Forums > Beginner Poi Moves > NEED HELP - 4/5 beat weave

Posted: 31st Jul 2001
This is one of the most commonly asked questions--do a search for more answers.I feel your pain. I beat myself up for months trying to get the 5-beat. I was only able to get it after a friend demonstrated it to me. So I'm not sure how much this explanation will help, but here goes.For me, getting the move (forward, not reverse) hinged on a few insights:1. Once you've completed a normal weave motion on one side, let your top hand wrap over the bottom hand--you'll wind up with your top hand sort of grasping the heel of your bottom hand's palm.2. Fight the instinct to draw your hands across your body.3. Let the chains wrap around, and experiment to find the "magic moment" when it is safe to draw them across your body. The trailing chain will have almost caught up with the lead chain--they won't be 180° apart.4. Let the chains unwrap themselves--don't force them.Work on just getting one side at first. Once you've got that, you can work on the other.Hope this helps.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy

Posted: 31st Jul 2001
Wtf wish someone would have told me they don't get 180 from each other, Guess I have been trying to hard for awhile there I thought I skipped the five beat beacuse I'm onto something when I keep tryin it over and over again to hard I end up with a 6 maybe 7 beat. when I do it I let the chains go into a controled wrap then move to the other side and slide my hands out of the wrapped chain.------------------We are all in the cosmic movie. That means the day you die you watch your whole life repeating for eternity. So you'd better have some good things happen in there and have a fitting climax. --Jim Morrison

We are all in the cosmic movie. That means the day you die you watch your whole life repeating for eternity. So you'd better have some good things happen in there and have a fitting climax. --Jim MorrisonIt's going to come from a direction you didn't predict at a moment of chaos which you didn't see coming. -- NYC

Posted: 31st Jul 2001
I don't agree...When I do the 4 or 5 beat weaves they are still open 180degrees (like a staff). When I first learnt them I had the problem that it wouldn't stay open, one fell behind like you described Adam, but then I practiced giving that one extra momentum and it cleaned it up a lot, so that the move looks just as fluid as a normal weave, there are just more turns on each side of the body...This probably doesn't matter when you are first learning it... and may help it "click" for you - but (in my opinion) it look so much better if the poi stay opposing each other all the time for this move...Good luck learning it - it's a lovely feeling when you do get it, really flowing and relaxed like you can rest a while on each side of your body... the rhythm of the normal weave feels really different after you get the 4 or 5 beat...

Posted: 4th Aug 2001
adamrice i gotta thanks ya yer advice #3 and #4 helped me a lot...i used to force them to unwrap and i read here god... i dont have to force it ;p then i didnt force it and there!! easy =)now i can do it pretty easy =)

Dance like if noone were watching you

Posted: 6th Aug 2001
i learned it messing with tuck turns back and forth..i just split timed it. I messed with it for months, then in about 20 minutes i had the basic movement two days later it was clean on one side, then the next day it was a done deal. "S"------------------"When a Man Lies He Murders Some Part of the World These Are the PaleDeaths Which Men Miscall Their Lives All this I Cannot Bear to Witness Any Longer Cannot the Kingdom of Salvation Take Me Home"

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


- Mark Twain

Posted: 8th Aug 2001
Hi all,Cheers for all the replies , Adam i've now got the move sorted, sort of, the only problem i seem to have is that whichever side i do the move on the poi always seems to wrap around my right arm... now this seems to look right or so i've been told, but to me it would be logical if the poi wrapped round one arm one side, and round the other arm on the alternate side?Thanks Again!!

The best way to predict the future is to invent it

Posted: 13th Aug 2001
actually, Adamrice, and Bec are both right about keeping the poi 180 degrees from eachother, I have done it both ways, sorry guys And Clarky- Dont feel bad about the wrap thing, when I first heard about the 5-beat I was doing a wrap on one side and normal 3 beat on the other, which turns out to be a 5 beat weave with the unwrap, you are probably doing a 6/7 weave right now (with that wrap in there).

we eat and we drink and we smoke and we try!

Posted: 13th Aug 2001
If you're still having any trouble, you might want to try the move using polls or anything of that nature. I was having a real difficult time until I decided to use two bamboo sticks to train my muscle memory.Good luck-Gabi

Posted: 24th Apr 2002
Well, I can do something that weaves, but I don't know whether you would call it the 5 beat.

Basically, I taught myself to go round in circles weaving (both directions) and if I don't actually turn around but do an extra couple of weaves at one side before going back to the other side and doing the same there, then is that the 5 beat weave? If I pull out while at one of the sides, then I'm actually spinning in reverse. Am I making any sense at all?!

Cheers!

Posted: 24th Apr 2002
Sepa, its not 5 beat weave but it is a nice move, I think it looks wicked. Try sticking a bit of a windmill in the middle when the poi cross your body. 5 beat weave involes doing a normal weave (either forward or reverse) but twisting your wrists at either side to add extra revolutions.

Posted: 25th Apr 2002
Hokey dokey, I'll give it a try!

Hmmmmm Windmill windmill windmill

Cheers