Forums > Beginner Poi Moves > help with hip reels

Posted: 15th May 2007

Faith
Nay, whatever comes one hour was sunlit and the most high gods may not make boast of any better thing than to have watched that hour as it passed

Posted: 15th May 2007
Imagine you're holding a devilstick between your hands. Whatever one hand does, the other does the same because that devilstick has them locked together. So long as it's pointing straight left to right then the hands are in ther right place.

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

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Posted: 15th May 2007
The only thing i can say is practice. I had the hardest time with shoulder reels. I could do them with one hand, but when i started to through them together, it failed. The only thing that i did was practice fanatically! They just finally clicked. After i put the poi down for a about 4 days. That is my only suggestion. Good luck!

Posted: 30th May 2008
I just got a PM from a new user asking for help on this, so I'm bumping this thread with my attempt at an explanation



I haven't had to think about this for a loooong time, I didn't realise the hop lesson on it had disappeared!



I'd try looking through other threads on reels you find with the search function too, but otherwise :



Practice looking at a mirror/or a window with darkness behind it, this helps everything a lot, but especially things like reels.



What your aiming for with basic reels is the poi to be moving parallel to each other in the same time, so // then || then \\ as they swing.



Try to Keep them nearly on the same plane as the window/mirror you are facing, (of course the reality is the poi head will be slightly further forward than the handle or you'd hit your hands) then you try and see where you can place them without breaking that parallel position,



keeping your hands close to your sides, but slightly in front or behind depending on where you want the poi to go :



Either start by moving your hands either over your shoulders (easiest if you then let your wrists bend, hands palm up, fingers pointing behind you)



or low reels, keeping your hands by your sides, flick your wrists up behind you at hip level, again so your fingers point backwards, and your palms end up pointing upwards.



one way of thinking about it is the poi keep moving in exatly the same position, and space, and you are just learning to walk through them in the gaps (this goes for most poi moves really)

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Posted: 30th May 2008
im having an extremely hard time and im not even sure if what im trying to do is right or i just dont know plz help

Posted: 30th May 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6TaIYOU-K4

This is a visually, and audibly clear guide, it covers most, don't worry about all the showing off he does at the start, concentrate on the same time/parallel stuff from about 2 minutes in

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Posted: 30th May 2008
when im switchin how do i get them both behind my back like he does about 2 min and 50 sec in

Posted: 31st May 2008
just start with one, it's just a figure of eight movement but to the side,

ie, do a traditional figure of eight, where the poi spins once on your left, then crosses immediately to the right to do a circle there, keep that motion going in the same place , but turn your body 90degrees, so the poi is instead going once in front, and once behind repeatedly.

you will find this easier spinning in once direction than the other, (ie, either anticlockwise, or clockwise as your facing it) which is right for you won't be for someone else, so try both.

do it with your left hand for a long time till your really comfortable with it, then do it in the same direction with your right hand only, and then try both.

doggedly practising it is the only way to learn, at some point it will just click and work, it could take minutes, or it could take many hours over days, you just have to keep trying. I can't emphasize enough how much seeing your reflection in front of you will help.

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Posted: 4th Jun 2008

 Written by :Yakumo


This is a visually, and audibly clear guide

Yay! People are using my videos! I hope it helps, I've tried to be as thorough as possible.

As for advice, I'd recommend if you can do it with one hand, to have the other hand do the actions it is required to do, but without the poi in it. That way you'll be training it to move harmoniously with your other hand (the one that holds the poi), but without having to actually coordinate two poi. Do this with each hand, each way until you're completely comfortable. Then practice single beats, before transitioning into the next. So, using both poi this time, have one hand stay behind you, and the other hand in front for as many beats as you want, and then swap them, and hold that position until you're comfortable again. That way you're just practicing the transition. As you get better, reduce the number of beats between each transition until you can comfortably alternate continuously.

I hope this helps, if you don't get it, I'll post a video. (I like making videos )

Posted: 13th Jun 2008
Alright, can someone PLEASE tell me how to position my hands? I've tried to make my palm up for btb but it seems so screwy to me and somewhat uncomfortable. I clocked myself in the eye a few days back with my oggz and it kind of scared me off poi for a while but I'm looking to start back up again. Still, arg. Help?

Posted: 18th Jun 2008
Practice rolling your wrists in a figure 8 by your waist. On the btb beat, curve your fingers up towards your wrist.

Posted: 18th Jun 2008
I made this quickly. I hope it helps out

Posted: 20th Jun 2008
Nate you are AWESOME. Thanks for the video, it cleared things up enormously!!!

Posted: 20th Jun 2008
Glad to be of service. It was a tricky one for me to learn too, because whenever I saw videos of people do it, it was really quick, far away and usually obscured partially by the person's body. Once you get it, everything feels so much nicer.

Posted: 22nd Jun 2008
A few things to consider for hip-reels and shoulder-reels:



Look at yourself in a mirror. Hold your arms straight out to the sides, palms down, making an horizontal line at shoulder height. In other words make yourself look like Vitruvian Man.



This is illustrating a horizontal line of symmetry that helps to define the different zones around your body in which you can spin your poi. Notice how your thumbs point forward.



Try turning your arms in the shoulder sockets, so that your thumbs rotate down and back. You will end up with your palms facing up.


Rotate them the other way thumbs up and back. You will also end up with your palms facing up.





Now try rotating your arms in the same way wile spinning your poi. You should be doing crossovers in the wall plane.



Try to lower your arm slowly to hip level. Notice that it becomes more awkward to turn your hand OVER your arm the lower you go, but turning under is easy.


Now try slowly lifting your arms up from their "Vitruvian" man position. Notice that turning your hand UNDER becomes awkward, but over is easy.





Get used to making crossovers both under and over, and you will begin to automatically use the natural positions for wherever you are spinning around your body!



-Alien Jon

+Alien Jon

Posted: 23rd Jun 2008
Nice advice Jon.

//goes to play with that

'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

Posted: 25th Jun 2008
Here's another question: how do you do turns (beside the basic 90 degree turn) with hip reels? I've gotten down the basic turning as with the HOP and general reel tutorials, but whenever I turn in a wall plane they go all kaddywompus on me. I'm sure it'll just take some practice with, hm, me turning, but is there a mini-tutorial on how to start turning/dancing with plane hip reels?

Posted: 25th Jun 2008
Here's a video I quickly made to help you out.

Posted: 25th Jun 2008
I'm getting a 'sorry, this video is no longer available' message when I try and play that vid, with both the embedded version and trying YT direct; is YT borked or did you take it down?

Posted: 25th Jun 2008
Hmm, seems to be working just fine for me. Try again, sometimes it can take a while for youtube to properly process newly added videos.

Posted: 26th Jun 2008
Video works for me, on all levels. Now to just find time in my suddenly busy schedule to practice! But thanks again, that was very informative and once again exactly what I needed.

Posted: 26th Jun 2008
It's working for me too now. YT must have been having a moment.

Posted: 28th Jun 2008

 Written by :NathanielEverist


I made this quickly. I hope it helps out

That has been enormously helpful, thank you. It turned out I was doing the backward beat of the inward arm wrong: I didn't realise it until I read a line in my (new, shiny!) "Poi Spinning" about not using the same hand movements as in high reels. I couldn't work out what I was meant to be doing instead until I watched the last 15 seconds of your vid about 10 times!

Doing it the way you demonstrate is certainly a lot easier on the shoulders.

Posted: 11th Aug 2008
What a cute move! And what a cute butt!

Good Goddess, I'm such a flamer!

Posted: 25th Aug 2008
Thanks, I'm glad my video helped, and as for the cute butt, why thanks, I guess all that video editing and CGI software is finally paying off.