Short Batton Spinning?

Hi everyone, my name is Poppie, I'm 17 and a unicyclist (:
I was a majorette when I was younger and have recently picked up a (way too small) baton, which I love spinning. I have tried juggling, diablo, poi, and staff(okay, it was a broom handle) but I think I prefer the manoeuvrability of a short baton(I think I will need a 22" when I buy one/a pair). The problem is I cannot find any sites or help with baton spinning techniques, such as throws etc. /: not sure if I should be posting here, is baton spinning frowned upon here?
Does anyone else do it or have any answers?
Thankyou,
Poppie (:

Hi Poppie.

Baton spinning has had a mixed history with Homeofpoi, but that is more related to a select few "pro-baton" people saying it's better than staff, and that staff spinners are sueless unless they have done baton...

As far as I, and most of the members here, it doesn't matter what if you spin poi, batons or even a pizza, it's all about sharing what you know, and having fun on the board and giving safe advice...

Personally, I would love some help on doing continous fishtails (I believe its a common baton move), but would also love to translate it to my larger staffs (1.4 metres) as well.

Could you help me?

what type of continuous fishtails do u need help with charles? forwards, backwards, inverted, turning, carries, elbow, foot, horizontal, dual?

No need to get fancy...



Just the normal one, which may be forward, starting by flicking the baton from under my right hand onto the back of the hand...

rolling from thumb to little finger or little finger to thumb

umm... my understanding is that it doesn't really roll at all if done properly, it executes a gentle figure 8 type motion but stays on the back of the hand/back of the wrist the whole time.

IE if there was a camera on the top of the wrist and it was done perfectly, you wouldn't notice the staff moving at all...

thats correct when you have the staff in the fishtail if your doing it perfectly the pont of contact wouldnt move at all. what i mean is when you transfer the staff from under your hand to onto of your hand which way does it roll

cool...

outwards, so it rolls over the pinky as it comes up...

ive only met two ppl who do what i consider to be pretty forwards fishtails and its quite a different hand movement to backwards fishtails. when doing backwards fishtails you get two points of contact one on the back hand and one of the forearm with which to control the movement. as the direction that the staff is spinning is coming towards you its very easy to control. forwards however is a different kettle of fish because the staff is moving away from you, i find it very difficult to get that same two points of contact. i find that with a bigger and slightly faster hand movement its possible to maintain forwards fishtails. forwards is much more moving around the staff than forcing it whereas backwards you can force the stick alot more. i find a good exercise is passing the staff backhand to backhand and when its on the back of the hand turning 180 in backhand to backhand again then turning back and then doing it without stopping in between and building up that way.

Foward fishtails, i prefer, and i dont see what people find hard about them,(backwards however i still cant make work ) and they can go on forever with little work, and once they are nice and clean, they are "pretty" as well :P, you just have to learn where to let them fall, and where to make them ride, and it seams to be fine

Charkles!

that's backwards - and they are much easier to learn imo They look wonderful with a long staff and even more wonderful with two

Though difficult to teach online! Just look at one of knoxious/bluecats/strugz/ben's vids and you can see plenty how they work - then you just have to imitate it very slowly until it feels right!

Or you can wander out in to the garden, beat yourself a bit and then go 'hey that's a fishtail! how'd that happen?!?' (like me) and then spend a week trying to get it clean.

Or if you work on uber-spinning/zen timescales, spend your life trying to get it one step further on the path to being clean............

Ok...so now that poor Poppies' thread has been accidentally taken ove,r shall we reply to her a bit more instead... ;-)

FISHTALES! they are soo cool! i haven't got them down yet but dentrassi showed me ages ago and i was gapeing, they're so cool!

*huuuge ass grin*

Coleman, I would hope that that every hijacking is accidental, however, if you wish to re-read the thread, is was POPPY whom I was asking advice from, (or at least that was my intention) which would have kept it on topic.

I'm still waiting for another baton twirler to lend some advice from their side of the art as well... :-)

Does that make sense?

it made sense before charles

i wanted to post the twirlmania link for poppie.
but that was all i had to say and my post seemed a bit empty with just a link in it.

so i thought i'd make a humourous observation.
'have a laugh' as it were.
hence the
and the

but thank-you for your clarification of the site rules and the the correction anyway.





cole. x

that's me, MR CLARIFICATION!

so, Poppy, you've been a little quiet on your thread, any chance of jumping in to add some things?

Hi Poppie,
I'm looking for other people too...
I was getting a little lazy. Good I found some one else who twirls these.

I have no formal baton background, but I started with some sticks I liked and as I went on cut them down to suit me. I just call them "short sticks". Mine are a little shorter than yours I think- I can't remember offhand - I am going to make new ones soon because my first ones aren't very good :-). I practise on these old plain wooden sticks because I like the width and the weigth and I haven't been able to recreate them exactly in the right metal yet. I think you pretty much have to make your own because I haven't seen any manufactured ones short enough out there. Have you? I gave up searching...


Anyway, I think the throws and whatever I found in books - I don't remember the titles- and what I'd learned from the longer staves.. The physics is the same. I pretty much made up my own moves, and it'll come to you as you work with them. I've gotten a bit stuck on some stuff. Like, something happens by accident and I have to try to get it to happen again to figure out *HOW* I got it to happen. Frustrating. But sometimes it pays off.
I like the motion because it's more controlled - it works better with the music I use.

You also have to be careful because there's alot less room for error with fire on these short batons!. :-0

Cheers!

Tormenta

Sharp Baton in the US makes metal fire batons in 2 thicknesses, and in 24, 26, 28 and 30 inch lengths. http://www.sharp-baton.com/cart/list.asp?CtgID=2
I haven't used them, and I don't know what kind of wick that is, it doesn't look like the wicks mostly used here. But I've been getting my regular batons from them, very nice. That instructional video series is listed here as well.
linda

ps, I vaguely recall when I was very small, for baton class, my mother had my metal baton cut and weighted for me, so I suppose anything is possible.

I like this

http://www.sharp-baton.com/cart/details.asp?ProdID=66