Wham-O's Part in Hula Hoops

 In the U.S., Wham-O was the company believed to have started the hula hoop craze. They made the hoops from polyethelyene. From there, Wham-O advertized at playgrounds throughout the Southern California area by giving kids free samples and showing them how to hoop.

     Over the first year that Wham-O produced hoops more than 100 million were sold. After the first year the craze of hula hooping in the United States died down. Wham-O decided that they would reproduce the hula hoop and add ball bearings to the inside to make sounds.

      This helped bring hula hooping back in a big way and it started the National Hula Hoop Contest. Around 2 million people were in this competition through out 2,000 cities. Wham-O became famous for their innovations on the hula hoop, however they were not able to call the design their own because of the hula hoop's historic background. They were able to trademark "hula hoop" as the name of thier product.
     Hula hoops became a big part in the circus around the 1960's through out Chinese, Russian, Australian, and many other cultures. Today the world of hula hooping has blossomed into many different forms.

Bonding Through Hula Hooping

    Besides becoming the next big thing in exercise regiments, hula hooping has also become a great way for adults and children to bond. Hula-Hooping for Health brought hoops into a children's hospital in Boston to show children that hula hooping can be a fun exercise.

    While they were there, the nurses, doctors, and many other staff members including their CEO started hula hooping with them. There is a video on http://childrenshospitalblog.org/hula-hooping-for-health/ of the kids and staff hula hooping.

   It is a great video and everyone is smiling. Even in a hospital it helped the children and their care takers come to a same level so they can relate to one another. There are many classes for children and their parents to go to so they can hula hoop together.

     I recently have been teaching my six year old niece and two year old nephew to hula hoop. My nephew is not quite old enough to get the concept of moving his body in the right way to keep the hoop up but I put him on my shoulders while I hoop. He is usually a very rough child but as soon as I pick him up and start hooping he becomes very relaxed and loves to watch.

     My niece loves it because she can do something that we can do even though were older. She loves to make up her own tricks and dance around like us. I am glad that I can be a role model for them and teach them to do something creative instead of watching television and playing video games all day.

     James Altucher is a father who went through a divorce and has two daughters. He was scared that the divorce would affect his children in a negative way.
     He decided to hire a trainer to teach his daughter how to hula hoop and it turned out that he got into it too. He gave his daughters confidence and learned a few lessons himself. The full story is here at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-altucher/six-unusual-things-i-lear_b_944990.html . It is a great story that gives parents a good way to deal with stressful situations.
     The future of hula hooping is here so be creative and get hula hooping!