Poi Lesson On Butterfly Weave

This post is from Tribe.net, the Tech Poi Tribe, posted July 14, 2006

This is for a 3 beat split direction weave (which Ithink others call an impossible weave which, linguistically, seems like a less effective choice in terms of building confidence because you're only reinforcing the idea of "impossible" each time you say it.)

I think of the weave pattern as the OH W -- where each hand goes over then under on the away side and one beat on the home side -- and the UH W pattern -- where each hand goes under then over on the away side and then one beat on the home side. this is for spin direction.

If you look at split direction, you can have two different versions when dealing with side plane -- SSL -- side plane, split direction, left hand overhand -- and SSR -- side plane, split direction right hand overhand.

• For the split direction weave, you therefore have 4 different weave possibilities:
• SSL - in OH
• SSL - in UH
• SSR - in OH
• SSR - in UH

To then move from a weave on the stage right to a weave on the stage left and then back to the stage right sides of body becomes, in my structure, a split direction weave fountain. I would call what you do when you take a split direction butterfly over the head and alternating as a split direction pinwheel which can occur in two directions -- inward or overhand split direction or overhand opposite direction, commonly known as a forward/overhand butterfly (i abbreviate this as OHS for overhand split direction), and outward or underhand split direction or underhand opposite direction, commonly known as a reverse/underhand butterfly (and abbreviate this as UHS for underhand split direction).

To teach the split direction weaves, these are the steps we work with.

Most basic drills:

• do single handed cross over with each hand in each direction

8 fundamental drills:

• starting in SSL:
  • do crossover with right poi to left side on top of left poi
  • do crossover with right poi to left side below left poi
  • do crossover with left poi to right side of body on right poi
  • do crossover with left poi to right side below right poi
• Repeat the same four drills in SSR. This essentially ensures you can do a butterfly with either hand on top and that you can cross over to either butterfly. This helps with people's "weaker" part of the weave.

2 handed crossover drills:

• start with SSL, same time:
  • crossover with both arms with right arm on top
  • crossover both arms with left arm on top
• repeat with SSR
• Then do them in split time.

Once you have all 4 split time split direction crossovers, you practice the antispin portion of the weave move. The antispin portions being:

• for SSL, OH -- the right arm is going under hand but has to cross the left arm on top and then below the arm
• for SSL, UH -- the left arm is going OH but has to cross the right arm on top adn then below the arm
• for SSR, OH - the left arm is going UH but has to cross the right arm on top and then below the arm
• for SSR, UH - the right arm is going OH but has to cross the left arm from under to on top
  

once you have all those pieces, then:

• cross your arms in split direction and split time and keep them crossed.
• if you are doing the overhand weave pattern, take the bottom hand, bring it home and cross it on top. continue to do that to create the OH weave pattern.
• if you are doing the UH weave pattern, take the top hand, bring it home and cross it underneath. continue to do that to create the UH weave pattern.
• by the way, that means one beat in each position.
  

hope this helps someone. :)