Is Spin or Static Pole Better?

The age old debate; Which is best? Which is safest? Which should students start with? The common argument is that static is better because "you learn more control". Spin is mostly considered to be harder due to the speed and forces generated but the funny thing is that you'll also hear that spin is both "cheating" or "really hard" depending on who you're talking to.

It might be controversial but, in my opinion, it really doesn't matter which you start with as both have positives and negatives and most students tend to prefer whatever they started on originally. Static has in part become the default due to the fact that historically static poles came first and, even to this day, in some places of the world are still found in clubs more often than spin. Yet whole generations of pole dancers are now starting with spin and the world has not collapsed. What we should be analysing isn't what type of pole students are using but how they are being taught to use it. Good and experienced teachers are the most important factor by far. There are many different techniques and skills used across both poles and it's in students best interests to experience a little bit of everything.

Static

On static pole the student has to generate momentum to create the illusion of spin. This means that not only do they need to be moving some parts of the body but also stabilising others, particularly the core and shoulders. In dynamic spin movements a lot of our weight is hanging from the shoulder so we need to be pretty strong and have a good understanding of what our shoulders should be doing or we risk injury. Instructors should understand these risks and be doing their best to mitigate them.

Static does require less grip strength as the hand needs to be loose enough to move with the movement of the body and the stability of the pole gives students a strong base to work with. Leg grip can be more tricky because, as the pole does not move, the body has a tendency to. Take a knee hold: we grip the top knee, position the bottom and then start to bring the chest out and hips forward. This motion can cause our body to spin backwards, and dislodge our legs, if we don't work very hard to counteract this movement. It also means that when movement does happen it is at the expense of our skin pulling against the pole, which means some new students can find static more painful. 

Static can also hide lack of control if instructors are not very eagle eyed. You can step into an invert on static and really throw yourself, and it may not be noticed, but on spin if you do that you'll go rocketing around the room. The step has to be clean and the lift has to be controlled. Often students who have learnt on static get a big wake up call as to how much momentum they have been using once they try it on spin. I've seen this in new students so many times and they often have to relearn how to invert. Certainly instructor skill comes into this, as is the fact that some people are self taught, so let's not blame static entirely, but it is something to consider.

Spin

Spin poles do the work of generating momentum for us, so we are left to pick a pose, set it up and work on holding it, which sounds simple but often requires a lot more strength and control. If we throw ourselves into it we are potentially going to strain muscles and/or end up wanting to vomit. Whilst we use a mixture of isometric, eccentric and concentric muscle contractions across both static and spin pole; we do tend towards more isometric holds at beginner level on spin. This means we need to be careful to build our students strength up slowly. 

Arguably this is important for both static and spin but possibly more so for spin. Students are required to do a lot more strength training and dance based/grounded skills, for possibly longer than static students do, to ensure they are ready for it.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, as I think most instructors and students rush too much, and it gives students time to really refine their skills and build good form. The spins they will learn require more skin grip, so take the pressure off their arms, and we spend more time focusing on learning to control the speed of our spin.

Spin pole allows us to hook a leg, squeeze and be fairly sure it won't dislodge when we start moving. This can make leg hangs easier and less painful over static, but it does come at the expense of less body awareness. On static we have to be far more careful of how we move the body in order to not dislodge our grip and move in directions we don't want to. It also seems that spin pole can help build better grip strength because we are always trying to prevent the hands from sliding, as opposed to static spins where it is desirable, however this can lead to issues with tendinitis. I see more of these kinds of strain and overuse injuries than anything else but it's often in students who are over enthusiastic and training too much too soon.

Finally, motion sickness can be more of an issue on spin pole but most students do adapt very quickly to this. Ensuring instructors are teaching minimal spins and focusing more on steps and turns can be helpful to mitigate this.

Individual Differences

I'm not going to delve too deep into this but we also need to consider that each student will have a different composition of types of muscle fibre, and that different body types are set up to be better at different things. Some people are better sprinters, some long jumpers, others weight lifters, and this comes down to a mixture of genetics, training and hormones. How this might relate to different types of pole dancers is a topic best left for another day, and for someone with more impressive credentials than myself, but something that is interesting to consider in the context of spin versus static.

Hypermobility

Something I have noticed in my own body and in conversation with other pole dancers is that for the most part hypermobile students seem to prefer spin. This isn't a solid rule but whenever this conversation comes up, on social media, I get a lot of people agreeing. Clearly there's a lot of factors involved and every person is different but here's why I think this might be...

On static, for spins at least, we are travelling away from the pole and a lot of the load seems to go to the shoulder. We have to move some parts of the body to create momentum, whilst stabilising others and this makes it so much harder to engage the shoulder as well as we should. Hypermobile individuals quite often have issues with proprioception - the body's ability to both sense what the body is doing and where it is in space. In a basic, and maybe not perfectly accurate, sense - coordination. Both the extra coordination required, plus the fact that it feels like static generates more forces on the shoulders (that's how it feels to my body anyways), makes dynamic static spins potentially more risky for hypermobile students.

On spin a lot of beginner tricks and spins are isometric contractions: we set it up, we squeeze and the pole does the work so we have less to think about other than squeezing and holding our position. When we have less to think about we can focus on doing the basics better and maintaining our shoulder position may be easier if coordination is the main issue rather than lack of strength. And, don't get me wrong, this is still hard. It requires a lot of strength throughout the body to hold shapes, but if taught safely, slowly and correctly from day one - it should be perfectly safe, achievable and maybe for some preferable. 

I don't recommend that hypermobile students just throw themselves onto spin if they've primarily done static and are happy. However if they do want to try spin they should probably start slowly and take the time to understand safe form and build the strength they'll need to do it safely.

Certainly none of this is scientific and mostly based on my experience and personal feeling, plus what others have expressed to me. Very little research has been done on pole dancing as a sport and I would be surprised if anyone has looked at spin versus static and the forces they generate on hypermobile bodies, but anecdotally it's certainly seems many of us have the same experience. And that's also important evidence. Your own body is the most important evidence you have, after all, so listening to what it is telling you is good advice for everyone, not just hypermobile students.

In Conclusion..

Both techniques come with risks and benefits. It is the instructors job to mitigate and manage those risks regardless of whether they teach spin or static and if they do so successfully they can better protect their students. It is important to note that the causes of injury are complex, and multifactorial, and as instructors we cannot prevent all occurrences. We can only do our best, particularly whilst we do not have a strong and conclusive answer and the quality of instructor training is sorely lacking.

Ultimately, if your students are strong, capable and safe, I guess, who really cares?