Forums > Social Chat > Developing New Transitions - help me poiy-one-kinobi, youre my only hope!

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 23rd May 2001
Hey Josh, Well, Ill be the first to tell you, I suck... I just started learning transitions, and can now flow between what I know fairly decently (to me). As a result of learning to flow, I am also learning to be creative with flowing and thinking of things I havent read or been shown. Basically all I do is just start out practicing and drilling a particular move until I become bored with it, and then I just start swinging em around whatever way they want to go, and things just click.Its like, DUH! Why didnt I think of that before! Just try not to treat them like moves. Experiment, whack yourself, DONT THINK!------------------~I dont care if they eat me alive, Ive got better things to do than survive. ~Ani

Wow

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 23rd May 2001
For me, it's a combination of "thinking it out" and happanstance of movement. Sometimes, I think about connecting one specific move to another and I try to come up with the most graceful way of connecting them. With this method, it helps to work with torches (clubs) cuz you can stop and go easily with them. The other way is just about the spontaneity of flow. For me, the biggest part is remembering and reproducing what I've done. Another thing, in my experience, is that the more I focus on learning my skills everyway I can, the more easily I can work from one skill to another. For instance, it was a long time between learning the down-chopping cross-follow (weave) to learning it up-chopping. But once I did my work flowed more. The same for learn showers in both directions and from both up- and down-chopping cross-follows. It also helps to learn how to change directions easily. For instance, practice stalls with both poi going one way, then the other. Then stall both going opposite direction, then the other opposite directions. Then try stalling only one poi and keep the other going in the eight combination that works in. See what I mean. Hope this helps,Diana

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 24th May 2001
thanks for the tips.Josh

Posted: 24th May 2001
hey josh how are ya mate, and while i'm at it - hi to everyone else, not been online for a while.(sorry i missed u guys in byron dude) Right , transitions, i dunno, i agree that its often a combination of practicing stuff AND being random, depends on which tricks youre goin between.as you know, some tricks just wont go easily, going from a weave to a windmill is easy and flows , but a weave into a butterfly is a different story.when i AM thinking about it, i concentrate on whether the poi are in sync or not, and whether theyre going in the same direction or not. if you cant go from one move to another in one step, theres usually an inbetween move that u can slip in to smooth the move .like that wordgame where you change one word into another in steps...5BEATWEAVE________________________________________BUTTERFLYknow what i mean?

Posted: 24th May 2001
I seem to do my best learning at our local spin jams. Kick out the lights. Pump up the UV. Get the tunes going. [ censored ] Ready to rock and roll!I tend to chill at first and watch others. Watch the moves they do. See if I can recreate them mentally or physically. Then explore all the possible variations on the theme. Once I think I've got a bunch of stuff to try, I stand up and try each of the things I've created in my head. Once I get them down I start tring them all together.Other times I just [ censored ] and start jamming. Don't worry about the poi and just think about dancing. Well, not really think about it, but just dance. And then the most amazing stuff happens. Once I notice something jiggy happenin' I see if I can get that same jig on. Once I get it down, I think about my hands and the poi are doing. This way I remember it when I come down.Then other times it is a combination of the two. That's how I came up with all my new split time butterfly moves and transitions.But the best thing is it just spin all the time. As much as you can. Get out and spin with your friends. Get a nice little rivalry (a fun one!) going on. Trust me, it will happen.-p.

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 24th May 2001
Hi Bob! good to hear from you!I'm well - and I trust you guys are too.Its a pity about byron - but hey - it happens I reckon you are right about the transitional morphing thing...I have problems with just letting the poi go...I guess cuz I'm in a fair amount of control for most of my swinging.. I'll have to work on not being a poi control freak Josh

Posted: 24th May 2001
This week seems to have been a really good one for learning transitions.What seems to work for me is the time-honoured "mess up and get away with it method" - all the nice changes I've picked up recently seem to happen when I'm repetitively practicing a 'move' and either get tired or bored, get something wrong, see one or two poi flying towards me at alarming speed and somehow manage to get out of trouble with the poi still spinning afterwards. Then it's a question of noting what I was doing before, what I was doing after, and trying to remember what happened in the panic-moment in between...and so far the results are really pleasing. Can now string together: 2 parallel circles in front, figures of eight both rising and falling in the middle, 3-beat-weave, corkscrew, butterfly, split-time butterfly, crossovers in front, all transitions learned entirely by the 'got to get out of the way!' method Oh, and if move A won't go into move B, there often sems to be a move C that you can do very briefly to link them up.The figure-of-eight-rising-in-the-middle (have we got a better name for this) is a relly strange one as it seems to involve almost lifting off the ground on the rise. Strange feeling.mikeyB

Posted: 24th May 2001
I would have to say, the best way that I do transitions, is to just let go of the poi, and let them do their own thing. You usually have a fair idea of which way they are going. If you want to change direction you can generally slowly get into a position that you want to be in, and just swap the planes over. Sometimes, I think I want to try something new and try to pull one of the poi out of its orbit, I quickly learn you can't put certain moves and put it together with another move. Some moves just don't morph into each other I guess.I also guess that's why I tend to stuff up more then you Josh. I have more of a habit of just letting the little guys do what they want and I just go with the flow. Although if you haven't noticed, you go with the flow too much you get hit more. Hence why I think I get hit a lot more then you, but I think that’s also lack of concentration on my behalf Guess that's that’s also why I am more cautious on fire poi then UV poi. More to worry about, like my hair I think you are right Josh, you do need to loose control a little with the poi and instead of doing moves you know how to put together, try doing moves that you think would work together but your not too sure. Of course I can almost guarantee you are going to get hit trying But I am sure you will be in good company to take care of you if any mishaps occur Love and Light------------------ ~*~ Katinca ~*~

Love and Light

~*~ Katinca ~*~

Posted: 24th May 2001
josh baby you SO modest.only you could say "I guess cuz I'm in a fair amount of control for most of my swinging..."everyone, what he should have said is "I guess cuz, I'm just so good - i dont fuck up!" trust me i've seen him. man dont worry about too much control, i nearly gave myself a black eye today. arnt smilies great oh, back to the topic at hand, something i just thought of... using leg wraps or beats to change direction of one poi and then going into the next move ie, doing a butterfly, legwrap one poi and unwrap(so that theyre both going the same direction)now you can windmill, chase the sun or turn to the side and go into a weave.or whatever.anyway i'm sure i've seen you do stuff like that, i dont want to patronise ya. inabit [just one more of these theyre my favourite ]

Posted: 24th May 2001
nothing worse than breaking the flow of your movements while trying to combo something together. I agree with Katinca. I just let the poi do their thing. Sometimes i just spin them in unorthodox-type patterns, and every so often, i can feel the poi wanting to slip into move or something.Or i do a standard move, such as a weave, and exaggerate its paths, and turn in different directions.I did this by accident. Going from a Horizontal mexican wave into a regular tight wristed corkscrew. Its an awesome transition. The first time i did it, the POI were all over the place.Now i can pull it off much tighter to my body.Good points and suggestion guysSuper'------------------"Only the warrior that hears the call will know when to leave, Where to go" -unknown"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams"- Willy Wonka

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear.


- Mark Twain

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 25th May 2001
LOL Bob! - thanks for the compliment, it means a lot, especially since it comes from someone as talented as yourelf lets get back on topic >I'm twirlingly frustrated this morning, cuz I didnt get any last night Transitions...hmm...loads of good advice, but seriously folx! I dont like hitting myself! It hurts! I think I prefer the process Bob outlined, ie pick your starting point, pick your end point, and get there in as few moves as possible. The swing em and see where they go method sounds like I'll be in for pain.Peace,Josh

Posted: 24th May 2001
Hey Josh,You know me No pain no gain. :PTo have hit my self right in the face and then in the nose trying to do some moves with one staff and one poi. I have quickly learn that there are some moves that you can and can't do. I guess its the same for poi, although I go quite slow with poi, so when I do hit myself it doesn't hurt as much.I don't just go nuts and try to sync together moves. I do honestly actually think about the move I am going to try to go into from another. That's why sometimes when you see me poi I will be just standing there with a thoughtful look on my face, thinking: "Hmmm this just might work". Then you get half way through a transition, and feel things aren't going as planned, that's where the old duck and cover method comes in. Then you know that, that transition doesn't work. But sometimes you wonder one day it just might. So that's where you try, try again. I guess I tend to get a little bashful at times with poi. Usually if I am excited, and just mucking around, I will start doing transitions I thought weren't possible. Usually, when I get them I am a little "Whoa, thow the... did I do that, cool" Back to dancing around a little crazy. I think that's when I hit myself the most. However, like I said that's also when I get some really bizzarre transitions and morphs happening too.I don't hit myself that often. I usually only hit myself if I am not paying enough attention to where my poi/staff are swinging. If I am intune with my tools, then generally i know what they are doing.... and if I need to I duck But then again Josh, you probably know how I poi much better then I do myself ------------------ ~*~ Katinca ~*~

Love and Light

~*~ Katinca ~*~

Posted: 25th May 2001
oh yeah, just thought of a time (coz it happened earlier) when i do totally random things, without knowing where the poi are gonna go : i was poiing to some 'chemical brothers', and the beat was really fast, i could only just keep up, so when i was goin from one trick to another, i sometimes dropped different beats to usual. makes a nice change. its like panning for gold, folks... sometimes you pull off a small miracle of a move that laughs in Newtons face, other times you end up tangling a butterfly combo into your wedding tackle and crying like a baby.half instinct - half luckPOI - an analogy for life