Hooping

This summer I’ve been hula-hooping. It’s such an odd thing to take up, especially in my mid-twenties, but like so many other good things in life, it started on a whim. I was at work one day, and a co-worker looks and me and asks “have you ever hula-hooped?” My mind instantly flashed to my first (and up to that point only) hula-hoop at the age of five. It was purple and white stripped, purchased at a Toys-R-Us in southern California. We were helping out with and attending my Cousin’s wedding, so I’m sure the hula-hoop kept me pre-occupied and out of the way. I don’t remember playing with it much as a child, and I’m sure it went by the way side at some garage sale.

“Yeah, a little bit” I replied. It seemed like a random thing to ask and I had no idea where she was going with it. Apparently she had some random hula-hoops in a closet and arbitrarily enough, one her participating WWOOFer’s (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms… check out the website for more details http://www.wwoofusa.org/) was actually a “professional hooper.” I don’t know entirely what that entails, but apparently she could do some pretty amazing stuff with a hoop, and now my co-worker was hooked. She showed me battle wounds, bruises, even talked about how she made her own hoop the correct size and weight. It was blowing my mind. I had never once considered hula-hooping outside of a playground or back yard setting, and I was mildly intrigued. Who makes their own hula-hoop? It struck me as something above & beyond, and not for me, but the idea of hula-hooping in general had peaked my interest.

Like most passing conversations, I tucked it away in the back of my mind for a while, until one day I was at Target, and saw hula-hoops for sale in the summer fun section. It was a $1.50, so I figured why not? I felt slightly dorky as I rolled my hula-hoop through the store… no one else in the lipstick aisle had a hula-hoop, but I figured for an impulse buy, it was at least a unique one.

I got my hoop home, and quickly discovered the probable reason that my childhood hoop had met its demise. I sucked. Like, really, really sucked. How could something that seemed so elementary be so hard? I twisted, I turned, I flailed my arms and my hips in every conceivable way, and still could only manage to make the hoop stay up a matter of seconds. I felt slightly better, after making my entire family try, and discovered that we were all as equally un-coordinated. That is, until I passed the hoop over to my sister-in-law, who in ten seconds flat, put the rest of us to shame. She could walk & hoop, start it on her neck and get it all the way down her body, one leg, one arm, you name it she could do it with a hula-hoop. I was crushed. I mean I know she’s athletic, but I took fourteen years of ballet, one would think that would be somewhat of an advantage, no? I resorted to my fall back “well we were homeschooled so we never had recess” excuse, and started practicing.

It was a little pathetic… a twenty-four-year-old thrusting & flailing, (and not in a good way) but eventually, I kinda-sorta started to get the hang of it. What I really would like to know is who’s bright idea it was to put the little noisy beads in hula-hoops? Fun for a child, yes, but an adult, the most irritating thing in the world. Especially for the people around you who are not quite as enthralled with learning how to hoop.

Irritating noise, irritating noise, crash

Irritating noise, irritating noise, crash.

Any change in this clatter pattern, and people would look up from whatever they were doing, because this meant that I had managed to keep the hoop in motion a little longer. Progress! It was a slow and noisy battle, but slowly I improved.

After a few days of utterly sucking I began to develop my “technique.” I spin to the left, and found that I have the best luck keeping the hoop aloft if my feet are in “Fourth position.” This is a ballet stance that involves your feet being about a foot apart, your front heel roughly aligned with your back toe, but for hooping I prefer parallel foot position, with both toes pointed to the front. It’s an open, stable stance, and I’m not sure what makes it work, but I’m pretty sure it’s the secret to my hooping “success.”

I took a slight hiatus from hooping (and so many other things) at the end of July when I came down with a freak staph infection in both of my legs. It was hard enough to get out of bed & stand, let alone flail about willingly in the name of fun and exercise. Surprisingly enough, once I was back on my feet, my hooping skill level remained the same. I was by no means “good” I wasn’t even average, but I was encouraged by the idea that maybe I was getting some muscle memory. If I wasn’t getting worse, maybe I was getting better? My friend Elizabeth confirmed my musings when I was visiting her in Montana. She had a hoop tucked away in her living room, and we quickly whipped it into action. I certainly wasn’t good, but I was so much better than I had been, and we laughed our asses off as we spazzed out about the dining room hooping it up. Let’s just say, I was cautiously optimistic that the practicing was starting to pay off.

photo by Elizabeth Prather

When I started to write this, I got curious about “hooping” so I started to do a little research and stumbled upon www.hooping.org .Though I am not surprised there is a world-renowned website dedicated to “spread the joy of hooping to all and build a world wide hooping community” I found myself once again blown away… this is not the passing fad of the 1950’s or your play ground hula-hooping. Or is it hoola-hooping? I’ve seen it both ways…

So I was inspired. I looked up instructions, and headed down to Lowe’s, bound and determined to have my own custom-made hoop by the end of the night. Yes, the GRE is a week away, my apartment is in pre-moving shambles, and there are a million other things I should be doing… but that is beside the point. I purchased one-hundred feet of irrigation tubing, (which is slightly excessive, but it only comes in large coils… and now I am prepared to outfit all my friends, should my love for hooping spread) one insert connector, and headed home to assemble my hoop.

I’m not sure why I thought it would be hard to make a hula-hoop. Tubing and a connector, and voila! There you have it, my first hand-made hoop. Cutting the tubing was a bit challenging, and of course I didn’t invest in any sort of PVC cutters (which were recommended) but I was able to improvise… Sure using a Cutco bread knife was a little unconventional, but it got the job done. Heat the ends of the tubing with a hairdryer, and insert the connector, and there you have it.

I immediately took the newly constructed hoop next door to the empty apartment—which will officially be mine on Friday—and tried it out… The difference is unbelievable! I had no idea that using a hoop that was the “correct” size and weight could really make such a difference! I’m no longer flailing and spazzing! Though I haven’t had a ton of time to play with my newly created hoop, I can say that the movement is much more graceful, and much less awkward, and the best part is that it is noiseless! No more irritating beady noises and hopefully far less crashing to the floor. Though I haven’t had the time or the motivation to decorate the hoop yet, it definitely has some creative potential…and I’m now more than cautiously optimistic that this new hoop is going to be a really fun distraction… at least it’s also burning calories.

For complete instructions and visual aids on how to make your own hula-hoop visit http://www.jasonunbound.com/hoops.html