Forums > Beginner Poi Moves > turning with flowers

Posted: 7th Apr 2007
yes, after you get used to it, it really isn't any harder than a regular flower. to me, I don't really think about whether I'm doing a forward or reverse flower, all I think about is making a petal every 90 degrees (or every 60 or 120 or however many petals you're making).

i suppose it might help to realize that every time your arms pass horizontal, you can choose which direction you want to turn to as your arms go towards vertical, and neither direction is technically any harder than the other once you're used to it.

Posted: 7th Apr 2007
I don't think she means 'reverse the direction of the flower' I think she means, turning her body to face a different direction.



I often do flowers one poi forward and one reverse.I find it easy to turn 180° when both my arms are above my head at the '12 o'clock petal'. When you do that though, each poi will then seem to be going in the opposite direction to before (in relation to you)



SO as the post above says, you need to be comfortable with the feeling of a flower in either direction. Turning and moving is so much about timing and the 'coming from your centre' feeling rather than then 'manipulating things on strings' feeling. Nick Woosley's Scales of Poi DVD is good for this. A worthwhile investment and available through HoP

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

Posted: 8th Apr 2007
cheers for the input people but i would like to point out i ain't a she, i've got the wrong kind of equipment for that tho it would be fun to have my own breasts

anyhoo back to topic you are correct gabe doing a 180° turn is my problem and i'm trying to do the turn at the 12 position however as my arms come together they keep wanting to cross over and i'm pretty sure that they need to spilt. Also thought that my Poi>Body positions might be out since flowers are quite a new trick to my collection, would it help if one poi flowered behind me while the other flowered in front?

May my balls of fire set your balls on fire

Posted: 8th Apr 2007
I was just trying to help my missus understand what i was talking about since she isn't much of a poi person (she leans towards the staff) so i gave her a demo and it just clicked coz i took my own advice.

So Yay for me for giving myself advice on a trick that i couldn't do. Mind you it still isn't all that tidy but hell it's a start and thats what practice is for.

Cheers All

May my balls of fire set your balls on fire

Posted: 8th Apr 2007
Well done! That moment of click, where something unlocks at the limits of what we can do.. that is a fine thing!! I still recommend Nick's stuff... it really helps with that...

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

Posted: 8th Apr 2007
It took me a long time to learn that one and stay sync splittime while turning, tricky that one.

I concentrate on moving the upper body, which you should also in a normal flower not to overstretch your shoulders.

As always I change sides of poi when they are up, then the turn means

- poi up/down: wheelplane outside turn to

- poi horizontal: wallplane frontside

vice versa.

Legwork and headturn not to get dizzy adds complexity but key I found is to change poi sorta inside-outside on each half body turn ...

Beautiful move ...