8 replies to this topic

[hi i'm a girl]

OK, this post is for all the newbies and ppl tryin new tricks. These tips are not trick specific, however they are fool proof, and basically the only true way to do it all. Take notes damn it.

Question: How do I do "X"?

Answer:
1) One hand at a time starting with your dominant hand.

2) Do it slow at first, then speed up as you get better. Speed is nothing but blurred mistakes. If you can do it slow than its easy to speed it up.

3) Practice with freshly cracked sticks and low lighting in a room with large mirrors. Maybey try stringing up 2 different color sticks so that you can see where each is goin. When trying new weaves, hold sticks in hands to see if your wrists are making the correct motions.

4) Watch videos with the desired trick in slow motion and think about what the strings and sticks are doing. Break it down. Employ this tactic when inventing your own style also.

5) If its at all possible, practice with other stringers with a skill level above that of yours. This will spark ides and provide drive when it comes to progression. I do not suggest biting though, dont get me wrong. Share basic trick ideas, but make it your own.

6) Sounds rediculus but string to music that gets your heart rate goin. When i get into the music i sometimes loose my self and do things i couldnt do before.

7) Last and certainly not least, time. Dont practice just for the sake of getting better. Some of my most progressive nights have been ones where i am just playing around and relieving stress. I cant tell you how many moves i have come across simply by chillin on my current tricks and getting them so that i dont even have to open my eyes to do them.

Overall, all you have to do is put in time, and lots of it. Dont think of practice as a chore. Let it be play time; a reward for finishing a project etc... Also think about tricks in terms of feeling instead of just hand and body positions. True there are positions that must be achieved to pull everything off but for instance, BTB is blind, now what are you gonna do. Hope that there are mirrors at the club? No, youve gotta feel it. The more you play around and practice, the more acute your sensitivity in your wrists, hands, and fingers developes; to the point where you know where the stick is gonna go before it even starts there.

Once again, if you cant get something right away, dont run to the forums and ask for a quick fix... there is no such thing. Instead just put on a CD that gets you goin from start to finish and say to yourself, "As long as the CD plays, I string". Use whats left of your mind and think about what is happening, and above all else keep it fun.

I am adding additional information onto this thread, it can only help so do take the time to read it. If it doesnt help it is at least something interesting to read.

ANATOMY LESSON
-=Eye Dominance and How it Affects Your Stringing=-

THE BUTTERFLY WEAVE
The Butterfly Weave or as some call it the Impossible Weave is not as impossible as most believe. It is actually very simple to at least begin to attempt once you understand how it works. So here it goes.....
1) First one must master both the Forward and Reverse Thread the Needle. Heres a free lesson on how to do the forward Thread the Needle:Home of Poi: Thread the Needle Lesson

2) After you have those two moves down, just keep practicing them until you can do them in your sleep, in fact why not practice right now while I explain how a Butterfly Weave works.

3) To start out I will tell you that all those people who have ever said that a butterfly weave is just a normal 3 beat weave with the strings going in opposite dirrections are only 1/3 correct. The BW is a tripple inversion of the normal 3 beat. Let me explain... When I started I began with the forward TTN on my right side which is not hard to do, in fact one can keep it on one side of their body infinitly if they so wish. I went over the fundamentals of the 3 beat weave in my head..."Over Under Cross". Finally got it to cross with my left hand leading, but whats this?! After i crossed over and tried the same "Over Under Cross", the strings were tangling every time and never looked as though they could ever avoid each other.
What happens is when you cross over the dirrection of the TTN inverts causing you to take on the motions of a reverse 3 beat weave! So "Under Over Cross" is the pattern instead. Tricky little bitch huh?

4) Once i recognized this tripple inversion it gave me the chance to practice the BW. The tree inversions in case your counting are: Strings moving in opposite dirrections; Dirrection of TTN is reversed every time you switch sides of your body; And the pattern used is half forward 3 beat and half reverse 3 beat.

5) The only remaining hurdle for me was to get the right hand patterns down so that, when the weave is on my right side I crossover with my right hand leading; and when the weave is on my left side, I crossover with my left hand leading. I also seemed to sometimes accidentally fall into a 5 beat BW sometimes which isnt wrong but if you want a 3 beat weave to be a 3 beat that cant be happening.

If anyone has questions for me or this post, anything i missed, PM me and your answer will show up here eventually.

[AnDien]

how do I do one handed stringing?

1) One hand at a time starting with your dominant hand.

but I don't know how to string with one hand yet.. AHHHH!!
lol just teasing

[xdanx]

this helped i got it down after awhile.

[rom30_six]

when the stringers put thier hands behind thier backs and spin
is that a windmill bhind the back? or is it a weave?
i seriosuly dont think its a weave

[PatrickSwayze]

it's a weave, but make sure that the weave never crosses your arms...

[DitoR2]

wow all this tutorial r incredibly usefulls thanx dudes

[K|T]

wow major bump

[Xodiac]

yeah.. major major revival xD

[MyE90]

Thanks i no where to look if i choose to learn how to glowstring