This tech blog featuring special guest star Ted Petrosky! We got together for a jam in Brooklyn and he showed me a nifty contact trick that starts with a shotgun-style single hand spiral wrap and it got my gears turning. Here are two fun variants that utilize some other tricks we know and love and that really look cool with this move added in for some extra spice.

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This week we go through the basic hip reel turn with our poi in same time, same direction. This teaches a very important concept in poi: when we turn, it appears the direction of poi rotation changes relative to us. Next week we'll go through hip reels in other timing and direction combinations.

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I've found that I've been doing a lot more body tracers of late and it's motivated me to try and find transitions for them that integrate with other moves I know well. One such transition that's working out pretty well is horizontal stacks. Here are a couple transitions using vertical body tracers that set up stacks fairly well and as I discovered while filming also then present an opportunity to switch between different body tracers.

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Kind of a fun brain/kinesthetic workout that came out of a trick I've seen G and Ronan do wherein they play 4-petal antispin against a static spin to create hybrid moments at either side of the body. I took that same idea to a vertical place to start, and then placed the top position behind the head to add a body tracer flavor to the overall movement. Don't know if it has any good performance applications but it definitely gives the brain something to chew on :)

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This is the first entry of an experiment: doing tutorials on very basic level poi tricks for people just starting out. No tech to be found here, but if you've either just picked up your first set of poi or are a rote beginner, you may find something of value in these tutorials. In this first series, we're going to tackle basic hip reel turns. Tune in every Friday for the next three weeks to learn the basics of these types of movement.

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While I was in Boulder, Alien Jon and I spent an evening playing around with some movements based around creating right angles with inspin stalls and pendulums. Here are a couple variants we played with and a couple transitions one can use to get in and out of them.

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A couple weeks ago, I'd done a tech blog on no-beat (sneaky) throws and a weave that one can perform using them. One of my commenters pointed out that there was a variant I hadn't covered and when I was in New York a couple weeks ago, Ted showed me the component I was missing: each hand has a no-beat throw on the up-beat, so you can actually perform that weave in such a way that every beat but the cross beat becomes a throw. It's hell hard but I think it also looks hell cool :)

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Shortest tech blog ever! A fun little variant on the split-time same direction stack I've played with before on this blog. Turns out it has more spaces to insert new movements than I'd really considered before and it leads to a nifty compound stack that reminds me of some stuff I've seen Charlie do.

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Last weekend as Ted and I played around in the Dube showroom in Manhattan, he showed me this nifty use for a toss forward over the shoulder. I'd seen Ronan doing this toss on the playa but hadn't yet thought of a good use for it, but Ted pointed out that one could then catch the poi head in cradle and the direction of the handle would continue in the direction to initiate a contact roll down the back of the forearm. The catch for this is exceptionally difficult, but I really like the result. Enjoy! :)

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