tcepsa | Fun with Poi

It was a busy, awesome, and incredibly fun weekend. Most of it was spent in Woodbridge, and I'm actually going to start there and then loop around all over the past hundred or so hours--or so I hope. (For what it's worth, the timing of the weekend isn't all that critical ^_^)

Saturday evening found me at

margoeve and

elkor's place. They're also both into the poi-spinning (in fact, just in case I didn't mention it before, they're the ones that brought it to my attention) and we ended up out on the lawn by their townhouse playing with our neon string-balls. It was a lot of fun, though also a bit intimidating for me; they're both really good. It's one of those things that comes with time though, and I kept reminding myself that I haven't had nearly as much as they have--and more importantly, it's not a competition or proving something. It's harder for me to fall into the flow from that headspace; I'm too easily frustrated by whacking myself repeatedly while trying to do something that they make look effortless. It really helped, though, that they would occasionally point out that a particular move that I was having trouble with was one that it had been challenging for them to learn as well. Lesson one from the evening, "If you try to tell yourself that something should be easy for you, you only make it harder."

So I mostly stuck to moves I know, and occasionally changed into what I think of as freestyle, a semi-random swinging pattern that basically goes however I feel like moving, with little to no regard for the imminent tangles. Lesson two from the evening reinforced the role that expectation plays when it comes to emotions. When I tried to do something specific and whacked myself or tangled instead, it was frustrating. When I whacked myself or tangled up during freestyle, it didn't matter nearly as much because I had pretty much accepted that it was part of that method. The trick will be to remember, while playing, that impact and intertwining are also part of the method of learning a new move--especially if it's happening more often than I think it should. And also to remember that the patterns are very different, and just because I am very good at one or two does not mean that I should automatically be able to pick up a new one. To think that way just clouds my concentration and increases the time it takes me to learn.

The even bigger trick will be to expand that to other areas of my life. Mistakes, as always, are part of the learning process, and just because I am good at some things does not mean that I should automatically be good at everything.

Margo loaned me a poi book which describes and gives visual sequences for going through several moves, and Sunday night after I left their place I went to a park near where I live, on the edge of the Potomac. It was another great night (in my opinion) for playing outside, warm, a little muggy, like we used to play hide-and-go-seek-tag-in-the-dark in back home when we were kids. Or camping. Or opening the windows and playing hours of videogames with friends who were sleeping over. Or any number of other happy memories. A good night for doing something fun. A good night for practicing poi without expecting to learn anything new; I still had the lessons from the night before in my mind.

One of my favorite parts of the poi book so far is that it mentions in a few places to go as slowly as you can when learning a new trick. The reasons for this are twofold. First, it's easier to get a feel for what's happening. Second, when (not if, when) the poi strike you they won't hurt as much. Again something that I would do well to apply to more aspects of my life than just poi spinning. [If I keep this up, someday I'll be able to write a book about how poi spinning can be expanded to any aspect of life...] I decided to start with the first move in the book that I didn't already know: reels. Reels are where you spin both poi in front of you and they're both going the same direction, like a movie projector with bright neon reels. That alone turned out to be fairly challenging, trying to keep them in basically the same plane and getting the timing just right so they didn't collide or snag each others' tails. There will definitely be more practice with that in the days to come.

The real fun begins when you do the next part, though, where you flip your wrists over your shoulders on the upswing so that the poi pass behind your back on the downswing, and then flip your wrists forward again on the next upswing so the poi pass in front of you on their next downswing, and then you continue to alternate between front and back.

Riiiiiiight.

Let me share with you, though my experience, what will really happen when attempting this maneuver. Things went great until I got to the part about flipping the wrists to bring them behind me. From that point, depending on the angle of approach, it is possible for a person to be struck in at least five different places. Each of them would be purple on me now if it weren't for my super healing powers and, more importantly, I took the books advice and went as slowly as I could. Mostly. This would be a good place for me to plug poi made out of sandbags when learning (as opposed to the ones with a hard ball of some kind in them).

Minor impacts, tangled strings, and sore shoulders notwithstanding, I continued in my quest to master (or at least successfully execute, just once, please, for the sake of all that is good in the universe, just let me get it once!) this new technique. I am happy to say that I persevered and in the end I was victorious!

One of the most fascinating parts is that, like the Weave technique I learned a few weeks ago, there was a minor change I had to make, and suddenly it was easy! Well, not all that easy, but I could do it consistently once I learned to move my right wrist just a little bit differently at one particular point.

Another lesson for me to apply to several aspects of my life: Even if you're convinced that your way is correct, if you keep getting hurt it may be wise to consider letting go of that conviction and trying something just a little bit different.

In closing, to go back to the night before, briefly: Even though I was a little intimidated by Margo and Elkor's talent, I can't wait to spin with them again. It's awesome to watch what they can do, and to think that, someday, I might be that good as well.