Ready for fire?

hey all, Ive been spinning devil sticks for about 2 years now and have been contemplating moving up to fire. after some looking into I noticed the distinct lack of 'grippy' material on the baton (for obvious reasons) but after learning on crystal styx, with their insane grip, Im wondering if I should purchase an old school hardwood pair to get used to the lack of grip? or is there such a thing as a 'grippy'fire devil stick set, havent seen any yet, was wondering if anyone else had.

thanks for any replies
~Pik~

If you have learned on any type of flower sticks I strongly recommend practicing with any decent set of regular devil sticks before considering fire. The tassles on flower sticks are there to make them much slower and easier to learn. These tassles slow the flower sticks rotation in both axies. This means devil sticks, and firesticks will move much much faster, especially in regards to rolling down your handsticks if they are not perfectly parrallel to the ground.

Personally I use Todd Smith sticks both as my daytme/practice sticks. This means they both perform about the same, and move I practice with one will directly translate to the other.

As for grippy firesticks, and firestick will become slippery after it starts getting covered in soot, which happens very quickly.

In order to prepare for this I use a set of handsticks with no grip added at all. Bare wood all the way.

This forces you to rely more on pure balance and momentum, instead of artificially enhanced grip. This has the added benefit of making your normal handsticks feel as if they are glued to the devil, allowing your normal/daytime routine to look much smoother.

Anyway thats my $.02, good luck, hop that helps.

thanks so much! I thought I was pretty hot stuff pulling off impossible things on the crystals...got a real lesson in humility in about 2 seconds flat...oof.. right...time to go get a pair of wooden ones. hehe

Yeah, I picked up my first REAL set of devilsticks (the Todd Smith's mentioned before) about 6 months ago. Very first move was to throw them about 4 feet out in front of me, they were so fast. It took about 2 weeks or so to get back to the level of skill I had with my flower sticks (Lunastix). Then another 3 months before I was ready for fire.

Now I use my Lunastix while I'm at work in the office (much quieter than my wooden ones), my regular Todd Smiths while on break, or walking around outside, and my fire sticks whenever I get the chance.

Just thought, id put my two cents in. I agree with all that is said above, but think that getting a fire stick as early as possible is also a good idea. I got my first fire stick two months after starting, and practiced with that as well as my normal stick. This helps loads coz you need to make quite a serious adustment to how you play to controll the heavier fire sticks. Then is a question of how quickly you get comfortable enough to try fire. Just make sure you cover your hair!

Oh and all is not lost if you find normall fire sticks too extream. Met this guy a few weeks back that had some fire flower sticks! The flower bits were placed just behind the the wicks on the end. Have no idea where he got it, but now atleast you know they exist!

Good luck with whatever you decide.

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The weight issue is one reason I can recommend going with the Todd Smith sticks. The normal sticks and the fire are only a coupla grams apart in weight. in fact it can be almost impossible to tell them apart once I have fuelled up my fire sticks. Additionally I love the quality of these sticks I have had my normal cloth covered ones for almost a year now, and havent even needed to re-cover them yet.

Are the Todd Smith one's available on line?
I have an old Radical Fish fire stick (quite battered now!) and a brand new AJA fire stick, my non-fire one is stupidly lightweight I can't use it at all...! D'Oh!

Yes all of Todd SMith's juggling products are available online. Check out http://www.toddsmith.com NOTE: The page is currently knackered, Todd is aware of it, and is working as quickly as possible to correct it:)