Brass Monkey

Difficulty: Intermediate

Category: Trick

Type: On the Pole

Points of Contact: 3

Pre-requisite Moves:

• Pole Sit
• Anchor Grip
• Forearm Grip Shelf (Holster Grip)

The Brass Monkey is a great intermediate trick to help you get more comfortable with inverted moves. It presents a comfortable leg-hand style grip to set up a wide range of inverted moves and creates a beautiful transition itself. To get into this move, you need to be comfortable inverting, but you only need to know how to do a proper pole sit and forearm grip shelf to achieve proper form.

Move Steps

1. Climb twice up the pole. Get into anchor grip and bring your feet forward into a tilted pole sit.
   1. In your pole sit, your hips should be tilted. Your top hip should be the same side as your top arm.
2. Cross the ankles and lean down so that the pole follows the outside of your leg and bum.
3. Keeping the top hand on, slide your hands down the pole and reach down with your bottom hand. Grip the pole with your bottom hand.
4. Once the bottom hand is secure, bring your top hand around in a big circle and push the hips forward.
5. Your bottom hand will become the ‘shelf’, bending at the elbow. The hand you are bringing down will become the new bottom hand, pointing towards the floor.
6. Keep the ankles crossed and hips pushed forward. Keep your shoulders and arms engaged.
7. To exit, reverse the motion and come back into a pole sit, or move into a new trick, or slide your legs down the pole and come into a pole handstand.

Safety Tips

• Be sure to give yourself some height (two pole climbs at least) with this move because you will be inverted with your arms out. If you don’t give yourself enough room, you may bump your head on the floor.
• Your ankles should always be crossed once inverted to give you support on the pole. This helps your knee squeeze into the pole and provide extra grip.

Common Mistakes

• I’m Struggling to Keep My Knee Grip: If you’re struggling with knee grip on the pole while inverted, make sure your ankles are crossed and locked. Pushing your hips forward will also help you maintain grip in the knee. You should feel secure here.
• My Inverted Grip Is Slipping: If you can’t hold yourself up in the grip for brass monkey, you may find that engaging the shoulders staying strong throughout the movement helps. If you struggle with this, handstand pushups or shoulder presses can help strengthen this area. You will find that it is the same principle as the inside arm grip; you must squeeze your arm into the pole and not hang loosely from any joints. Your weight should be comfortable to hold in this position.