DrexFactor Poi Blog

Planetary

No, I regret this isn't an entry on Warren Ellis's landmark sci-fi satire comic book series (I'm still figure out a way to make it apply to poi ;), the title is a great excuse to give it a plug. The planetary I'm talking about is the system by which planets rotate around a solar mass and create systems of compound elliptical orbits.

No votes yet

Video Tech Blog #41: Plane-bending exercises, CAP-ellipse transitions, atomic flow

After an exhausting but wonderfully fun and educational weekend at the PEX Summer Festival, I've got a whole bunch of new tech courtesy the patient guidance of Richmond's Lucas Boyd. First up is a plane-bending exercise I've started playing with to explore all three planes by transitioning between them with floats. I've got same-time same direction and same-time opposites so far. After that, some cool CAP effects including a way to transition between CAPS using linear extensions, which also adds one more type of CAP turn to those I demoed in my tutorial a few weeks ago.

Your rating: None Average: 1 (13 votes)

Video Tech Blog #40: Charlie's cube, lots of plane changing

A demo of the cube Charlie demonstrated for me at Wildfire--this takes seven plane shifts to accomplish and works through crossed arms, wall plane, and buzzsaw positions. A real challenge, but a fun one! Next up is a plane-changing pattern that works between opposites same-time and corkscrew into a kind of pendulum stall before reversing itself into the exact same pattern it started as. I really like how the reverse of this pattern is itself, whereas reversing most poi sequences require you to reverse the directions of all your movements.

No votes yet

Adventures in body mechanics

Now here's a bizarre problem for you: how do you correct the way your body is built and moves?

At about the age of 12, I lost the arches in my feet and spent 15 years with orthodic insoles in my shoes, avoiding running long distances because they would cause my knees to swell and lock up for days. Needless to say, it kind of sucked.

Your rating: None Average: 1 (12 votes)

More footwork vids!

So apparently a trend has begun of doing videos for poi footwork and now the godfather of poi, Nick Woolsey has posted one describing how he does his whirling dervish-style footwork. Special guest-stars include Burning Dan and Alien Jon!

No votes yet

Wildfire roundup

Back from Wildfire and lots of videos are popping up...mostly from Christian and myself. Helpfully, both of us recorded a couple lesson sessions and noodling. Here are some of my favorites from the weekend:

No votes yet

Drex spins fire poi Saturday night at Spring Wildfire 2009

I've gotten a lot of requests for footage of me spinning fire, so here goes. The first usable video I've gotten of me with my poi lit up. Enjoy!

No votes yet

Charlie demos the poi stall cube

Christian had mentioned this months ago and Charlie was kind enough to give me a demo--I've almost got this now!

No votes yet

Drex, Christian, Baz, and Charlie being #$&^tards at Wildfire

When poi geeks have too much time and too many cameras...god help us all ;)

No votes yet

Bliss, Brandon Caldwell, and others spin double staves Sunday night at Spring Wildfire '09

Bliss, Brandon (NC), Julia and Kathryn from Barefoot Monkeys, Ricky from A Different Spin, and a bunch of other folks I don't know spin doubles together on the last night of Wildfire. Regrettably, the camera went unrecoverably blurry toward the end, but there's a lot of cool stuff before it gets there.

No votes yet