Another in the Contact Poi tutorial series, this time we’ll learn outer forearm rolls.

Important tips and tricks for this move:

• Keep your forearm parallel to the ground, parallel to your chest, and your elbow bent at 90 degrees.
• Start the roll when the string is vertical.
• Don’t gravity roll. Ever.

Check back next week for a tutorial on Forearm Transfers!

The second tutorial in my Contact Poi series, this one is about inner forearm rolls.

Important tips and tricks to this move:

• Keep your forearm flat at all times
• Use your wrist to flip your hand to allow you to catch the poi head.

If you like these tutorials, use the share button at the bottom so more people will know how to contact poi. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on the left to be updated on new tutorials and future workshops.

Enjoy the video, happy spinning!

Poiboy.

This Poi tutorial is the first in a series of Contact Poi tutorials I’m currently making, I’ll be teaching some basic contact poi moves, as well as exercises that help learn them and clean them up.

To follow this blog for new poi videos and tutorials, subscribe to my newsletter

Here’s the video, enjoy:

Related Posts:

• Contact Poi Lesson 2: Inner Forearm Roll
• Learn Poi – spinning videos and tutorials, poi tips, movements, tricks and lessons, see me at the KFF Fire fest!
• Online Poi Lessons
• Circles of Light 2010 – First Place!
• Contact Poi Lesson 3: Outer Forearm Roll

Hi everyone,

I’ve started making more Poi tutorials, I’m currently doing a series of “homework” tutorials for people who’ve been to my workshops.

These homework tutorials will follow up what I usually teach during my workshop, and will help people go even deeper into what I’ve been teaching. Some, like this one, will follow up on some older tutorials I’ve made.

In the near future I’ll be mainly covering throws, contact poi, stalls, and some basic poi tutorials for beginners. My friend and Co-teacher Charlie Hession from England will also be making some homework tutorials, mainly covering flowers and body movement.

To follow this blog for new poi videos and tutorials, subscribe to my newsletter

Here’s the tutorial, happy spinning!:

Poiboy.

Poi Throws – By Poiboy – Asaf More

The Physics of Poi Throws – What affects throws, and how to clean them up:

Before I get started explaining how throws work and why- Rule #1 of throws: NEVER chase your throws.
This is probably the most common mistake with throws, and I found it makes learning the more advanced throws near impossible. Generally, if you have to move to catch your poi you’re doing something wrong, instead you should plan where you want to catch, and aim your poi so it gets there.

There are 6 main factors that affect throws- Grip, Planes, Angle, Catch, Wrist movement, and Arm movement.

How to grip your poi for throws

Grip:
If you want to make your throws a lot easier, hold your poi between your thumb and index finger (fig. 1), this makes it much easier and smoother to release your poi, gripping in a different way would usually result in the poi getting caught up in your fingers.

Fig. 1 shows correct planes, Fig. 2 shows the result of bad planes.

Planes:

As with most poi moves, planes are extremely important for throws, if you keep your poi in perfect plane, you won’t have to run around and chase them, they would stay close to your body and land back in your hand with very little effort (fig. 2, 3)  [In the illustrations, the purple poi is where the poi lands, and the red poi is where the poi is released.]

Fig. 3: A poi released at 90 degrees.

Angle of release:
Releasing at the right time is vital to perfecting your throws, a poi released when it’s horizontal will have the poi head fly up and down, while the

A poi released at 45 degrees

handle circles around it, coming back to your hand, if given the right amount of spin (fig. 4).

If the poi is released later, at a 45° angle, it would fly in an arc, to be caught on the opposite side of your body (fig. 5).
Throwing too early or too late will make your poi fly too far, either in front of you or behind you.

A poi caught when it's horizontal

Catch:

There are a few different ways to catch the poi, each will have a very different result.
Catching with the poi horizontal, falling into your hand (Fig. 6) will make the poi change direction, the same applies when you

A poi caught vertically, with your hand held to your side

catch the head in horizontal positions (you would need to throw a half beat instead of a full beat)

Catching with the poi vertical and your hand held out (Fig. 7)will stop the poi’s momentum, making it stall, this also works with catching the head (again, you need to throw a half beat instead of a full beat to do this)

Stall Catch - A poi caught vertically, with your hand held out in front of you

Catching with the poi vertical, and your hand held out to your side (Fig. 8 ) will allow the poi to continue its momentum. This also works with head catches.

Wrist Movement:
Your wrist is used to control the amount, plane and direction of spin. If the poi is released when it’s horizontal (a Zero Point), you can throw in any plane or direction, simply by flicking your wrist in the desired direction.

Arm Movement:
The rest of your arm is used to control the height of the throw. If you start your throw from an extension, or a float, your throw will fly much higher, without affecting the amount of spin. A throw without any arm movement would have the poi head almost isolated.

The Learning Process with Throws:

When practicing throws, you will drop. A lot. This is usually frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be. If you try learning from your drops, they can become the key to learning (and ultimately, dropping less.). If you throw while standing still, and drop your poi for whatever reason, look at it, try to analyze where it fell, and why? If a poi thrown in wheel plane was to land too far to your right, that probably means your planes were off when the poi was released. If a poi thrown in wheel plane falls too far in front of you that generally means you released it too early. If you can’t seem to catch the handle, maybe you need to add or remove spin.

Look over the 6 factors I wrote above, remember them, and try to think of them when you practice, see where your throws are going wrong, and try to correct that. Once you have an idea of the correct way to do a specific throw, you should drill it a lot of times (I try to do anywhere between 10-50 successful throws when I’m drilling). The harder on yourself you are when drilling throws, the better, if you make a small mistake that forces you to chase the poi, count that as a mistake, even if you do catch, since this is a lot harder, you’ll end up with much cleaner throws.

Some Basic Types of Throws and Catches:

Flat Throw: A 0 beat throw, using only arm movement. This is done by starting a float and simply letting go (this is easiest with a thumb+index finger grip) of the poi, then waiting for it at the bottom. The poi should land in your hand when it’s horizontal.
You can try catching the head, and doing another flat throw to catch the handle again.

Isolated Throw: A 1 beat throw done without any arm movement. these start when the poi is horizontal, and using your wrist, can be done in any direction or plane you want, and with any amount of beats. The poi should land in your hand when it’s horizontal.
You can easily catch the head here, you will end up holding the head while the handle spins in the same direction as it was thrown.

No extra beat throw (half beat throw): This throw continues a normal spin’s circle, it’s released at about 45°, with a very slight pull to the right (if the poi is spinning clockwise) to slow it down. The poi should land in your hand when it’s horizontal, and you can continue this throw as many times as you want.
To catch the head, you can either catch when the poi is vertical (Head over handle), to stall your poi, or you can catch when the poi is horizontal, and then either push the poi head back, or keep the handle spinning the opposite way.

Circular throw: This is a 1 beat throw released at 45°, it’s caught either with the same hand or the opposite hands, and lands when the poi head is over your hand. If caught with the same hand, you can continue this throw as many times as you want.
From this throw you can do a stall catch, by catching the handle when the poi is vertical and the handle is over the poi head.

Antispin Throw (Top): This throw starts from an antispin, and right after the poi passes the shoulder on the way up you release it, while slightly flicking the handle. You should catch the poi with the opposite hand. After catching you can keep throwing continuously.

Antispin Throw (Bottom): This throw starts from an antispin, at the bottom of the bottom petal.
As the poi makes its way up from the bottom petal, let go of it while slightly flicking it with your wrist, trying to keep it isolated (This is essentially an isolated throw happening at the bottom of an antispin).

Body Throws and the 5 hole theory:

An artistic illustration of the 5 hole theory with Poi and Staff.

This is a theory I’ve seen many people use with staff spinning, I’m not sure who came up with it, but that theory basically divides your body to 5 main zones:
Over Left Arm, Under Left Arm, Over Right Arm, Under Right Arm, and Under The leg. (Note: behind the head is right between points 1 and 3, and is a 6th position for catching and throwing)
Under the leg and over and under the opposite arm can all be entered from behind as well.

So, how does the Five Hole Theory fit into poi? You can try throwing or catching in each of these positions, a good way to find new throws can be picking a throwing position and a catching position, and seeing how you can throw between them. Can you throw in wheel plane? In Wall plane? Horizontally? Catching the poi head? Stall-catching? Throw flats? In all directions? Catching the head?

Notice that if you throw, then take a step, so that your body has turned 180°, you can catch your poi behind your back with the same hand, while your poi remains in the same plane.

Another thing I’ve been experimenting with, is a throw going between more than 2 holes, so for example a poi thrown under your left arm, going over the left arm and right arm, and caught under the right arm will through 4 holes before being caught.

Thanks for reading, if you liked this, please share this using the share button below.
Poiboy.

www.asafpoi.com

Learn poi and improve your spinning skills, join me on my European workshops this summer for excellent fire tips, tricks and moves.

I’ll be performing and teaching at the KFF – Kiev Fire Festival, in Kiev, Ukraine. Come  to KFF to see excellent fire  shows with great performances of the best fire teams, fire theatres, and fire artists form all over the world.   The shows will take place in the unique open-air green theatre.

Poi lessons from the Kff fire show to the poi workshops

I have been spinning and juggling since 2003, and have since developed a strong passion for poi and circus in general. In recent years I’ve been getting more involved in the global community by sharing video tutorials on many technical moves, and blogging everything I play with on my tech blog. My mission right now is to travel the world, teaching and inspiring others, giving back to the community that helped me develop my art to what it is today.

ASAF MOR POIBOY (ISRAEL)

more poi on KFF here