I got a nifty challenge at Kinetic Fire Festival to perform a Zan's diamond toroid in same time opposites but to have the poi phased in same time opposites as well. It resulted in a pattern where the verticals remain in opposites but the horizontals switch to split time same direction. Strangely enough, if you try doing the same pattern in split time same direction both with poi and hands, the timing and direction remains consistent throughout the pattern. I'm taking this to mean that a lot of our rules for timing and direction no longer apply in the toroid world.

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The very first hybrid I ever learned! Here is a quick tutorial on how to perform static spin vs extension. These lessons will serve you later when you get into more complex hybrids, but I think this is a fairly easy entry into this type of spinning :)

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This past week at Spin Summit, I noticed Kyle Ford from Chicago doing a really cool toroid-inspired move that struck me as a great use of the technique that was simple and eloquent and would jump out to an audience quite easily. Here's an adaptation of the technique, slightly techie-fied, of course ;)

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Sorry about the crap audio--my mic decided to go on the fritz today, I'm afraid :-P Here's a couple interesting ideas that came out of a brain decompression with Alien Jon at Spin Summit this past week in Colorado. I've been trying to sort out the difference between inversions, introversions, and their various brethren, but Jon suggested I instead focus on the cross points generated by different combinations of moving the poi between the arms. It resulted in some pretty nifty shapes, so give this one a whirl.

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Yeah, so I totally missed a step with last week's video on inverting the introversion. There's a bit that feels quite a bit like a barrel roll that comes after performing the introverted weave that adds a whole other layer of complexity to the movement. Here is the full move demoed. Good luck to those of you who opt to take this one on--it's a bear :-P

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Taking elements of a plane-bending move frequently performed by Arashi and Alien Jon, I noticed that this diagonal-planed move had some elements of a weave to it and thought to take this type of movement into a more buzzsaw or notcoleman weave place. Essentially this involves taking the vertical part of the movement and switching it from being on the native side to the non-native side.

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By request: Nick Woolsey actually did a great tutorial on crossers a couple years ago that I think really did an amazing job of summing up how to get the move down. Here's a breakdown of the move that incorporates his advice plus a couple bits aimed at people who may be more beginners than his video was aimed for.

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At the close of Spring Wildfire, Christian and Baz cooked up this little gem that utilizes some in between spaces. What's curious about it to me is the way it takes atomics and allows you to flatten them into two very different timing and direction combinations depending upon what angle you approach them from.

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Following up on a great suggestion from TZ Rogers, Charlie Cushing and I spent the last couple fire festivals working on coming up with a way to use Lanternsmith's handles for fire poi. The benefits are that the silicone handles feel great in the hand and because they glow in the dark they're difficult if not impossible to lose. To achieve the weight I prefer for my handles, we wound up cutting a handle in half but it's worked out well enough Charlie is going to start molding handles to that form factor.

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By request! How to turn with antispin flowers! It's not as hard as you'd think--if you've done my tutorials on basic turns with poi you'll be right at home as you work up to this type of trick. You're basically looking to execute a tic-tac and then perform a petal in between each one. Expand out the size of your hand path and voila! You get turns with antispins :)

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