Home of Poi: Beginner Contact Staff Tutorial

So you wanna learn contact?

1) get a staff to practise with. Possibly you aready have one. Any bit of metal or wooden tube will do, it should be approximately your chin height, bigger or smaller doesn't have much of a difference. Weighting doesn't really matter at this point.

For learning contact however, the staff you use IS important. And we are doing that right now, so here is the skinny:
mcp - article on contact staffs
mcp - how to build a contact staff

All of the movements in the following sections are related but might not be exactly identical. They should give you a good idea of how the movement works and what the simplest form of the movement is, so you can build it up from there. Once you have learned the basic version of the move, there are usually many different directions you can take it in and many ways to to make it look good.

Sometimes there are also links to 'category' sections where you can find many more movements based on the 'base' movement reaching right up to very advanced. So if you particularly enjoy a movement, you can build on it if you desire.

Don't feel like you have to learn these in order. Some of them, thou the movement is small are very tricky and technical to get right, fishtails for example. Don't get hung up on them, thinking you have to learn them before you advance to the next move. You can totally learn any way you like. Most of the moves here don't build on the ones before, apart from the Steve and the SNES.

Again, don't get hung up on a move you can't do. Find on you enjoy. You're learning how the staff physically moves and how you can get your body to control and manipulate it. You're not really learning "tricks". Play around with the moves you know, sometimes trying to keep the staff in contact with your body for as long as possible, planes (and generally speed) be damned, sometimes trying to get an individual move extremely clean. Try and be mindful of what your body is doing, develop spatial awareness for where your body is and where the staff is. (this will save your head from a bashing)

palmspins

The staff is set spinning horizontally supported under it's center point by the palm of the hand.

bender / spinferno picture tutorial
tomo's baton twirling tutorial - REALPLAYER
mcp firestaff tutorial
feuershow - QUICKLINK: 1209

hand wraps

A very simple contact move, but quite enjoyable. The staff wraps over the wrist of the hand.

mot's gif tutorial
mot's gif tutorial
mot's gif tutorial
tomo's baton twirling tutorial - REALPLAYER
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial - category page
feuershow - QUICKLINK: 1216
feuershow - QUICKLINK: 1217
feuershow - QUICKLINK: 1218

fishtails

quite a deceptively tricky movement. Watch the tutorials closely...

mot's gif tutorial
bender's gif on homeofpoi
tomo's baton twirling tutorial - REALPLAYER
tomo's baton twirling tutorial - REALPLAYER
inspinerate video tutorial
inspinerate - category page
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial - category page
feuershow - QUICKLINK: 1214
feuershow - QUICKLINK: 3032

halo roll

a very basic move, the staff rolls/steps on your upper back from one side of your body to the other.

inspinerate video tutorial
inspinerate - category page
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial - category page

elbow wraps

aka conveyor belt, quite a technical move, not entirely basic. You have to have the center point of the staff in the middle of the triangle you create with your arm and your body.

mot's gif tutorial
inspinerate video tutorial
inspinerate video tutorial
inspinerate - category page
tomo's baton twirling tutorial - REALPLAYER
tomo's baton twirling tutorial - REALPLAYER
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial - category page
feuershow - QUICKLINK: 3263
feuershow - QUICKLINK: 3270

neck wraps

A very basic move, the staff wraps the back of the neck.

japanese video clip
inspinerate video tutorial
inspinerate - category page
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial - category page

belly / back wrap

You release the staff from behind the back, it wraps over the belly, and then you catch it behind the back with the other hand. Tricky, but pretty easy with a big long staff, you should those club jugglers doing it with a club...

mcp firestaff tutorial
feuershow - QUICKLINK: 1295

steve

aka: an armroll then neck wrap then arm roll down the other arm. One of the first decent contact moves I learned, and still one of my favourates.

fireninja video clips
inspinerate video tutorial
inspinerate video tutorial
inspinerate - category page
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial - category page
feuershow - QUICKLINK: 3256

snes

aka: shoulder neck shoulder. A slightly more advanced move, with much ability to bop you in the head. staff wraps the shoulder, then does a neck wrap, then wraps over the other shoulder...

inspinerate video tutorial
inspinerate - category page
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial - category page

kickups

Ever useful for that 'occassional' drop when you're learning...

mcp firestaff tutorial
juggling club kickup tutorial - text
anthony gatto club kickup tutorial - YouTube

References: (and further study)

mcp.tepookatoys.com
www.motsplace.com
www.geocities.jp/performerjin
www.fireninja.com
www.interq.or.jp
www.spherculism.net
inspinerate.com
www.spinferno.com
www.twjc.co.uk
www.feuershow.de

Next week: double staff basics.

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"the now legendary" - Kaskade

I spunked in my friend's aquarium and the fish ate it. I love all fish. Especially the pink ones. They are my bitches. - Anon.