My last day of the hooping 30/30 challenge, Lynne

So today is my last day of the Hooping.org 30/30 challenge and I have done my 30 minutes every day for 30 days and I've learned so much about why I hoop, what hooping means to me and where I want to go in the future with my hooping.

Today's 30 minutes was a celebration for me for completing the challenge despite having many days of sickness along the way. Despite the drizzle and blustery winds I went out into the garden with my headphones on and danced, wiggled and twirled like no one was watching. It wasn't perfect, structured hooping. It was wild like the wind and my planes were sketch to say the least, but the flow was as smooth as it has ever been. All drops and mistakes were some how incorporated seamlessly into the dance and the smile on my face was wider than my out stretched arms when I spun around and around. The wind kept wobbling the hoop and causing it to flip up and down, but somehow it all worked together.

What a fabulous way to end the challenge... oh and there were people watching me from their windows in the houses behind mine. I'm sure they must have thought I was crazy, but one of them actually gave me a round of applause when they saw me finish. I took a bow, giggled and went inside.

This isn't the end for me. I might no longer be doing the challenge and writing up about each days practice, but I'm going to keep up the daily hooping. I need to do it. It keeps me centred and grounded and helps me to release negativity from my body.

I hope all your 30/30 challenges are going well and that you are enjoying all the things regular practice is bringing you. It's not all about getting better at whatever prop you have chosen to use. It can be about so many other things as well.

Day 29 30/30 Challenge, Lynne

Yay! I got some sleep last night and I've woken up feeling much more like myself rather than a growling bear, so I got up, grabbed a 36" hoop, turned on some music, sung along and danced about whilst wiggling. After about 40 minutes I was completely out of breath and very tired again, but very, very happy to be alive and NOT vomiting. I think after I have soaked in a hot bath whilst read some more of Robert Rankin's "The Brentford triangle" I will do some more structured practice.

This maybe the penultimate day of the 30/30 challenge, but as sure as night follows day these 30 days won't be the end of my daily practice with my hoop. Why? Because it makes me feel alive and for the time I am with my hoop all the rest of my life, and what goes with it, is put on hold. Not that my life is so bad, far from it. It's just that some bits of it can be very frustrating and stressful. Hooping releases those feelings and lets me focus on the great bits of my life and doing a daily practice seems to have expanded the benefits ten fold.

Day 28 30/30 challenge, Lynne

If I'd had about 5 hours more sleep today I might have been more productive with my practice, but I didn't. This stomach bug thing hasn't completely gone and I was awake most of the night again. So again today was very gentle play with a mini hoop. I spent time in front of a mirror trying to perfect what the hand that isn't holding the hoop does. I think a lot of the illusion of hoop isolations has to do with how the rest of your body moves, not just the hand the hoop is in. I had some success and some utter failures where my non hoop hand just looked like one of those women that point at goods on the sales channels. I'm not sure if it was due to the lack of sleep or if I genuinely am just losing my marbles, but I couldn't help but giggle inanely whilst I was doing it.

Tonight I really really need to sleep!

30/30 Challenge Day2-3, Daniel

It was another late one for me last night started juggling and lost track of time, I must have been juggling for a hour. By the time I noticed it was late I had managed to work out a cascade, not that I could do the cascade but I do know how its done, all thats needed is a little more practice.

Elephants meet tonight so I have much more room to practice, plus I can use the clubs equipment to practice.

Day 27 30/30 challenge, Lynne

After a night of being very sick I decided this morning I was going to have to do a very gentle practice to give my body a rest, so I have been working on moves with my mini isolation hoops by sitting down, watching videos online and slowly copying the moves with my hoops. There wasn't a huge amount of movement going on, if I'm honest, more was going on in my head and thinking through moves, but after projectile vomiting several times yesterday and through the night I think it was about all I could manage. I hope people see this as counting towards practising because I did learn a lot of things from doing it even if I wasn't very physically active whilst doing it.

I'm hoping for better health by tomorrow.

Day 26 30/30 Challenge, Lynne

This challenge is coming into it's last days and I have been looking back at what it has meant to me and how it has changed my hooping, so whilst doing my foot hooping my head was elsewhere, which seemed to help me foot hoop better than I ever have. Odd really, but that's what happened.

The limited space played a part in what I could and couldn't try with the hoop, but I did some foot to foot passes laying on my back and laying on my side passing the hoop from hand to foot then rolling onto my stomach whilst bending my leg at the knee and keeping the hoop rotating on my foot. I couldn't for some reason pass foot to foot in this position but I did manage to stall the hoop with my free foot and make the hoop change direction of rotation. Thankfully I managed all this without smashing anything, although I did knock a candle off the window ledge... no damage done.

I will save my thoughts about doing the 30/30 challenge for when it is over... That is if It ever does end *wink*

(The photo was taken at the beach in the summer. Sadly the weather was not like that today)

30/30 Challenge, Daniel

So I have decided to take up the 30/30 Challenge, and the skill of choice is juggling, I have been able to juggle for a little while now both Balls and clubs, but while only practising twice a week I haven't made much progress, and going down the pub after elephants each Thursday wont help me remember what I have learned.

So today I started with half an hour of basic 3 ball juggling, (Probably yesterday to all of you, but I haven't been to bed yet so its still Tuesday to me!) just sitting on my bed while playing my top rated tunes in my collection, still hurting a bit from Monday night Swansea City Circus so I took it easy for now but not long till Elephants!

The Elephant 30/30 Challenge.

So today is the start of the Elephants Not Included 30 minutes a day for 30 days practice challenge. It is a way of encouraging you to practice with either one prop or a variety of props for half an hour and get into the habit of doing it every day. I have been doing it for 25 days so far in a hoop version of the challenge and it has been very enlightening for me and has improved my hooping quite a lot. It also feel like it is a natural part of my day now. I look forward to doing my 30 minutes.

This challenge isn't meant to be a chore, so if you find it so maybe take a break and start again when you feel the urge to, but if you do push through that feeling of having to do it you will probably find that you want to do it and crave the practice. I think it is important to stress that you really shouldn't beat yourself up if you do skip a day. Just pick the challenge back up the next day and congratulate yourself for what you achieve rather than obsess on days when things don't go to plan. This is supposed to be a way of finding the time to take 30 minutes out of your day to indulge your love of (insert your circus arts skill here) and help you to realise that regular daily practice will improve your skills in leaps and bounds and if it is something you really love to do it will brighten your day too. Don't let it become a huge annoying Elephant in your day. If you start to feel annoyed or bad about doing it, then maybe this isn't the challenge for you.

Good luck to all of you that decide to do this. Have fun and remember to keep records of your progress. Even if you never show them to anyone else, it will help you see your progress.

Day 25 30/30 challenge, Lynne

It's dark and drizzly in South Wales today, so I'm inside and playing with the mini hoops. I've been working on isolations, catseyes etc and also I did a lot of poi style hooping. I can thread the needle with the mini hoops but when I tried to do it with the 32" hoops I almost smashed a clock, so I think I'll leave trying that again until I have more space with less things I can break in it.

Whilst doing the practice today I made a decision that I wanted to improve my poi skills. Maybe that's what I can do for the Elephants Not Included 30/30 challenge... which, by the way, starts today. Maybe this evening I will put in the 30 minutes with my poi.

I want to work on foot hooping more, so that is where I am headed tomorrow, if I can find a safe space to do it in.

Day 24 30/30 Challenge, Lynne

Tonight night I took some time away from the others in the circus group and just danced around with my hoop. I had arrived at circus feeling very uninspired and tired. I'd had a really bad nights sleep the night before and I really felt a bit lost at sea all day. It felt very liberating and centring at the same time to be in my hoop. Nothing could distract me. Nothing entered into that circle, but plenty left. Stress and annoyance all left me, allowing me feeling a lot lighter and more at ease with myself. I wish I had done it earlier in the day. It would have made the day a whole lot better.

Time for bed now. I'm wiped out.

Hmmm I some how failed to post this in my tired state last night and only saved it as a draft... Silly me!

Day 23 30/30 Challenge, Lynne

I've had a day of carrying heavy stuff about and walking here and there and because of that I just wanted to chill out in my hoop and not do anything too demanding of my body, so I practised a bit of hoop isolating whilst sitting on the floor, tried out some hoop rolling around my body on the floor and I did some gentle stretching moves whilst arm hooping. All in all it was just a very gentle 30 minutes for me today, being kind to my very tired body.

Tomorrow will be more high energy... I hope.

Day 22 30/30 challenge, Lynne

Today was a day of dancing about in the hoop with my headphones on. It wasn't all that move orientated, more just flow and dance. I found that the less I thought about the hooping the more my body did with the hoop. I was utterly lost in the music and the hoop just moved in the way the music dictated. It was great fun and over an hour had passed before I even realised it.

I used a larger 36" hoop today as I didn't feel like wiggling at the fast speed the 32" hoops flow at. More and more I'm finding the small hoops are really great for some things, like multi hooping, arm hooping and foot hooping, but if I want to dance about and move with the beat of music I like my 36".

The 30/30 challenge has relit my fire for regular daily hooping.

Day 21 30/30 Challenge, Lynne

I was woken up early by 2 hungry cats demanding breakfast, so I got up in the half light of dawn to feed them and after doing that I jumped into a hoop and danced about in the lounge to some music for about 10 minutes until my brain was fully alert and awake. Although it was cold I could see out the window it was going to be a lovely start to the day so I pulled on some warm jogging bottoms and a fleece and skipped out into the garden with my hoop and MP3 player to dance about and enjoy the daybreak. What a beautiful sunny, if freezing cold day we have to delight in. In all honesty the hooping was just a good way to keep warm whilst watching the day blossom into life, so I can't tell you what I did with it because my attention was on the sky, the sunlight and the way it crept across the plants in the garden highlighting some leaves and putting others into dark shadows.

I certainly felt 100% better about how the hoop flowed today compared with last night, maybe because I was just letting my body and the hoop do their own things whilst my mind was elsewhere. I stayed out in the cold for about 40 minutes before my feet were so frosty they began to have that tingling burning sensation that lets you know it's either time to get warm again or maybe lose a toe.

Time for a hot bath to warm up. Today has started very well indeed!

Day 20 30/30 Challenge, Lynne

Tonight's meeting at Elephants Not Included was a bit odd, with people leaving early and others turning up half way through, but it meant there was more space to hoop, which was ok but,I found tonight I wasn't really feeling it with the hoop. Most of the time was spent dropping and picking up the hoop. I'm not entirely sure why I was feeling that way. I did a lot of arm hooping with twin hoops and some twin on/off body hooping, but all of it felt very jerky and had no flow. I needed some more inner calm I think. My mind was racing and elsewhere.

I hope tomorrows practice is more productive and less frustrating.

Day 19 30/30challenge, Lynne

I can't believe I'm at day 19 already. I feel like this is passing so fast, but also like I have always been doing this... very odd and conflicting feelings, I know, but that's just the way it is.

Today I got out of bed and picked a hoop up straight away. No getting washed or putting clothes on, just me and my hoop, with music on random selection and away I went, full on wiggling, dancing and singing at the top of my voice. I can't tell you exactly what I did because I wasn't really taking much concious notice of the moves. I just went with the flow. Hooping on skin is so much fun and kind of liberating. No clothes in the way, no hoop slipping down because you happen to have put too much fabric softener in the wash with your leggings, and no clinking and clanking as the hoop hits zips, belts or buttons. The grip is perfect, & the freedom of movement is great. Try it and see.

Day 18 30/30 challenge, Lynne

At last nights circus training I happened upon a move or two that involved 2 hoops and my arms, so today's 30 minutes was spent perfecting them and working out ways to flow from on body hooping the pair of hoops onto my arms without it looking jerky and untidy. The flow still needs lots of work but the moves on the arms are looking and feeling much more solid.

If I was poi spinning I would say I was spinning in butterfly, so in other words the hoops spin in opposite directions to each other, one on each arm with my arms bending in and out, so elbows to arms to elbow to arm. Changing the hoops direction regularly, singularly of at the same time, took a lot of work but I think I have that solidly I've also managed to get throws and catches in and still keep the flow of the hoops going. It's quite hard to describe these moves in text, but I'm liking how they feel and look.

The 30 minutes flew past today.

Day 17 30/30 Challenge, Lynne

I split the 30 minutes into 2 X 15 minutes today due to getting distracted by a parcel arriving. Yippee, velcro has arrived so now I can finish Steve's staff bag. I spent the first 15 minutes just dancing around to the radio with my hoop moving where it wanted as I wiggled and danced. I kept the flow going and even if the hoop dropped or stalled unexpectedly I just let that lead me into another move. It was great fun and the door being knocked by the Postman kind of annoyed me because I didn't want to stop. It is a really good way to find new moves with your hoop. You just keep on going no matter what and you let the hoop find it's own way around your body.

The 2nd half of the practice was a bit more structured. I went through a few of the moves I will be teaching this evening at the Swansea City Circus training session. I did each move in slow motion so I could remember exactly which hand grip is needed and at what point to do certain movements. Basically it was a reminder for myself of the break down of the moves. I like to do this periodically, not just for teaching purposes but in doing this I sometimes find new things in basic moves I have been doing for years. Maybe new ways of getting into a move or new transitions between moves. Every move has so many possibilities within it. Points at which you can transform the move into something entirely different. I find that exciting.

So day 17 was, for me, a good day in the 30/30 challenge

Day 16 30/30 challenge, Lynne

I still have a bit of a dodgy stomach so I've concentrated on arm, leg and shoulder hooping... anything that doesn't involve wiggling my belly. I did a bit of body rolling too. The 30 minutes flew past. It is about all I have managed to do so far today, but that's ok because it made me happy. Once I regain enough energy I might do another 30 minutes.

Day 15 30/30 Challenge, Lynne

Another fairly basic core hooping day for me today. I also did a bit of jumping in and out of the hoop because for some reason with these smaller hoops I kept forgetting to duck low enough or keep my feet close enough together to not hit myself or trip myself with the hoop. After today's practice I'm a lot better.

Whilst I was hooping today I got this longing to be on a sunny beach hooping rather than hooping in my living room. Bring on the summer, a sandy beach, a bag full of hoops and a lot of friends. I'm also thinking of running some free lessons on the sand for anyone that wants to join in. I could maybe make it a regular thing during the summer, once a month or maybe a week if it was popular. Free lunchtime hooping on the beach in Swansea... what do you think?

Day 14 30/30 challenge, Lynne

Another day and another 30 minutes of hooping. I am having soooooooo much trouble today with this. I've had to split this down into 5 minute sections due to feeling a bit nauseous. I've mainly been arm hooping, but I did do a bit of mini hoop manipulations, because I could do it sitting down.

Strangely I didn't do it because I felt duty bound to do it for the challenge. I did it because I just wanted to hoop. Whatever this illness is it didn't wipe me out enough to kill my desire to wiggle.