Forums > Beginner Poi Moves > airwraps -urgent help pleaseeee!

Posted: 27th Mar 2008
sounds like the angles of entry are off.

Make sure the poi make more of a cross shape when you tangle them.

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Posted: 27th Mar 2008
The way I've found best to start getting the workings of an airwrap:

start with simultaneous (same time) pendulums in wall plane in front of you. Let the swing in unison back and forth. when ready, as they swing to the right, accelerate your right poi so it makes a full circle and comes down on the left poi just as it's reaching horizontal. This will usually cause an airwrap to happen and come undone by itself as the momentum of the right poi will carry it through.

This is by no means the proper way to do an airwrap, but it'll help you to see the poi in motion. Once your feel comfortable with this entry both directions:

Try doing splittime same direction hip reels, then when ready instead of moving (lets say left hand) behind you while you bring right hand forward, hold the left hand in place in front of you. Try to have the angle of the plane NOT be wallplane, it should be about 30 degrees off wall plane. As you bring your right hand to the front make sure it's about 30 degrees off the other direction so the poi will hit in a shallow X. Often its best to tug back on the "top" poi (in this case the right poi) to help generate the inward motion that'll allow them to untangle. Also, before they hit you are gonna want to bring your hands out and up abit so they aren't directly in front of your body but about half and arms length in front of you.

Good luck and keep trying!!

If you check out youtube I believe I've seen some videos from Durbs out there showing airwraps.

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Posted: 30th Mar 2008
I do them off a behind the head move. Not really sure what it is though.... Split time shoulder reel?

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Posted: 31st Mar 2008
I gotta agree with imbalance as it is sound advice however you may also want to elevate the botom poi (left hand) about 10cm above your top poi (right hand). This is best done during the tangle.

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Posted: 9th Apr 2008
I've found that for me to do it, I have to be very particular about where the chains cross (or socks or strings or whatever), just a couple inches above the heads. Also it helps me to... let's see if I can explain this right.
Starting just like Imbalance said, you tangle them and they spin against eachother, the heads are in front, then the chains, and then you. As they wrap, pull the chains back toward you, give them the momentum to get away from the chains to unravel.
Is that at all intelligible? Also I find it WAY harder to do with chains, I highly recommend practicing with sock poi because they're much easier.. get the jist of it and then ramp up to chains.
Good luck!

Posted: 11th Apr 2008
Swing your poi in split time reels at a diagonal.
Aim for the middle of the poi when you tangle, they should just untangle naturally! (with any luck!)

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Posted: 30th Apr 2008
Airwraps are one of those really bizarre moves that seem to come out spot on half the time and tangle the other half! Practise makes perfect though.

Basically, what everyone else said about planes is quite correct. However, I found when I was learning them this wasn't quite enough to help me get them. What made a difference (for me at least) is realizing that when you go into the tangle, you need to pretty much freeze your hands in space, until the poi untangle. If you're moving your hands about after the tangle, you're confusing matters. If you've got the planes right, the poi should just untangle by themselves.

If you practise this a bunch of times, it should drill in what the angle of the planes needs to be for them to come out. Once you get the "lock hands - tangle - untangle - unlock hands" thing, you shouldn't find it that much harder to do with chains either. Good luck!

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