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On the whole butterfly thing

No clue how a 3bt butterfly or even thread the needle would work... even split time I can't see it being 3 beats.. maybe there's some kind of isolation or cross in there i'm not thinking about..

But anyway, how you hold your hands when doing a butterfly DOES affect the moves you can do with it, but not severely. For instance I change my hand orientation when doing butterflys depending on what I want to transition into. The palm to palm method certain is fine and almost the way I do it normally. Though I will say if you look at the rotation points where the strings/chains touch my hands you will see that one is always slightly higher or sideways from the other, this is necessary to help the poi not hit. The "hand bop" method NYC employs is very useful for moving off to reels and longarm moves. (and yes I am now stealing "hand bop" for when I teach people lol) The palm to palm method helps going in and out of split arm moves like say giant butterflys or moving behind the back to the front etc.

Of course all that is just my opinion from what I've noticed in my spinning. I would say to all the beginners, learn EVERY way of doing anything. I myself made the mistake for a LONG time of sticking to one method of doing certain moves then later when I realized the potential of other methods... I had a much harder time getting into them. I really wish I'd spent more time when I started testing and learning multiple ways (and directions) of doing moves as my spinning has really opened up more now that I have.

One tip I can give that has helped tremendously is learning what I call changing or isolating the "bounce point." Its kinda hard to explain but think about what joint or part of your body the MAIN movement comes from when doing a butterfly.. do you pivot at the elbow? bounce your shoulders? use your wrists? your fingers? combinations of the above? any single point you can move and move it ONLY when doing a move is the "bounce point" Try and do a butterfly by ONLY moving your elbows, this means shoulders stay still, wrists and fingers stay locked, only movement is at elbow. Then try with shoulders, just wrists, and justs fingers etc. You'll find that if some ways are harder than others as your body isn't used to using that joint for control. It may feel a bit like a silly exercise but if you drill like this it'll quickly help you learn other moves and transitions as you help your body be ready to spin "from anywhere". Nick talks in "scales of poi" about freedom of spinning, putting your arms and hands anywhere and having control, and that is a very very valuable thing to learn. But if you always rely on just your wrist or finger to control the poi you limit your ability to do more complex moves where maybe that joint is locked in position due to some twist of your arm or something. Butteryfly is a perfect move to start developing bounce point control.

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I once learned every move that there was,
Every style, Every technique.
Then I woke up, and forgot it all,
So now I struggle to dream.

Edited by Imbalance (29/09/07 10:34 AM)