson with Jenny. Both Cindy and I have greatly improved our knee hooping!  Jenny showed us a few ways to pick up the hoop with our feet if it drops to the floor.  Both are much more cooler and elegant than bending down and grabbing it.  We learned to flip the hoop up using the ball of our foot, and we also learned how to flick the hoop off the top of our foot into our hand, and we also did basic ankle breaks.  Yay!

I’m getting better at the back elbow pass, too.  I managed to finally catch that hoop behind my back!  Once.  Only once.  Still, that means that if I keep practicing, and I will get it.  I’m on the right path. 

Improving my knee hooping and learning that elbow pass really is the bee’s knees! 

As a side note, I want to encourage you to come out to Jenny’s new session starting on October 16.  If you are in the Lancaster, PA area and curious about hooping, please register and come out!  Click here for more information.

I ache.

Posted on by jennabee25
Thanks to two days in a row of vigorous hoop workouts, I can officially say that I ache.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Let’s start with Katie’s class on Wednesday.  After some serious ab workouts and cardio, we worked on iso-pops more and worked on incorporating said iso-pops into a flow sequence.  Cool!  I like it when we get to “connect the dots,” so to speak.  Meaning, I like it when we learn how to connect one trick with others.  
 
Katie keeps adding stuff to our flow around the room exercise.  Sometimes she’ll call out a trick we need to do, or an exercise.  She made us flow with heavier hoops on Wednesday.  That’s a workout itself!  She also interspersed it with crunches and squats.  Even more of a workout!
Ah, and last night, Jenny had a semi-private-ish class for me and Cindy, another great hooper.  Our main focus was leg hooping, which Cindy and I had both expressed interest in improving.  Before that, though, Jenny had us do some cool knee strengthening exercises and had us working the hoop up and down our torso.  My arms and abs are sore from doing said exercise.  Whew!
Back to leg hooping.  I did make some strides and improvement with my leg hooping.  That felt good!  Accomplishment!
Jenny had also asked us to think of a trick we were both working on and wanted help with.  Cindy chose the three beat chase weave with doubles.  I had to think for a moment, and came up with working on the back elbow pass.  Jenny worked with me on it, and I’m so close to getting it I can taste it.  From working on that trick, my arms and shoulders are a tad sore.
Needless to say, I really do ache, but I’m happy.  

I’m Breaking a Sweat (I Said it’s Alright)

Posted on by jennabee25

We were breaking a sweat, and it was alright last night, as we learned chest hooping, and that requires a bit of work.  It was more than alright:  it was excellent.

As for the bad Skrillex reference in the title, it was just funny that Jenny had that song playing in class as I was bopping in my car to “Bangarang” on the way there.

In class we are starting to explore more range of motion moves and off body moves.  I think I managed to go from lasso to moving the hoop down to my waist once or twice.  It felt like amazing those two times where I didn’t whap myself in the face and managed to get that hoop moving.

Also, there is nothing cooler than a bunch of hoopers practicing throws.  Imagine a gym with a high ceiling with about 12 or so people throwing sparkly hoops in the air.  It was quite beautiful and everyone was having a fantastic time.

Speaking of sparkly hoops, I FINALLY got to try out one of the hoops I made last week.  I brought the red/silver one along to class along with my regular black and orange one.  The 160 psi tubing is heavier than I thought, so I will get 100 next time.  No biggie.

Next Thursday is the last class for January (boo!), but I signed up the series again in February (yay!).  I’m hoping that my mom takes the class with me in February, but more on that later.

Last Night’s Class

Posted on by jennabee25

I had my first regular hooping class last night with Jenny of Acts of Jennius.  It was awesome!  Rather than focus on the nitty-gritty of the class, I’m going to focus on what I improved upon and accomplished myself there.

First off, I sort of graduated from my big 42″ beginner hoop to my much lighter 37″ dance hoop.  This means that my core is getting stronger!  I have to work a bit harder with hoop to keep it up, but it’s getting easier.  I was quite pleased with myself!  I was able to do most off body/transitional techniques that we worked on last night with it, too.

Second, my upper body hurts today, especially my arms.  It is a good hurt.  We did a lot of work using arms last night, and a few us, myself included, tried the float technique.  That requires some strength to keep that hoop in the horizontal plane.  I need to get my upper body in shape.

It was also nice meeting people last night.  A first time hooper in front of me apologized for accidentally launching her hoop at me a few times.  I told her not to worry about it and that I’ve had to chase hoops rolling down the hill in my backyard from missed launches, such as going into lasso.  We had a good laugh.

 I’m looking forward to next Thursday, and very much so!