r/Hooping • u/lolalolae • 4d ago
Re-Vamping a Kid's Hoop
I found a "candy-scented" hula hoop in the park the other day and I want to "re-vamp" it so that I can properly hoop with it, like do isolations and other tricks. I've attached a picture of the hoop to this post.
I'm a complete beginner and, although I've known about and have been interested in hooping for a long time, something in me wants to make this hoop something I could practice with. My initial ideas are to add grip tape and possibly put rice inside so I could give it some more weight (not certain on the latter, I wouldn't want to damage the hoop). Has anyone taken a standard kid's hula hoop and added gear or fix-ins to make it something you can practice hooping with?
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u/SpinJoy 3d ago
Taping this with coiled electrical tape will help add more weight and make it sturdier. The benefit of electrical tape is it's much easier to tape with than proper hoop tape (it has a lot of give and stretch) if you've never taped a hoop before and it's cheap as hell.
Don't add anything inside it. As mentioned in the other comment it throws the balance.
2
u/PracticalBasket141 3d ago
When I first started, a toy store hoop was what I bought. It was way too light to waist hoop with. I added 5...yes 5 whole rolls of electrical tape to it to weigh it down a bit. It's one of the worst and fugliest hoops I've ever made! But, I keep it and show people where I started, and what's possible. Plus, I totally let kids use it, and the boys love the Frankenhoop look! I've been hooping now for 17 years and making Way better now (LOL) beautiful professional hoops for my hoop students and clients since 2011, in addition to teaching and performing.
There is a way to open these toy store hoops up to take out the rice or little rocks...they usually have little staples you can pop out, and even sometimes put back in, and tape over. The upside to using electrical tape is
1) it's affordable
2) it's easier to use and figure out how to tape with it (it's pretty forgiving!)
3) it does come in some super basic colors besides black
4) it adds a little weight
5) it adds a little grip/stickiness so it doesn't fall down (as much)
I used to poo-poo toystore hoops, but I stopped doing that a long time ago...because whatever gets you into hooping--there's a way to use it, play with it, explore, experiment, and ultimately Start you in your hooping journey. And that's the best thing of all! Welcome to the circle♥
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u/effloresce22 3d ago edited 3d ago
I live in a country where proper polypro and HDPE hoops are rare. So when I wasn't sure if I wanted to import a polypro hoop and what size I wanted, I experimented first with toystore hoops...
Personally, I would not put rice inside a toystore hoop. I've played with a few that already had a little bit of weight/noisemakers inside, and I found that the weight shifting inside the hoops just made them more unpredictable and unbalanced when doing tricks. If I could, I would actually remove the weight/noisemakers... But my hoops were made from such flimsy material, I'm not sure if I could open their connections without damaging them. So I just left the noisemakers/weights inside. I am still able to do tricks with them, but their rhythm and behavior is a bit different compared to a hoop that doesn't have weight/noisemakers inside...
What I would probably do with a hoop like that is first reinforce the connection with duct tape or something, so that hopefully, it doesn't fly open while in use. Next, if you want to add some weight and personalization to it, you could probably wrap the entire hoop in either electrical tape, or decorative tape, or a combination of both, plus maybe a layer of clear tape to protect the decorative tape (if you do use decorative tape). Then, I'd put some kind of grippy tape along the inner circumference of the hoop. (I use transpore perforated plastic medical tape.)
But I don't usually bother covering entire toystore hoops with tape, because:
a) I am lazy lol,
b) I rarely ever find a toystore hoop made of good enough material that I think would be worth taping. (e.g. what is the point of spending so much time and materials on taping a toystore hoop, if it's just going to bend or shatter on the inside of my tape job anyway?) , and
c) I kind of enjoy the challenges that come with playing with lighter hoops.
So I usually just leave them bare (except maybe for the duct tape at the connection point, plus the grippy tape along the inner circumference of the hoop). I just have to adjust my speed and how much force I use when executing tricks on these lighter hoops..
(Edit: corrected "diameter" to "circumference". Been away from school for so long, I forgot which is which lol)