Artificially Created Worst Case Scenario

I have mentioned this in a few other posts, but today I am curious to see if anyone else has the same habits.

When I am practicing new skills, both with juggling, and other things in life, I tend to create a worst case scenario. I find that this forces me to learn the skills in greater detail, and makes things seem much simpler when translated into a real world enviroment. Some examples of how I do this, in terms of twirling skills are as follows.

Devil Stick.
For devil stick practice I have a set of TS cloth covered sticks, and a set of handsticks which are bare wood. This makes the overal set slick as snot. This forces me to be far cleaner in my moves, and rely more on balance, than on the grippiness of my control sticks. This has made my life much easier when doing fire, as anyone who has played with the devil fire knows, grip is non existant.

Staff.
As mentioned in another thread, my practice staff is made of 3/4in ID Galvanized conduit, and weighs between 3-5 lbs. I find that this forces me to be slower and smoother. It also helps me to feel where the weight and balance of the staff change direction on complex spins. This really helps me to feel where to add the extra pressure to keep the plane smooth. This also means that when I move to a more normally weighted staff I can move smoothly fairly at high speed.

Poi.
My practice poi are actually my most standard item. They are made from weighted tennis balls (3-4OZ. each) on the ends of 18in stainless steel dog chains. This does make them almost half a lb each, and forces to mo put a little more power into my swing, but again allows me to feel the more subtle variations in the spin.

So my actual question is if anyone else around here plays this way, and what results they have found doing so.

I used to do a lot of juggling, diablo, contact, devil stick etc etc.

To an extent I got a similar effect just by the constant pushing of boundaries e.g. using extra balls when juggling.

But thats's not really what you meannt is it?

I like your idea of slippy devil sticks to improve the fire stuff.

For me, anything I use a lot I tend to get into for its own sake.

For example, I made some heavier meteors to work on slower moves, but they became my standard practice meteor set.

I'm currently using shorter and shorter cranks on my 29" wheel unicycle. This is requiring a lot of focus as shorter cranks=less control so freemounting and hills are pretty difficult.

Part of the reason I'm doing this is so when I switch back to longer cranks my control will be much improved. However the speed/smoothness benefits of the shorter cranks are so good that I may well never switch back to the originals.

I learn on something set up for practice but will practice things to smoothe them out on my actual show gear, or an identical set. That way, no surprised happen. I am used to slippiness, balance, weight, etc....

Definately agree to practice as if someone's life depended on it cause in show, it does.

Practicing throws with a blindfold on.
i dunno what i was thinking
after 30mins of bruising, i left it at that and had some canned beans.
beans are cool.

yup-
like bender, practicing heavy staff with a blindfold on...

I've found that apart from being extremely fun ,
it totally isolates you from everything else around you but the staff (who hasn't got distracted by that sexy lady/guy walking past and stopped spinning ) and where it comes into contact with your body- suddenly you find if you drop the staff you know its trajectory and catch it without actually being able to see it.
haven't tried too many throws, but am working on it. but it does wonders for really consolidating contact moves.

yep, i practice the same way... i have a set of weighted tennis balls as well. definetly teaches you to feel the way you move instead of forcing the movement. i also like the weight to because you can carry through your moves smoother with less reliance on forcing the balls to move. I practice staff in much the same way you do, with a 3/4 in steel pipe counter weighted at each end. like you said it defintely teaches reliance on balance and continuity rather than speed.