Pole Comparisons You SHOULD Be Making

With any new sport or activity that we take up, initially there is an overwhelming sense of enthusiasm. This enthusiasm encompasses our desire to improve, to advance, and to be able to demonstrate our progression to ourselves and others within our new found obsession.

Learning to pole dance or taking up pole fitness is no different.

It's our enthusiasm for Pole, the desire to see measurable improvements week by week, and making connections with those around us, that become important. We measure ourselves against where we were the week before, and we also measure ourselves against our peers; people similar to us in experience, or in the same level group as us in our pole studio.

If you feel you need to do this, and it's a perfectly natural thing to do, just make sure your comparison is done with a healthy dose of reality.

There's no point in comparing yourself to someone who's been poling for a few years, working on their flexibility at the same time, and is way, way, way, ahead of you.

This, well this is a pretty unrealistic comparison!

There is no point in comparing yourself to someone who is fitter than you, or who has been training much longer than you.

This too, is an unrealistic comparison!

Really, in the grand scheme of things, there is no point in comparing yourself to anyone else other than you.

Pole is unique in that you can obtain results quite quickly, and measurably, on an almost week by week basis. My first pole lesson I only managed to lift myself roughly 10 cm off the floor in my first climb and I could only hold it briefly. By the second week I was able to lift myself almost 50 cm off the floor and I held myself in the climb position for much longer, gripping and squeezing for all I was worth (yeah, see what I did there), before my skin hurt.

The sense of satisfaction that you feel with these minor and major victories, and the awareness of such an improvement, is wonderful. They should be celebrated and cheered, even if you're the only one doing it and you're doing it on the inside. Though really, most pole instructors will be right there cheering beside you along with your class mates, that's one of the gifts of poling.

So get your phones and cameras out, and get in the picture. Do record the moves and tricks you've learnt. Do take pictures of your attempts, and do use them as tools to compare yourself to. You know the hard work you've put in, and you know what you've needed to do to achieve your current pole goal.

My current pole goal, probably on going pole goal, flat splits. This is my BAD SIDE after 6 weeks of consistency. Consistency, well that's just a whole other topic in itself ;)

We all have our own personal strengths and weaknesses, and we all have a different journey to undertake as part of becoming the poler we want to be. We are such a diverse group of people with incredibly different experiences and backgrounds that are unique to us, that we bring to our pole learning.

I gave up trying to compete and compare with my peers following an injury that had me off the pole for six months while I recovered. I am naturally competitive in some things, but having time to think, reflect, and grow, I realised I cannot realistically compare myself with dancers, athletes, teenagers, fitness freaks, other mums, grandmothers, those naturally gifted, or otherwise. To be realistic the only comparison I can make that is healthy, that is positive, and that will cause me to grow and develop as a poler, is the comparison with myself. That is all any of us can do.

So do check yourself, that you are making improvements that would be expected of you and only you, not of someone else.

My personal theory is poling will be a life long adventure for me. It isn't a race because there is no end point, there is no finish line, no last trick or final move to master. Poling is, and will be, an infinite journey, an unknown adventure, and who knows where it may take any of us?

Thanks to Ms. K.D for permission to use her image <3