Overcoming bad practice...

We all know.. (or atleast know in a minute) that practice is worth the time if you don't practice right.. bad practice leads to bad spinning.. the reason being that you can think all you want, but when it comes down to it, its muscle memory at work.. the mind sort of just guides you through it.. helping to tip the scales as it were.. but bad practice is what a lot of suffer from... its also known to some as hit and miss practice.. wherein you keep trying.. and 1-50 you get it right.. eventually its 1-30.. then 1-10.. but even then.. you may pick them up the next day and be back at 1-50.. now this is something that's hard to get around.. it's frustrating.. I've seen a lot of people turned away because of bad practice.. after all.. all you are training yourself to do when spinning poorly is being able to spin poorly.. and its uber hard to relaern something properly once it has been ingrained wrong.. so I wanted to start this to let people list things that help them cope with bad practice..

for example.. my spinning was great, but my timing was off.. sometimes the chasing poi would catch up too much.. sometimes fall behind a little.. so I tried for the next week to imagine that I was spinning a staff (which btw I don't spin staff)... now though I know nothing off staff, it didn't take much to get the idea of finding a hand position that would keep my poi in a straight line.. This included at times imagining that the string continued through my hands.. (perhaps like meteor).. anyway, after practicing poi like spinning a staff with a few dirfferent variations.. (like wrists together) I was spinning beautiful timed weaves..

so.. what are some things that you do to overcomebad practice?

Category: 
Poi Miscellania

Comments

APR
29
2004
spiralx

It sounds like a flippant answer, but more and better practise Sphism/smilesmiley But after a break from the original.

APR
29
2004
matt

To get my style super tight i used to put a hair band round both wrists and then practice my moves. If your 5 beat weave is all over the place, then this technique works really well.

¦m¦

APR
29
2004
Rev

that's what I was getting atmatt...

basically its hard to explain this without referring to something specific.. for example.. My tangles used to be horrible.. not in how they looked.. but in how I did them.. they came in at an angle and were usually closer to the handle of one poi then the other.. which was fine.. but it made it REALLY hard to learn some of the precision work required of the stuff Ido now.. and learning the stuff I do now..makes it really hard on me.. because I've worked mainly in side planes and not much in the frontal area only to find out that my frontal are from a ofrwards is right on.. my frontal part of the reverse is still horrible.. and thus they don't line up..

so now I had to relearn all my tangle stuff.. this has also happened for other moves.. when you read about them and learn them one way.. only to find out there's something minor that you mess up..

now there are lots of tricks that we can use to get around problems.. like imaigning I'm spinning a staff instead of poi.. or tying my hands together.. or starting a tangle one way and switching it to the other..

ultimately we have to relearn things the right way we we've learned them poorly.. but there are things that you can do outside of just practice that helps to make it better.. for example.. keeping my wrists together made my weave cleaner.. without having to relearn the weave necessarily.. where as with the tangle.. I had to find a middle ground.. like doing the tanlge at 12 and 6 instead of 3 and 9.. that way it merged the good with the bad until I could pick up the good without having to start completely from scratch..

and that's what I'm looking for.. just minor tidbits that help us overcome learning things wrong..

APR
29
2004
poikid

Well this is a help for me because though I practice alot only some of my stuff comes out the better...all I can say from my own experience at this point in time is spin slow until you really really really REALLY know the pattern and do it friggin well Sphism/smilesmiley

APR
30
2004
BHBTBZS

Nice thread, so heres my 2 cents:

MOST IMPORTANT: PRACTICE SLOW !

- Spin in a Corridor, especially important for turning. If you dont have a corridor - spin standing next to a wall
- Practice in front of a mirror
- Think about your hands (they should move in circles too!)
- Spin different sets of Poi - extremely heavy/Glowsticks/Tailed Poi. This way you learn the body motion rather than the specific motion required for a specific set of Poi. Especially true for Isolations.
- Ask me !

:]

DEC
20
2004
parchefl

What if you don't even know where to start? Sphism/sadsmiley I want and need to get better, but I don't know how the hands are supposed to move, or my body for that matter, and I don't know anyone that can show me; especially the more intricate moves...poi is not popular at all where I'm from. What do I do now? How do I practice/learn? Any good tips for me?

DEC
20
2004
proto

I found Michal Kahn's poi book a great help when I started out. Also the video tutorials on HomeofPoi are great for the basics.

DEC
21
2004
spiralx

And I wouldn't worry too much about getting it perfect right now - just keep spinning regularly and you'll get better pretty soon. Sometimes there's just no substitute for simple practise!

JAN
20
2005
mattpoi

if you dont have a mirror.. a great way to check your timeing is to watch your shadow (for morning and evenning spinning sessions..). Turning towards your shadow you can check your left/right planes.

I found that my timeing improved significantly by: switching to heavier poi and by messing around with club spinning. The switch to heavier poi seemed to pull my normally small-moveing wrists into the proper positions. Practicing with clubs (but with a poi grip -- i cheat) forced me to have my wrists in the right position at all points in the pattern. Because with clubs, if you dont move your wrists right, the clubs wont follow the right patterns. Poi have momentum and can swing around your hand -- achieving rotation without the proper wrist movement that gives you control.

So.. for me.. good practice is practice in which my wrists follow the poi at all points in the pattern.

I hope this makes sense and that i didnt ramble too much.. :-)

JAN
20
2005
spiralx

Actually the club swinging thing is a good idea Sphism/smilesmiley

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