Part 2 in my series on beginner level inversion and introversion play. Last video we practiced individual elements of these moves and here we combine them together--first by taking any 2 together, then all 3, then a funky fountain variant that utilizes the type that seems like an airwrap or hyperloop. There's plenty more fun down this well, so be sure to check out some of Alien Jon, Ky Lee, Christian, and Baz's videos for more inverted goodness.

techblog180.mp4

I've finally taken the plunge and have begun to attack one of those techniques in the poi world that I've spent the past four years avoiding like the plague: inversions and introversions. I don't fully understand the difference just yet, but having seen some really innovative work come out of this technique in the past few years from Insignia, Charlie, Alien Jon, and Ky I decided it was time to learn :) Here are some very basic elements of these movements to begin drilling that will add up to some more complex patterns in my next video.

techblog179.mp4

This is totally one of those tricks I didn't know if I was ever going to get, but fortunately Leo's recent video on body tracers showed a possible shortcut that worked out beautifully: by treating each side of a behind the back waistwrap as a 2-beat, one can train each hand to do its part of a behind the back crosser. The result needs some cleaning up, but it's a useful shortcut for folks with inflexible shoulders like my own.

techblog178.mp4

A couple weeks ago I started playing with a variant on a stacking move I've seen Mel and Poiboi play with, but changed what I perceived the timing and direction of the pattern to be. The result felt asymmetric and so after learning it on both sides, I set about figuring out how to switch between them using a wallplane flower in antispin. I then realized it fits in well with the hybrid family I demoed a couple tech blogs back and threw in a triquetra vs pendulum for good measure.

techblog177.mp4

Erik (e6) made a request on the Facebook Tech Poi Group for those of us who regularly post tech blogs to post vids of what drills we happen to be playing with these days. Here are three drills that run the gamut of contact to plane-bending.

techblog176.mp4

Part 3 of my Arashi wrap-up series from Firedrums. In this video we talk about creating longer and larger versions of the patterns from the first two videos by using cateyes instead of static spin circles to keep the patterns from overlapping with one's body.

techblog175.mp4

This tutorial examines body tracers from the vantage point of thinking of them as two-beat weaves that shift position along the body and starts with a couple basic exercises and the theory behind them and moves into a few examples of the technique in action.

bodytracertutorial.mp4

Months ago I did a couple tech blogs on toroid flowers, that is flowers that are created by constantly plane-bending the poi around a circular hand path. The resulting corkscrew motion then loops back in upon itself, suggestion a circular tube and hence a toroid. Charlie and Ted had suggested to me that there was an antispin variant on this flower and showed it to me at Fall Wildfire last year. It's come up again both because it means our conception of inspin toroidal flowers was off and because it turns out it's closely related to some of the Arashi-based tech I've played with of late.

techblog174.mp4

This is a months old trick I can't believe I haven't done a tech blog on yet. It came out of Alien Jon, Charlie, and I playing with body tracers when AJ and Charlie were in town back in April. The algorithm for going through this variant on the diamond is a little wonky, but I still think it looks cool. Enjoy! :)

techblog172.mp4

Here's another hybrid family based upon a particular poi orientation--this one being hands together and poi apart. Triquetra vs pendulum, Mel's horizontal stack, point isolation walking, and stall chasers all make use of this alignment. Like the other hybrid families I've demonstrated on this video blog, it's a great tool for transitions.

techblog171.mp4