You want to know how I got from spinning like
to spinning like this?
Keep watching!
Whether you’ve been spinning for ten hours
or ten years, you’re always looking for
a way that you can improve.
And I can help!
Drex here from DrexFactor.com and today I’m
going to roll through my top 5 tips for poi
spinners of any level to improve your poi
spinning right this very day.
Whether your pain point is plane control,
pattern cleanliness, or even just good practice
habits, I’ve got you covered!
Make sure to hit that subscribe button and
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when I drop a new video.
Before we dive in, I just want to take a moment
to give a shout out to the friends of the
channel!
Big thanks to Dark Monk, Emazing Lights, Flowtoys,
Spinballs, Spinsconsin, and Ultra Poi 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.
I’ve been spinning for over ten years and
teaching for a little over eight and I’ve
seen a lot of people with a lot of bad habits
come through my doors.
And to be fair, I’ve had to get over quite
a lot of bad habits myself.
There are some things I’ve had to work on
that take a lot of time but there are also
things I’ve found that make an instant difference
in the way that you spin.
Here are 5 of my favorites.
Tip Number 1: Practice with lighter poi.
This one is going to seem super counter intuitive.
Many of us as we progress as spinners can’t
wait to upgrade from the super light beginner
poi that we start with to something with more
mass and stability to it.
And that’s exactly why you should practice
with lighter poi!
Lighter poi make spinning a lot more challenging.
Stalls are harder, plane control can be crazy,
and small imperfections in your style can
result in the poi going wildly out of control.
Spinning with lighter poi keeps you honest.
If you can spin cleanly with lighter poi then
you’re going to look like a Flow God when
you switch back over to a heavier set.
Tip Number 2: Move your feet.
Cut down the tech trees!
There is literally nobody outside of the flow
arts world and frankly very few people even
within the flow arts world that enjoy seeing
someone planting their feet as they spin.
You may think your spinning is so amazing
that nobody cares what your body is doing.
And you’re wrong.
Take video of your most amazing trick or sequence
with your feet planted vs moving around and
ask around.
If you can find even a single person whether
flow artist or muggle that prefers the feet
planted version I will be shocked.
I don’t care if you’re walking, turning,
kicking, or doing ballet.
Getting your full body engaged is just more
fun to watch.
You don’t have to become the world’s greatest
dancer to do this, but even minimal work on
your lower half will improve your spinning
by more than you can imagine.
Tip Number 3: Extend your arms.
T-Rex arms are such a cliche of poi spinning
that I once did an entire video on just that
topic.
And there’s a good reason: everybody does
it and it’s ugly as sin.
We’re all guilty of this at one point or
another.
I’ve done it--I’m sure you’ve done it.
Have you had a problem with T-Rex arms?
Write T-Rex in the comments.
C’mon.
Be honest.
Without a doubt, this is the most common note
I give to people who show up to my workshops
and it makes an immediate and obvious difference.
Your elbows aren’t permanently bent, so
explore the space around you.
It makes your movement more expressive, your
patterns more beautiful, and your performances
visible from much farther away.
Tip Number 4: Practice blindfolded.
Whoa!
Time out there, chief.
Isn’t that dangerous?
Yes, but it’s also another practice habit
that will keep you super honest.
I’m not saying you should spin fire blindfolded
or even that you should spin the majority
of your practice time blindfolded.
But doing it for a few minutes will really
help you to sense the location of the poi
and treat them as an extension of your body.
Plus which it’ll get you out of the bad
habit of looking at nothing but your poi as
you spin!
Think you’ve got your planes clean?
You’ll know for sure when you try this exercise.
Tip Number 5: Practice your patterns with
Luminancer.
I’ve covered Luminancer in past videos about
doing trails work with poi videos.
It’s a great tool for taking videos that
show off the shapes we produce when we spin.
But did you know that it can also be used
as a great learning tool?
Here’s how: pull up Luminancer on your phone
and hit that icon in the upper left that says
source.
Set the camera to face so it’s using the
Facetime camera.
Now set down the phone across the room from
you as you spin out some patterns with your
glow poi.
You’ve now got instant feedback on how clean
your patterns are and a way that you can work
to make them cleaner.
Sweet!
So those are my tips for improving your poi
spinning!
Make sure to like this video if you liked
it, dislike it if you didn’t, subscribe
for more videos like it and if you’ve got
a friend you think would get something out
of it, please share it with them!
Also: let me know in the comments which of
these tips helped you out the most.
Still want more tips to improve your poi spinning?
Head on over to my website and download my
guide to 10 tips on how you can improve your
poi spinning today!
It includes the tips I covered here in this
video as well as 5 more times that’ll help
you improve your poi spinning right away.
It’s available as a PDF, video, and audio
file, so go check that out at the link in
the description.
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Thanks for watching and have a good one!
Peace.
