Teddy brought me this challenge a couple weeks ago in New York City--turning with one-handed 1.5s. It took a lot of work and there's a lot of places where it can tangle terribly, but hopefully the end result is close enough for government work ;)

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #384_ One-handed 1.5 turns(1).mp4

So you've learned your thread-the-needles, now what can you do with them? If you want to get a little mobility with this move, this is a good way to learn how to turn with it that gives it a good visual impact and utilizes some of the lessons we learned from crossers.

ttnturntutorial.mp4

One of those challenges I took up at Burning Man this year was to add the reverse Superman to my repertoire of tricks and it turned out to be a really interesting challenge given that the timing for it feels completely different from the timing of a forwards superman. The great part of getting it down, however is being able to turn and do waistwraps with it.

techblog352.mp4

Figured out basic turns but still finding they feel awkward? The problem might be in your feet! This is one of those problems that many of us who lack a movement background tend to encounter as we engage with poi spinning--our bodies aren't used to moving at all, let alone in a way that comes off as graceful. Compounding the problem, it feels as though our arms should be leading the way through our turns, but this seldom is good for us either aesthetically or physically.

turnfootworktutorial.mp4

If you've got your basic reel turns down, tuck turns are an easy next step that can add an additional level of visual immediacy to your turns. They're also the first example many of us encounter of a type of movement that plays a huge part in later moves called body tracing.

tuckturnstutorial.mp4

The final installment of our first beginners series: in this one we'll take what we know about turning and tick-tacks and apply them to turns between wheel and wall plane in all the different timing and direction combinations. Once you've mastered each of these positions, you can easily flow between them as you perform.

turnspt3.mp4