Forums > Beginner Staff Moves > nice contact combos?
Login/Join to Participatejust lost .... evil init
2,474 posts
Location: Adelaide, Australia
im just wondering what favourite contact combos ppl have, my current favourite is one where glass does a elbow hand hand elbow to shoulder neck shoulder run i thought that was very very smooth on mourning coffee at 2.03
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,750 posts
Location: Europe,Scotland,Both
contact staff? *scratches head* errm, no, dont really do that.
T
This is a post by tom, all spelling is deleberate
-><- Kallisti
just lost .... evil init
2,474 posts
Location: Adelaide, Australia
as if u didnt list ur fav combo 
bad tom Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?
big and good and broken
7,330 posts
Location: lunn dunn, yoo kay, United Kingdom
possibly nix's most useless post to date.
see above.
whereas i actually am useless here as i don't do stick(s).
i saw tom juggle mills mess on saturday though - ask him for some juggling tricks and you won't be able to shut him up...
"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood
Flying Water Muppet
5,276 posts
Location: Edin-borrow., United Kingdom
oh. I thought that was like, one move.
anyway.
"the now legendary" - Kaskade
"the still legendary" - Kaskade
I spunked in my friend's aquarium and the fish ate it. I love all fish. Especially the pink ones. They are my bitches. - Anon.
just lost .... evil init
2,474 posts
Location: Adelaide, Australia
*shrugs* um i dunno maybe. i always viewed elbow hand hand elbow as one combo and shoulder neck shoulder as another. come on surely other ppl have favourite sequences of contact movements
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?
275 posts
Location: ati: on: She: ffi: eld: UK:
Continuously turning hand-elbow-back of the neck-elbow-hand back to the start is my favorite move that i can do most of the time...
That matrix move where the staff goes under the armpit when you expect it to go up the arm is the most awesome combo i've seen on video. And that one glass does that starts as a steve and ends up sliding down the body and leg, thats also most aweosme.
My favorite combo i can't get all the way through yet starts vertical under my thigh and ends up spinning horizontally on my foot, by way of a little jump (or not, depending on the length of the staff and the flexibility of youy knees...) or the other foot by way of scraping it round my calf and praying madly.
Err... left thigh-right thigh. thats nice when it works. wrist-elbow-wrist under your arm-kind of fishtail thing back to the outside-elbow-repeat, thats fun also.
--Ben
Living it up
363 posts
Location: Brisbane/Berlin, Australia
Hmmm, can't pick a fav so it's the move of the moment's mind... This one I just started doing out of the blue the other day and whilst did get a couple very clean ones just havn't had a chance to have a decent play and suss out what makes it go nice & smooth. Been a very busy boy :runs off to do more packing:
:sobs in that no-time-for-twirling-sort-of-way:
Anyways here is the move in full technicolor! (I am much too tired to think of a name just now so any wordsmiths out there feel free to label away).
Ok spinning cw, vertical, whatever plane that one in front is.
Start with the trusty left elbow -> left wrist. When it gets to the wrist you draw a quick cw circle in the air in front of you, allowing an extra spin. You then roll it down the arm on to the neck (stilll vertical), up the other arm, another quick circle on the right wrist and then on to the elbow to make the move all Semi-Trickle like.
Notice that the middle part of the move could be easliy communicated as a vert steve (sigh, makes sense to ppls here I hope but it's getting very new language like).
LOVE TO ONE->alll
Contact without dance is like sex without wiggling.
A) it does feel as good
B) it does not look as good on film
Living it up
363 posts
Location: Brisbane/Berlin, Australia
Here is that same move, distilled:
Left elbow -> left wrist-> left wrist spin(name?) -> vertical steve -> right wirst spin -> right wirst -> right elbow.
I also wanted to ask for ppls thoughts on what a contact combo is as there seems to be a few ideas out there but lets keep those juciy moves/combos/whatever coming and I'll pose that question in a new thread.
Stay hip, stay happy.
Contact without dance is like sex without wiggling.
A) it does feel as good
B) it does not look as good on film
just lost .... evil init
2,474 posts
Location: Adelaide, Australia
tell me more about this verical steve do u have to turn ur body round much or is it in the arm movement? where abouts r u flying to? will u be at the juggling convension in nz in feb?
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?
Living it up
363 posts
Location: Brisbane/Berlin, Australia
Yep the vert steve is a bit tricky (I want to get it down clean because it's the only part of that combo I'm shaky on. Btw credit to this one goes to Keir in Brisvegas (I havn't seen him do it, but he told me it *should* be possible. Always the fist step in crazy contact).
The easiest way to picture the staff movement it is to stand with your head bowed looking at your toes pretend your feet are a wall in front of you. After you have done this mental world flipping it is just the same as a normal steve, no body turning involved. So say you have the staff spinning nice and vert in front of you going cw. The move left to right would have the staff roll 180 deg from your back of your left hand to the back of your neck. And another 180 deg for the other half, ending up on the right paw.
One way to beak it down would be to spin cw with you right hand, bow your head and go into a neck roll. Make sure to keep your arm nice and high and when it comes over the neck try to roll it down to your hand again.
:It's very hit or miss at the moment for me but I think this is at least due in part to my staffs all being a little bent (hehe just like a herb shop). This makes any of those rolling moves much harder
Frustrating cos I can't do anything about it (NEED NEW STICKS!!!)
Contact without dance is like sex without wiggling.
A) it does feel as good
B) it does not look as good on film
Living it up
363 posts
Location: Brisbane/Berlin, Australia
Ben-ja-man,
I'll be flying to Cairo shortly, where I'll have a flat in a nice leafy suburb (leafy being hard to find there); after an unknown period of time there I'll then be off to Germany where I'll be based in Leipzig with my German sweetheart. If she lets me out of the house some I hope to roam the place a bit and should make it to my first ever EJC in france. No NZ plans on the radar though....
Love & Stuff,
Kyle
Contact without dance is like sex without wiggling.
A) it does feel as good
B) it does not look as good on film
just lost .... evil init
2,474 posts
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Quote:
So say you have the staff spinning nice and vert in front of you going cw. The move left to right would have the staff roll 180 deg from your back of your left hand to the back of your neck. And another 180 deg for the other half, ending up on the right paw.
when the staff starts in the left hand does it continue to spin cw as it rolls down ur arm? if so how does it stop from falling off. when you say it rolls 180 deg from the back of your hand is that when the hand is horizontal? how do u get it to start rolling down ur arm all vertical like? gravity takes care of it when its horizontal but vertical surely that requires some cool arm movement.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?
Living it up
363 posts
Location: Brisbane/Berlin, Australia
Hmmm. It's very rainy outside just now, and I'm not sure what else to say with out going out and observing it. It does indeed spin 360deg from being flat on one hand to the other, the middle point being flat on the back of your neck.
I think the trick might be that much of the actual rotation is done on the middle bit ie:
shoulder -> back neck ->shoulder
you just have to have enough rotation on the arm roll bit to carry it through this middle bit.
Hope that helps. (I think I just just helped myself at least
)I suppose there is a little bit of arm waving, but not more then a normal steve methinks.
Contact without dance is like sex without wiggling.
A) it does feel as good
B) it does not look as good on film
just lost .... evil init
2,474 posts
Location: Adelaide, Australia
i can get the second bit ok but i cant make the staff come towards me for the first bit, like for the second bit u can use ur arm/shoulder to push it away from u, any ideas as to how to bring it in?
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?
Living it up
363 posts
Location: Brisbane/Berlin, Australia
Good morning Mr Ben
If you have not done so try getting the half that you CAN do down well with on both sides. It's much easier to get a limb/flipper/paw to reverse a move it has learnt then to learn from scratch. This goes for heaps of contact moves (I won't use the term 'combo' henceforth, sounds too stacatto). If I was showing someone that Elbow-> Wrist -> Wrist -> Elbow thing, I would get them to first learn the easier half both ways (in this case I think most ppls find the Elbow -> Wrist much easier).
That said the earth's gravity field *can* sometimes get in the way a bit when you are going about you backwards bussness.
Hope that helps
Contact without dance is like sex without wiggling.
A) it does feel as good
B) it does not look as good on film
just lost .... evil init
2,474 posts
Location: Adelaide, Australia
yay i finally get this whole vertical steve business ive managed a couple of messy ones but i think i shall be liking this combo alot
just have to get the transition onto the back of the neck cleanly mmmmm shall be an interesting one to master Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?
member
88 posts
Location: Nottingham (UK)
Was just writing something RE: shorter staffs when I realised I don't think this contact combo has been described (apologies if so):
This is MUCH easier to meister with wee staffs, and get harder to do the longer the staff is (but equally possible). It's like the arm to back of hand transfer thing in contact juggling (I'm crap with official terminology). Basically:
- Throw staff up horizontally with one hand
- Catch on back of same hand (?a stall)
- Roll down arm to elbow where you smoothly transfer it to other back of other hand
- Here's the slightly tricky bit; you kinda bring it over your head on the back of your hand (PALM DOWN) and then on other side twist your arm (staff still in contact) so that your hand will go under arm (palm goes up) and straighten out* (palm down) and the staff is now spinning on it's horizontal axis (easier to hook it with thumb as it rotates once round the wrist and getting it horizontal)
- You now roll it back down the dorsal surface of your forearm (in it's slow spin) and do the same on the other side.. I guess you could keep it going but I can't yet (practice)
- An easier version is to either just do transfer without spin, or roll it down arm to forearm but instead of flicking it over your head you aim to get it off centre so you can get ~ 2 good spins as it fies over your head and then catch it on other side
*Not described very well; Just describing it on one side. You rotate the arm in towards you (flex at elbow) and twist your wrist (pronate) so that the staff will come closer to the thumb side (you end off a bit cack handed at this point) BUT as you straighten your arm, the staff will have come round the inside (on a vertical(ish) axis (hence can be done with longer staffs) and you achieve the subsequent anticlockwise horizontal spin with a nudge of the thumb
Hope that's understandable, back to the books...
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newbie
33 posts
Location: Springfield, MO in the county of Greene!!!, USA
Idk??? I like to stay in the fore plane of contact. Fishtails and christ rolls are fun too!
Macaque of all trades
8,738 posts
Location: wombling free..., United Kingdom
Prayer steve throws and catches are nice espescially with a pirouette (anti-turn of course
)My favourite I have seen was chronos - matrix, matrix, matrix, matrix... you get the idea
A couple of balls short of a full cascade... or maybe a few cards short of a deck... we'll see how this all fans out.
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