Planes and Butterflies

Hey, was practising doing the Butterfly today and noticed that I had a very, very bad habit of the poi colliding and flying in different directions. Thankfully none painful

The cause of this is that fact my poi are forever spinning diagonal to my body I think, so basically I was wondering if you guys had any tips keeping planes straight and under control

Practicing side-on in front of a mirror or big window can help. That way you can see your planes bending outwards & try to force them back in again.

One hand at a time is useful too (in case your weaker hand is letting you down)

Try both forwards & backwards butterfly so you don't get bored & don't end up really good at one and not the other. you'll probably find one slightly easier.

Keeping up consistent practice will quickly improve it for you

good luck

Try this tutorial, Seaspray.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRzOpUpws3s

Though, if your planes are 100% perfect and 100% straight they should collide because the heads will want to take up the same space at the bottom and top. This could happen if your poi are both spinning on exactly the same plane in a butterfly regardless of whether or not that plane is straight in relation to your body or not.

While you're doing the butterfly, I find its best to have one hand over the other one, with the hand on top slightly further forward than the one on bottom.

I'd say that this is likely more the issue than your planes.

Gooooood luck!

I like to face a large wall (preferably with out windows OR pictures) and seeing how close I can get to it while practicing wall plane skills like butterflies, as you get closer you will start to hear your poi rubbing against the wall. this project helps you determine where your plane is moved away from flat range.
Hope this works

try reading this: tribes.tribe.net/poinewbies/thread/2f4890f1-97fd-4702-9d29-1ef5798e02c9

This is the method I have used... Every time I learn something in wallplane I will try it up against a well... It's a little frustrating at first, but after a short time you will start too see an improvment

remember though what Stewart mentioned above, that the two planes of your poi are in actuality very rarely parallel. especially when they are on the same side of you body and even more especially when they are in opposites. so spinning you poi in front of you against a wall could possibly miss lead you since they will more often then not need to be slightly perpendicular or offset in some way.

^_^ I'm ua not ew, sorry for being a stickler.

You are quite right though.

Corridors are quite good for getting stuff right, hip reels and whatever else. Sometimes even tighter spaces can be nice.

But its not like I play in there, its just a test.

Partly it depends in which sense they're "diagaonal" to your body.

If they're slanting in towards you at the bottom, a quick fix is often to raise your hands up a bit higher - above navel height is a good starting point, and also make sure your posture is nice and straight - many newbies get into the habit of looking down into their poi which bends the planes into their legs.

awesome, thanks for all the tips. I certainly hadn't expected such a response so fast.

The posture thing is probably something I shall need to watch very closely I suspect. I'm a master of the teenage slouch

i just realised that durbs burns toast.........this upsets wraith

but on topic....thanks guys this has helped me too

does ny1 kno if u can do a 180 degree turn while doin a butterfly? i hav tried a few times and thought bout it but cant quite figure out how u could pull this off.

so funny you ask, I just learned that tonight!

how I learned it is this: from the inward butterfly, bring your hands apart so you're doing same-time opposites on the wall plane. from there, bring your right poi over to the right side of your body and let your left poi follow. at that point you'll be in same-time opposites on a wall plane again, but going outward instead. from there you simply bring your hands together into the outward butterfly.

I think you could do that without taking your hands apart into same-time opposites on the wall plane and just do a 180 from inward to outward butterfly, but I haven't tried it yet - I learned way too much tonight already.

It is. Probably easier with a long-arm butterfly though. An inwards butterfly will become outwards and vice versa. I suspect this is helped (made almost trvial) if you can already thread the needle both ways, since you have a better chance of getting back into a butterfly after pulling arms apart.

I do it via the same way I do butterfly weaves, so that might be helpful as well.

idk butterfly weaves, but i can do extentions and ttn (but still needs work), i will hav to think on this one, its easier if i can picture how to do the move. i wonder if it would be easier if i could move from side 2 side? thx guys.