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Poi Lessons - The Basics Okay so there is a little more than the basics but not that much. These lessons have been assembled into some sort of order for you to learn if you are a complete beginner, it doesnt matter much if you don't follow that order but some of them do kind of follow on from each other. We have tried to include all of the basics and a few more besides but there are more to come. Long Arm spinning springs to mind, as do flowers, hybrids and loops they will all have an example. This page however is meant as a guide to the basics with a little more besides. Enjoy :o) General Advice :
The Lessons : Our lessons use a frame by frame picture viewer, you can zoom in/out with them for a more detailed inspection of the move. The picture viewer will sometimes take a short while to load, until it has loaded it may be a little jumpy, give it a minute or so and it should be smooth. The animation to the side contains the same pictures as the frame by frame viewer but in real time. |
Weaves The weaves are a beautiful flowy family of moves that follow each other around in a figure of eight pattern. This figure of eight pattern is found throughout poi. They can be performed slow or fast, tight or loose and are best viewed usually from the side of the performer. They can utilise various numbers of beats and just scream KUNG FU!! Stance and plane control become increasingly important the further you progress with these moves especially the behind the back ones. |
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The Weaves are a beautiful set of moves that chase themselves around and around in a figure of eight. Perfectly tranquil and drifty when that is required but they can be blasted into action with the merest hint of speed and vigour... Read More |
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Yes... quite... its the weave but its in reverse. Meaning that the poi are now traveling in an upwards direction in front of you. Its not easy when youve oly just learned it forwards but keep trying, youll get it... Read More |
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3 Beat Weave - Coming Soon The 3 beat weave is spun by doing a weave but leaving one hand to complete another beat when it would normally curve back along the figure of eight to the other side of you for the repetition... Read More |
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The 180 weave is a beautiful little move that is a joy to perform. You should learn it from left to right and back again. Once you have it both ways its a heck of a lot easier to progress to the 360 weave which is just a sublime thing indeed... Read More |
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360 weaving is hard to explain. Timing is an all important part of this move. Study the demonstration and note how my hands seem to be steering a wheel, thats how you turn. Once you have turned 180 you go into a rvs weave... Read More |
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The 5 beat weave is accomplished by doing a 3 bt weave and leaving it there for a little longer. This will be difficult at first as there is a folding of the arms / wrists which is not immediately obvious. The pictures should... Read More |
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Buzzsaw is simply a weave which goes on the inside of your arms, it requires either short poi or a supple spine / neck but is not the hardest move in the world to achieve by any means, try to get it both... Read More |
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The Windmill, involves you doing a weave, turning your body 90 degrees and dropping one hand after another over each respective shoulder like above. Do it messily at first to get used to doing a weave... Read More |
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The Windmill, involves you doing a weave, turning your body 90 degrees and dropping one hand after another over each respective shoulder like above. Do it messily at first to get used to doing a weave... Read More |
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The Windmill, involves you doing a weave, turning your body 90 degrees and dropping one hand after another over each respective shoulder like above. Do it messily at first to get used to doing a weave... Read More |
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Same as the windmill but different, this time there are legs and things in the way. If you can do a split butterfly, imagine that kind of timing but with a weave. If not do a weave then just turn your body... Read More |
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The crosser is a very cute move that crosses over to the other side of your body when you are doing a weave, turn to the side as your arms are crossed then go into the move. It will take a few shots if you arent used... Read More |
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The thing to do with this move is to learn it by inches. You also need to know the btb weave really as well. Try to control the weave when you leave it for the extra beat and notice your progression. It will be very small... Read More |
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This move is like so complicated it could have whole website of its very own nevermind a page. The timing required is split second; stance, footwork and control are all hugely important as well, with virtually no margin for error... Read More |
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This move is like so complicated it could have whole website of its very own nevermind a page. The timing required is split second; stance, footwork and control are all hugely important as well, with virtually no margin for error... Read More |
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Basic Flower - Coming Soon Flowers are named after the pattern the move creates with the fire or light. The fire trails make petals around the performer and are thus accordingly named. There are many variations on the simple flower, all of them beautiful and mostly achievable too... Read More |
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The Corkscrew is performed in much the same way as a windmill would be, except that it is done in a horizontal plane . Its hard to avoid hitting your self in the chest / stomach but it is definitely worth it... Read More |
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Butterflies The Butterfly family of moves involve the poi travelling in opposite directions to each other. They are very beaty moves and feel great to perform when the beat is strong in the music. They look like some sort of optical illusion and are best performed when facing the audience. There are many similarities between how you can play with them and how you can play with weaves but they are essentially a different family of moves. |
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The Butterfly looks like a flat circle beating in front of the performer. It is not actually a flat circle, it is crossed. One hand remains just above the other one as well. The point is that from the spectators perspective... Read More |
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The split butterfly is about timing, get the basic motion first of all, then play with your timing. Start with a butterfly, then when the Poi are at the at the very top of their swing, do this. Congratulations you have just done... Read More |
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Its got a few other names this one but they escape me for now, call it what you want, this is how to do it. Its much the same as with the low version but you drop the poi over your shoulders, rather than put them behind your hips... Read More |
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BTB Butterfly - Coming Soon This is much the same as the bth move. The timing is the same but you have to get your ass out of the way this time and its harder to hold the move there for a few beats, without looking like you've got a dodgy lower back... Read More |
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BTH Butterfly - Coming Soon This is much the same as the bth move. The timing is the same but you have to get your ass out of the way this time and its harder to hold the move there for a few beats, without looking like you've got a dodgy lower back... Read More |
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The arm motion you're going for with TTN looks like pulling back the string on a bow and arrow. Begin with a butterfly. As your swing starts to come down, thrust your left hand straight out from your body while over and past... Read More |
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1 Hand - Coming Soon The colouring of flames and all that that entails. This is Xan's ongoing project on the message board and we think he is doing a marvellous job of it too... Read More |
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The one hand behind the head butterfly as shown here by the honourable mr gizmo is achieved by paying special attention to the planes that the poi are swinging in. Committing to the move is also essential, you really do... Read More |
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This move will really mess with your head and will raise some questions for you as to wether or not there actually is a forwards and reverse butterfly. The way to do it is to do a butterfly and set yourself up to do an ordinary one handed one... Read More |
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Wraps / Stalls / Throws etc. Wraps and stalls involve the poi changing direction somehow, when the poi hit a part of the performer before changing direction it is called a wrap, if they don't it is called a stall. It isn't exactly as simple as that because stalls are more than just changing the direction of the poi as a well performed stall can sometimes look like it is defying gravity. Whatever, they all look amazing, wraps are instantaneous and stalls just take it easy, they ain't in no rush at all :) |
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A basic wrap from a weave move, the fact that it is a single poi wrapping makes you end up in a butterfly as the poi changes direction and thus the poi will now be travelling in opposite directions to each other. This is an important concept about... Read More |
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This is the ordinary double tricep wrap but performed off of both arms to demonstrate how you can increase the complexity of wraps (or any move for that matter) by what can only be described as "doing more." It is a tricky... Read More |
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A further demonstration of how the complexity of wraps (and any move) can be increased. When you perform this move you go through the full cycle of wraps so that you end up doing the exact same move that you started off with... Read More |
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A beautiful (double) wrap that is an absolute joy to perform, it is a little different from ordinary wraps because the poi "chains" are doing some wrapping of their own rather than just the heads... Read More |
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Some text from the actual lesson page itself that describes what the lesson is banging on about. This actual text however is some filler for layout purposes and I'm running out of stuff to say now so I will shut up coz I'm boring myself... Read More |
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Some text from the actual lesson page itself that describes what the lesson is banging on about. This actual text however is some filler for layout purposes and I'm running out of stuff to say now so I will shut up coz I'm boring myself... Read More |
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Some text from the actual lesson page itself that describes what the lesson is banging on about. This actual text however is some filler for layout purposes and I'm running out of stuff to say now so I will shut up coz I'm boring myself... Read More |
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Some text from the actual lesson page itself that describes what the lesson is banging on about. This actual text however is some filler for layout purposes and I'm running out of stuff to say now so I will shut up coz I'm boring myself... Read More |
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Stalls - Video - Coming Soon Some text from the actual lesson page itself that describes what the lesson is banging on about. This actual text however is some filler for layout purposes and I'm running out of stuff to say now so I will shut up coz I'm boring myself... Read More |
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Wibbles - Video - Coming Soon Wibbles are a born of throws, you knock them back and forwards (in plane) again and again and again. They are dazzling to watch, incredibly difficult to master and have been known to develop into Dribbles, Tribbles and occasionally Quibbles... Read More |
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There are many more moves and variations to poi than could possibly be included on this page, it is meant as a basic guide only with a smattering of advanced moves to show what is possible. If you work your way through this page however you will be in a better place to understand the complicated terms and moves that get discussed/played with these days.
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