How to Perfect the Basic Inversion

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The basic inversion is often the official first foray into the upside down world of pole. It’s exciting, scary and empowering all at once. But whether you are a newbie or a seasoned poler, the inversion is a move that can always use some fine tuning. A significant amount of technique and strength are required to execute the move and a perfect inversion manifests from practice.

The basic inversion requires the ability to lift the entire body inverted. This movement should come from controlled strength and not from momentum. A competition-worthy inversion is executed in a straddle position or Chopper during the invert. The body should be creating lovely gymnastic lines and the core and upper body are the major movers. The movement should look effortless.

New polers focus on mastering strength and the body mechanics of the inversion. Seasoned polers have the strength and muscle memory, but often need to refine and consider the details: no momentum, controlling both the up and the down movement and obtaining full body dance extension.

The body needs repetition to learn a new complex movement pattern, with pole many moves are intricate and require training the body to acquire a new movement chain. In turn, the brain needs time to comprehend when to fire muscles sequentially. The more the movement is practiced, the more engrained in the body; this is called muscle memory.

New students should not strive for perfection and perfect form; the focus should be to simply feel the movement. A move can be cleaned up once the strength is built. Starting with good technique is important but most students will not produce a perfect inversion on the first try. The perfect inversion comes from a combination of strength, practice and technique.

How to Clean-up the Inversion

Build Strength

Building upper body and core strength are the main components of control in the inversion. Being strong and having trained muscle memory means there is a higher likelihood of control of the body. Control of the body can lead to a beautiful inversion. The Basket Tuck is a great way to train control through movement repetition and build muscular strength.

Basket Tuck

Start with a strong grip (inside arm low and outside arm above on the pole) in a basic inversion. Concentrate on engaging the lower core and launch by lifting the legs up into a Basket Tuck. Pause at the top and lower down with control. Try five on each side of the body. To increase the exertion, try five in a row without touching the ground.

Straddle Up

The straddle version ( Inverted V) of this move begins in the exact starting grip. The idea is the same, however the ante is upped by straddling the legs up and down instead of tucking. This leg position increases the strain on the lever system of the body and intensifies difficulty. Again try to keep the feet off the floor to make this move more of a challenge.