How Do We Decide What Pole Tricks Are Beginner Safe?
You’ve seen the ridiculous social media videos of “beginner” level sequences that include flips and fonjis. You’ve probably also seen the comments, “that’s not beginner level!” on a video that includes nothing harder than a chair spin.
And it may have left you wondering, what actually constitutes beginner level in pole?
Levelling in pole has always been arbitrary. We are a dance form that came out of strip clubs and that was mostly developed through play and experimentation. It wasn’t until later that outside influences such as the Circus, the fitness industry or other dance forms started to have an impact on the pole industry. Sometimes one trick was “invented” multiple times in different places or countries at different times, unbeknown to those involved, through convergent evolution.
The nature of pole and how it emerged from the clubs means we have never had a central body, or organisation, that can lay out exactly how things should be and how it should be taught. Multiple organisations, individuals and course providers have attempted to create their own systems over the years but they are by no means consistent or in full agreement.
It also doesn’t help that there are many different styles and types of pole. You can’t force a stripper style pole instructor to teach the same things, in the same way and in the same order as someone who teaches a fitness or sports based class. It simply won’t be the same.
Because some people may struggle with something “beginner”, but easily do something considered “advanced”, some individuals have taken this to mean that levelling is pointless and entirely arbitrary.
Many individuals believe that just because they found a trick easy when they were a beginner that it must be beginner level - even if they have a background in gymnastics and the trick they found easy was a phoenix. Some instructors have based their entire teaching system around their own personal experience.
At the other end of the scale I have seen people claiming skills like fan kicks or chair spins can’t be beginner because they found them hard. Certainly they are not tricks I would teach early on to beginners but I think it starts to go to the other extreme if we are not careful. If we throw out anything that a student may find hard at beginner level pole we would have nothing left.
It is true that different people have different strengths and weaknesses, and levelling can be a little bit arbitrary at the individual level, but it doesn’t mean it is completely pointless to level our tricks and have rough guidelines to work from.
For every trick in existence it is possible to analyse and break it down so we can figure out exactly how much strength, flexibility and general pole ability, it needs to achieve. With this information we can create a rough order of difficulty. It’s never going to be perfect for everyone but the idea isn’t to be perfect for everyone. It’s to cater to the bulk of average normal people who sign up for beginner classes.
That doesn’t mean we can’t have flexibility in how we teach. It doesn’t mean that no one will find a beginner trick hard or an advanced skill easy. A good instructor always needs to be ready to pivot and work with the individuals in front of them. That’s how we get the most out of each individual.
Having a loose framework as a community, however, can be so valuable and helps to prevent students attending beginner classes and being encouraged to do insane things. Having a collective understanding around what is reasonable for most people allows us to make pole more accessible and enjoyable for more people. One of the complaints I hear the most in my Instagram DM’s comes from students who simply couldn’t keep up in beginner classes that expected too much of them and their either quit or had to start learning at home.
Having a sensible system makes pole safer for our students. It makes it more achievable. It prevents us from scaring people away, because newsflash, that’s not good for your business (I am talking to pole instructors and studio owners here).
So how do we decide what is and isn’t beginner?
We’re going to talk about this more detail but these are the criteria I personally use to figure out if something is beginner or not. You may find it helpful both as an instructor or student.
Beginner skills should be:
Close to the ground (i.e no inverting or getting into tricks from a climb) or entirely grounded (i.e always in contact with the ground)
Has both hands on the pole and/or multiple body grip points.
Doesn’t require any special level of strength. No lifting of the body off the ground - only long arm hangs or short arm holds.
Doesn’t require any special level of flexibility. No extreme shoulder internal rotation (Ballerinas, I am looking at you) or extension (tabletops), no splits, no wide straddles and no extreme back bends.
Doesn’t require a forearm/half bracket or full bracket grip (you can condition for them though!)
Is simpler in nature and does not require extensive prerequisite tricks to achieve
It's important to note that we are also actively working towards certain skills such as bracket grips, pull ups, inverts etc at beginner level but we are doing so through controlled and sensible strength training rather than just doing tricks. We slowly increase how much weight students are having to lift or hold gradually so that by the time they get to intermediate they'll be ready for those skills.
Because tricks often require students to fully weight bear their entire body weight straight away but in more risky positions. They're also more complex movements so, not only do students need to be able to hold themselves but, they also have to be thinking about what their body is doing and where it's going at the same time. As an example: a pencil spin is going to be harder and more risky than some of the most basic pull up exercises we can do to prepare for it.
So it's not about avoiding certain skills until later - it's about introducing them in a sensible way through strength training rather than tricks.
Some people believe complexity is a measure of level but we are actually assessing a whole range of factors when deciding how to level a skill. Something may be technically simple with only a few steps but still very difficult if it requires a lot of strength, hanging from one arm, barely any grip points or extreme flexibility.
A beginner, by it’s dictionary definition, is someone who has just started to learn a new skill and that means that as much of your beginner syllabus as possible needs to be suitable for the average person just starting their journey. Catering to, and I hate to use this term, “the lowest common denominator” actually helps everyone and there is nothing to say you can’t provide progressions for those who take to pole more easily.
Starting with the absolute most basic movement and layering the difficulty on top tends to be better for morale. Feeling like you can’t even do the starting point, and have to be taken below that point, is worse than feeling like you can do the starting point and others can just do a little more. It’s all psychology ;)
We want to use a random theoretical every day person as our basis. Not outliers. If you take a good range of different people off the street and teach them pole is most of what you’re teaching going to be achievable, for most of them, in a reasonable time frame, when taught in a sensible order?
This doesn’t mean that a trick can’t have prerequisites but it shouldn’t require obscene levels of strength, flexibility or ability.
When do we stop being beginners?
The issue that causes the most arguments online is when the cut off point from beginner to intermediate should be. None of us can agree. Some people have their beginners, or intro, students under that title for only a few weeks and others consider students beginner until well after they are inverting and over a year into their journey.
For me… it’s specifically about the difficulty of tricks and when we are going to start to see the average person struggle a little more. In my experience things tend to start getting harder when we are asking students to invert, whether that’s a basic invert or a cross knee release. That is why personally it makes sense to cut beginner level off at this point.
You don’t have to agree with me.
This is the most arbitrary point of them all and the most important thing is that your students are safe. Every studio uses different levelling systems. It may be intro, beginner, intermediate, advanced. It may be beginner, improver, intermediate, advanced. There may be intermediate 1 and intermediate 2. It may be entirely number based - level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and onwards.
It doesn’t actually matter AS LONG as students are being taught tricks in a sensible order and at a time when their individual bodies have the capacity for what you’re asking them to do. This allows us to keep up morale and reduce injury risk.
In conclusion…
My strong belief is that at the very least we need a rough guideline that lays tricks out in order of difficulty as our starting place for lesson planning. Depending on the style of pole you teach or the kinds of skills you personally like…that could look different and can be tailored to you.
Ultimately the best thing we can do for our students is meet them where they’re at, be able to pivot if necessary, whether that’s regressions or progressions, and simply observe.
If students are consistently finding something difficult or impossible…maybe you’re teaching it too soon. It’s okay to change how we do things as we learn more!
As a student if you’re struggling to do something then you’re probably not ready yet and that’s okay. Repeatedly failing at a trick increases your injury risk. Take a break, step away, figure out what prerequisites you need to work on first and go back to it later.
Side note: you may notice that I do not mention static or spinning pole and this is because, contrary to popular belief, pole can be taught safely on either if the syllabus is sensible.
You can learn from me and get access to my 6 week Beginners Course, suitable for those starting at home from day one, and a whole syllabus of beginner tricks and sequences on my platform. As well as content that will take you over a number of years up to advanced level.
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You can also access my instructor course “Coaching Pole for Diversity” for £60 with lifetime access below. It covers all my top tips to make classes accessible and achievable for more people!
