Following up from last week's video on waistwraps, here is how you can accomplish waist wraps behind the back. It helps to have the behind the back weave under your belt, but if you've got that piece of the puzzle, this isn't that big a leap.

btbwaistwraptutorial.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

 It was requested over a year ago, but here is a video of some good ways to warm up and condition oneself before spinning. A lot of this is full-body intensive but the shoulder exercise at the end really will help develop the ability to perform flowers for long periods without fatigue.

warmupstutorial.mp4

The archer weave is a fun embellishment for the three-beat weave that leads directly into body tracing and a number of other fun techniques. When I first tried to learn it, I was baffled at how it could work. Here is an easy way to break it down so that you can see what makes this move tick.

archerweavetutorial.mp4

Wraps are a nifty tool for switching directions and all-around looking cool that poi borrows from the glowsticking and nunchukus worlds. Here are some basics as to how they can be performed and what they can be wrapped around to create nifty effects your audience will dig!

wrapstutorial.mp4

Having problems getting your stalls down? Here's the first part of a workout, that if you can master it will give you access to nearly any stall you could possibly want to play with. It bears some resemblance to Yuta's 8 stall theory but applies to every timing and direction combination.

stallworkoutpt1.mp4

I've done a lot of tutorials now on moves for beginners, but this is something that I think is equally if not more important: developing plane control. You'll never learn a move that doesn't require it and there will never come a time when you don't need to practice them. Here are three drills to help you get down your plane control and make your tricks that much prettier.

planecontroltutorial.mp4

Branching out a little bit! Learning antispin flowers with a hoop is similar to how one can learn them with poi. Here's a way to learn both 3 and 4-petal antispin flowers while doing off the body hoop.

antispinhooptutorial.mp4

Corkscrews are usually the first floor plane move that many poi spinners learn. It's fundamentally a chase move with the hands moving up and down the body while the poi rotate in a horizontal plane. Here are a few tricks on how to get down this trick.

corkscrewtutorial.mp4

In the final installment of this behind the back series, we'll tackle the meltdown! Meltdowns are a move in which one rapidly wraps the poi around their back, unwraps them, and then rewraps them going the other direction to create a rapid and exciting move. Here's how to build them up piece by piece.

btbpart3.mp4

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.

btbpart1.mp4

The partner poi weave is not only easy to learn, you can teach it to a complete poi neophyte in under 10 minutes! Here's a little bit of guerilla street theatre: I found Jerod here in Lafayette Park and used him as a guinea pig to both teach the partner weave as well as demonstrate how easy it is to pick up and learn. Thanks so much to Jerod for being a good sport! :D

partnerweavetutorial.mp4