Hey gang! Drex here from DrexFactor.com
and today I am counting down my top 5
favorite body tracing tricks. So let's
just call a spade a spade--body tracers
looking really cool and sexy. You have
these moments where your arms are
reaching out and touching your entire
body moving up and down.
They're very dancey and they're very
sensual. I'm gonna give you some of my
favorites and hopefully it'll help you
guys on your own explorations with body
tracers. Before we dive in I just want to
give a shout out to the friends the
channel. Big thanks to Dark Monk,  Emazing
Lights, Flowtoys, Spinballs, and Ultrapoi
for helping to make the videos on
this channel possible. You can visit them
all on the web by following the links down
in the description of this video. So
obvious question: what is the definition
of a body tracer? I would personally
consider a body tracer to be anything
that involves a reel that moves along
the body--that is your hand has to be in
contact with some part of your body
whether it be your other arm, your torso
someplace, anywhere just so long as it's
actually touching your body. So with that
in mind here are my favorite tricks that
fit this definition. Snakes. Snakes are
one of these tricks that we've kind of
borrowed from the juggling world but
made our own in a lot of respects. Really
the idea is that you're doing a linear
isolation--the same tool that I usually
use for teaching flowers to people. The
difference is is that two of those
petals wind up behind your back
as you're going from the inside of your
body to the outside of your body. You do
a petal over your shoulder and as you're
going from the outside of your body to
the inside of your body you do a petal
under your armpit. Because the two poi
are spinning in split time same
direction, the other poi is doing exactly
the opposite: it goes underneath your
armpit on the way out and over your
shoulder on the way back. I'm gonna give
you a little bit of a trick that helped
me finally nail snakes and that's at the
moment where they start isn't what it
appears to be. You want to try and get it
to the point where you can clap your
hands together with the poi moving. I know it seems
kind of weird, right? But wait for that moment when the
right hand poi is going up and the left
hand poi is going down and you want
imagine that you're gonna stall them up
and down along your centerline. But
instead of stalling them you're gonna
let your hands come together as though
you're trying to clap them and that
moment where your hands sneak in between
the poi is the moment when you initiate
the snake. Pretty cool, huh?
The G
I don't think this trick actually has a
formal name but I would say that G has
done more than any other poi spinner to
popularize its usage so I think I'm
gonna name it after him for the purposes
of this video. So this is really the same
idea as what's going on in snakes but
instead of applied on a horizontal line
it's instead applied on a vertical line
and the poi are now in together opposite.
Instead of in split time same direction
you're going to want to do this in what
some people call a reverse butterfly,
that is the poi are coming up through the
middle and going down out to the sides.
Now,
you're gonna pick one poi--it doesn't
matter which one to start with but that
one poi is gonna go up into your armpit
as your hands go up your body the other
poi is gonna go over your shoulder.
Think of it going like that. Now you're
gonna switch off which side is doing
which, so last time it was my right hand
that was going in the armpit this time
is gonna be my left hand. Again, I go down
left hand goes in the armpit right hand
goes over the shoulder. Now it is
important to note they don't do these
things at the same time. The poi that's
going into your armpit gets there first
and the poi that goes over your shoulder
gets there second. This is so they can't
tangle into each other behind your back.
In between each body trace reach out to
the sides and do a small inspin petal
straight out to your right and left hand
sides. If you wanted to you could just do
a straight extension going back and
forth--works just as well!
Archer weave fountains. I think that
Archer weave fountains are my favorite
body tracer--they're definitely the one
that I do the most, especially the
inspin variation and to a lesser extent
the antispin variation. Now I've done a
tutorial on Archer Weaves before but I
will tell you the secret to getting them
down is really the hand movement. Start
with your right hand straight out to the
right hand side and touch your left hand
to your left shoulder now imagine that
your right hand is going to reach down
and your left hand is just going to
trace along your right hand until
they're both straight out to the bottom.
Now reach your left hand out to the left
hand side and your right hand is going
to wind up in your left armpit. Now as we
go up and over your left hand is going
to reach towards the ceiling and your
right hand is going to slide up your
left arm until they're both pointed
towards the ceiling.
Now reach that right hand over to the
right hand side and have
that left hand work its way down to your
right shoulder now perform the same
movement as you're performing the archer
weave and that's what allows you to do
this fountain that goes all around your
body. It's really really really important
that you're comfortable both with doing
the archer weave going forwards as well
as the archer weave going reverse. The
Nevisoul. This is another one of those
body tracers that I find I just do
constantly. It was first shown to me by
Thomas Johansson, aka Nevisoul, which is
why I've named it after him for the
purpose of this video. The really cool
thing about this trick is that it takes
elements of both crossers as well as
windmills and combines them together
with flowers and hybrids, creating a
really cool mishmash of different poi
styles all mixed into one. One of my
favorite things about this body tracer
is that you can reverse the direction of
it fairly easily. Here's how you learn
that: start with your arms out to the
sides and think that you're going to go
into a windmill with your right hand
starting off behind your head like so.
You can do this as a no beat if you
prefer but it might be a little bit
easier for you to keep the timing and
direction straight if it's a windmill.
Cool! Now from here you're going to
reverse which hand is in front and which
hand is behind so I'm gonna drop down
into a crosser and I want to do that in
such a way that my right hand is in
front and my left hand is behind. From
here I just reach straight out to the
sides again. So it's up right behind left
behind and then back out to the sides
and I can switch back down and around
into my normal direction thinking down
right behind left behind up and around,
yeah? I can always make the switch when
I'm out to the sides--pretty cool right?
Stall Chasers
So I would totally admit that doing body
tracers with stall chasers can be a
royal pain in the ass, but any moment
where you have one poi coming over to
meet the other poi is an opportunity to
find someplace where you can stick a
little bit of a shoulder reel and a
trace and get the poi around your body.
I've actually seen some people turn this
into a kind of game, finding all the
moments in between the two hands where
they can get their poi to do a little
reel around their body before doing a
stall chaser up and around. So you've got
to know that I've got a combo in mind
for these, right? We're going to start off
by doing the G, having our poi do those
tracers straight up the sides of our
body. We're going to stop out to the
sides and I'm gonna have my left hand
come around to initiate a stall chaser,
bringing the right hand around the right
hand goes through the armpit and around
the head and back. From here we switch
into the archer weave going all around
our body in that fountain. When we're at
the bottom we switch into Nevisoul's body
tracer going up our body and then back
down and around. When we're in the center
we take snakes out to the sides and
finish it on off with a little bit of
a spiral wrap. Pretty cool, huh?
Cool! So I hope you guys got something
out of that. What are your favorite body
tracers? Let me know down in the comments
and if you happen to shoot this combo
please throw it on instagram with the
hashtag #drexfactorpoi. Thanks so much
for watching! If you got anything out of
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