Trick inflation is crazy. After almost a decade(!) of keeping track of pole moves, it’s been wild watching the shift in which moves make jaws drop.
Ayesha is a great example: in 2014, that move was aspirational. Along with Eagle and BOP, it was a trick you'd see an instructor throw in a showcase and immediately add to your visionboard. Now there's online community discourse about whether it belongs in intermediate or advanced, because the level of pole content we’re exposed to has risen so much that our perception of difficulty has quietly shifted with it. Ayesha didn't get easier, but the baseline moved a lot.
PoleMovebook affected by this too. Foundational moves that were entered into the OG spreadsheet in 2017 (looking at you, Iron X!) were rated a bit higher on difficulty by the average poler than they’d be rated today. Iron X was entered as Extreme back then, and now seeing tricks like Fonji 180, Super Dragontail, and whatever mischief Dimitry Politov is up to in the same category makes me side-eye that original Extreme.
This is part of why I built the Community Difficulty feature for PoleMovebook. While tricks on PoleMovebook do get regularly reassessed and reclassified, it’s difficult to capture the gestalt of where a trick sits to the general, active pole audience. This feature lets the community vote on where a move sits within its level: is a trick low-intermediate? High-advanced? Once a move hits 10 votes, the community-voted average appears on the page. And if there’s a clear consensus that something is categorized completely wrong, it gets moved to a more appropriate level.
In addition, difficulty placements are SO so dependent on personal strengths and weaknesses. Two moves sitting in the same level are rarely difficult for the same reason, and 5 broad difficulty levels flatten that diversity. So after you vote on a move’s level, a follow-up section asks what trait is setting the difficulty: Flexibility, Strength, Balance, or Commitment, each rated from “barely a factor” up to “the whole move.” With enough votes, this breakdown can be used to help users find moves suited to their own personal strengths.
It’s a small addition, but it helps PoleMovebook be unique as a living resource that grows with the community. If you have an account, go find a move you have strong opinions about (Nirvana for me!) and cast your votes!
-Poley
