Recently, I have picked up a new hobby: spinning poi.
Poi are basically strings with something attached at the bottom, so their shapes vary greatly. Most people are probably familiar with fire-poi and it looks AWESOME and is a popular form of fire dancing. Here are two of my favorite fire-poi videos:
Lili is pretty much my hero right now. I learned on long poi but have been switching to learn short poi tricks (long poi have longer strings so you can make bigger motions, but you can't do the spins that are between your arm and your body). Her strings are shorter than I use when doing short poi tricks, but that's because she's working with fire. I feel slightly longer strings are easier to work with when you don't have to worry about setting yourself on fire.
Speaking of fire, I am quite fond of it, though I don't spin with it. Thus, I have been using the "fire" color of flowlights. They are basically LED poi that have a number of different settings that alternate how the 3 LED lights (red, yellow and orange) light up. They may not be as bright as fire, but the result is still pretty cool:
Of course, I'm far from a good spinner yet! I've found myself highly motivated, though, and I've probably practiced spinning in the last few weeks more than I've played video games. Unfortunately, this means my arms and back are constantly sore and I have bruises all over.
It's been quite an amazing experience, though. Not only is it good exercise that is fun and challenging, but it has also helped me make a number of friends with other people interested in poi around campus!
My original motivation to start spinning was Serif. He is absolutely amazing at spinning and I love watching him gracefully paint patterns in the air. The first outdoor concert we went to, he taught me how to do the 3-beat, which is pretty much the most basic trick. I was a little embarrassed that he was so good and I was just a beginner, but I recently have gone full tilt into practicing! I even taught myself a trick that he can't do! ;D
Do any other TLers spin poi? I'd love to share tips and tricks!
:D
Last edit: 2012-02-10 05:17:27
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mizU United States. February 10 2012 05:19. Posts 9976
On February 10 2012 05:19 mizU wrote: Aw man I thought this was about Poi the food.
Looks oddly... fun. I think I tried it at the Polynesian Culture Center back in Hawaii... I failed miserably.
It's harder than it looks...
Haha, yeah, my first encounter with Poi was at the Polynesian Cultural Center, too. I remember REALLY wanting to be good at it, but not being able to figure it out.
I think with one on one instruction, it isn't too bad, though. I've actually taught about five or six people how to do a few basic tricks, but it takes at least 30 minutes with each one.
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Riku United States. February 10 2012 05:22. Posts 969
Kinda sad but when I see this I mathematically imagine the degrees of freedom and equations of motion for graphing the position of the center of each flame as a function of time.
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mmp United States. February 10 2012 05:42. Posts 2126
On February 10 2012 05:40 micronesia wrote: Kinda sad but when I see this I mathematically imagine the degrees of freedom and equations of motion for graphing the position of the center of each flame as a function of time.
MATH TEACHER'D
Ahhhh my fun!!!
Also was expecting food.
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OpticalShot Canada. February 10 2012 06:04. Posts 5925
On February 10 2012 05:40 micronesia wrote: Kinda sad but when I see this I mathematically imagine the degrees of freedom and equations of motion for graphing the position of the center of each flame as a function of time.
Thanks for reminding me of my undergrad! D=
Anyhow, it looks like dangerous fun. There's an old saying in Korean that elders tell young kids, "if you toy around with fire you'll wet your bed." So yeah, careful... =P
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RoyGBiv_13 United States. February 10 2012 07:40. Posts 579
Been spinning poi for about a year and a half now. Getting pretty good . Ill post my complete thoughts on this post when im done with work. Very excited to see this pop on on TL. I have been watching for this for a while now
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iSometric China. February 10 2012 07:45. Posts 1951
On February 10 2012 05:40 micronesia wrote: Kinda sad but when I see this I mathematically imagine the degrees of freedom and equations of motion for graphing the position of the center of each flame as a function of time.
Disgusting me out lol.
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Mothra United States. February 10 2012 08:08. Posts 957
I've done this for a couple of years in a semi professional fireshow group.
Altho i wasn't nearly as good as the girl in the video but it was very fun to perform in front of 100's of people and just get the vibe from the people that are there.
The 3 beat is the most basic, then you switch into a 5 beat weave. Other simple basic trick is the butterfly, which will have you control the poi's in a vertical spin to show a perfect circle on camera. This requires good wrist strenght and good eye hand coordination because 1 bad move and it swings into a very bad way into your body.
After a while you should try out a corkscrew type of swings because you will have to start to rely on your finesse to keep everything in check.
After that you can go into 3 beat behind the back for example to really train your flexibility ( wear a cup because this one can hit your balls hard if you mess up )
My favourite are the long poi's, because you can do more complex moves then with the short ones.
Maybe i can dig up a couple of pictures and share them ^^
Also....please people don't just go out and try this, if you are interested in fireshow techniques, PRACTISE DRY for at least 2-3 months till you get a perfect hang off the basic techniques!!
haha oh man. i used to do this for years. i still have my firepoi lying around and some juggling equip. the fun thing is that you never forget the motions for the different 'tricks', so i could pick them them up right now and just start weaving.
also you have never really tried poi until you've done it with fire-ropes! :> it's very difficult since you have to have them in motion 100% of the time and not fuckup since they can burn you quite badly. (well all stuffs like this can burn you quite badly..)
ps. try staves and other stuff like that, everything is very funny!
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TechSc2 Netherlands. February 10 2012 08:31. Posts 275
I'm the one with the tattoo on the right arm, and the belly dancing girl is my girlfriend
I've tried staves, but i didn't like the stiffness of the motions. I did juggle with fireballs tho ( with fireproof gloves ofcourse ) Also fire ropes are da bomb once you know how to control them, took me quite some time of practise to really keep the flow going.
Mesmerizing! Wow, watching that Lili Yo video is incredible. Right when the lyrics of the music kick in, that part I could watch over and over again (and I have!) Truly cool.
Good luck, this seems like a super fun thing to learn :D
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Resisty United States. February 10 2012 11:05. Posts 191
There's a good community with lot of video/tutorials and such at GenXGlow.
I used to practice on and off (though I use glowsticks since they're cheaper) but only managed a total of a few weeks and I only accomplished the most basic moves :<.
Glowsticking/poi is a bit esoteric to other people. At my school, we had a flag-cheer team, which did the same moves but with flags, so I was shot down with the notion of being a fag when I tried to inform them =_=. If I mentioned glowsticks instead of poi, then I would be a drug addicted raver... <_<
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phiinix United States. February 10 2012 11:09. Posts 1124
One of my dorm mates picked up poi during the beginning of the year because he just thought it was cool. The cool part for me was seeing him go from someone who didn't know anything to going to someone who was pretty decent after months.
MiKTeX United States. February 10 2012 11:36. Posts 234
tried this and still hope to continue it and get better, but poi/glowstringing is holy shit difficult
it's so cool to watch though ^^ in the second video the moves aren't terribly complex and the pace isn't too fast, but she's so good at controlling them and going well with the music that it looks spectacular
![[image loading]](http://lightzombies.com/store/images/Flowlight%20Lightshow%20Fire%204%20Thumb.JPG)
![[image loading]](http://lightzombies.com/store/images/Flowlight%20Lightshow%20Fire%203%20Thumb.JPG)
micronesia United States. February 10 2012 05:40. Posts 19280
. Ill post my complete thoughts on this post when im done with work. Very excited to see this pop on on TL. I have been watching for this for a while now
