Poi Is Awesome

Going into the London Grue, I knew there was one class I absolutely positively wanted to host: Poi Is Awesome; Let's Practice.

At first I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I even had jitters about suggesting the class session at all. But a friend said they'd brought two pairs of poi, and their partner had another. With their assurance that they at least were interested, my mission was set. There would be poi practice at the London Grue.

As luck would have it, we practiced during the first session, which turned out to be a great pick me up for the day.

I plugged my iPhone into the sound system, turned on my current favorite song to practice to (Skrillex (feat. Sirah) - Weekends!!!), and we started.

I was a novice. I'd created my practice poi out of two tennis balls and a pair of clearence tights from Target, total invesment $6.14. For less than a month I'd stood in my living room, watching myself in the mirror (a no-no; poi is about muscle memory), swinging my tennis balls about.

I practiced front and side planes, worked on butterfly (two side planes close together), and had even gotten to a point where I could spin my butterfly in off time. A few times I experimented with trying to spin planes in front and behind me simlutaneously, as well as trying to move while spinning.

Now, with the opportunity to practice with people far more experienced than myself, I knew I could only get better.

When we started, just myself and my two friends practiced. Then one person who had experience fire spinning came over and showed me a trick or two.

One in particular, which I have come to love, involves me spinning my poi alternately behind my head and in front of my face. When I first tried the trick, I was nervous. Since learning the trick, whenever I want to practice it, I remind myself I have to let go and let my poi fly. It's exhilirating in an almost dangerous way.

As people drifted in and out of the class, some knew nothing and I found myself teaching and encouraging people to at least try.

At one point, Gryphon wondered into our area. He had experience flourtine flogging and took to poi quite easily. I, who still had not figured out how to do a basic weave, was impressed.

Once, when we were having a particularly good and racous time, Gray yelled over to our group. Apparently we were a bit loud and were inadvertantly interrupting the nearby Rope 101 class.

Opps. What could I say? Poi is awesome.