Shouldermount

One of the most satisfying moments on my pole fitness journey was when I finally managed to do a shoulder mount. It felt absolutely  fantastic, like I was the best pole dancer in the world, for a brief moment :)

It always looked really cool and hard to do at the same time, and that's why I started working on it. Not sure if there is any particular trick to help you get a good shoulder mount. I used to start by jumping into it. I know it's totally wrong and you should never ever do it, but just admit, everybody did it at some point whether with normal invert, or a shoulder mount. It gave me enough momentum to get my bum up that pole to frantically catch it with my feet. When my first clumsy attempt was a success, I got confidence that a proper shoulder mount is achievable. Working on a proper technique is much harder than it seems, you know you could cheat and jump, instead of using muscles to lift yourself up. And once you try it a proper way, suddenly it's a million times harder. Feels good though, to be able to control yourself and make the move right.

One big mistake I made at the start was to keep my legs close together instead of going into a straddle. It may seem easier this way, but in reality it put me off balance and made it harder to lift my body up. Once I witched to a straddle position, further progress went much faster. Just like normal invert, shoulder mount has two options - bent knees into a straddle , or straight legs. I personally prefer the straight legs version, looks prettier, also it's easier though some pole dancers may disagree. Whichever option you choose, it is important to perform the lift in a controlled manner, as opposed to a messy jumpy one.

I have built up my shoulder mount fairly fast. Part it being that I had no fear of falling. It seems like it stops a lot of people from nailing this move faster than they are actually capable of. Cup grip felt really weird and insecure first time I tried it, but turned out being very safe and comfortable.

Aerial shoulder mount is harder to execute for an obvious reason - there is no ground to support you, hence no reason to try it if your performance from the ground is not perfect . It may seem to be very similar to the ground version, but requires a higher level of readiness. It not only looks super pretty and impressive, but also allows you to get back up the pole, when you are close to the ground. I found it very helpful in terms of creating new combos. Can't say that I found aerial inversion particularly hard to master, but by the time I first tried it I already had a very solid normal shoulder mount . But no matter how confident you are, it's better to try it not too high up of the ground, just to be on a safe side.

November 2016. My most recent progress in a field of shoulder mount.

Shoulder mount is not simply a way to get on a pole, but can be a much bigger part of your combos. It is still a way to get up there, but it doesn't have to be boring. Different "walks" is what I enjoy about this move. Slow walking up into Shoulder Mount still lives somewhere, over the rainbow in a fantasy land of never happening stuff. Although I'm pretty optimistic about walking down to the ground from it. As opposed to walking down using your hands, aerial walk down is much harder and requires considerably more core muscles that I possess at the moment. I guess, it's something to work on and one day it will suddenly happen, like it does with a lot of pole moves that seemed impossible at a certain point of your pole journey. Hand walk down is quite hard and took a couple months to understand and perform on a satisfactory level. It may not look as fantastic as a normal walk down, but is still something interesting to try out. Warning: it leaves nasty bruises :)