Forums > Beginner Poi Moves > What would be your advice to a new spinner?

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T-S-ASILVER Member
Magic Monkey Juice
252 posts
Location: Saaf Ingerland Innet, England (UK)


Posted:
I have only been spinning for about 8 months, I don't think I'm amazing, or really good, but it's been a pretty intence 8 months, learned most of Adventures in Poi, Encyclopoidia and Scales in Poi. Yes I can do lots of "tricks" but until recently never concentraited too much on the movement aspect and really analising how the poi work with each other, constantly hitting barriers where I found it hard to move around.

So if I could go back and start all over again, I would not bother learning a 3 beat weave, then butterfly, then TTN and corkscrew etc etc. My advice to anyone who is starting out now would be dont worry or concentrait on learning move after move, you will only limit yourself. I would reccomend spending some time experimenting, spin the poi in different places around your body, if you find you can't keep a spin going in a certain place, slow down and keep trying. Find all the places you can spin it, move around in them places.

I have just started doing all of this now, and it has opened up so many oppotunities, and I think that if I had started off with this, then a lot of the tings I hit walls on when learning would probably come easily now.


What else would you others recomend to new people starting poi smile

"We were making castles in the sand: Now we swim in the seas that swept them away"


astonSILVER Member
Unofficial Chairperson of Squirrel Defense League
4,061 posts
Location: South Africa


Posted:
Get your planes solid. You can always break them later.

Dinnae be afraid to bean yourself. Poi *will* hit you. Work out why they did and fix it. Chances are that your planes were off.

Move with whatever you can do. If you can do a circle in one place, you can do it in another one.

'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland


Mother_Natures_SonSILVER Member
Rampant whirler.
2,418 posts
Location: Geelong, Victoria, Australia!


Posted:
I would recommend at least skimming through this thread.

And having a skim through this wouldnt hurt either.

Don't be afraid to read about or watch things that are beyond your comprehension. Have a go at understanding how they work, but don't melt your brain over it, it will all get a lot easier.

I remember reading a lot of stuff on here a long time ago and trying to understand it... but failing to understand what the post was about lead me to some other ideas of my own anyway, my own misinterpretations were new anyway, even if they weren't quite what the poster was trying to convey I found a way to get something out of it.

Contruct a way of understanding the movement of the poi that makes sense to you. I'd suggest planes are quite important, learning to control them makes everything else a lot easy, most times you hit yourself its a plane issue, or if it just seems to all get into a tangled mess, its often a plane issue again.

Play around, take something new you've learned and tack it onto something you know, try to transition, or even try to merge concepts.

Get a few basics under your belt and work on stalls.

If you have people you can spin with, try to think of new things you can show them, even if they know more than you, if you show them something they might show you something you can add to it or similar.

If you don't have people to play with then you can move in your own direction and come out with a style that is totally your own, you'll find people eventually, don't worry. Til then you've got HoP!!

Most importantly though... have fun with it. Don't try to drive yourself with learning this or that, drive yourself with the joy of doing it, drive yourself with the joy of learning new things, with playing with old things, integrating, creating, exploring, enjoying.


Happy spinning!

hug


Sister ElevenGOLD Member
owner of the group property
1,277 posts
Location: Seattle, WA, USA


Posted:
If I could go back and tell myself what to do differently just three months ago when I started spinning, I would probably say that I should start working on stalls and compound circles immediately after I learned basic turns. I mean, don't get me wrong, the tricks I've learned are fun, and some are pretty useful, but I think they would go farther if I had more control over where and in what direction my poi were spinning. I depend a bit too much on a few basic things, mostly simple weaves and hip reels, to structure my spinning, and it comes off kind of flat. Though maybe in another three months I'll find a whole new category of things I shouldn't be ignoring.

Thankfully my stalls are getting pretty solid, so now I just need more work on the compound circles and probably some wraps, too. (Though at this point I've been playing enough with spiral wraps and stalls that I should get back to figuring out full body crossers and forward btb weaves...)

p|.q|r:|::s|.s|s:|:.s|q.|:p|s.|.p|s


Mother_Natures_SonSILVER Member
Rampant whirler.
2,418 posts
Location: Geelong, Victoria, Australia!


Posted:
Compound circles and other such things can be inhibiting, if you dont have the foundation to build on.

The glory of compound circles is best used as a device of understanding at the basic level.

Maybe learn a few, but don't go hammer and tongs because it'll restrict your movement later on. Stalls however will open you up more and more as you get more proficient at them. ^_^

hug


_Poiboy_PLATINUM Member
bastard child of satan
1,113 posts
Location: Raanana, Israel


Posted:
I would probably say this- practice everything you learn however it's physically possible, any place around the body, while moving, while turning, into and out of your favorite moves etc.
It opens up so much if you have the time to do that, and it makes you a lot better at each basic move.

Also, take the time to practice your footwork, your body language, learn to detach your gaze from the poi, all these things can make or break your style and I always wish I'd have started working on movement a lot earlier.

Mother_Natures_SonSILVER Member
Rampant whirler.
2,418 posts
Location: Geelong, Victoria, Australia!


Posted:
Another piece of advice!! Don't take other peoples words as gospel... especially when learning a specific movement. What works for some people may not work for others, find your own approach to learning and you're own way that works. The advice of others is fantastic to help guide your own approach, but overall its YOUR spinning that its going to impact on, spin to get out of it what you want out of it and the only way to do that is to create your own approach.

^_^!

hug


T-S-ASILVER Member
Magic Monkey Juice
252 posts
Location: Saaf Ingerland Innet, England (UK)


Posted:
Originally Posted By: Mother_Natures_SonAnother piece of advice!! Don't take other peoples words as gospel... especially when learning a specific movement. What works for some people may not work for others, find your own approach to learning and you're own way that works. The advice of others is fantastic to help guide your own approach, but overall its YOUR spinning that its going to impact on, spin to get out of it what you want out of it and the only way to do that is to create your own approach.

^_^! Quite possibly the best bit of advice I have heard tongue2

"We were making castles in the sand: Now we swim in the seas that swept them away"


Mother_Natures_SonSILVER Member
Rampant whirler.
2,418 posts
Location: Geelong, Victoria, Australia!


Posted:
Thanks, T-S-A, nice thread btw.

Another piece of advice that came across my little noggin... don't worry if you're hitting yourself. Everyone does, especially at the start, you'll do it less and less as you progress.

Everyone progresses at their own speed, keep enjoying what you're doing and don't let other peoples progression get you down, as long as you're enjoying the journey then its not important how you compare. ^_^

hug



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