Forums > Help! > NEW, need help please!! ^.-

Posted: 17th Mar 2005
OK, first off...where an athetic cup.

Secondly, *slow down* ...then slow down a bit more.

Thirdly, practice practice practice.

The instructional vids here are a great start. Use them to get the basics down.

Work on getting your planes in control. When you spin at your sides, or in front of you, make sure you have vertical planes (unless you are trying the corkscrew, then you want horizontal planes).

Plane control is very important.

Tip number four...I don't know what you are spinning with, but try something heavier than glow sticks. Getting good planes is easier with more weight. Make sock poi with a cup of rice or so at the end for weight.

Once you have the basics down, let your imagination take over...try not to think about it too much, but get the basics down first.

Good Luck.

Oh, and find some spinners in your area....meet with them, spin with them, and get someone to tell you about safety....or look on here for safety tips, etc.

Spin on, man, spin on.

Solitude sometimes speaks to you, and you should listen.

Posted: 17th Mar 2005
well explained sitfire, you sounded like a pro advisor you should consider it as a profession

"Only fools are positive! are you sure? Im POSITIVE"

Posted: 17th Mar 2005
if you really need help, over downloading some of the more advanced vids, that are all spin and not much help teaching a beginner

you could try some books...

there is a large arry of good book on hop, i suggest the one with the yellow cover, its clear illustrations and text help lots of people along

i would also say tyr and find others in your area to play with, there is nothing like jamming with some one who can tell you to just what you need to get s move right

and finally dont forget that even the best of us started some where and where poo at some point.....

plaines is very imporntant and timing, drill a move till you can do it without thinking about it, and you wil get good quick

Step (el-nombrie)

Posted: 17th Mar 2005

Written by: FireBug24

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well explained sitfire, you sounded like a pro advisor you should consider it as a profession

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Thanks. I've taught spinning to folks for the last couple of years or so. My last class here in Houston was Monday night. Once I'm up north, I'm going to focus on my own spinning for a while.

Solitude sometimes speaks to you, and you should listen.

Posted: 17th Mar 2005
wow, thanks a lot. quite helpful ^.^. So basically just learn the basics and control, then just expand right? oh and how long should my chains/strings/etc. be? With glowstringing it was about forearm length and I get the feeling when it's longer there's less control. So what's a good length? Lastly are there many wraps with fire poi? stringing seemed to have tons of wraps, which i'm not exactly a fan of, and stringin' is based off fire poi Yet I didn't see many of the advanced poi moves in most people's stringin' routines. Is that just prefrence? or beacuse it's not possible to do some tricks/combinations with glowsticks? thanks again ^.^

Posted: 18th Mar 2005
umm probably a bit of both really, i seen a few people doin poi and they prefer more of the just flashing streams of fre over having the chains wrapping around their body, it comes down to preference and what you are used to, and certain lengths will obviously create problems, i.e ungodly dumb lengths, but this also pends on preference some people may perform better with longer ones then others, most of the ones i see the chains are about 40 to 60 cm in length though i dont know what the 'normal' length mght be, thats if there is a normal length

"Only fools are positive! are you sure? Im POSITIVE"

Posted: 18th Mar 2005
Hiya Keg

Length - It's all personal preference and experience really. A good length is less than the length of your arm, you can then do moves between your arm and body. Other people prefer them smaller and some longer. Whatever you're happiest with really, but you can only tell once you've tried them all. I used to like really short ones but now I prefer longer as my tastes have changed and I've seen myself perform on video with both.

You can do wraps with fire, just amke sure they're onto cotton clothing and not skin unless you want the risk of hot metal scars. Jeans and the like and good for wrapping off and heavy jumpers or kevlar gauntlets you can find through googling.

Happy hunting and welcome to the wonderfu world of poi

Let's relight this forum

Posted: 18th Mar 2005
When it comes to length, my personal preference is....Stand straight, with your hands at your sides and set the length so that the poi just clear the ground. This will allow you to make big circles with your arm if you want,,,without fear of the poi hitting the ground. It's up to you really, but I do find long chains somewhat limiting.

You can change length mid spin by wrapping the chains once or twice around your hands, experiment with this.

Wraps?? no problem,,,just heed Dunc's advice,,,stalls work well too

Posted: 18th Mar 2005
Lastly what do you guys suggest for the glow-ish stuff? I'd like to be able to poi it up at raves. Yet glowstringing usually uses either shoelaces wrapped around the hands, or tied to glowsticks on both ends. What should I do here? I don't really want to have to learn two holding techniques so i can rave, and then do fire poi. Is there a solution? Also, what's soemthing good to buy to practice with? Poi socks? Like I said I'd like to, if possible, practice poi and be able to still do it at raves, so anything i can use to practice both at the same time would be great. all suggestions welcome. thanks again!

Posted: 22nd Mar 2005
Where do you live Keg? What country?
There are lots of purpose made glowing things (I presume you are using the once-off snap in the middle type at the moment) Aerotechs are fancy and expensive and flash and stuff. People in Australia, HoP site here make and sell cheaper ones, all sorts of shapes. Just Google for glow poi and you will come up with heaps. Or PM me and I will tell you some I like.

And what Spitfire said is completely right.. concentrate on getting your planes accurate, slow down and focus on being able to control/predict what you do. It takes a while, you sound like you've come far already. Find some music you like and work out some 'routines' of going from one set of moves to another.. that all helps control.

Also: any move you do: practice doing it in reverse... using the other hand, the other direction... most of us are one-sided and it's good to build up the 'other side'

I see a lot of spinners pass though here and there seem to be a few different styles: a very controlled, close to the body style that uses a lot of socks that lends itself to wraps/isolations. I think of it as 'English'. Other people take up lots of space and turn and move heaps ( that's more my style: I use long ribbon poi a lot and that suits it...) If you are spinning at raves you better be more controlled and close though especially with glowies as they can really pack a punch. It amazes me that people can not apparently SEE a large glowing thing spinning in front of them but this is apparently true as a number of times people have walked right into my glowies!!!

.....Can't juggle balls but I sure as hell can juggle details....

Posted: 22nd Mar 2005
just stick to sockpoi...

and then buy those jugglingballs with UV-lights in them and put those in a pair of tights: glow in the dark sock-poi !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

eRic.

I'm not normally a religious man, but if you're up there, save me, Superman!

Posted: 25th Mar 2005
Hey!

Check out the free lessons on this site (click tab at top). Remeber to enjoy yourself, moves are only part of the story, how you move can drastically change the look of your performance. I'd recomend getting some poi with tails as these slow the speed down making it easier to learn new tricks and force you to keep your tricks better on the planes (otherwise they tangle). I have never used sock poi, I think tails look better too!

Live like there is no tomorrow,
dance like nobody is watching
and hula hoop like wiggling will save the world.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Posted: 8th Apr 2005
Whats a Dinky wrap?

Good luck with it all!

im a gemini..go figure