What are you working on now?

I don't really know what to work on now. Maybe different things I can do with only one poi. I think that would be pretty cool. Also working more on my contact juggling and need to buy a devil stick! Getting body rolls down with a 3 inch ball, which I was told woud be near impossible so to them.

waist straps >.<

Trying to get out and actually practice haha

More turning with UTL in various timings and directions; apparently at some point I lost my ability to keep my timing on my together-opp flowers; finding more fun stuff to do in wall plane, esp. that I can turn with.

just started working on doing split time extension but where one hand is doing a static spin (i think its called that not sure) and the hand is doing petals and other variations like that. got so excited about this move haha split time extensions are awsome.

im working on my beer belly! i wanna get rid of it!

LOL
doesnt poi help with it?

Poi has actually bulked me up

I'm now ironing out the kinks in spiral wraps, wall plane antispins, and head to head stalls. With socks only so far since I have limited space where my only mirror is in my bedroom (the bed and dresser take up most of the tiny space).

I has a tip for spiral wraps with socks. The stretch always made my spiral wraps uneven and sloppy looking. I realized this is from the stretch making the socks different lengths. My solution was quite simple, you cross the poi once right before doing the spiral wrap, making and anchor almost allowing them to stretch out together. This is the way I would test my socks to see if there the same length when I got new ones. may be tricky at first cuz you will be so used to regular spiral wraps. Hope this helps

Air wraps.... *screams*

I'm trying to do air wraps to wrap and unwrap in an up - down situation instead of just a right - left.... if you know what I mean?

My words are failing me, and I have not a camera in which to film what I'm having trouble with.

Starting with your hands vertically spaced vs horizontally spaced? Adding those in varied positions would be a good exercise for me too......

Brb weave turns--the other directions! Unit circle hybrids--the other directions! Other than that, I'm pretty solid on my floor plane G-style stuff, so polishing that and then working on stealing more tech from Rastaxel and Nulleamai.

I want to start with my hands parallel to the ground (horizontal) spinning same direction split time, air wrap, and end with my hands one on top of the other (vertical) split time same direction.
I have no problem going from vertical to horizontal.
I would also love to go from vertical to vertical with an air wrap but switching which hand is on top and bottom.

i'v been working on alot of alternating moves kinda like reels but in between petals of flowers and such so much stuff to work on and so little time

I just started practicing poi about two weeks ago, so far I can only do butterflies, forward and reverse and the two-beat weave both forward and reverse but I do still hit myself on reverse frequently. Currently I'm working on turns and practicing the timing and hand motions for the three-beat weave.

Not being so repetitive. I get bored to tears watching my own videos because I don't really know how to throw in a low level of constant variety. Gr. I try not to suck

(For example, take these videos

Rastaxel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PscJOizu_cU
Elemensce: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLE658Da6rQ

I choose these because both have some tech that I don't, but most of their performances are within the range of stuff I can do. Compared to my video vs. Epitome, however, there's a world of difference, and I'm just not sure what makes that difference.)

What I would suggest is try to make up a non-repetitive routine that way you get used to doing other things. Hell practice someone else's that closely fits your style if you have to. Just make sure it's not to a song you really want to spin to or you'll kind of ruin it for yourself. I did that exept I love the song I did it too so I wish I chose something else but it broke my habit.

Sis11, my recommendation to add an element of variety isn't really dance, but stage presence. Maybe finding a theme/mood you want to convey, or assigning a personality or character into your routine, or dance/expressive movement into the mix whichever you feel more comfortable with. I think there is a lot you can do exploring the signature you put on the spin or just an expressive statement.

Currently I personally like to get lost or assign conviction to a spin, all of that disappears when working on new moves especially techy ones. I think whatever moves "move you" try to channel that and approach it from different perspectives.

I think SoD's approach is closer to one that I can understand. Maybe not making up a routine per se, but at least blocking out longer phrases so that I have something to fall back on if the improv faerie goes missing.

Not that your suggestion isn't good, EoN, it's just not something someone like me can understand. Talk of "mood"/"character"/"expression" doesn't really mean anything to me. I know it's one of those things that's supposed to be obvious, but if you ask me to try and present a "character" or whatever I'll probably blink at you a few times and then maybe do something with my eyebrows...

That's alright, I sounded like a few of my English teachers from way back when with the description and remember my initial response on writing application!

I need to work on having the poi move slowly and figure out what length is correct for what move even though all that slow tai-chi "flow" is not me and I have NO conviction or connection to it. If I don't get it down I will not advance further, but I have no way of knowing how fast my poi are going so it may need to wait for a mirror or watching lots of videos of practice sessions.

I don't know how you guys go so slow and not have slack on the line or get bored and whack yourselves, happens to me every time!

In my case, trial and error.

Whack myself until I whack myself less. (The same way I learned to ride a unicycle: fall off until I start falling off less.)

To go slow you just feel out how fast you have to go to get it not to go slack. You also have to give a little more of a kick to the upswing to keep gravity from messing with it more. In other words, practice. And you can always go fast, but I tend to think it looks better when you have a ball of fire spinning around instead of a fiery streak.

No, when I say slow, I mean SLOW-SLOW. I can't wrap my mind around it, well without swinging some seriously heavy weight. How slow SoD spins is... lets just say there is a mental block on understanding it and how it works. It's an awareness thing and I'm guessing is not a skill that can be practiced indoors?

You can practice indoors. It's kind of like how I can ride a bike at almost a stop. And in my last video is what I think you're thinking of. I can do it with glowsticks, it's harder, but I can. If you can do it with glowsticks you can do it better with poi That is in the case of isolations and spinning slowly.

I would have to get off for a sec and analyze what I do. Before I do this I will say, having a light chain and heavier hed (center of balance close to the head) does make it easier, but you don't need it.

Ok, from what I can tell, I think it has to do with this, on the downswing my hand is basically still. But on the upswing it's like a tiny extension, of about an inch at the most, but it helps keep the momentum. I had only glowsticks in the room, I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but if it does, that's why.

Even your early videos you could break into that ultra-slow spinning for short periods SoD. It's curious to me how it is possible, I posted two rather hilarious videos on youtube (first ever commentary vids/blog style). Like maybe taking a peek with the visual illustration about how I propel them would make sense of the confusion. There is a funny dance silly decomp video after that is tickling too!

I'm trying to nail spiral hand wraps, I can get my head around what I need to do with my hands but I'm having problems getting the left poi to wrap around like the right poi.

Ah well just keep practicing I suppose

Btb variations now that I've got the basics, and I'm returning to tosses again. Also the stuff from my two previous posts; I jump around a lot

Practicing acro?

No, it's a condition; I'm getting treatment ;p

Behind the back weaves will be the death of me. Trying to get 3Bt btb and reverse 5Bt