Help!! I Can't Do Butterfly!! =S

Hey!

I can do weave n stuff but i can do butterfly! any tips?

Thanks

x x

Firstly this site is HUGE and as a result most things have been discussed so before making a thred pleas try the search function at the top

But i'm assuming your problem is that they hit at the top/bottom, your probably just need to move one hand slightly forwards or slightly back, start learning with your hands further apart then learn to do it with them together. hope that helps

Hi Skater,

Here is

Hand position (video)

You can see on the picture, that one hand
is closer to your body and upper than the
other hand.

Your body stance changes. You stay wall
plane we say(facing towards the circles).

Butterfly (video)

In wall plane position with both Poi
vertical start opposite circles
straight into the butterfly. You can
start with other direction of Poi too.

light,

:R

I don't like it when other people link me away when I ask a simple question, but the other forums are probably more help than me. One suggestion I can give, though, is that when I have trouble getting new poi moves two things that really help are watching videos (and there should be a video for the butterfly in the "lessons" section of this site) and trying them with something shorter and solid (I generally use my juggling clubs, but like, pencils have also functioned. TV remotes) to try and experiment with hand position and stuff. It also allows you to go much more slowly to wrap your head around things. Do you use poi with ribbons? They make butterfly a world harder, when you're just learning. If you are, try using socks filled with pennies tied in a knot to start off, then add the ribbons later.

Saskeah must have a tough noggin, and she definitely doesn't have testicles. I would suggest something other than pennies to fill that sock; tennis balls, racquet balls, hacky-sacks (I'm sure we all have one somewhere). Great suggestion with the solid objects though. I will surely try that myself.

When i had trouble with butterfly I tried doing the giant butterfly first. Giant butterfly is easier in my book, so have a go a few times, then stop as your arms cross in the middle and try to keep the poi going (fingertips to the sky).
That was how the penny dropped for me anyhow

Is it just me or does the close uo video here no match the instructions. I'm having real trouble because the directions say to rotate INWARD until PALMS FACE UP which isn't what looks to be happening in the picture. Any chance of a vidoe of the whole move start to finish so I can get a clearer image of how to go into it, not just the end product. To start I spin the poi at my side but does it matter if my palms are up or down? Cheers

your palms should be facing each other and make sure you dont whip them too fast let the wait of the poi do the work

the hop videos for butterfly are rubbish, if i have time i'll get some before i go out tonight and post them here

i can only do butterfly backwards lol.
i find it helps if one arm is slightly further than the other, meaning they are less likly to hit each other till you get used to spinning.

When i had trouble with butterfly I tried doing the giant butterfly first. Giant butterfly is easier in my book, so have a go a few times, then stop as your arms cross in the middle and try to keep the poi going (fingertips to the sky).
That was how the penny dropped for me anyhow

best piece of advice ever

I had trouble with the butterfly at first, but I eventually figured out how to do it.

1. start the right (or dominant) hand poi in a forward swing.
2. Rotate your hand so the poi is spinning in a vertical plane in front of you. It should be such that if you were standing facing a wall, the poi would not hit the wall.
3. Being careful not to hit yourself in the head, start spinning the poi at an angle so that when it's at the top of its swing, it's close to your head, and when it's at the bottom, it's farther away.
4. Switch hands and do the same thing with the left, but instead angle the poi away from your head.
5. Once you can get the angled spin reliably, use both poi. A person standing to your side should see the poi trace an X-shape in the air.

Hope this helps some future user.

this may seem like the dumbest qeustion ever, but ive seen video after video after video an read forum after forum on the butterfly.......and my issue is understandomng how its possible .......as in i cant even begin to try to do it......... as most stuff ive seen says hands are next to eachother and almost touching.....and i just cannot understand how either poi can sucseefully do a circle without wrapping round one arm or at least knocking it.........if someone is able to explain the probably very simple concept to me i may be able to begin to TRY to learn it lol.....btw ive only been doing poi for a day .....this is the simplist seeming move that i havent learnt yet......or at least i have been told by friends before i moved it was. feel free to critisise me,,,, i know practicaly nothing and dont excpect to this early. but it would be nice to better understand the concept so i can try this........although its been explained alot......i just cant seem to grasp the idea of it. silly me

One arm is slightly in front of the other

Or one poi is ever-so-slightly in front of the other in the cirlce. E.g. when one is at the top, the other may be at 11:50pm

" Re: Help!! I Can't Do Butt... "

:giggle:

think i nearly got it in last practice, still cant get hands next to eachother....one poi just wraps around arm......so my question still stands... how can the butterfly be done seeing as even if hands are slightly infront/behind one another... the fact hand are so close to one another seems to state that the poi closest to you will wrap round your arm.

sorry for my lack of ability to get my head around this, just cant comprhend how the above is possible it actually seems like magic lol. its soo silly of me as it appears to be a fairly basic move/trick/whatever

on the plus side ive nearly got the backward weave down....sucsessfly done at ok level like twice in last practice main issue is telling hands to keep spining after side change lol but thats irrelivant to thread so ill shut up now

jimmy..the best route to the butterfly ( BF ) is to spin the circles with your arms as far apart as comfortable and gradually bring them closer together while repeating the mantra

one poi ahead of the other
one poi ahead of the other
one poi ahead of the other

until you get your hands close together

You'll find you have a natural preference for one hand being "on top" of the other , which is ok when you're first starting out but you should really aim for being as comfortable with "the other" hand on top as well. soon you'll be switching, right hand on top, left hand on top.

The BF is a pretty basic move, and rather frustrating to get the hang of But once you do, you'll find yourself wondering just what all the confusion was about. Don't forget. there's a backwards version of this too

Your thinking, far, far, far too much about it!

You need to just do it, and it will work, and then you can worry about how its actually working. I've never known anyone to make a butterfly seem so complicated in my life!

But anyway, to get you on track with it, the above advice is good, but can also create tangling/hitting problems. If you find that doesn't work for you, another strategy is to have one arm (to make it easier to understand I'll say right, but it could be your left if your more comfortable with that) diagonally above the other.

So your right hand is above and right of your left hand. Importantly, your right hand is also SLIGHTLY(your hands are almost at the same level) in front of your left hand. Now, this is fine of course, until your left poi wraps around your right hand. (If the poi wraps around your arm or wrist, then you are holding that hand far to far in front, pull it back).

Pay attention to where in the circle this happens. You'll find its when your left poi is coming down in it's circle. So from your perspective its when your left poi is at 3'o clock. So at this point, what you need to do is to very, very, very slightly, pull your right hand back, out of the way. Its a very subtle movement, which should almost be subconsious. If you pull to much, then you will pull the poi out of the plane. Don't think about it too much! If your left poi is brushing the front of your right hand then you are getting it almost right.

This will look messy at first, but with some practice it'll look fine.

The other way to do it. Which is not a great way as you have to bend your planes, but is a very useful teaching/learning technique, is to start spinning circles by your sides (like you would before doing a weave- no crossing over), and slowly bend the poi in until they're in front of you, and before you know it, you're doing a butterfly. As soon as you can do a butterfly, learn how to stall one poi over the arm (if you need help with stalls, then I'm sure theres info on that) and change the direction of the poi, so that you can go from a weave to a butterfly and back again without stopping your poi, or bending your planes.

Good luck with it. Don't think too hard, just let it happen. It works because poi are not wide solid things, but bendy, thin things that can cope with slight brushing of each other and moving in very confined spaces and still keep going. Keep us posted on your progress...