it's true! slippery pants/tights are the death of knee hooping. either wear natural fabrics or bare skin, and that should help a LOT.

i just sort of "lift" the hoop with my knee (if you hoop clockwise, like me, that would be your right knee; if you hoop counterclockwise, that would be your left knee). another thing to work on is consciously slowing the hoop down when it starts going really fast. that's perhaps step #1 before trying to lift it up.

good luck!

I had this problem.. I would be hooping wearing shorts, but I could only get the hoop to climb back up to my waist if I hiked the shorts up so the hoop would be in skin contact :)

The advice that initially worked for me was "stick your ass out and shake it like Elvis..."... I envision my hips having a yard stick taped across them, and then try to shift my hips up and down so the stick alternates 45 degrees up and down on each side.. helps the hoop to climb :) Lots of laughter and self-patience is always good, too :)


There was a thread about this a couple months ago... search the tribe for it (Sorry, I suck at making links)

X.

Use your hands.

Bless the posters above, and bless all you sub-25 hoopers with slim hips and straight thighs (I've seen your video, Anah, no arguement). But my feet have to be WAY past my shoulders before I can get a straight line from my knees to my hips. Let's just say, "built for comfort, not speed...?"

SO: I tried all those suggestions for a reasonable amount of time, and got no where. I'm asking the hoop to go from a narrow little rotation to quite a bigger one, and that's hard.

I was practicing hand hooping one day with a bigger-than-normal hoop and suddenly realized I could reach down and simply lift the hoop off my knees into rotation around my hips, and a whole new world opened up. Maybe one day I'll learn to "chi" the hoop back up from my knees, but at least with a hand-lift, I'm not stuck if or once the hoop falls to my knees--sometimes deliberate, sometimes accidental. I can get it back on my body and keep going.

I've also noted the difference between skin and fabric and cotton doesn't help me any. Getting to be a bit past time to hoop in a bathing suit around here.

A hand lift has opened up a whole 18" of space on my body to play with. Suspect I'll get the chi in time, now that my brain doesn't fall into the trap of thinking, "Oh heck, blew this sequence wonder how long I can keep it going on my knees before I have to let it drop this time?" every time I'm below my hips.

of course... this makes perfect sense.

i went sea kayaking once, and the instructor noticed that my path was kind of crooked - i would paddle on one side for a while, until i was pointed a ways away from where i wanted to be going, then i'd switch sides. he paddled up to me and said, "you don't need to keep looking at your paddle - look at where you want to go!"

it's a great metaphor for life, really.

"If you hoop clockwise, use your right leg. CCW use your left leg. "
That's totally the trick! I hoop CCW and had always tried to use my right legto kick it up... I tried it for the first time with my left leg and can do it almost everytime now!

Martine,
Sometimes it helps to see yourself drumming the hoop with the backs and fronts of your thighs and knees. Listening to music with a high BPM can also really help. Most of the time, hooping is a lot easier the faster you go. In the case of legs and knees, speed is your friend, for sure. Experienced Hoopers tend to make it look a little easier than it is by slowing down the actions of the torso, but their knees are moving a lot faster than their waist (if their legs are together.)

I also think you have one of the best icon photos on tribe. It's like all your posts have 'stalker repellent' sprayed all over them.

pe*A*ce.