I’m quite often asked what the hardest move I can do is. Sound familiar?!

I used to go for the Shoulder Mount Walk Down as it was the move I was most proud of, and took the longest to learn.

The other day some of my students now suggest it would be the Cup Grip Iron X. I would probably agree.

It has been the move the has taken me the longest to learn (partly because there are so many moves that you have to learn before you can even begin to work on it.

I then thought about the Holly Drop. I can do all of the individual moves that go into making up this drop and have been able to do them for a while. for some reason, although I love this drop and think it looks great, it scares me.

Strength Or Fear?

I started to think about what makes a move ‘hard’.

You have the strength moves like a Deadlifts or Iron X that are hard because of the strength element to them. Of course you have to nail them technically in order to get them right, but when you have the technique you have to drill it over and over again until it starts to get stronger.

They are both very physically demanding moves that take time and a lot of hard work to nail.

And then there are the moves that scare the pants off of you…

I remember trying the Holly Drop about 4 years ago – and let’s just say it didn’t go well 🙁

I know (now) that I must have been doing it wrong and perhaps wasn’t confident enough for it. Coming back to it I feel so much stronger and can hold all of the component move as long as I need to. I can run through the drop (with hands) which feels super strong, but as soon as it comes to the actual drop part of it, I really have to work up to it.

I sit in the first move and count in my head. I usually get to ‘3’ or drop when the music drops… for some reason it helps – almost using another force to drop.

What’s Harder?

When it comes to strength based moves, I can get really frustrated when I go over and over the moves but don’t see any progress. I can literally go from feeling amazing about getting closer, to feeling rubbish in 2 seconds and wonder why I even bother… But I stick with it.

I guess I know that with strength moves, same as flexibility, as long as you keep trying you will get there.

With moves that scare you, it can be more difficult. While the component moves might feel ‘easy’ the actual drop part of it is really hard.

Forcing yourself to let go of the pole when you know holding it is keeping you safe, is really, really difficult. With a lot of drops you can walk through them over and over again, but usually it is the element of speed that helps you nail it – and often makes it much safer.

I think for me the mental aspect of making yourself drop will always be more difficult than working on strength based moves. I guess the difference (for me at least) is that usually learning drops come quicker as we often transition from or into moves that we are used to working on, where as the strength moves are often ones that we haven’t quite mastered yet and hope one day it’ll all just click into place.

I will always work on hard strength moves but know that I need to force myself to go over the drops move.

What are your favourite drops? 😀