Forums > Beginner Poi Moves > footwork while doing poi

Posted: 24th Dec 2001
The penny just dropped with me and now I'm skipping places whilst doing poi. Keep your feet spread with your knees bent.If you're moving vertically bend both knees by the same amounts, when you move to the side keep one leg straight and bend the other one. Have a good new years Rob.

Bill Hicks is God.

Posted: 2nd Jan 2002
try walking around a little bit too. Don't think that you need to do anything super fancy with your legs, but definitely do something other than standing in the same spot the entire time.Unless there's a reason to stay there, like other body movements instead of walking around, or a small stage, or it being part of your style...

rw

Posted: 4th Jan 2002
ye,,,thanx a lot, i figured out a routine from what you suggested. last nite me and my friends went to a club, i ripped the place apart, the footwork and the sticks together looked amazing, some people kame up to me after and asked me to show them how to move their feet while swinging.------------------Do You ever Question Your life? Do You ever wonder Why? Do you ever see in Your dreams, All the castles in the Sky??

Every morning I wake up and hit the ground yawning...

Posted: 5th Jan 2002
I struggle with footwork too, unless I am listening to good music. If I really like what I am listening to, it kinda just takes over and I move without thinking.

Courage is the man who can stop after only one peanut

Posted: 5th Jan 2002
try the breakdancing steps...like the African martial arts, or the african guy on the video game "Teken". Irish jigs work also. Using your feet for momentum to do turns looks cool too (simmilar to realy low multiple kicks of only one leg...example, side-front-back)

we eat and we drink and we smoke and we try!

Posted: 10th Jan 2002
running around and having fun and spinning around 360 degrees is a good thing to do occaisionally.if you pay attention to which part of your foot youre turning on (heel or toe) then things may well start getting cooler as you figure out what flows naturally for your body

Posted: 11th Jan 2002
that african martial art that you were refereing to is actualy more brazilian but i think there was some african influence due to the slave trade a couple hundred years ago. the slaves would say that they were duing ritual dance that was part of there belief when in actuality it was just a cover for a type of martial arts training so that they could defend them selves in a very unique way.Capowetda is bueatiful and i could see it being used with poi for stancing.redmow

Posted: 11th Jan 2002
where do i find out how to do this african/brazilian tribal dancing thing?------------------Do You ever Question Your life? Do You ever wonder Why? Do you ever see in Your dreams, All the castles in the Sky??

Every morning I wake up and hit the ground yawning...

Posted: 11th Jan 2002
try looking in google under capoiera, that should give you some hits. but dont limit yourself to that style, there are plenty of arts to glean info from and more knowledge of how various peoples move with weapons will help you find you own style with the poi.the thing is that the more you train your feet to move in the right way (whatever way you find is best for you) the easier and more fluid the moves will become, thats a basic fundamental thing in all martial arts. i dont really want to bore you with too many pedantic details on technique (im my own best critic), i know what i do, but that may not be the best way to do it (im happy to share what i know if anyones interested). different disciplines have different principles that must be adhered to for maximum effect. i guess most of you arent really into the more martial aspects of poi like me ( i blame my parents for forcing me to take classes when i was 7 - its a handy defence when they start complaining about my swords ect) but they were used as two one handed butterflies, and if anyone is keen to give that a go i can tell you heaps about onehanded butterflies, there all ive been doing for the last few years and a bit of a nudge in the right direction with regards to footwork (something i had to figure out rather painfully) can save heaps of time!ummm blabber blabber blabberi try to work moving to eight points of the compass (which is why i dont perform and cant do them inside) and there are different ways of getting to each. try with four, left, right, forwards and back. learn some stances of whatever style you want to follow and then if your keen enough write some footwork patterns for your poi. it may seem regimented, but when you come to freestyling and cutting loose then the practise on the footwork will come through (touchwood) and things will be better. id recommend starting off with forward stances with legs shoulder width apart, weight on the front knee for doing moves in front of you, back or 'L' stances for when your turning around or doing moves behind your back (the cat stance is also quite handy) as in this stance it is easy to move to a forward stance.............another way of thinking about is is forward stance for attack, backstance for defense. all this hopefully hasnt been a waste of timeand i hope it may have pointed youze in a helpful direction! at the end of the day walking with the poi is one of the best things to do, doing stances ect is not strictly necessary when doing the poi, maintaining a nice even flow of energy through the body by moving your whole body in unison (harmony?) with the poi is (that will obviously vary depending on what move youre doing)i just think that stances ect and all that jazz can help us progress further and faster with our poi. [This message has been edited by jonathan (edited 12 January 2002).]