hyperloop - the basic 4-beat

at nyc's request this is my attempt at explaining how to do the most basic of the hyperloops. if anyone can do better (and i'm *sure* you can) please do - the more descriptions, the better.

okay, we start with the trusty old three beat weave.
we are going to put in a hyperloop when the poi are on your right hand side (rhs) and bring it across to the left hand side (lhs) to untangle.
as your left hand comes onto your rhs and you right hand follows, slightly split the planes of your poi so that the right hand poi comes *outside* of the left (ie. further out to the right so that the left would swing under the right armpit if we kept spinning).
keep your arms moving in the motion of the weave but at the same time, separate your hands so that they are about half your string-length away from each other.

here come da tricky bit:

you need to stop moving your hands when your right hand is at 12 o'clock and your left hand at 6 (ie. the top and bottom of a circle) the right poi should be at this point travelling down and pointing away from you (the direction you are facing) and the left poi travelling upwards and behind and away from you (having just passed your right thigh).
now, as the poi pass each other, you need to move your left hand out to the right and your right hand in towards you (to the left), tangling the strings in the process.
ideally you should aim to get the strings to cross at least halfway between the poi head and the handle.
the poi will now be spinning around a new centre where the strings have tangled.
allow each poi to complete one beat 'outside' your arms on the rhs then whip your hands over to the lhs of your body (same sort of pace as if you were doing a fast five-beat weave) making sure to keep the hands' relative distances and positions (ie. @ 12 and 6 and keeping the string taught).
the poi should spin through and end up on the 'outside' of your lhs.
if you get uneven beats on either side or a beat going between your arms you will get a knot from the depths of hell.

if everything has gone to plan, after another beat on this side the strings should separate and leave you free to slip back into a weave or into another hyperloop back the other way.

so that's my best attempt at an explanation i'm afraid.

a few extra tips i think are worth mentioning are firstly, that i tend to give a little 'push' or 'flick' to both poi (ie. speed them up very slightly), just before i tangle the strings. this seems to help carry them through the spin of the smaller circle.
secondly, i have found that to keep the string taught throughout the move, you only need pull with the hand on top (the right hand in the above example). it kinda feels like you're holding up the whole pattern as you pass it to the other side of your body.
in reverse it feels like the bottom hand that keeps the whole thing tight.

as for not having a poi 'die' (stop spinning and succumb to gravity) on the way out, this seemed to just cure itself after a little while - i think pulling the strings against each other slightly on the way out helps, as does swinging your hands quickly back into the weave motion after untangling.

[edit: speeding up *just* the poi that keeps it all stable helps the most i think - just before tangling, accelerate just the top hand for forward hyps or the bottom hand for reverse hyps.]

best of luck to those who are trying to learn off of this complete jumble of words.

coleman out.

[edit: quick note about the counting of this. the above description adds up to two beats. bringing the poi back to the rhs after the hyperloop has untangled will add another two beats, hence the whole move (a weave with a hyperloop on one side) will add up to 4bts. some people will only count the tangled beats, others will count from when strings touch to when they separate - these people are just mad ]

[ 17. July 2003, 00:11: Message edited by: coleman ]

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