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lydamorehouseHula hooping looks much easier than it is. I had my first class last night, and I have to say this: hula hoop = fail; KSW = for the win. The reason my martial arts won over the hooping is that I could not get through the class without "yes, ma'am"ing my instructor more than once. Also, at one point when I was concentrating on trying to get the back-and-forth (not round and round!) rhythm down, I found that I had my hands up in front of my face, as if blocking for sparring.
I must have looked quite the sight.
What was funny too, is that when she suggested that the proper stance for hula hooping was with one foot forward I had a hard time not just going into "ready position" for the KSW forms.
So sads.
Luckily, about two-thirds of the way through the class, I realized that hooping was less of a "sport" and more of a dance. I almost got it going several times. I did, at least, rule the two hand twirls she taught us, because the motion needed to keep the hoop spinning was exactly like twirling nunchucks (which we call jool bong.)
I was certainly the only lesbian in class (though there was another woman "of a certain age" with comfortable shoes, but whom I suspect of being the kind of butch certain grandmas decide to be when they're done doing all that stuff straight women do.) There was one guy. Frank? Who was, sadly for him, not gay. He had all the grace and poise of a dorky white boy. Thus, I felt a certain affinity with him instantly. It helped that we were both so uncoordinated that we flung our hoops at one another from time to time.
The rest of my classmates were divided among the teen to twenty-somethings girls who could already hula hoop like pros, and the super-skinny-stay-at-home-mom types who came dressed for a fashion show.
Another reason KSW wins. I never feel like quite such an oddball there.
Still, there's only a half dozen classes or so. My goal is to actually figure out how to keep the stupid hoop going around my waist before class is over. I purchased a hoop from the instructor which I'll get next time and so I can continue to hoop as an "at home" excercise. I will say, given the state of my stomach muscles already, I suspect hooping is very good for "the core," as people say. (I say "already" because my experience with KSW is that I don't usually wake up with muscle soreness the morning after a hard workout, but that it comes on closer to twenty-four hours later. If that's still coming from hooping, I'm going to need to take Advil BEFORE class next time.)
I must have looked quite the sight.
What was funny too, is that when she suggested that the proper stance for hula hooping was with one foot forward I had a hard time not just going into "ready position" for the KSW forms.
So sads.
Luckily, about two-thirds of the way through the class, I realized that hooping was less of a "sport" and more of a dance. I almost got it going several times. I did, at least, rule the two hand twirls she taught us, because the motion needed to keep the hoop spinning was exactly like twirling nunchucks (which we call jool bong.)
I was certainly the only lesbian in class (though there was another woman "of a certain age" with comfortable shoes, but whom I suspect of being the kind of butch certain grandmas decide to be when they're done doing all that stuff straight women do.) There was one guy. Frank? Who was, sadly for him, not gay. He had all the grace and poise of a dorky white boy. Thus, I felt a certain affinity with him instantly. It helped that we were both so uncoordinated that we flung our hoops at one another from time to time.
The rest of my classmates were divided among the teen to twenty-somethings girls who could already hula hoop like pros, and the super-skinny-stay-at-home-mom types who came dressed for a fashion show.
Another reason KSW wins. I never feel like quite such an oddball there.
Still, there's only a half dozen classes or so. My goal is to actually figure out how to keep the stupid hoop going around my waist before class is over. I purchased a hoop from the instructor which I'll get next time and so I can continue to hoop as an "at home" excercise. I will say, given the state of my stomach muscles already, I suspect hooping is very good for "the core," as people say. (I say "already" because my experience with KSW is that I don't usually wake up with muscle soreness the morning after a hard workout, but that it comes on closer to twenty-four hours later. If that's still coming from hooping, I'm going to need to take Advil BEFORE class next time.)