Poi Concept #4: Untangling

Here's a little bit of a mental break, but a handy tip nonetheless, if you ever tangle your poi.

A (Really!) Brief History

untangling poi the more difficult way

I teach a lot of beginning poi students as well as a few more intermediate level spinners, and I've observed something intriguing: whenever they spin up a really nice tangle and try to undo it, they pull their poi quite strongly horizonatally. One hand yanks left, and the other yanks right. Sometimes the knot magically slips open. A lot of the time it doesn't. The knot simply holds.



The Tip

how to untangle poi

When you get any sort of knot, train yourself to lift one hand up and bring the other one down. Hold your poi vertically instead of horizontally. Gently wiggle/stir the bottom hand a bit, and take a moment to look at the knot. Either it will have already slipped apart, or you'll actually see how the poi have wrapped around each other, and again you can simply "steer" the bottom hand to release its poi from the knot. Simple as that!

That's Better!

As one student told me later on, after learning this tip, it was a mini miracle of Untangliness, and his frustrating tangles became a lot easier to pull apart. He could practice with a little less frustration. Nice!

Notes

Hyper-butterflies create a sort of braid that resists even this approach to untangling. You have to weave the bottom hand in front of and behind the other poi, back and forth until the knot is undone.

Yep, those are fabric poi in the two photos. That's what I use most often these days. This tip also works with chains to some degree, and strings are a different matter. Try it - maybe it will help!