There was a great discussion of knee hooping on hooping.org a few months ago. Check it out!
hooping.org/forum/viewtopic.php

More trick discussion:
hooping.org/forum/viewforum.php and
www.hooping.org/archives/cat_tricks.html

When I was learning to knee hoop, what helped me most was the suggestion to start the hoop just above the knees, rather than trying to move the hoop from my waist to my knees. I don't know why it helped, but it helped. You'll get it!

nicki baby!

well, i haven't gotten the knee hooping down yet, BUT i can hoop when its down there just not the transition back up to my waist.

however, elana said something pretty good:

if your hoop is moving counter clockwise try keeping your right leg straight and rotating your left knee outwards to "act" as your hips. let your hips go with it ..it might look kinda valley girl but it works.

good luck!

Hoopnotica taught me to move my knees at opposing directions, so when one knee is forward, the other is going back. If you're legs are moving together, the hoop can still fall down. The right way looks like you're jogging in place with the knees close together. Like in the discussion on hooping.org, I think starting right above the knee or the middle of the thigh works best. To drop the hoop down to your knees from your waist, slow down the hoop till it drops to your thighs. Speed your legs up as soon as it gets there. To get the hoop back up to the waist speed up the jogging motion. Be ready to burn some thigh fat!

I'm not a hoop-in-skimpy-clothes kind of girl so the jeans or linen pants do just fine while learning. Once you get the hang of it, you can even wear polyester or dress pants and your skill will keep the hoop up.

A lil late...but...
Last summer during a workshop, Kandice simply said to me. "Be patient you'll get it. It's muslcle memory."

So I tried and I suddenly realized one of the things that I had been doing wrong. I'm a left-to-right hooper. I had been watching right-to-left hoopers for almost a year, attempting to mirror their movements, which is just an exercise in futility for more advanced moves like this one. lolololol So ensure that you choose a mentor who hoops in your direction. Also look to hooping as a means to capture your individual style. Don't get discouraged just because you haven't managed recreate someone else's magic. Try everything, but create your own magic.

So in my case, the jogging movement doesn't really work for me because...I'm knock-kneed (the opposite of bowlegged) and clumsy AND pigeon-toed. Sigh. lolololololololol What does work is what can be best described as a knee pivot.

Try this out...but remember I'm a LEFT-TO-RIGHT hooper...you should adjust these suggestions accordingly if you're the opposite:

- Put on some appropriate hoopin tunes. Leaving your hoop aside, stand up and plant your feet firmly about shoulder width apart on level ground.
- Rotate your right knee in a clock-wise direction (to the right); Do it for a while in order to get the feel of it (and marvel at how sexxcie you look) lol

SWITCH!
- Rotate your left knee in a clock-wise direction

DOUBLE UP, UNH! UNH!!
- Rotate both knees simultaneously in a clock-wise direction. Do it for a while...remember this is all about muscle memory!
- After you get the feel of this, and while still rotating your knees, angle your body slightly so that you have more weight on one leg than the other. Get the feel of that.
- Angle your body to the other side and get the feel of that side.
- With your muscles very aware of themselves at this point, angle your body again. This time plant one leg and leave it fluid but basically stationary while the other rotates. Switch. Now trade off in time to your own rhythm or the rhythm of your music, whichever's best for you. Imagine making "circle eights" with your knees. *NOT* to be confused with "figure eights," which cross at the center. Circle eights are two circles set atop one another. Like a double scoop ice cream cone. Mmmm, ice creammmm....

AT LONG LAST!
Start with your hoop at your waist going a comfortable rate of speed. Begin to slow it down, Smoothly. I like to transistion into knee hooping by slowly walking in the direction of my hoop so that it drops to my hips. As I rotate my hips slowly, my knees move simultaneously in a clockwise direction and I'm off hoopin with my knees. Remember the muscle memory excercises I had you do above? Apply them all here; the angles, the trade-offs, yadda, yadda yadda. The first amazing thing about knee-hooping that I discovered is the SPEED. Woooo!!!!

With all the excercises I've suggested above, you'll know exactly what to do when the hoop seems about to drop too far, too fast. With feet firmly planted and still shoulder width apart, you will of course, move one of your rotating knees out and "kick" the hoop back up; then you will stabilize it by "kicking" the hoop level with your other knee. Much in the same way you did when you were afraid to let the hoop drop below your waist, you instinctively shot your hip out in the appropriate direction to prevent it from falling. (Remember?)

Don't get frustrated. Laugh instead. Happy Hooping. Hope this helps someone.

peacemagiclovebeautylight
~*~rakai~*~

I'm reviving this older thread because I wanted to say I CAN FINALLY KNEE HOOP!!!!!!!!!! I was having a very inspired hooping session and as I was grooving, I took a chance to let it go to my knees for the gazillionth time and expected it to fall on the ground as usual, but this morning, almost magically, it worked. 5 times in a row! I cannot bring it back up yet, or keep it more than 8 or 10 revolutions but I can finally knee hoop! YAY for me!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to Revolva and Diana Lopez for their tips and pointers!! I'm so happy!!!

I look like I've been in a street fight though, I'm glad it's not skirt or bikini time in Maryland...

What I'd like to know is if a smaller or larger hoop would be better for trying to get knee hooping down. I'm the most basic beginner to any type of hooping at all so I'm trying to figure things out.