My first doubles video! Be kind...:)

Not the greatest doubles routine in history--I get tripped up in this one a lot, but I at least wanted to show off some of the fun stuff I've learned since I picked up doubles back in February. I recorded this one right after my most recent poi flow video on Sunday afternoon at the Malcolm X park drum circle.

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A highly fortuitous meeting with Alien Jon in Barcelona led to the first trick here, combining plane-bending with a concept I was unfamiliar with called diagonal planes. Currently I can only plane bend with it or turn, but I suspect other tricks will begin to emerge using these techniques. Second, at Wildfire Noel showed me a double-staff trick wherein one alternates one hand doing antispin and the other hand sliding straight across the body along its own axis which creates an 8-step move that one can easily break out of into any number of other patterns.

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Starting off with a variant on an antispin shape I played around with a few weeks back--this time I'm realizing one can switch back and forth between which hand is doing antispin and which is doing extension on the wrapping and unwrapping--an effect I think is really cool. Next, some more atomic flowers based upon stall patterns and a switch that I didn't realize I'd ripped off from Insignia. Finally, some hybrid turns with the triquetra--vs. pendulum and vs. static spin.

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Starting off with the horizontal variation on the figure 8 I did last week--which actually turns out to be the easier variant. Also, a couple stabs at combining the vertical and horizontal figures with mixed (read: little) success. Also, based upon a discussion on tribe, some attempts at 1.5 hybrids, which I'm making some progress with, but having a difficult time working out a 1:1 rhythm with pendulums and any other type of motion. Finally, learning to turn with butterfly antispin flowers in wheelplane.

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Starting off with a challenge from Insignia and including a funky "figure 8" pattern that can be done using a triquetra template, this one is kind of a grab-bag of things you can do with linear extensions in triangular patterns. Also, in trying to do what I think may actually be an impossible horizontal stall to same direction motion, I came across a nice hybrid transition from anti-spin flowers and am working on an inverted stall pattern one of my readers suggested on a past blog. Gimme time--it'll happen!

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This week we have a replay of some of last week's action, being as how it was too blurry to make out, as well as working on turning with the triquetra, mercedes, antispin hybrid--whatever you want to call it. Ironically, even though I've been working on turning from forward to reverse over my right shoulder, I'm finding the turns the other direction easier. Also: I've returned to my isolation intensive exercises and am now working on opposites. My split-time is a spot cleaner than same time, but that was the case with the same-direction variants too.

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I've cleaned up the top and bottom CAPs from last week such to the point they're at least recognizable as this now. The next step will be to integrate them with the CAP-float pattern Insignia and I have been playing with to be able to do both the diamond hybrid pattern and bisect it like a cross as Zan is doing in the Arizona Transmission video. I got some feedback on my butterfly antispin flowers--especially in how they've been integrating into my CAP patterns and have come to realize I'm doing the wrong kind of flower. Back to the drawing board on that one.

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Starting off with the wallplane CAPs I played with two weeks ago. Rather than bisecting the diamond with vertical floats, I'm trying instead to bisect the diamond horizontally with linear extensions. The results are messy at best, but mark my words I'll get it cleaned up. This also leads me to a pattern that resembles an arrow pointed straight down. I've got my split-time same direction cateyes looking presentable now--on to the cateye weave...someday.

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Very short blog this week...DJ pointed out to me last week that the CAP, flower, and isolation patterns I've been playing with constitute a variant on unit circles wherein the direction of the poi change with the direction of the hand, thus creating a grid with extensions and isolations overlapping each other rather than extensions, cateyes, and isos overlapping each other. Also, I've started playing with 1.5 patterns that use cateye rather than static spin patterns. The first one resembles a hybrid I've seen Alien Jon do.

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Based upon responses from Insignia and Alien Jon, here are some additional tricks to add to the opposite timing CAPs I have in my repertoire. Needless to say, I am still loving all the possibilities these tricks open up for playing with butterflies...they're close to being in flow but not 100% there yet. I'm also realizing these patterns lead back to some of the butterfly extensions Zan was playing with in the Arizona transmission video.

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