"I Got A Pole Trick Last Week… Why Can’t I Do It Today?" Behind the Scenes of Learning Pole Tricks.

Sunday Reset ✨

A weekly note on training, mindset, and your pole journey.

Hi loves,

Let’s talk about something that can feel both exciting and really frustrating at the same time…

Getting a trick for the first time!

That moment when everything clicks and you hit the move you’ve been working toward is a massive accomplishment! It deserves to be celebrated. You should feel very, very proud of yourself!! 🥰

But also…

Doing a trick once does not mean you should expect yourself to be able to do it every single time after that.

If you do expect that, you’re setting yourself up for a lot of unnecessary frustration.

There’s a big difference between doing a trick once and your body being able to repeat that trick reliably.

That first successful attempt usually happens when a lot of things line up at the same time. Your energy is good. Your timing clicks. Your grip cooperates. Your nervous system feels ready. Your body figures it out in that moment.

But, that doesn’t mean your body has fully learned it yet.

So when you come back the next session and it feels harder, shakier, or just isn’t showing up the same way, it doesn’t mean you lost it. It means you’re still in the learning phase.

And that phase is where most of the work actually happens.

If you want a trick to be something your body can access consistently over time, it takes dedicated, intentional training far beyond the one time accomplishment. Repeating the entry. Noticing where things break down when you're tired. Exploring different setups. Feeling how it shows up on different days, with different levels of fatigue, stress, or focus.

That first time you get the trick is proof that it’s possible!

The reps that come after are what make it reliable 💪🏼

So if you’ve ever thought, “But I got it last week… why can’t I do it today?” please know this is completely normal. It’s not failure. It’s part of the process.

Celebrate the first win. Let it motivate you.

Just don’t rush yourself past the learning phase.

Progress in pole isn’t about one-time successes. It’s about building skills your body can return to again and again over time… and getting so comfortable with those skills that you can move in and out of them fluidly, without needing everything about that training day to be perfect.

💜 If this resonates with you, or if you’ve had a trick you got once and then struggled to repeat, and you’re open to sharing, I’d love to hear about it in the Community Feed on the Pole with Steph App. These experiences are incredibly common, and hearing about them can be really reassuring.

For me personally, this showed up very loudly in my press handstand training. I achieved it one time, and then it was another six months before I could do it again. However, I kept training it! Years later, it’s almost always a skill that shows up for me when I want it to… but it definitely didn’t start that way.

💜 One small ask: If you found this helpful, it would mean so much to me if you took a screenshot and shared it to your social media stories. My hope with this longer-form content is to reach and support as many people as possible, especially those who might need this reminder today. This is such a common frustration point for so many of us, and if this helps ease even a little bit of that frustration today, that would make me really happy!!

Always cheering you on,

Until next Sunday!

xo, Coach Steph