Forums > Advanced Poi Moves > Glowchucks - Awesomely fun!
Login/Join to ParticipateSILVER Member
Member
4 posts
Location: CO, USA
Member
4 posts
Location: CO, USA
Posted:
I highly doubt that anyone affiliated with this website knows who i am, seeing as how this is my posting debut. And, I apologize if i sound like a big-headed american but i feel my style of choice for poi/glowsticking should become recognized across further reaches of the globe for the sake of poi's evolution.
I have yet to put a personal video illustrating my style on the internet but i will use youtube url's of others with a similar style for those of you who would like to see exactly what im trying to discuss. This is, by the way, a comprehensive and, most likely, a time consuming post to read so I do apologize before hand.
First, i will offer what some of you may call unnecessary background info so feel free to skip this next part if u want.
The style of my choice involves 4 glowsticks (i practice quite often so they're usually dead) and two medium-length peices of colecord. I call these glowchucks, seeing as how there is a stick in each hand that is attached to the colecord with another stick attached at the other end. My first poi set was, believe it or not, glowchucks and i made them almost two years ago. I entered college life and experienced raves and quickly began spinning in my free time as a method of preparing for the next rave (i really like to perform and impress people; ive played trumpet and marching drums for a good portion of my life). Slowly over time, i saw more videos online, met better spinners at raves, and made friendships with some of them as well. Before i knew it, we were bouncing ideas off of one another and BOOM, a comprehensive/incorporative and incredibly fantastic style of poi/glowsticking had become ours for the sharing; A style that incorporates basic traditional-poi-style geometries and flow, glowsticking's speed fluctuations and body-part wraps, and the acrobatic nature (tosses and trippy wrist rolls) of nunchucks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not all about performance, but I definitely believe poi is a mind/body/soul yoga and art. My guess is that there are some critically thinking poi spinners out there who could use another mind challenge. So i am here to share with you a poi-style that i firmly believe has infinite possibilities and the potential to obliterate some redundancy in current popular poi styles.
Here are some video's of glowchuckers that illustrate the wide-array of possibilities glowchucks have to offer (be sure to notice the different styles). This will also help show you europeans that us USA'ers have also got skillz. (((I apologize again, i do not entirely understand how to make links to these videos)))
(*)
(*)
(*)
(*)
(*)
** You may have noticed that the glowstickers in these videos may have failed to incorporate traditional-poi-style geometries, stalls and flows that you eastern hemisphere poi'ers may think are pivotal to a good poi performance.....Well, this is where my glowchucking friends and i come in. We have noticed the differences between western hemisphere glowsticking and eastern hemisphere poi'ing, and, in the process of combining the two into something unique, we have [censored] our pants in excitement. We're still working on a video (we're perfectionists) but i will be sure to make another post with a link once it's up.
You also may have noticed that the glowchuckers in these videos were amazingly able to change which color they were spinning with on the outside. By doing a wrist roll (i call them shotguns) or by catching the swinging stick and simultaneously releasing the hand-held stick for the two to switch places, an amazing color change occurs. This realm of glowchuck-color-changes can be illustrated in the following glowchucking tutorial video:
(*)
** Hopefully, watching these tutorial videos helped you understand it, as well as appreciate it. The color changes can be done around any portion of your body that’s thin enough: forearm, bicep, thigh, calf and even your neck! This realm of glowchucking really spices up poi with a color change and a martial arts kind of feel. Once the wrist roll shotguns get mastered, you can play with moving the hand-positions while the color change is occurring either in an arc pathway or an anti-spin pathway. If you do a shotgun in each hand simultaneously (a double shotgun), it’s really fun to move those around in patterns relative to each other; for instance, when coming out of crossers you execute a double-shotgun within an anti-spin flower in front of you to form a new anti-spin flower that’s a color change! Double shotguns combine very well with almost all types of flowers. This realm of glowchucking is absolutely amazing but however takes having to deal with dropping the set a lot, as well as having focused practice sessions, so you want to be up for a challenge to master these. It took a lot of watching the color change tutorial by lis102trants from glowsticking.com for me to understand them.
The tosses that you hopefully noticed in the earlier videos also have color-changing properties. Seeing as how when you release the handle for a toss, you can choose to let it rotate halfway in the air and catch the stick that was on the outside, or you can let it rotate a full circle to catch the same handle you released. You can even throw it up with as much rotation as possible to give it the look of a hands-free isolation until you catch it again. I plan on making a tossing tutorial video in the future, but until then, watch this video by another glowchucker from glowsticking.com:
(*)
** There's no doubt about it; the tossing possibilities are endless. I personally really enjoy hybridizing tosses with long-arm extensions and anti-spin flowers (with the hand that didn’t do the toss, of course); it creates a really cool effect. You can even do double-tosses to blow away onlookers. Doing tosses is useful since it’s another method to visually represent intense or high-energy moments in the music.
When combining all of these realms of play with glowchucks into a performance, the possibilities of what to do next become endless. Take the split-time style that Ronan and Yuta like to take advantage of for an example: it is in this realm of play that many, many different combinations of color changes, tosses, antipsin variations and hybrids can take place and it has the ability to completely stun!
I recommend many poi spinners to give this style a try since an enhanced window through which you can see a whole new poi universe opens up. Perhaps investing in 4 flowlights and some colecord to make a good, sturdy pair of these glowchucks would be an even better glowchuck set than what I have described. But if you cant afford flowlights like me, take two 1.5' (~46cm) lengths of colecord and tie a bowline knot at each end to glowsticks for a less expensive pair of glowchucks. I hope i stimulated your minds enough to maybe make you want to try this awesome poi-style.
I highly doubt that anyone affiliated with this website knows who i am, seeing as how this is my posting debut. And, I apologize if i sound like a big-headed american but i feel my style of choice for poi/glowsticking should become recognized across further reaches of the globe for the sake of poi's evolution.
I have yet to put a personal video illustrating my style on the internet but i will use youtube url's of others with a similar style for those of you who would like to see exactly what im trying to discuss. This is, by the way, a comprehensive and, most likely, a time consuming post to read so I do apologize before hand.
First, i will offer what some of you may call unnecessary background info so feel free to skip this next part if u want.
The style of my choice involves 4 glowsticks (i practice quite often so they're usually dead) and two medium-length peices of colecord. I call these glowchucks, seeing as how there is a stick in each hand that is attached to the colecord with another stick attached at the other end. My first poi set was, believe it or not, glowchucks and i made them almost two years ago. I entered college life and experienced raves and quickly began spinning in my free time as a method of preparing for the next rave (i really like to perform and impress people; ive played trumpet and marching drums for a good portion of my life). Slowly over time, i saw more videos online, met better spinners at raves, and made friendships with some of them as well. Before i knew it, we were bouncing ideas off of one another and BOOM, a comprehensive/incorporative and incredibly fantastic style of poi/glowsticking had become ours for the sharing; A style that incorporates basic traditional-poi-style geometries and flow, glowsticking's speed fluctuations and body-part wraps, and the acrobatic nature (tosses and trippy wrist rolls) of nunchucks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not all about performance, but I definitely believe poi is a mind/body/soul yoga and art. My guess is that there are some critically thinking poi spinners out there who could use another mind challenge. So i am here to share with you a poi-style that i firmly believe has infinite possibilities and the potential to obliterate some redundancy in current popular poi styles.
Here are some video's of glowchuckers that illustrate the wide-array of possibilities glowchucks have to offer (be sure to notice the different styles). This will also help show you europeans that us USA'ers have also got skillz. (((I apologize again, i do not entirely understand how to make links to these videos)))
(*)
(*)
(*)
(*)
(*)
** You may have noticed that the glowstickers in these videos may have failed to incorporate traditional-poi-style geometries, stalls and flows that you eastern hemisphere poi'ers may think are pivotal to a good poi performance.....Well, this is where my glowchucking friends and i come in. We have noticed the differences between western hemisphere glowsticking and eastern hemisphere poi'ing, and, in the process of combining the two into something unique, we have [censored] our pants in excitement. We're still working on a video (we're perfectionists) but i will be sure to make another post with a link once it's up.
You also may have noticed that the glowchuckers in these videos were amazingly able to change which color they were spinning with on the outside. By doing a wrist roll (i call them shotguns) or by catching the swinging stick and simultaneously releasing the hand-held stick for the two to switch places, an amazing color change occurs. This realm of glowchuck-color-changes can be illustrated in the following glowchucking tutorial video:
(*)
** Hopefully, watching these tutorial videos helped you understand it, as well as appreciate it. The color changes can be done around any portion of your body that’s thin enough: forearm, bicep, thigh, calf and even your neck! This realm of glowchucking really spices up poi with a color change and a martial arts kind of feel. Once the wrist roll shotguns get mastered, you can play with moving the hand-positions while the color change is occurring either in an arc pathway or an anti-spin pathway. If you do a shotgun in each hand simultaneously (a double shotgun), it’s really fun to move those around in patterns relative to each other; for instance, when coming out of crossers you execute a double-shotgun within an anti-spin flower in front of you to form a new anti-spin flower that’s a color change! Double shotguns combine very well with almost all types of flowers. This realm of glowchucking is absolutely amazing but however takes having to deal with dropping the set a lot, as well as having focused practice sessions, so you want to be up for a challenge to master these. It took a lot of watching the color change tutorial by lis102trants from glowsticking.com for me to understand them.
The tosses that you hopefully noticed in the earlier videos also have color-changing properties. Seeing as how when you release the handle for a toss, you can choose to let it rotate halfway in the air and catch the stick that was on the outside, or you can let it rotate a full circle to catch the same handle you released. You can even throw it up with as much rotation as possible to give it the look of a hands-free isolation until you catch it again. I plan on making a tossing tutorial video in the future, but until then, watch this video by another glowchucker from glowsticking.com:
(*)
** There's no doubt about it; the tossing possibilities are endless. I personally really enjoy hybridizing tosses with long-arm extensions and anti-spin flowers (with the hand that didn’t do the toss, of course); it creates a really cool effect. You can even do double-tosses to blow away onlookers. Doing tosses is useful since it’s another method to visually represent intense or high-energy moments in the music.
When combining all of these realms of play with glowchucks into a performance, the possibilities of what to do next become endless. Take the split-time style that Ronan and Yuta like to take advantage of for an example: it is in this realm of play that many, many different combinations of color changes, tosses, antipsin variations and hybrids can take place and it has the ability to completely stun!
I recommend many poi spinners to give this style a try since an enhanced window through which you can see a whole new poi universe opens up. Perhaps investing in 4 flowlights and some colecord to make a good, sturdy pair of these glowchucks would be an even better glowchuck set than what I have described. But if you cant afford flowlights like me, take two 1.5' (~46cm) lengths of colecord and tie a bowline knot at each end to glowsticks for a less expensive pair of glowchucks. I hope i stimulated your minds enough to maybe make you want to try this awesome poi-style.
Part-time genius
59 posts
Location: Netherlands
59 posts
Location: Netherlands
Posted:
Looks cool, a lot of it looks like the stuff people (including myself) are already doing with weighted poi and freestyle nunchaku, so maybe not as groundbreaking as you make out, but definitely cool
Looks cool, a lot of it looks like the stuff people (including myself) are already doing with weighted poi and freestyle nunchaku, so maybe not as groundbreaking as you make out, but definitely cool
SILVER Member
newbie
27 posts
Location: Slovenia
newbie
27 posts
Location: Slovenia
Posted:
I second that.
I second that.
BRONZE Member
HOP librarian
1,841 posts
Location: Prague, Czech. Republic
HOP librarian
1,841 posts
Location: Prague, Czech. Republic
Posted:
This is tutorial attack or what?
[Old link],
:R
This is tutorial attack or what?
[Old link],
:R
POI THEO(R)IST
SILVER Member
Member
4 posts
Location: CO, USA
Member
4 posts
Location: CO, USA
Posted:
Its good to hear that there are others around the globe that are inspired from this as well! Give me a few weeks to a month and ill have some videos up for the groundbreaking stuff.
Its good to hear that there are others around the globe that are inspired from this as well! Give me a few weeks to a month and ill have some videos up for the groundbreaking stuff.
GOLD Member
enthusiast
290 posts
Location: Everywhere, USA
enthusiast
290 posts
Location: Everywhere, USA
Posted:
Gotta chime in with a few clarifications:
Ditto on 'chucks not being so new or ground breaking. I personally started glowstringing in 1999~2000, and quickly moved to glowchucks (as I called them then too). I definitely played with some toss catch color changes along with wrist wraps, and various handle switching. From there I migrated towards poi.
I'd also like to point out that HoP is a global community, not just Europe/Eastern Hemisphere. The state of modern poi has been heavily contributed to by the Europeans for sure. There even seems to be local styles around the world. However, by and large modern poi is a global art, thanks to sites like HoP and the global community's willingness to get together and share our spinning. In fact, there have been several major contributors on HoP, from the early days on, that hail from the USA. I'd caution against polarizing your view of 'stringers as western and poi'ers as Eastern. It's all good though, you're a young spinner and just need to dig into some history to find the right references. I hope your exuberance is indeed contagious!
It makes me a little sad that several years ago a rift seemed to develop between 'stringing and poi, enough so that some people seem to want to differentiate them as separate arts. In my opinion they are different facets of the same art. It is a bit like juggling: there are different juggling props, such as balls, rings, clubs, etc. These all have some unique characteristics as juggling props. There are different styles and techniques within juggling... But ultimately they are all facets of the juggling art. Same goes for glowchucks, double ended poi, counter weighted poi, socks, etc.
I'm a little bummed at myself for not being active on GS.com as it grew, but I was way more focused on other props at the time, se la vie!
That said, I'd love to see what you are up to in terms of combining some of the current poi geometry with 'chucking! This is something that I've been hopping to see more of from the GS community for a wile, cuz well, it would be sick!
Great handle changing tut BTW, and some nice 'stringing resources. Good lookin out on the trying to turn on poi'ers to glowstring/chuck styles. I'd love to see more collaboration and reintegration personally.
May I suggest that you look into poi styles such as tossing, wibbling, juggling, and contact poi. Dig into the cutting edge in these areas and integrate with your chuck styles.
For tosses, Ronan, Mr Chutney, Icon, and Conway come to mind (also see dinosaurs ate my circles).
For wibbling Matt Terry (spherculism.net), Rovo, Conway, Gizmo and Goldie over on DMP, and too many others to remember may be good leads.
For contact poi Ronan and Acciaio, as well as plenty of us USA techpoi nerds.
If anyone can think of other leads for combining of different poi styles please chime in. Ultimately it might be nice to see a list of facets and the beginnings of a web diagramming there interrelations... Richee???
Anyhow, can't wait to see your videos and hear some of your ideas for ground breaking recombination of styles.
-Alien Jon
Gotta chime in with a few clarifications:
Ditto on 'chucks not being so new or ground breaking. I personally started glowstringing in 1999~2000, and quickly moved to glowchucks (as I called them then too). I definitely played with some toss catch color changes along with wrist wraps, and various handle switching. From there I migrated towards poi.
I'd also like to point out that HoP is a global community, not just Europe/Eastern Hemisphere. The state of modern poi has been heavily contributed to by the Europeans for sure. There even seems to be local styles around the world. However, by and large modern poi is a global art, thanks to sites like HoP and the global community's willingness to get together and share our spinning. In fact, there have been several major contributors on HoP, from the early days on, that hail from the USA. I'd caution against polarizing your view of 'stringers as western and poi'ers as Eastern. It's all good though, you're a young spinner and just need to dig into some history to find the right references. I hope your exuberance is indeed contagious!
It makes me a little sad that several years ago a rift seemed to develop between 'stringing and poi, enough so that some people seem to want to differentiate them as separate arts. In my opinion they are different facets of the same art. It is a bit like juggling: there are different juggling props, such as balls, rings, clubs, etc. These all have some unique characteristics as juggling props. There are different styles and techniques within juggling... But ultimately they are all facets of the juggling art. Same goes for glowchucks, double ended poi, counter weighted poi, socks, etc.
I'm a little bummed at myself for not being active on GS.com as it grew, but I was way more focused on other props at the time, se la vie!
That said, I'd love to see what you are up to in terms of combining some of the current poi geometry with 'chucking! This is something that I've been hopping to see more of from the GS community for a wile, cuz well, it would be sick!
Great handle changing tut BTW, and some nice 'stringing resources. Good lookin out on the trying to turn on poi'ers to glowstring/chuck styles. I'd love to see more collaboration and reintegration personally.
May I suggest that you look into poi styles such as tossing, wibbling, juggling, and contact poi. Dig into the cutting edge in these areas and integrate with your chuck styles.
For tosses, Ronan, Mr Chutney, Icon, and Conway come to mind (also see dinosaurs ate my circles).
For wibbling Matt Terry (spherculism.net), Rovo, Conway, Gizmo and Goldie over on DMP, and too many others to remember may be good leads.
For contact poi Ronan and Acciaio, as well as plenty of us USA techpoi nerds.
If anyone can think of other leads for combining of different poi styles please chime in. Ultimately it might be nice to see a list of facets and the beginnings of a web diagramming there interrelations... Richee???
Anyhow, can't wait to see your videos and hear some of your ideas for ground breaking recombination of styles.
-Alien Jon
+Alien Jon
GOLD Member
enthusiast
290 posts
Location: Everywhere, USA
enthusiast
290 posts
Location: Everywhere, USA
Posted:
Oh yeah, and if you are in CO, do you make it to Boulder often? Do you know Rainbow Michael out there? How about Denver? Do you know Moloch? Or the Indigo Child productions crew of stringers from a wile back?
-Alien Jon
Oh yeah, and if you are in CO, do you make it to Boulder often? Do you know Rainbow Michael out there? How about Denver? Do you know Moloch? Or the Indigo Child productions crew of stringers from a wile back?
-Alien Jon
+Alien Jon
SILVER Member
Member
4 posts
Location: CO, USA
Member
4 posts
Location: CO, USA
Posted:
Yes! I am from the denver area. Aurora, to be exact. Im going to Metro State College of Denver now, but for first semester freshman year, i went to CU-Boulder. This was when i was getting into raves and glowsticking for the first time so i was very unaware of what else was out there as far as my own interests were concerned.
Recently, ive looked up past poi events done by InstrumentsoftheNow and it seems that they were performing at Pearl Street Mall a lot around my time in Boulder; i wish i had known. But as far as all of the names youve just thrown at me, none of them even sound familiar. There's weekly fire spinning at confluence park near downtown on sundays but ive never been able to make it, otherwise i may know who youre talking about.
I am also affiliated with GS.com, but personally i think they are much more closeminded when it comes to poi being the art that glowsticking branches off from. For instance, when i discovered HOP, playpoi and poicommunity, i felt that gs.com could use more of the traditional poi geometries to their advantage. My post about these websites and the tutorials on moves offered was eventually closed due to a large amount of the members being dissatisfied with my post when it's a glowsticking website. I havent been too involved with them since then. But in turn, i have been much more active in the poi websites.
Thanks for the support, really
Yes! I am from the denver area. Aurora, to be exact. Im going to Metro State College of Denver now, but for first semester freshman year, i went to CU-Boulder. This was when i was getting into raves and glowsticking for the first time so i was very unaware of what else was out there as far as my own interests were concerned.
Recently, ive looked up past poi events done by InstrumentsoftheNow and it seems that they were performing at Pearl Street Mall a lot around my time in Boulder; i wish i had known. But as far as all of the names youve just thrown at me, none of them even sound familiar. There's weekly fire spinning at confluence park near downtown on sundays but ive never been able to make it, otherwise i may know who youre talking about.
I am also affiliated with GS.com, but personally i think they are much more closeminded when it comes to poi being the art that glowsticking branches off from. For instance, when i discovered HOP, playpoi and poicommunity, i felt that gs.com could use more of the traditional poi geometries to their advantage. My post about these websites and the tutorials on moves offered was eventually closed due to a large amount of the members being dissatisfied with my post when it's a glowsticking website. I havent been too involved with them since then. But in turn, i have been much more active in the poi websites.
Thanks for the support, really
© 1998 - 2024 Home of Poi
All prices converted to United States dollars using XE.com