4 or 5 beat weave/chase

OK... have only really just started using poi, and i've just about mastered the basic few butterfly moves and I can happily do the 3 beat weave until the cows come home.
I've been trying to to do the 4 (or 5?!) beat weave for about a week and its not working! I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to do, do the strings actually cross and uncross or is that a hyperloop? I'm getting a bit lost and the video isn't very clear, and I couldn't find any old posts that made sense! (i find learning something spinning on the left hand side a lot easier than the right which might be my problem) Any tips or help would be great...
thank you!

I'm gonna get in before anyone says, run a search. Er... I stumbled across the 4-5 beat by just letting a normal weave go wrong on one side. Let the strings cross each other. When that works try to compensate the strings crossing eachother by wrapping your arms around eachother. Arms are crossing weirdly not the strings. When you have this down try it again and then just before it all goes hoplessly wrong bring it to your other side and let it untangle.
Now try it on the other side. Hope it helps, Hey tell us about yourself in the introductions page
Best of luck.
Mot.

If you notice on the 3 beat forwards weave your left poi will do one rotation on the left and two on the right and visa-versa with the right poi, so given this to do a 4 beat on the left side you left hand needs to do 2 beats on the left side. by folding your left hand over your right wrist and back underneath, so then you will be leading out of the left side with your right poi. The 4 beat is possible to do on the right hand side of your body too, then if you can do both sides together you can then do a 5 beat by doing one extra beat on the left and the right.

I think I may be getting somewhere understanding what Im doing (thanks for the help so far!)
so without meaning to sounds stupid, if i go into a normal weave on my lef hand side, the right hand goes over the left and the right poi goes round once, and then the left hand and opi come back round to the left hand side and follow the path of the right poi, and so now my right hand is supposed to go under the left and still rotate round on that side? what happens with my left hand? at the moment I end up with left ahnd over right and very twisted then i cant untwist ahnds or strings (or is it at that stage i have to swop sides and move both hands or something?). sorry if im missing something really stupidly obvious! if only i could practise reaaallllly slowly...

Think about it from the point of view of doing and extra circle on your left with your left poi and making the right poi be the first to come back to the right hand side. Try and visualise what you're trying to do before you do it. It's just and extra circle on one side.

I'm sure there's loads of usefull stuff if you search for it though.

still i bit confused but cheers for all the pointers- i did a few more searches and they were better than the first one.
does anyone think its better to practise with short or long chains? (ive got adjustable ones)

think this way, when yourd normally lead from the left side to the right you would be leading with the right poi, *now your not, your leading with the left beacuse the right did an extra beat your hands will untwist on the other side naturally*
to make the 5 beat do the same with the other hand

*your allways leading with the opposite hand in a 5 beat*

Woo! I got the 4 beat weave (finally!) bit messy (i kind of get both poi switching sides at the same time) but now all i have to do is get it on the other side and link them... 5 beat i will master you...
thanks for everything!

sounds like a timing issue, drag the LEADING arm accross to the other side sooner then you wont have the catch up! you'll figure it as you see whats going on in the pattern.

Um. I'll try to slowly read all these explanation, but i think i am more a visual person. I even tried to disassemble the movie of the 5-beat lesson, I drew coloured lines on his arms to see it better and i made a slow motion version but i simply do not see what is happening to the poi during the side transition. (you can see the results for a few days on www.hieris.info/about/poi/beat/ (i promise to remove it soon, unless it's okay with everybody including Ben Fraser and this sites owner. I have no intention to steal material).

I heard there is a poi king in my neighbourhood but he went to Sweden for 9 months, so i am on my own... (Wageningen, NL if anybody lives nearby??)

Um i even have a humble request. If any one of you owns a camera could you please try to make two movies of the 5 beat weave, in broad daylight, with different coloured poi, one showing the complete picture including poi (from the front or back), and one looking at the hands over the shoulder. Would be great!

PS the mail given for Ben Fraser is refused. Anyone has his new mail?

[ 25. June 2003, 09:01: Message edited by: Arakrys ]

Well... I'm poiing for a little while. And yesterdaymorning finally mastered the 3 beat weave (I thought it was so illogical, but it was definately logical, though I didn't see the thing).

Now I just got the 4 beat... but it already feels kinda twisted (still have a slight 'coordination problem' -hitting myself in the head that is!- with the last swing on the right with the right poi... but I'll fix that soon enough).

Anyways... the 5 beat. I tried it a few times... but do I need to twist thát much? I mean... it feels really awkward :S And the video at HOP-lesson 27... that is a 4 beat weave, right?

Nope, lesson 27 is a full 5 beat weave - notice that on the right side the right hand tucks under the left arm, and vice versa on the left. If you only do one of these twists then that's a 4 beat, if you do both that's a 5 beat

but that means... im already doing a 5 beat :S
i don't get it...

*tries figuring this out this evening*

i can always have my wrists touching while doing the 5 beat weave

The trick is if you can do with without ever touching your wrists or arms together

^^ i thought 5 beat throughwraps were supposed to be easier than 5 beat weaves... or maybe you mean 5 beat style airwraps? if nothing's crossing, you must be taking beats out by 'unwinding' your feet or possibly rotating the universe counter the direction of your spin. :P

-- dut

anonomatos, the secret to the 4-beat weave is learning,the often overlooked and much maligned, 2-beat weave. The same hand stays on top for the 2-beat weave.

I think? there is a good 4-beat weave clip at spherculism. You will have to register.

It doesn't look as good, but it's a fine place to start learning how to do a 5 beat isolated weave - if you do the 5bw with your palms facing each other (as if they were holding a ball) you can see that it creates a micro-isolation between your hands. Then just work from there.

Dut, no I definitely mean a standard 5bw without touching your arms as I described in the paragraph above

do both the poi come over the top together (or at least very close) after doing the 4/5 beat weave thing on one side?