What exactly is a triquetra

Hey guys,

I know that there is a thread how you can play with a triquetra but this post is not for knowing how to play a triquetra instead of what exactly is a triquetra.

At the moment we got a little discussion about the exact short name of an 3-Petal 2-Beat Antispin.

Or is a Triquetra an Hybrid of an 3-Petal Antispin vs. Extension/ Static/ Isolation like in the following videos vs Extension vs Isolation
vs Static

One of the things that is confusing for me, that Nick for example used in for his tutorial of the As vs Extension-Hybrid the name Triquetras, but in the video he is saying, that Triquetras and Isolation or Extension fits perfectly together.

And the "glory" Wikipedia just said that a Triquetra could be both, so there could be a circle around, but it don't have to be - so where is the common sense where most of the people are looking for?
Or is Triquetra just a word for 2 kind of tricks?

As far as I have known it was always vs. Extention, but don't take my word for that, it could be all 3 for all I know.

Nope, Triquetra is just a simple way of saying 3 petal antispin.

I think that is the most common form of triquetra found throughout history, but the circle around it is just an addition.



Triquetra:



As I understand it, a triquetra is a 3 petal antispin flower. It doesnt matter what else goes with it (extention, isolataion, cateye etc) so long as them 3 petals are there it's a form of triquetra.

As I say, that's my understanding of it, someone will no doubt correct it with an appropriate definition if I am wrong.

The most common is either with extension or antispin. I do not think it matters exactly which one uses, since the idea is that you are making three petals in an antispin way.

If you want to be nitpicky, I suppose you could use the name "Mercedes" for the extension version, but that seems to be fading, in terms of use.

Also, depending on the length of your poi, it may be easier (or not) to make four petals rather than three.

Yeah, I've been going on the assumption that a triquetra is a 3-petal antispin flower. Vs. extension gives you a polyrhythm hybrid that is nicknamed "The Mercedes", vs. static spin gives you a polyrhythm antibrid, etc.

If memory serves Nick Woolsey started calling it the triquetra because it looks a little like a concept you find frequently in Germanic pagan, Celtic, and early Christian art and people started following that lead, but I could be wrong. The use of the term is technically inaccurate as these symbols were composed of three interlocking vesicae piscis (circles overlapping to the point that their centers lie along the circumference of the adjacent circle) and due to poi length most 3-petal antispin flowers are significantly short of overlapping the center points of all three circles.

When I learned it, it was still just referred to as a 3-petal antispin flower.

The point is, is that it is beautiful. Stop analyzing, and poi it already.

But analyzing is fun!

I can't do these. I can do all kinds of antispin that aren't 3 petals. something doesn't feel right. I can get it if I try really hard but I feel like I'm moving my arm at spaz speed to stop it from being more than 3.

If you move your hand around a circle that's two poi lengths in diameter (or as I call it, a real unit circle), a three petal antispin should happen pretty naturally. For me it helped to get a feel of just putting single antispin loops in different places to get the get the feel of what it's like to make a loop (forget about flowers, just concentrate on putting the loop where you want it). Once you play with that for a while, making any arbitrary number of petals should come more naturally--you just put a loop here, here, and here.

If your poi is about the same lenght as your arm, a 3-petal-flower should be what appears automatically if you go from an extension circle and reverse the direction of your arm without changing the speed. If your poi is only up to your elbow, this should create a 4-petal flower instead. So if your poi is short, it will take extra speed to do a triquetra. Or you can just do a much smaller circle with your arm, that should do the same trick.

Rub it in. LOL

At the time I started talking unit circle I did usually specify "poi unit circle", and was rather fixated on that it was the smalls combination of poi and hand circling. In retrospect, I probably could have named it something different. At this point I just like to think in poi length harmonics.

Yeah I agree with Drex. I just used to call it a 3-petal antispin. I started calling the 3p AS vs extension hybrid a Mercedes, after the glowstringers. Nick popularized the name triquetra, in a vague way, referring to both the hybrid and simply 3-petal antispin.

At this point Triquetra is popularly describing 3-petal antispin by its self.

Certainly how I use it, when I do. I tend to use the longer form though.

Can someone tell me why when I try to do these still they seem to be moving at lightspeed?

If you just want to feel them, try using really heavy poi. Will not work for most things, but to get petal placement it can help to have something moving so slowly.

I was under the impression that they were simply extension v antispin hybrids with the hands together that create a pattern identical to what you see in AlienJon's profile pic. Also called a Mercedes, yeah, I hadn't heard the term triquetra until Nick Woolsey started calling it that.

@Lye: They feel like they're going at lightspeed because the relative rotation to your hand is faster, so they do more beats in a shorter amount of time. If you move your hands in the same direction and speed (well, not exactly the same as the poi head as it is covering a greater distance in the same period of time, but let's not over-complicate things) as the poi, then the poi will slow dramatically, resulting in an extension. Think of it this way: If something is spinning around something that is spinning in the opposite direction, it'll take less time for two points to cross again (in the case of poi, this point would be a beat count).

You'll get used to it, soon anti-spinning will feel more natural than regular spin.