some honesty about 'progression'

OK gang, buckle in, I feel like there's a lot to say about this one! Everything I'm going to say in here is my personal opinion or experience from teaching pole for the last 12 years, but I would love to know if you have anything to add or have thoughts of your own on this subject!

I feel like social media can be such a good tool as an aerialist, but it can also make you feel like a bag of crap when you see someone post that they've been doing pole/aerial for 2 years and can already 'X,Y,Z' (insert crazy hard move that took you years to achieve). So let's start with this. How long SHOULD it take you to get certain moves?

You'll be disappointed (but not surprised I hope) to hear that this is such an ambiguous subject, which has so many variables attached to it. It's frustrating, but true. Factors you need to consider when you set that goal move are:

• What's my starting point? (for example if your dream move involves a completely flat split and you currently have the flexibility of a brick, its going to take longer than someone who can already split).

• How much time can I dedicate to this? This goes for your training in general. If you come to class once a week, you will progress, but its going to be a lot slower than someone who comes 3 times a week (and thats totally fine, it's just a fact).

• Am I cross training? This one is being hotly contested in pole world at the moment, and I can see both sides of the argument. I am firm believer in cross training other things that aren't pole and aerial because I have seen my own progress and reduction in injury by doing this. However (and i'll come onto this later) I also can very much see the point that some people want to come to class once a week and have some fun with their friends and some people jsut don't have the time to do this. Aerial doesn't have to be something you take massively seriously and commit hours and hours each week to, but if this is the case, then you need to be realistic about what you can achieve as well.

• Am I taking time to understand the movement? Bit of a rogue one here, and again, some of you may argue this isn't necessary; but for me to really be able to master a move I have to understand how the move works. I have to understand my body and what I am actually trying to do with it, so I can start to see what i'm doing wrong. If you are just blindly doing what your instructor tells you each week and not actually taking any time to think the move through and analyse it, its going to take a lot longer for your body to start responding because it doesn't understand what you're asking of it. This leads onto my next point nicely...

• Am I recording my progress to see mistakes/areas i need to improve on? I know everyone learns differently, but having a reference point to come back to each time you try a move makes it so much easier than starting from scratch each time.

• Finally, Can my body even move in this way? Every body is different. Not everybody. Every Body. There are some moves that are going to be harder if you are short limbed. Some moves that are going to be harder if you are bottom heavy. Some moves that are going to be harder if you are hypermobile. This kind of leads back to my first point about knowing your starting point with a move, but sometimes a move is just not going to be made for your body type and its going to be a lot harder to achieve it.