Onewheeldaves 'Albatross'

As I mentioned before I've been developing a range of moves based on transitioning in and out of one handed moves and throws.

I was wanting to get them all videod and put up in a coherent form. However, recent computer problems are making this look unlikely in the near future.

I found this clip of a move I've been trying to perfect for the past few weeks and thought some of you may be interested in seeing it; I've got two versions, both WMVs, one is 900 Kb and the other 290 Kb- I've put up just the smaller one as it's quicker to download, as it's a short clip (try and get your player to loop it for best effect) the quality is ok, but, if there's interest I could put the bigger one up as well.

www.davidpanther.plus.com/movies/albatross.wmv

(right click and 'save as')

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Initially it looks like a repeated butterfly based double release, but it's actually got some intricate stuff going on in the background.

Firstly, it relies on a couple of what I call 'butterfly conversions', this is when, for example, a forward butterfly is converted to a backwards one without moving the planes or turning round.

This is done by going into a one handed butterfly where the upper poi is held between the top two fingers and the lower one slipped between the ring and little fingers.

To come out of this you'd normally take out the lower one and be back into a forward butterfly, if, however, you take the upper one, you'll find yourself doing a reverse butterfly.

With practice this move can be done in less than one beat of the one hand butterfly- as you can see from the video it is quite difficult to spot the one hand part.

The other conversion comes when the reverse butterfly double release/catch occurs- at the end of this the poi have again switched hands and you are now back in a forwards butterfly- the whole sequence can then be repeated indefinitly.

These conversions are really useful in their own right as they give you the option to switch butterfly directions without using wraps or stalls.

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Here's a step-by-step description: -

Starting from a left hand dominant forwards butterfly, the first part of the move is to convert to a reverse butterfly. This is done by slipping the right poi into the lower fingers of the left hand, as if to commence a left hand one handed butterfly; however, in less than one beat of the pattern you remove the other poi with yuor right hand.

So the poi that was in the left hand ends up in the right, and the one that was in the right hand ends up in the left.

The result of this is that the butterfly turns into a reverse butterfly, from which you do one beat of a reverse thread the needle, then release both poi at once.

When you catch them they have once again switched hands so are now in a forwards butterfly again.

In less than a beat you must now gather both poi into a one handed butterfly, but this time in the right hand, then repeat the above steps.

Initially I worked on a less symetrical version of this trick where all the throws were done with my left hand on top; then I progressed to the fully symetrical version in the video where the hands alternate evenly. This was initially more difficult but after practice is just as easy, and more satisfying [my juggling influence smile

].

Things that have helped me with this move are: -

lots of practice with one handed butterflies (with both hands and swapping between the two hands); as well as lots of practice with butterfly 'conversions'- forward butterfly into reverse (and vice versa).

I've called this move 'The Albatross' because it is reminiscient of the slow graceful flapping of an albatrosses wings.

"You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it."

--MAJOR KORGO KORGAR,
"Last of The Lancers"
AFC 32

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