November 11: Next Playing a Round classes

The next Playing a Round---introduction to basic hula hooping---is scheduled for Sunday, November 11. The series is split into two sessions:

Hooping Basics 1
Sunday, November 11
2-3:30 p.m.

Hooping Basics 2
Prerequisite: Hooping Basics 1.
Sunday, November 11
4-5:30 p.m.

You can sign up for one or both sessions. If 3 hours of hooping seems a bit much for you, consider signing up for Hooping Basics 1 now, and then Hooping Basics 2 the next time it's offered!

Hooping Basics 2 revisits the skills you learn in Basics 1 and builds on them. If you've taken  Basics 1, you know that many seemingly complicated hoop moves are often just a series of simple ones. 

Click here for cost, location, and registration information.

Introducing Playing a Round™!

UPDATE: For class planning purposes, the last day to sign up is Saturday, October 13!

A hooping basics class by Alphabet Hoops
For new hoopers, 12 years old+.

Learn basic hula hooping moves and tips on how to teach them to your kids (and your young-at-heart friends!)

In this two-part hooping basics class, you will learn:

• Stretching exercises that use your hoop
• Basic waist and hand hooping moves
• Tips on how to teach hooping to the "kids" in your life

Hula hoops are big circles of happy. Sign up with your friends (for a discount!) and LAUGH as you learn to hoop.

Think you can't hula hoop?
It's because you haven't tried with an adult-sized hula hoop!
Grown-ups need larger, heavier hoops than those used by kids.

Want to smile more with your friends and family?
Learn to hula hoop! Hoops are automatic smile-generators!

Want to add more exercise options for your kids?
Hooping is exercise disguised as fun!

WHEN

Sunday, October 14 AND October 21, 2012
4-5:30 p.m.
(3 hours total instruction)

WHERE

Fusion Fitness and MMA
Whitlock Point Shopping Center
1075 Whitlock Avenue, Suite E
Marietta, Georgia 30064

COST

$35 for 3 hours total instruction. Or save $10 and sign up with a friend for $30 each!

Hoops will be provided for class use. A limited selection will also be available for purchase at class time. Or pre-order yours by calling Lorene at (404) 271-7429 or emailing her at Lorene@AlphabetHoops.com. (If you don't get a fairly quick response, your email may have gone to my Spam folder. Please send me a text telling me to look for your message!)

Register early. Space is limited!

About the Instructor

Lorene Shaw is a hooping enthusiast who discovered the joys of hula hooping in 2009. She has taught both adults and children, and currently teaches hula hooping to City of Marietta students via Marietta Community School.

Little kids don't see spinning hula hoops

When someone buys a hoop from me, one of the things I warn them about is that little kids don't seem to "see" a spinning hoop. They'll just walk right up, and into, a spinning hoop. (Cute & LUCKY!) case in point.

The light, plastic kid's hoops that are commercially available don't do much damage, but my heavier, adult-sized ones can cause a bruise or two. So, be carefully, everyone! A kid will look you in the eye as you're waist hooping and walk right into your hoop!

My favorite hoop dance app

Yes, "there's an app for it!"

Okay. Not quite. There are plenty of online resources for hoop dance, but there isn't an app for it yet...that I know of. Hoop dance simply requires you, a hoop, and good old-fashioned practice. I do, however, have an app that appeals to me specifically because of my hoop dancing hobby.

It's Shazam, a free app that helps me identify the songs that I hear, but don't know. (And it's so popular that perhaps this write-up is simply stating the obvious, but I thought I'd go ahead and post this in the off-chance that there are a few people left who are not familiar with it.)

Before I took up hoop dancing, I was slowly losing touch with new music. (I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that this losing-touch process started before Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears came on the scene. I know this for a fact, because I vividly remember watching a news program in which they were both introduced...and recognizing that, were I more with-it, I would have known who the newscaster was talking about.)

Ahem. Anyway...ever since I've taken up hoop dance, however, I've been more aware of new and current music. I am always keeping an ear out for hooping-suitable music. Without Shazam, though, additions to my music library would be considerably more frustrating because sometimes I just catch a melody...or I simply can't understand what the heck the singer is saying (which is often).

I was sitting in a beauty salon when this song came on. Trust me. I would never have found the downloadable version without Shazam's help. (And this song's discovery lead me to this album. I had NO idea there was such a thing as electro swing. Yeah. Old fogey, right here!)

A hoop dancer for hooping enthusiasts

I have a select group of hooping videos that I re-share because I love them so. My favorite hoop dancers don't incorporate a lot of highly complicated hoop "tricks." They are simply dancing and their moves are completely reachable to every day hooping enthusiasts (as opposed to hooping "performers") like me.

Of the many hoop dancers that I admire, Beth Lavinder's style is the one that inspires me the most. In the following video, watch how she moves around the floor. Notice how she incorporates her arms and legs into her hooping. She is a true "hoop dancer" and one that I strive to emulate.

Hooping at Taste of Marietta 2012

Cooper hooping at Taste of Marietta
(Photo Credit: Lorene Shaw)

Did you make it to Taste of Marietta this year? Just as we did last year, we went early, hooped to the live music by Three Way Street, and left when the heat and crowds were no-longer hoopable. Well. That and the awesome band was going to wrap up soon so there wasn't much point to staying. Um. Except perhaps for the food. And the other awesome bands. And...on second thought, maybe we should have stayed longer, hoops and all!

Last year I didn't think to get advance permission from the Taste of Marietta hosts. This year I did, though. And perhaps we'll be lucky enough to be invited back again in 2013. I certainly hope so. I want to dance to Three Way Street again.

And here are several pictures of our hooping day. Thanks so much to Jason Bourne for taking them!

Taylor Oviedo
(Photo Credit: Jason Bourne)

Taylor Oviedo & Lorene Shaw/Alphabet Hoops
(Photo Credit: Jason Bourne)

Taste of Marietta hooper
(Photo Credit: Jason Bourne)

Lorene Shaw/Alphabet Hoops discusses hooping with new hooper Laura
(Photo Credit: Jason Bourne)

Dueling hula hoopers
(Photo Credit: Jason Bourne)

Taylor Oviedo
(Photo Credit: Jason Bourne)

Jason Bourne, Lorene Shaw/Alphabet Hoops & Cooper
(Photo Credit: Mason Shaw)

Taste of Marietta hooper
(Photo Credit: Jason Bourne)

Taylor Oviedo
(Photo Credit: Jason Bourne)

My oldest at 4 weeks old

August 11, 2001 - Mason at 4 weeks old

While organizing my photo archives, I came across this image. My oldest son at 4 weeks old. I have no idea how much he weighed in this picture, but given that he was 11 pounds 2 ounces at birth, he wasn't a lightweight...

He's going to be 11 soon. I can't get enough time with my kids, y'all. This is a problem.