Patsy Taylor

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Watch more How to Hula Hoop videos: www.howcast.com/videos/512717-Hula-Hooping-Basics-Hula-Hooping

All right. Hula Hoop Basics. To get started, you want to start with your feet hip distance apart, maybe a little bit wider. Comfortable stance, not too wide. You want to keep it just outside your shoulders. One foot should be slightly in front of the other. It doesnt matter which one. You can experiment and try both. I would suggest that. Keep your knees nice and soft and your spine nice and straight, like youre trying to balance a book on your head. So knees are nice and soft, the spine is nice and straight.

Youre going to shift your weight from one foot to the other. This is the motion that youre going to use to get the hoop to continue moving around your body. Most people like to think that its a circular motion, but thats actually not the case. Theyre hitting with either your left or your right hip to continue to keep the hoop going around.

So start with the hoop against your back, knees soft, spine nice and straight. Rotate the hoop to the side. Give it a nice push and then begin shifting, pushing with that left or right hip, whichever is most comfortable. Remember to experiment with the foot thats in front. Notice and feel when the hoop is touching your back and is touching your belly. And youre going to give it resistance by pushing back against it. So when the hoop is touching my belly Im pushing forward, and when the hoop is touching my back, Im pushing back.

If you notice that the hoop begins to drop, it is helpful to bend the knees slightly, hit a little bit harder with that hip and move a little bit quicker to push the hoop around you again.

So to show that Ive got my hoop going, Im shifting my weight onto my left foot to continue to keep it going, and then if I start going too slow, it starts to fall. Bend down. Bend your knees straight down inside the hoop. Hit it harder with that left hip to bring it back up, or right, depending on which direction your hoop is.

So Ill show that from the side. Starts to fall, bend down. Notice that my spine is nice and straight. If I try to bend this way, it automatically falls.

Those are your Hula Hoop Basics.