Forums > Advanced Poi Moves > Butterfly Spiral Wrap

Posted: 10th Apr 2010
do you mean like, a butterfly handcuff sort of thing?

I think the easiest way to do it is just by bringing your hands together after the downbeat, and let the cord wrap around both hands, then pull your hands apart to finish.

Posted: 11th Apr 2010
to begin with don't put you hands tight together, try spacing you wrists apart a bit so the poi only wrap round the opposite wrist once and then bounce on the same hand and that's holding them to change direction. Once you comfortable with the movement you can start bringing you hands closer and closer together which will cause there to be more wraps in the spiral(which make it harder to get out of)
eventually you'll get your hands right together and can actually pause in the fully wrapped position if you cushion the spiral's movement right at the end

even chuck norris can't pin you down if your on fire

Posted: 11th Apr 2010
I'll work on it. the main thing is that they hit each other every time.

Posted: 11th Apr 2010
yeah that happens, really hard to do if your heads are fat, eg contact poi etc, easier to learn with thin heads/flowtoys/sockpoi etc

even chuck norris can't pin you down if your on fire

Posted: 11th Apr 2010
i have tried this with butterfloops and it is definately possible you may try it from butterfloop it seemed easier to me

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able, and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" - Epicurus

Posted: 11th Apr 2010
Its just like when you learn to do the butterfly and they always seem to clash.

There are four main ways to get it clean.

1) put the poi on slightly different planes, much like a flattened X, just slightly on the diagonal, rather than -

2) Put one hand slightly in front of the other when you do it, so the poi should naturally do an = sort of plane orientation.

3) Blindly practice and it just should fall into place even if you're not sure why it works.

4) Any combination of the above steps. (recommended)

Posted: 18th Apr 2010
well i have successfully done a butterfloop spiral wrap but its more like a double hand stall than a spiral wrap

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able, and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" - Epicurus

Posted: 22nd Apr 2010
i do this all the time from both forward and reverse butterfly. so the basics are:

spin in butterfly, extend your fingers so your hands are open (not in a fist), allow the poi to wrap around your hands. the two poi should meet in the middle on the top of your hands.

when i do this with forwards butterfly i put my index fingers togeth palms down. because of the large platform this makes the poi are less likely to collide or tangle and usually just come together meeting nicely on top of my hands.

when i do this in reverse i cup my hands, palms up and catch the poi heads in my hands. once you get comfortable you can even hold them in/on your hands and then unwrap, even with fire!!!

I would like to point out that however you you hold your hands during the wrap the goal is to have them meet, but not cross, on top of your hands. when using my flowtoy duos i do fists in rev butterfly as it makes them land neatly on top.

in regards to unwrapping, this is the tough part and literally just takes lots of practice. you will find (especially with forwards) that they hit together as they come up. to avoid this i would try to have the poi sitting one slightly in front of the other. you can do this either hands together or one slightly in front of the other.

hope that helps, good luck.

Posted: 22nd Apr 2010
Butterfly spiral wrap is easy, just bring your hands together and they wrap then unwrap. Behind the head/back spiral/butterfly wraps are much harder

When done try to move around with the wrap, like with a spiral I will try and rotate my hands whilst doing the spiral. I find it flows better (however after 6 years of poi i still move like a robot!)

Posted: 22nd Apr 2010
the butterfloop spiral wrap is different the only thing that i find difficult about it coming out of a forward butterfloop

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able, and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" - Epicurus

Posted: 22nd Apr 2010
This may mean I'm bad at them, but normally if I just try to come right out of a butterfly wrap, my poi hit each other and tangle. Normally, though, one ends up consistently landing in front of the other on my hands, so when I kick them off the backs of my hands, I give a little twist to throw the heads away from each other. Not enough to wreck my planes totally, but enough to get out of the wrap.

p|.q|r:|::s|.s|s:|:.s|q.|:p|s.|.p|s

Posted: 23rd Apr 2010
A butterfly has a slight corkscrew component to it. This is more apparent with one-handed or meteor. It is a bit like a corkscrew that has been flattened onto the vertical plane.

This is pertinent to butterfly spirals in how you exit: to avoid tangling, look at where the poi heads land on your hands. Think of them spinning out of this position in a corkscrew, such that they untwist, rather than tangling up. Now when you bounce your poi up to start unwrapping the spiral, put a slight horizontal twist in the proper corkscrew direction so that the heads avoid each other. Then correct your planes as you come out of it.

I'm okay at this, but Andy House has it super tight, including one-handed bfly spirals. I'd recommend practicing your one-handed bfly to get a sense for the slight corckscrew motion.

+Alien Jon

Posted: 23rd Apr 2010
Yay! I'm vindicated!

p|.q|r:|::s|.s|s:|:.s|q.|:p|s.|.p|s

Posted: 14th Sep 2011
OK, so i dont any problems to get the butterfly wrap, but I havent figured out how to unwrap them. Thats a beautiful move, and i really want to learn it completely. So does anybody have any tips to that?

Posted: 15th Sep 2011
what i learned to do with this is when yur doing the butterly up or down doesnt matter just stick out all 5 fingers but do not close your hands completley at the bottom keep them seperated as much as needed so that your certain length of poi will wrap just right and then do not just pull yur hands apart wat i do is i slowly pull them upart but also bouncing the poi back in the opposite direction they wrapped in also stalling with it usually doesnt work, not for me anyways but most people can do it. sorry this reply was so long but thats the easyest i could think of how to say it. hope u get it down its an amazing move to learn

Posted: 11th Nov 2011
The key for me is that I do a thread the needle motion to lead into it and stop about halfway.

Then the hand that is more in front, it's poi wraps around the fingers of the opposing hand.

The hand that is more in the back, it's poi wraps more around the wrist of the opposite hand.

From there it is just keeping that "butterfly bounce" motion with my hands, the poi wrap, bounce and then since the hand motion is the same, just wait for them to unwrap.

Depending on the size of your poi head, determines how much distance they need to be wrapping away from each other.

That's the closest I've gotten, I've only got about 70% success at it. =/

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