Forums > Videos > Apples and oranges

Posted: 21st Jun 2008
Nice, here's a video of some contact that you might be able to work into it. I should've chosen a rounder apple, body rolls were too hard. :P

Posted: 21st Jun 2008
Heh, none too shabby. I've been wanting to learn contact juggling, but in Geelong theres only one place to get stuff for twirling/juggling etc and they stock only smaller contact juggling balls.

Closest thing to trying contact juggling is doing body rolls with a bowling ball, I did that while I was playing league, put off the bowlers after that! .

I daresay that learning with an apple isn't really optimum, either. That was my last one, anyway.

Posted: 21st Jun 2008
lol, no, learning with an apple is pretty bad. I'd recommend mail-ordering a contact juggling ball off of HOP, or even just buying one from Juggleart next time you're in Melbourne.

Posted: 5th Jul 2008
Post gone. :O! Change of heart.
EDITED_BY: Mother_Natures_Son (1215483096)

Posted: 9th Jul 2008
NathanielEverist, There is nothing wrong with learning using apples? I learnt to juggle using oranges and I learnt staff with a broom.

Not every one can afford to go out and spend big bucks on fancy pants equipment, and why should they; expensive fancy props don't make you a better performer.


Mother_Natures_Son, I like your video it kind of reminds me of some thing I saw on here a while ago called skeeball or some thing or other, I think it was in the other toys forum if you want to have a look around.

Oh, you should definitely have a go at learning three ball juggling, there are so many fun dynamic moves you can do with it that are kind of like what you were doing with your apple. I can link you some good tutorials if you like?

Also if you want a cheep source of contact balls an old cue ball from a pool table works well.

Good luck

I {Heart} hand me downs and spinning in the snow.<br /><br />

Posted: 11th Jul 2008
I had always tried to learn to juggle and never really got anywhere. My left hand is a big letdown, I can get a few... rotations? off then it all goes askew pretty quickly. I'll work on it a bit more though, slowly.

Posted: 12th Jul 2008
Yeah juggling is kinda like that, but you prolly find that after a while your left had will pick up pretty quickly. The cool thing is that once you get on top of a three ball cascade there are lots of neat tricks that you can throwin that aren't any way near as hard to learn.

I {Heart} hand me downs and spinning in the snow.<br /><br />

Posted: 12th Jul 2008
I've been learning contact with an orange now, but I keep eating my balls, I like oranges too much.

I think I need to just go back to doing one rotation, starting with 2 balls in my left hand and I'll be able to get the cascade...

Posted: 15th Jul 2008
Please rip it to shreds. ^_^ Remain objective, but be ruthless.





EDITED_BY: Mother_Natures_Son (1216199544)

Posted: 18th Jul 2008

 Written by :ElectricBlue


NathanielEverist, There is nothing wrong with learning using apples? I learnt to juggle using oranges and I learnt staff with a broom.

Not every one can afford to go out and spend big bucks on fancy pants equipment, and why should they; expensive fancy props don't make you a better performer.

There is certainly something wrong with learning contact juggling with apples, they aren't spherical, the one I chose wasn't even close. If the object you're using isn't at least round, it'll make learning very very difficult. If you're learning basic toss juggling, roundness isn't as much of an issue, but with contact it is. I learnt to toss juggle with balloons filled with rice. I learnt to staff twirl with bamboo sticks from my garden and I learnt to poi with tennis balls in socks before anything else.

I agree not everybody can afford to go out and spend "big bucks" on juggling equipment, I never said that it's necessary to have expensive equipment, not did I ever say that having such equipment will make them any more skilled. That's ludicrous, and is completely contrary to my own opinions, as my poi of choice to this day are still simple socks.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I found your tone a little aggressive, and it seemed to me that you were of the opinion that I believed that "expensive fancy props" will "make you a better performer", which isn't true at all. The MOST I did was merely make a recommendation of retailers that I know are of high quality and good price, from which it appears you've made some offensive judgments of my character. Again, forgive me if I'm wrong, tone and intent often doesn't carry well in text.

Mother_Natures_Son:

Beautiful video! I'm sorry, I wish I could offer more criticisms, I know you said to tear it apart, but that'd be like trying to tear apart a rock. Everything you did was extremely tight, smooth and graceful. I loved it, brilliant location, perfect choice of music, just lovely...
I'm really trying to rack my brain for critique here, but sorry, nothing's coming up.

Posted: 18th Jul 2008
That last minute did contain the end of the song (the song got drowned out by the waves on and off throughout it.) I probably should've looked into that better. The I dunno what the hell its called even time one-poi-is-an-extention-of-the-other-poi move at like 3:05 or thereabouts is sloppy, I think... And I really ought to choreograph a routine so theres not pauses where I'm not really doing much at all wondering "hmm... what to do now?" I think I'll work back to the basics a bit more to put everything together in a more synergistic flow.

But thats how I feel about it.

Thanks for the comment on it! I was beginning to think that it was only my friends and I that had seen it and none of my friends really twirl, so their opinion is good, but only so far.

I honestly don't think Electric_Blue was aiming to be abrasive, by the way and the contact orange seems to be coming along not too poorly, I can do a bit of a circle if I slow right down and I've pulled off a few arm stalls, but I need more practice just at the stall points, methinks.

Anyways... you headed to CG?

Posted: 18th Jul 2008
Nice video, ruthless criticism as follows :

- The wall plane extension -> Anti-spin flowers patter around 0.38-0.50 - Your timing went out, switching between split-time and same-time - when it was properly split-timed, it looked tight
- For my tastes, you repeat each move too many times before moving onto the next pattern - e.g. 1.25-1.40
- Try and clean up the symmetry of your Not-1.5s
- 2bt btb-waist-wrap - Learn the 3bt
- Slightly dodgy symmerty at 2.40

Then is goes a bit blurry

Nicw work though, the above is really just nit-picking

Burner of Toast
Spinner of poi
Slacker of enormous magnitude

Posted: 18th Jul 2008
I lose interest around the 1:30 mark (both times I've tried to watch it). I will say...

- Move your body more in interesting ways and learn some stances/poses/postures that make you look better during static moves - In other words, add some dance!

- Learn combinations which show moves that flow nicely into each other as opposed to cycling through your list of moves.

- The music is low and doesn't quite fit the spinning style (although, the location/setting lend itself nicely).

Let's turn those old bridges we crossed into ashes.
We'll blaze a new trail,
and torch the rough patches.

-Me

Posted: 19th Jul 2008
MNS,

Yeah, oranges are actually ok for CJ, nice and grippy.

And yeah, hopefully I'll be heading to common grounds, I really should get off my arse and buy a ticket...

Posted: 19th Jul 2008
I like the setting and basically there isn't much wrong with the spinning.

There seems to be a haste or hurry with your spinning that removes some of the grace- the upstalls and anti-spin were technically clean but a little snatchy which doesn't help the flow IMO. Speed changes are good, but if it's all a bit quick or rushed it's not quite the same.

The focus was a bit of an issue too.

Nothing terrible, keep it up; I look forward to more (especially from that beautiful location)

Posted: 19th Jul 2008
I've got a few more locations up my sleeve, Mr. Chutney, don't you worry about that. Thanks to all for the nitpicking... the speed is something that irks me actually... Its only when the camera turns on me or I get more than a few people watching that that happens, much of the same with cycling through my list of movements.

Mr. Chutney, for the snatchy anti-spin do you refer mostly to the same direction wall plane antispin to longarm or to regular flower stuff? I think I can work a much smoother transition in there, I was trying to go for a stark contrast to mesmerize non spinners or something of that ilk.

Posted: 20th Aug 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3SNvnWIEmc



Here is a tutorial I made for those butterfly hybriddy things that were all the rage not long ago. Let me know if it helped!








Hell... I'll add this.. its a staff tutorial thing I made to supplement a conversation I was having a friend on playing more freely with staff... I'm not really a staffer, I just pretend. But yeah, forgive the costume, she's doing a photography project and we'd discussed that this was what I'd wear, I was just giving her a look at what the pants were and all that so she could think about whether or not that'd work with the idea she had.
EDITED_BY: Mother_Natures_Son (1219235400)

Posted: 20th Aug 2008

 Written by :Mother_Natures_Son

Here is a tutorial I made for those butterfly hybriddy things that were all the rage not long ago. Let me know if it helped!

It did, thank you.

Posted: 25th Aug 2008

 Written by :Mother_Natures_Son


Here is a tutorial I made for those butterfly hybriddy things that were all the rage not long ago.

lol, no kidding, they really were all the rage weren't they? I never thought of poi having "move" trends, but when I think about it, that move definitely was one, cheers man.

Posted: 27th Aug 2008
I quite liked that video..

The spinning was a little fast for the setting and the music, but what the hey..the idea of having to "give 'er" or put more into it when either a camera is present or people are watching is common to most of us.

I liked how the music faded in over the sound of the waves and then faded out leaving only the sound of the waves and the flames as I've always been a big fan of hearing what's going on in the spinning environment as well as seeing it. That music matched the setting perfectly.

I find it hard to fault your technique, so I won't even try.

At first i thought the out of focus issue was some sort of effect and didn't mind it at first, as with the music, it fit...but the second time....it became somewhat annoying. I'm thinking you did multiple burns here, filmed them and edited the footage together. My thoughts are, you could improve the watchability of this video just by reediting it.

I'd suggest that on your next video, zoom in a little so we can see more of you ( yes, I know it was a "silhouette" video but that large black area in the foreground looked like so much "dead space" and I would have preferred more you, less beach.

I liked the contrast between the largely deep blue sky and the orange flames, a departure from the usual "sunset" videos that have an red/orange/yellow sky. hummmm....maybe some sort of filter that'll push the sky colour over to violet/indigo

Posted: 27th Aug 2008
I'm not sure how I feel about the hybrid tutorial. You don't have to do any threading to switch directions; that seems like something of a crutch. Just my 1/50th of a dollar.

Posted: 27th Aug 2008
Radix, how do you mean you don't need to do any threading? In order to do the hybrid, as far as I understand you need to have the hand doing the extension on top, so switching which is on top requires a TTN type action.

If you mean that this is incorrect I'll need to do some practice and try getting it with the other hand on top, but no matter what I do it naturally switches to extension on top.... though now I think of it, theres no real reason I can see theoretically why you'd need either hand on top, so I'm probably incorrect in that assumption, but I'd like a confirmation on that one.

Regardless, it was just an easy way I discovered for people get into doing that particular hybrid.

Thanks for the input, radix, now I've got more fuel to think about the way that particular movement works!

Originally Posted By: Stout


I liked how the music faded in over the sound of the waves and then faded out leaving only the sound of the waves and the flames as I've always been a big fan of hearing what's going on in the spinning environment as well as seeing it. That music matched the setting perfectly.



Hey, man, thats exactly what I thought! I threw the music in because I love it and thought that it'd fade in and out like that to some degree, but I didnt think it'd work as well as it did in that way. I think if the spinning had have fitted in better it would have been mesmerizing. I envy my friends who had never seen antispin or anything like that before who were actually mesmerized by it!

As for all the other stuff, I must say I agree with you, but my editing skills are quite low at the moment, as is my time to edit. The zooming in however couldn't be helped... I had expected to move about a bit more and I didn't have anyone willing to man the tripod to help keep me in frame. I need a lot more time working with framing and editing and all those video related things, so I'll make sure I keep a watch on it.

Thankyou very much for taking the time to give some critical feedback, guys, I'll take it on board for my next vid which will be either with socks or with LED poi.

Oh! And yeah, I did do two burns, because I'd been talking to a friend about the patterns you could make, when I finished the burn I cursed myself for forgetting a few of the ones she had wanted to see in particular, so back in front of the camera I jumped!

Posted: 28th Aug 2008
I too was wondering about the threading bit, but since I haven't made it past the top part, and am just following the tutorial which says "start from TTN" I'm still open to the idea that threading may be necessary in order to complete the bottom half.

As an aside.....when this site was down for upgrading, I decided to explore YouTube based on comments form a local guy who claims he learned poi from the internet, yet doesn't frequent HoP preferring instead to search out video tutorials instead.

I never got into airwraps and hyperloops, just because they were "fashionable" at the time ( I'm a rebel ), found Durbs' tutorial, and now I'm a airwrapping, hyperlooping fool. Oh yea, I, having plane control issues, as well as timing issues, so most of my spinning time over the past few days has been devoted to cleaning those up.

Anyway.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to make a watchable video. I realise that that type of video, filmed under a specific type of natural light has a very limited window of opportunity in which to film, after all, you wouldn't want to edit clips together where the background lighting in constantly changing.

Ha...forgetting to do "moves" I do all that all the time. Sometimes I'll work on a pattern with an aim to spinning it at our weekly fire jam sessions, and find myself thinking awwww crap I forgot the *****, while I'm driving home.

Posted: 28th Aug 2008
No threading is needed for the bottom half. I think its EASIEST (For me) to use threading to do the directional changes.

I have made an extra little add on bit to the tutorial that i need to edit, so that'll prob help there.

RE: making a video, I made it so I could get valuable feedback, and I got that, so thanks to all who contributed. ^)^

Posted: 28th Aug 2008
Yeah, I meant to say that you can switch directions/do the entire move without ever switching which hand is on top.

After mulling it over, I think the reason it's easier to do with a hand switch is that it gets the poi back in sync (read: out of polyrhythm, save for cateye hybrids) before launching into the other direction. Just a hunch though, since after trying it I find it more difficult than doing it with the same hand on top. Apparently I have my own crutch to work out as well.

I like the idea of using the top and bottom half as a teaching method, going to have to give that a go next time someone goes "ooh, I want to learn THAT!"

Posted: 28th Aug 2008
Oh, and a small note on teaching/performing butterfly hybrids; I envision a horizontal line straight through the middle of the pattern, dividing it in half. If your hands are tracing a clockwise circle (spinner's perspective) then on top half the right hand is leading, and on the bottom the left hand leads.

Picturing it this way helps me keep my hands from over taking each other.

Posted: 28th Aug 2008
Cool, thanks for the tip on that, radix, I'll include that in the tutorial amendment that I'll edit at some point... thats if you don't mind me stealing your intellectual property for the masses, of course.
EDITED_BY: Mother_Natures_Son (1219975277)

Posted: 31st Aug 2008
"Intellectual property" = worst concept humans have invented. Eff that noise, do what you want.

Posted: 5th Sep 2008
A new video!! Bit dancier... Its still all a bit too quick, but we're getting closer to what I do off camera! So I would love feedback on it.

I've titled it "The day I discovered poi"

Still not conquered the fear of the camera, I had a few robotic moments, but I'm getting closer.

No, I'm not a good drummer either...




Please! Rip it apart... tell me what is in your opinion bad, whats good. How to improve... what to keep up...

Posted: 6th Sep 2008
Over all. I liked that video.

I see what you mean about fear of the camera, as your acting skills didn't really convey the message you were trying to get across with the opening segment on the video.

I knew, instantly what was going based on the title, but had I been a layman watching that video not knowing the title, I would have been a little confused. I feel you could have been way more emotive in "the discovery" section, like jumping back from the poi when you first come across them to convey an element of surprise. You were a little too far away from the camera to convey anything through facial expression, maybe get someone to operate the camera, so they can zoom in on your face at key moments.

I didn't really like the drum track, not only did it not fit in with the music later on, had I not known what I was watching right from the start, I might have been thinking that the poi were responsible for making the sound too. Might you have been trying to portray the idea that, through sound, the poi might have been "calling" you over to the stump ?

I want you to make me share in your curiosity and your satisfaction when you finally figure out what these things are actually for.

As a spinning video, I had difficulty seeing your poi because they blended into the top 2/3 of the background and since that background was heavily textured I would have been happier with brightly coloured poi instead...say orange.

Good work on tossing the poi into the air at the end of your spin, but that expression of joy was quickly negated by your picking them up. The jump over the camera was a nice touch.

Five stars for effort and originality dude, I hope that wasn't being too critical.