Behind the back tricks are one of those bellwethers that can take you from basic to intermediate spinning, but it can be a huge kinesthetic challenge to get to a point where these types of tricks can feel stable and in control. This week we'll start off with some basic exercises to teach control of behind the back movements before playing with behind the back weaves next week and meltdowns the week after.

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At long last--I know how to lovelace! Lovelacing is an trick related to inversions that Ky Lee from Atlanta specializes in. Several times I've tried to learn it from him, but what finally made it click was a video Kory San posted on the topic. Here is an explanation of how it works and how to go about getting into it.

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Based upon a debate currently going on on the Tech Poi Group on Facebook, here are some ruminations on weaves and inversions. If we think of weaves as being specific shapes that can be divorced from the movements of the body, there are a lot of expressions of a three-beat weave. Here I demonstrate one that shares some characteristics with inversions.

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The last day of Wildfire, Richard Cranium showed me a move he was working on, integrating cateyes into a stall chaser. Upon viewing the move, I thought the cateyes were looking more like inspin petals and tried to come up with a different approach to integrating cateyes into stall chasers. The result was less a chase move and a little more like a quarter time chase, but I do like the overall effect.

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This week's tutorial covers throws that minimize the rotation of the poi, from float throws to plane-shifted throws, and finally no-beat throws. There's also a bit of inspiration here for how to play around with this type of movement and some of the fun things you can do with it.

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Contact rolls are one of my favorite moves. Here is a breakdown of how to do them on both the inner and outer forearm. They take a little bit of work, but they're a great tool to have in your box :)

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A bunch of random combos I've been working on in the past couple months. The stacking stuff was based upon playing with the idea of leash tracing with the head or hand--something that came out of a move Charlie showed me at Fall WF last year, as well as maintaining right angles in the orientation of the poi to each other. The second stacking combo is very similar to the first, but there's a small difference in the timing that makes the difference between the tracing and actually having a moment where the right angle is seen in full relief.

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