Multi prop pros and cons...

just got thinking after a post of Sui's over on tribe...

why do i do so many different things? and what benefits do i get from it, and what negative aspects are there...

background info:

i spin poi, staff, juggle (5 clubs, 7 balls, neither particularly solidly at the mo), contact juggle, balance, and talk shite, all to performance level. i also do a load of other things to an ok level - hackysack, trombone (though i do get paid for that too....) bits of hula, devilstick, diabolo (learning 2), capoeira...

now there are some really obvious benefits to doing so much. but why aren't i like on of those sensible people who dedicates time and becomes really good at just one two things?? take ronan, for example. he can contact juggle, but have you ever seen him pick up anything that wasn't a contact ball, a poi or two, or a spliff? no. and look where that has got him.

the reason i do so much stuff has to be partly nature, partly nurture. firstly, i have and had no television growing up. and my family is very artistic, so i was forced (not in a bad way) to find ways of amusing myself, and doing physical stuff.

thing 2: it took e until i was 16 to get any kind of sticking power - most school stuff was too easy (sounds bigheaded, sorry, but its not meant like that - there're plenty of things i'm crap at, but the scottish school system is not on eof them) so i never had to work hard at anything. I learnt to juggle when i was 12, but my brother was better than me so i didn't do anything about it until i was 20. D'oh!. anyway, the point of that is that when i did get it, i got it with a vengeance - if you could do it well, i was going to do it as well as i could.

thing3: i like patterns. and limiting yourself to just one prop means soooo many patterns are left untouched! i couldn't let that happen.

4 - i juggled first. for most people this would exclude them from developing the spinning gene but thanks to thing 3, i not only wanted to learn them, i wanted to learn them ALL, but with the same analytical mindset that jugglers have.

5 - i hang out at conventions a lot, with a lot of people, and perform a lot, with whatever people want. i quickly realised that hanging out was more fun if you could swap tricks, whatever pprop, earning money performing was much easier if you could say "door frame balancing? sure, i have a 4 minute routine with a door frame "

so, there you have it....

the pros?

well, first and foremost, i must know thousands of manipulators accross the world accross many traditional prop boundaries.

the money earned through having the variety is nice - my door frame act is now my biggest seller.

the ability to cross over toys and tricks and movements. yum - i must have borrowed thousands upon thousands of tricks accross from one prop to another - big suns into poi, antispin into diabolo, hybrids into clubswinging, swinging into juggling, balances fromcontact into everythings... wow.

the lack of boredom - if its just not my day with poi; well, there's always something else.

the negatives...

hmmm. surprisingly large number here:

i have to carry a huge amount of props anywhere i go, just to make sure i have the one that works for me right now

I sometimes spend a whole day flitting between props, never settling into one, never connecting with the people at a meet because i'm just leaping about from contact to juggling to poi and so on. this is really crap when it happens...

i feel left behind. i'll never be a world class juggler, so its ok there, but i like to think i can spin ok so when i turn up at a meet and i've been spinning stick for 3 months, and everyone is doing mad dancy poi hybrids with one head making an infinity and the other an inverted trifoil i feel a bit silly. and usually do some negative space to make myself feel better equally i feel the same about staff when i spend a lot of time on poi. and then within a prop itself - i've been juggling staffs and making tasty patterns, but i can't do ANY complicated 1 staff contact any more. ARGH!!!!! this is good for my ego, but not for my sense of encyclopaedia or general skillz...

just as i feel i'm getting good at something i get switched on to something else - either through boredom, or more usually through inspiration. this happens even more so when i'm performing a prop heavily. can be exceptionally frustrating. especially when it links back to the previous negative...

some people are singleprop friends only. so if i'm at a convention, and i happen to be mostly juggling, i tend not to see a lot of the people i'd like to because they are all in a corner geeking out over trammels. not that i don't talk to them, just that i spend less time than i would like with them, cause my motor sense has gone juggling.




i'm sure i could think of more, but i want to leave it open for others to as well.

Single proppers - are you happy? why haven't you been tempted by other props? do you find it helps keep focus? anything i should know about?

multi proppers - do you regret/love it? why. why did you start progressing through props. what benefits/negatives would you draw from spreading your load, as it were?

smiles

Rob

I love being multi prop(er innit an' ting'?) as it means I shall never be bored again. Also, general hand eye co-ordination gets greatly improved rather than playing with just one ting' (and stuff too).

However, like you said - we have to carry so many props around it's no longer funny. Just a pain in the ass.


I started progressing through props, mainly due to boredom.. getting stoned.. and having other toys around me... also the fact of having so many cool friends doing so many cool things helped lots too.
The ability of being able to turn to any of my friends at any point and say "hey, teach me something cool and easy with this here <insert prop of choice here>" that greatly helped too.


Id much rather be a jack of all trades.. well.... Id actually prefer to be a master of all trades, but as that isnt allowed, I'll settle for being a jack of all trades, master of none

the good thing about being a multpropper:

well for one (as you said) you never get bored, you put down one thing, turn around and trip over another and then incorporate that into a "routine"

you can find a prop anywhere, as you can use so many diffferent things, eliminating some of the need to carry everything around.

oh and because its really cool, and rad

I find that different props open up different movements.
Its really interesting to me to find myself transferring tricks and movements. like small doubles that I'm learning now, poi had helped a heap with the movements and timing and it works both ways as now i am better able to isolate my antispin points with poi because i have a different understanding of the movement.

same is true of devilstick and contact staff and the little i have played with contact ball has influenced isolations with all props.

My opinion? Juggling is a juggling. I'm a multi propper and in my vision it's the best way of develloping: you can add some nice throws with poi if you juggle with clubs; you can use a contact ball moves in ball juggling; juggling with the devistick; swinging moves with the clubs taken from the poi.

1) Hey, man! Yeah, you! Support me %)
2) Sorry for my ****ing english.

SINGLE PROP

Are you happy?
-----------------------

Yes.

But, I want say ever next level of experience
is harder, but more enlighting.

I meen this is think about 'I've nothing new
to learn. What can I do?'..

Then the over-going of this is the step fur-
ther.

Why haven't you been tempted by other props?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'was, but they are just source of influx.

I meen, I can contact, staff, diabolo,
devilstick, club, ball, ring,

(I can't hula-hoop, ARRGH!)

But only the basic and that count too.


Do you find it helps keep focus?
-------------------------------------------------

Good question..

But depends of the point of focus.


Anything i should know about?
--------------------------------------------------

TECH IS BACK!

PRO:
-----

-One love.
-Everything around.
-Fact that, still I do Po.

CON:
-----

-Less contact with people than before.
-Damn hard to find new move.
-Po / Work balance.

------------------------------------------------

Back to do something...

@echo off,

:R

ROFLMAO

my Po/Work balance is also not bad.

Hello

I'm a multipropper.

I'm also a mental.

Not just multiprop but multiple multi. Two or three of each type. There is no such thing as too many sets of poi. Is there?

don't talk daft LTC, you might be a multipopper, but you only really manipulate one prop, your own body.

i span poi for ages and never did anything else, then i learned to juggle (my main motivation for doing this is because i wanted to get better at throwing my poi..) im still a pretty [censored] juggler, but i like the challenge, and spend probably more time juggling than spinning these days... id like to get into diablolo at some point, that is probably gonna be my next mission, i like the way it looks...
so i geuss im not a real multi propper but not a single propper either. the main thing is i still have loads of fun !

I do a bit of most things. I find it's quite damaging to my progress at specific things, but good for finding crossovers and new ways to look at other props.

I've been doing diabolo since I was knee-high, but spinning and juggling are new weapons in my arsenal really. My girlfriend introduced me to poi, then I explored staff on my own and got into contact through Meg's tutorials, then I learnt to juggle 'cause I thought it might help every else then moved from balls to clubs and so on. Oooooh and I got a devilstick over the festive season, which I'm improving slowly at.

However much I love all this stuff I find I only ever make meaningful progress when I forsake my other toys and focus on one. Now I don't mean I won't pick up my clubs at all if I'm working on my poi (like at the moment) but there's no way in hell I can be learning new stuff on both at the same time...

i find learning new stuff on different props at the same time helps as it gives my brain a rest concentrating on something different for a while, especially if something is really bugging me and i'm thinking too much, after a short while of something different i have cleared my mind of what i was doing and it seems simpler, if that makes sence

I mostly spin poi... mostly. But own a variety of other stuff for when my mind wanders. The only other thing I'd consider myself competent with is my contact ball. Quite often I'll fancy something different, but ultimately my hands begin to itch and my eyes drift towards my poi, and then the whispers start.

Ropedart next..
..or fans..
...or.......

yes it's the whispers that get you first, then the visions! *_*

Meg, I don't gettit.

do you mean I am more of a dancer than a manipulator?

or did you mistake the word propper for popper?

Anyhows. I play with pretty much any prop I can get my hands on.

I have OCD. One prop isn't enough for me. I need to play with things, make shapes, STRAIGHT lines, arrange things in pretty patterns. geometry. symmetry. I need things just so, in certain places. I need to feel in control, and by manipulating/spinning/juggling, I am in complete control.

yeah I can totally identify with you bluecat!

and yeah - carrying around all the toys is the main concern for me. I have a demanding job (not performing) and so I know I'll never have the time to be really really good at even one prop - but I'm happy in my own world developing under my own steam in my own directions and having stacks of mates all over the world who make me go when I see em do their thing.

Josh