I was just wondering how long it took you guys to learn the helicopter because ive been having trouble learning to do it properly and making it look smooth while trying to go at a decent speed with it

That could be why you are having a hard time learning it. You really want to start off pretty slow with your move to get your muscle memory at work. gradually increasing the speed as you get more comfortable with the move. (IMG:http://www.glowsticking.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Hope that helps some.

like merlin said learn it slowly at first, in fact go way slower than you think you should, like slow motion slow, it will help you get it smooth and clean. focus more on getting the shape and movement down, because a slow perfect heli is always going to look better than a fast sloppy one. going this slow might feel frustrating but it is a great trick for drilling in muscle memory, you can use it for all types of moves (except tosses cus of the whole gravity thing lol). after you get it down slow, you'll be amazed how easy it is to ramp up the speed because you wont even have to think about the movement, your muscles will just know.

one tip i give everyone is trace your steering wheel at stop lights it will really help with your wrist flexibility and maintaining a circular shape.

took me forever and a day, but I just kept doing it till it started to come together. It always felt awkward to me, but I think I got it down to a decent level now...Now I'm just trying to incorperate new things to do with it.

I still don't know how to do a smooth helicopter...it's true!

do it by steps..count it. like 1,2 ,3, and 4. and repeat. slow but make it perfect. do it a lot and as time passes by, u will realize that you can do it faster and more smooth.

also when u do this, it'll become ur wrist or finger drill depending on how u do ur heli.
aint hard to do other tricks when u get this down.

I'm learning this as well, just started practicing it today.

It's really hard to get the wrist around at first, just keep doing it really slow, until you feel comfortable, then go a little bit faster after that, if you feel a little discomfort, slow down again.

You'll get it eventually! Best of luck.

i can only do a figure 8 and stomach traces
the heli will destroy me once i try 2 learn it lol

5 min (IMG:http://www.glowsticking.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
photon has a good tutorial on it xD

Learning it doesn't take to long. Perfecting it is the time consumer.
Luckily its one of those moves you can do just about anywhere so you can get a lot of practice into it.

But cha, you may think that you dont know it at first so you'll watch the tutorial video over and over again. (My own personal problem at the time.)
But its not that, its just that it looks weird because your wrists and hands aren't used to the movements.
So cha, just take your time.

thanks for the help guys, been working on it quite a bit now and my wrists are all sore now hahah hopefully i can get it down soon

5 months. The tutorials that I downloaded only showed the move, but didn't explain anything. For the first 3 months I wasn't alternating my hands in front. I've progressed too damn slow for this art.

well i think i have people beat on this one lol. Heli toss took me 2 weeks to learn. NOrmal heli, i still cant get after nearly 2 years. Just dunno why but my hands can be retarded that way on occasion

i learned heli's at my first meet, larky taught me, i spent probably 2 weeks trying to perfect them, but couldnt switch which was in front for the life of me and gave up...

but recently i figured it out, and now freehanding for some reason has been like daily level ups...hahaha

About 3 days to figure out the motion then like a month to smoothen it out. Then about another three months until I started doing it in all sorts of variations. It's just like anything else really. Start with the basic concept and fly with it as your muscles get more and more used to the feeling. haha. I'm still learning new helicopter shit and I doubt it will ever really stop. (IMG:http://www.glowsticking.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Started learning it like months ago, but then realized I was doing finger iso heli's instead lol no wonder I was having such a hard time. Just realized two weeks ago I wasn't doing a true heli hahaha so now its back to square one.... practice time!

It took me a couple months, believe it or not. I was just baffled by the movements and couldn't figure out for the life of me how to turn my wrists. So irritating. Even now, I have to do it at a pretty slow speed or else it just falls apart. It's verrryyy important to do everything as slow as possible

I dunno, a true heli to me would be one where you are alternating the hands back and forth and the motion resembles a whirling helicopter blade. I don't think it matters too much if you're using your fingers or your wrists to turn the sticks. As long as it's clean.

i still cant do it the proper way
but meh the way ive learned to do it seems to look fine.

yea i ve been practicing them since the day i picked up some glowsticks. about 2 months ago. i can do them pretty well but not all the time yet