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

A lesson on plane shifting including basic components, building blocks, and a few examples. In honor of a departed member of the poi community.

tutorialplaneshifting.mp4

Here's the second installment of my explanation of how hard and soft transitions work with Alien Jon's concept of arcs and loops. Here I demo all the permutations of these transitions through the intratangent circles (concentric) versus extratangent circles (outside--btw, if any mathematicians know what these concepts are actually called, please let me know) for a bunch of different circle sizes.

poitransitionspart2.mp4

The first installment of a short series of vids on transitions between unit circle patterns, antispin flowers, and extensions. What the common elements are and how to switch between them. Most of this vid is defining basic vocabulary and providing basic examples of the concepts that will be explored in later videos. A major debt for this is owed to Alien Jon, whose concepts of arcs and loops is one of, if not the critical underpinning of these concepts.

poitransitionspart1.mp4

Over the past year I've gotten lots of queries into the stage ball poi set I've come to use most frequently in my tech blog the past few months. I've not seen another tutorial out there on how they are made (at least not on YouTube), so here goes. Hopefully if you've been interested in them, this will tell you everything you need to know to make your own set. I think Ronan had the original design, but used the end caps of juggling clubs for his handles. The use of furniture feet is an idea I borrowed from Alien Jon.

howtomakecontactballpoi.mp4

By popular demand: a follow-up to my last hoop tutorial, this time on the horizontal equivalent of the cateye pattern I demoed last time. It breaks down in a very similar fashion to the vertical, but requires a bit more wrist strength at a couple intervals. I've also included a brief discussion on how you can use both vertical and horizontal cateyes in conjunction with isolations and extensions to flow between tricks. This is a variation on Alien Jon's unit circle theory. For more info on this, visit his YouTube channel. Enjoy! :)

hooptutorialhorizontalcateyes.mp4

On world hoop day, I found myself teaching a large crowd of hoopers how to do a move that's called a cateye in poi. Here's a to-do for it being as how I haven't seen another video tutorial out there for it. To see this move in action, check out videos by Rainbow Michael or Sean Stogner.

hooptutorialcateyes.mp4

I got a request for a tutorial on how to turn with CAPs and found it to be a fun challenge. Here they are approached from the perspective of being fountains in opposite poi motion, wall plane turns that integrate triquetra hybrids, and finally as wheel plane reels--my personal favorite. Enjoy!

tutorialcapsturns.mp4

Here's a slightly late follow-up on my promise for a tutorial that shows the same arm warmups I posted last week, but this time rendered in same direction. Also a practical application of thinking of these movements in terms of the junction points between forward and reverse in turns.

armwarmuptutorialsamedirection.mp4

A student asked me to post online the arm warmups I have people do at the beginning of every class, so I've taken their advice and posted a tutorial on it here on YouTube. Due to limitations in the length of videos, this covers only two direction combinations: opposites split-time and opposites same-time. I'll be adding same direction same-time and same direction split-time soon. Enjoy!

armwarmuptutorialopposites.mp4