BTB Reverse Weave Woes

I know this is a subject that has been touched on before, but I have a question that I haven't seen answered: Many people hit themselves in the elbow or head or body while doing this move, but I seem to hit the back of my calves/ankles a ton. I tried bending backward, forward, standing straight up, changing arm positions... usually muscle memory takes care of problems like these but after 2 weeks of practice I can't seem to do it. Any help?

Bend backwards a bit. Turn your body at the hips a bit so that you are looking opposite the side the poi are currently on. Move your feet a bit. I find that stepping one step forward then back again helps. Make bigger arm movements.

Hope that helps.

can you do a fountain? fountains helped me because they helped stretch my arms out enough to get used to things.. also I would lean over when I was learning... that is lean in the opposite direction.. like leaning to the right side while the poi were on the left and leaning back over to the left side while the poi were on the right.. my back was sore, but my arms had more freedom to get the move down.. and from there muscle memory helped me slowly to lean up.. A lot of people say that bending over forward helps... that helped with my BF but not the weave.. so to each their own I suppose.. finally, I would do my forward weave and turn into the rev weave even though I couldn't do it.. because the turn helped to line my arms and hands up right.. and the combination of all of those are how I learned it.. but then gain.. I didn't learn a 2 bt BTB until recently.. I started with the 3bt and then jumped to the 5bt.. that's what I do upfront most of the time so it came more natural in the back.. but the main thing is to practice.. I learned the BTB 5bt weave in all of 2 hrs... and it took me more then 2 wks. to get the rev BTB 5bt..

edit: just to be clear that would be a normal fountain not BTB fouintain that helped stretch my arms...

The problem I have with fountains is that I have never fully understood the written descriptions of them, and I have yet to see a video of them. I have a feeling I can do them, I just don't know what they are.

A fountain is a forwards weave to backwards weave and back again all in the wall plane. Or so I've been told.

I now also await destruction by the poi nerd gods.

ok here'sa a simple fountain..
start all with a reverse weave.. do it on your leftr side so that when its on the right end of the rev weave its in front of you.. and when it does the left end its behind you... and when it comes back to the front plane take it to the right side.. (which would be like doing a forward weave on your right side) the right end of the for weave will be in the back plane and the left end of the forward weave will be in the front plane..

you can do this the other way by putting a forward weave on your left side.. and a reverse weave on the right side...

keep practicing so that you can go through this combo without turning your body... basically like doing a front waist wrap weave.. ( atleast as far as I understand waist wraps) Its the waist wrapping motion that stretches your arms out..

but again.. turning from a forward to rev BTB weave (even if you can't do it..) will sometimes help you get the motions down... I found that the turning motion came easier then starting the rev.. but I'm not you, so what ever works for you man...

oh and I feel ya on the leg thing.. I always heard people talk about their shoulders and elbows.. but it was ALWAYS my calves and once in a blue moon my back that got hit..

btb rev weave, bend your knees this is the key to hitting your self less

oh yeah.. it just clicked with me... another thing is when I was doing the rev BTB weave I would alternate the leg that was abit further back (since I usually have on further forward and backward..) that way I got a little bit extra room when it would come sweeping past..

I got it guys... well, pretty much. I was using Zuni's and I can do it fairly consistantly, but I haven't attempted them with electroglos w/ ballchain in respect for my legs. I'll practice a bit more... a fun combo is doing a forward weave, spinning clockwise and when your right arm 'unwinds' from your left and is heading towards the right side of your body, you swing it behind you and go in to a BTB reverse weave. Hard to explain, even harder to do, but looks great.

I perfectly understand your move:
forward weave: if you are on your left side and the right hand is going back right, the right hand moves on to the behind left side meeting the left hand in split time. While the right hand journey the left hand is doing one rotation.
In other words: If you look on yourself from above, the right hand moves from 9 o'clock in front clockwise to 9 o'clock behind in one beat. left hand just stays left doing one spin.

My experience with BTB weave:

It is getting easier with...
longer pois.
more weight (to the pois )
flatten out the weave (i.e. again looking from above - if you aim your pois at 11 and 1 o'clock try to get them to 10 and 2 o'clock)

spin on
stephan

I went to the beach last night to spin poi - I agree, it almost seemed easier doing it with my Electroglos, which are not only longer, but at least twice as heavy. Considering I can't even do reverse 5 beat weave in FRONT of my body (only regular 5 beat weave) I'm not going to attempt BTB reverse 5 bt weave for a while.