Thursday Tips: Wrist seat

April 5, 2012 · by amy~* · in , , ,

Nemesis Trick: Wrist Seat
Also Known As: Hello Boys, V sit, Eye Opener

Today’s tip is related to a relatively simple looking trick that seems to get a lot of people stumped when they work on it. Before we start, let’s take a look at the video so we’re all on the same page. As usual, if you’re reading this from your email, click here to see the video right on YouTube.

Here are the important things to keep in mind:

If you set your top hand too high, you won’t be able to lean back, and get your torso more horizontal. I generally aim for about chest height with the top hand.

You want your hips really tucked under, like this, so that you are almost setting your butt crack on the pole. Sorry, vulgar, but there it is.

This is what NOT to do with your hips. This is a neutering position. You don’t want this. This is owwww on the good bits. See the difference? It’s important. Look closely at the line of the back of my back. If your legs are pointing DOWN before you go into the trick, you aren’t rounding through your back and tucking your hips under enough. They should really be pointed STRAIGHT out in front of you.

Next, is hand position. Most of us, when we get ready to go into this trick, will over grip the pole with the top hand, like this:

So what you’ll find, as shown in the video, is that you will gradually spin in the trick until your wrist is in neutral, like this:

If it really freaks you out to spin in it, make sure to align your wrist in neutral as you set your top hand.

Another important factor is what the bottom hand is doing. You can see the position of my bottom hand and wrist relative to my body at the end of the trick, as I spin to crotch shot the camera (oh how glamorous). If you pretend you’re wearing regular underwear, you want to set your bottom hand so that the wrist runs right along the outside edge of the undies as they cross your butt cheek. Some people like thumb up, some prefer a regular baseball grip (like the “neutral wrist” picture right above, thumb on one side fingers on the other). I don’t have a preference, but I do think it’s important to try switching hands because you may want your strong hand on bottom to start. Try it out both ways. To get that hand into position comfortably without feeling like you’re trying to cross a huge expanse of butt and your arm couldn’t possibly be long enough– tilt a little bit towards that side as you reach so that you make it easier for yourself.

This next part is the thing that I feel like most people have trouble with: As you get set to take your legs off the pole, and bring them towards your chest, you need to be PULLING with the top arm. Your weight shouldn’t be entirely supported by the bottom hand; if that was the case, you’d be actually sitting just on the hand and you have to be pretty strong to do that. Even though your top arm is straight, you should be PULLING the pole towards you by pulling your shoulder back and your shoulder blade down and into the middle of your back. This creates tension- by pulling the pole towards you, you’re essentially pulling your butt into the pole, and those two points of contact should help to alleviate a good amount of the weight off the bottom wrist. If you’re sliding hopelessly as you try to go into the trick, you need to pull MORE with the top arm. I tilt my hips slightly so that the side supported by my bottom hand is a tiny bit lower; this helps to stack my weight over that hand and keep my balance.

Good luck with this move! If there’s something that I missed, that was helpful for you, please feel free to leave it in the comments!!


Tomorrow’s post: Starting your own Flight Club…