In freehanding, it is very important to be dominant with both hands. This thread is more directed to those of you who are just beginning, and to the newer freehanders. However, it's important for everyone to know.
Tracing. When you learn a new trace combo, try doing the same thing with the opposite hand. For instance, the stomach trace. With all the new freehanders coming in, I never see different variations of stomach tracing, it's always the same direction. Make sure you can stomach trace in both directions. This also goes for the heli fig 8, figure 8, arm tracing, head tracing and leg tracing. The figure 8 is the most important. Freehanding is made up of figure 8's more than you know. Try practicing doing figure 8, then turn it into an arm trace, to a head trace, and go from there. Now, do the same going the opposite direction. Being able to do this will result in a LOT more transition variations. Transitions are KEY to freehanding.
Good tracing practices. Make sure to switch the hands that's doing what trace (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Trace neck while tracing stomach.
Trace neck while tracing legs. Remember, you can cut your legs into two parts. Tracing the whole leg, and just tracing the upper portion of your leg.
Trace stomach while tracing upper portion of legs.
(When your tracing your neck, make sure to bring your bicep as close to your head as possible, so you can drag the end of your glowsticking cleanly around your neck.)
Tossing. Make sure you can heli both horizontally and vertically with both hands. Heli's should be projected from your hand with little to no arm movement. Your fingers/hand is used to spin the glowstick, and a little flick from your wrist to project it upward. Remember, heli's look so much more clean when they're parallel to their axis. Once you got a good heli going with both hands, it's time to start tossing combos (Refer to
cynicdave's tutorial, it's excellent.) Once you learn a combo, master it vice versa as well.
Some good tossing practices. Make sure you master both hands (IMG:
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Stand in front of your bed, so if a glowstick is dropped it's a lot less bending over, ultimately making more practice time for your heli's. Put your elbows at your sides and your hands out, and practice horizontal heli's from one hand to the other. Make sure the glowstick doesn't go above your head, and the catching hand doesn't move at all. The glowstick should land directly in your hand, with lots of practice (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Your elbows are at your sides to reduce a lot of arm movement.
More advanced heli's. Put your arm flat on a corner of a table or counter, and have your wrist just slightly hanging off. Take your opposite arm and hold your other arm firmly on the counter, to reduce all arm movement. Try heli tossing with just the flick of your fingers/hand and wrist, and make the stick go straight up and land right back in your hand. This will make your heli tosses look effortless. It literally looks like the stick is jumping and spinning right out of your hand with hardly any movement at all.
(
Note:There are several methods to spinning the glowstick. I personally use the pull method. This method is done with pulling the glowstick towards you causing it to spin. You should be able to make it spin with just a flick of your pointer finger.)
Catching. Catching is VERY important (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) I'm going to cover two of many ways to catch a glowstick.
One in a downward motion, and
two with your hand open, like your holding a pizza.
When you're catching in a downward motion, it is very important how you catch the glowstick, especially when you get fast spinning heli's going. If you look at a horizontal heli toss from above, you'll see a center point in the glowstick. Let's say that the left side of the center point is spinning away from you, we're going to call that side "A". The right side spinning towards you is side "B". The center of your palm should be just slightly to the side of side "B", so the glowstick literally spins right into your palm and stops when you grasp. If you were to catch it on the left side of the center point, it is likely that the side spinning towards you will grab the back of your hand, and spin right off it. Catching it like this also sets you up to start tracing or go into a toss combo.
When you're catching like your holding a pizza, it's pretty much like catching anything else. It really helps to cradle catch. Cradle catching is when your hand is moving down with the glowstick, so the glowstick doesn't have such a rough landing. Your catch ratio will increase a shitload if you cradle catch (IMG:
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Moral. Practice EVERYTHING with both hands, I can't stress it enough. Don't have a dominant hand when it comes to freehanding. It will make you that much better, seriously.
Love you guys,
ono
Practice: Dominant VS Non Dominant, Important for everyone
Jan 16 2008, 05:47 PM
