Reference
Pole terminology glossary
Every term your instructor will say in your first six months.
8 min read
Pole has its own vocabulary. Some of it is borrowed from dance, some from gymnastics, some from circus, and some that emerged inside studios. None of it is intuitive.
Here is the A-to-Z dictionary. Skim it before your first month and the studio will feel less like a foreign language.
A-C
- Aerial — Any move where both feet leave the floor.
- Apprentice — A studio member training to instruct, usually for free in exchange for assisting in classes.
- Bracket grip — A specific arm position used for the iron-X and similar shapes.
- Brass pole — Pole made of brass. Sticky. Used in heels classes. Warms quickly.
- Bridge — Backward arch from standing or lying. A floorwork foundation.
- Carousel — A sequence of static-pole spins that rotate around the apparatus.
- Chinese pole — Different sport. The grippy black-rubber pole. Not what we do; sometimes shared studio space.
- Choreography — Class type focused on a routine, usually one or two songs across a term.
- Chrome pole — Pole made of chrome. Slippery, grippy in heat. The default in most UK studios.
- Climb — Moving your body up the pole using legs, hands, or both.
- Combo — Two or more moves performed in sequence.
- Contact point — Where your body touches the pole. Knowing them well is the difference between effortless and ugly.
- Crucifix — A horizontal hold using one knee and one hand, body extended.
D-H
- Deadlift invert — An invert done from a hang, without swinging up. The gold standard.
- Drop — Any move where you let go of one grip and fall into another. Beautiful, scary, and absolutely not for beginners.
- Exotic — A style of pole that emphasises floorwork, heels, and choreography over tricks.
- Fireman — A climb (or spin) where both legs hook the pole and the hands climb hand-over-hand.
- Flow — Moving between moves smoothly without obvious stop points.
- Floorwork — Movement on the floor between or before pole work. Increasingly its own discipline.
- Front split — Splits with one leg in front and one behind.
- Gemini — A common intermediate move; an inverted V-shape with one knee and one ankle gripping.
- Grip — Both the way you hold the pole (grip type) and the products you use to stop sliding (grip aids).
- Hello boys — A signature beginner move: leaning back with both ankles crossed on the pole.
- Hot studio — A studio that turns up the heat for sticky-pole sessions. The opposite of cold-pole training.
I-P
- Inversion / Invert — Going upside down. The most-asked-about milestone.
- Iron-X — Advanced strength hold; the body extended horizontally from the pole using two-arm grip.
- Jamilla split — Front split where the front leg is hooked on the pole.
- Knee hook — Hooking the back of the knee around the pole. The foundation of every seated move.
- Layback — Inverted move where the body is laid back along the pole.
- Outside leg / inside leg — The leg further from / closer to the pole. Your instructor will say this 200 times.
- Pole sport — Competitive pole, judged on athletic difficulty.
- Pole-fit / pole fitness — Class style emphasising strength and tricks over choreography.
- Pirouette — A spotted turn on one foot.
- Prep — A pre-move setup. Always do the prep. Never skip the prep.
Q-Z
- Showcase — A studio's end-of-term performance. Usually optional.
- Spin pole — A pole on a bearing that rotates. Spinning. Disorienting at first.
- Spotter — A person (instructor or trusted classmate) who guards a move while you learn it.
- Static pole — A locked-in non-spinning pole. The opposite of spin pole.
- Straddle — Legs apart in inverted position. The base for many shape moves.
- Strict — Any unassisted version of a move. 'Strict invert' = unassisted invert.
- Studio etiquette — Don't film other students. Don't grip the pole with moisturised hands. Wipe your pole down. Stay off your phone.
- Tuck — Bringing your knees to your chest in mid-air. The simplest invert.
- X-Pole — The dominant pole manufacturer in the UK. You will see their poles in 90% of studios.
If your instructor uses a term that isn't here, that is normal — pole is a young sport and every studio invents a little of its own vocabulary. Ask. Nobody minds. Most of them are still learning the words themselves.
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