Getting back into the groove

I've missed one or two meets for various reasons and with the weather bein rubbish I've not really been able to practice. However last week James and I learnt a new trick which I've fallen in love with (although if I don't learn another soon I'll get bored with it!!!) I'm not sure what it's called (possibly magic string) but it involves looping the string around the stick and the diabolo, flicking it up up and the strings untangling. looks pretty funky!!! I also took some wicked pics with Cat and Vaughan of my LED diabolo after it went dark - got a nice collection starting now!!! YAY!!!

As you can see from Mahers's last post he's recently bought a slackline, and I had my first go on thursday night at the meet (I was a bit scared so had to hold Dan's hand!) but on Saturday we went to Pontardawe Recreational Grounds with Vaughan and Cat and spent a good few hours there playing with the slackline and our various other toys!!! Being the shortest in the group I struggled to get up a little at first but then found a way of doing it without falling backwards each time!!! But once I'd had a few goes my confidence increased and I was able to take a few steps before falling off!

I'm starting back at College tomorrow so I'm hoping that I can still go to meets and have enough time to practice....but if it comes to it I'll just take my diabolo with me and play during my breaks!!!

New Trick!!!!!

I've been using the site Diabolo Tricks for my home teaching, and after finding that I couldn't get my head round some tried some of the links and came across The Diabolo which has videos which you can slow down, reverse, (which is really cool when you can't quite see that slight split second move!) and came across a trick called "The cross (combo)" in the sticks chapter which looked pretty cool so thought I'd try it. kept getting so far with it but kept losing momentum at the end or not getting even the first step. So I explained the trick to Dan Mahers and asked him if he could see what I was doing wrong. He noticed that I was throwing the diabolo a little too high on the first movement so I just gave it a little nudge and soon found (once I managed to catch it on a regular basis!) that every following move flowed perfectly into the next. I'm quite proud of that!!! there are a few other tricks in the same chapter that incorporate some or all of the moves used in this trick so hopefully within a month or so I'll have mastered at the absolute minimum the sticks chapter!!! once all are mastered it'll be on to the two diabolo tricks....WAH!!!!

Oh and I also have two new diabolos (although technically it's three until my niece takes ownership of a little orange one Dan's mum bought for 99p!) one is a lovely white LED one and the other is a red one that Dan had in his mother's garage for the last 15 years or so!!!

So all in all I've had quite a productive and exciting few weeks!!!!

Fun Fun Fun!!!!!

This week I didn't learn anything new on the diabolo but I did learn to do a butterfly on the poi! (spinning the poi in mirror image in front of you) :D I tried threading the needle (apparently its a butterfly where you keep changing which poi is in front...) but that just got messy!!!

Also Peter brought his Earth Ball which was like 6ft high and we all had fun playing with that! and I got some cool pics and video of it, which is on facebook. If anyone who isn't on facebook wants a look let me know and I'll post it as a seperate blog :) )

All in all it was a good night. I finally started on a new toy and practiced a little bit of juggling!!! can't wait til next week when a) James is back with his stilts and b) hopefully Peter will have the Earth Ball again!
Happy Days!!!!

NEW TRICK!!!! :D

Last night I FINALLY got the courage to try the around the neck bounce!!! James showed it to me a while ago, but thought it would be a good idea to do it round my neck not his....needless to say it worried me a little, especially when he said he couldn't see what he was doing!!! So I looked through Lynne's book and saw it there and thought "why not?!" got the diabolo spinning, moved the right stick near it, hooked the string round my neck with the left stick, started evening out the strings....and the diabolo wobbles off!!! next attempt...it spins towards my face....by the 10th attempt I managed to bounce it from right to left :D then it fell off as I bounced it back....after a bit of perseverance I managed to get it back to the right and unhook the string from around my neck, but the diabolo slowed down too much by the time I got there so it started spinning! But by the end of the night I managed to do the whole trick, and keep it going at the end to go into another trick :D HAPPY DAYS!!!!!

Lesson for today!!!

I think there's a reason why I should blog straight away....it's now Sunday and I'm struggling to remember yesterday never mind Thursday!!! Anyway it was a good night, practiced a few tricks I've learnt on the diabolo and getting good at them!!! I can now do a round the world stopover (just about!) , cat's cradle, tiger's cradle, elevator, and am trying to perfect my grinding. I've tried learning a full round the world (where you spin the diabolo right around, then around your head....) and nearly killed myself!!! so won't be trying THAT again in a hurry!!!!
One thing I've learnt about 18 people playing with circus toys in a small hall is there's a good chance of getting hurt!!! And Thursday was no exception as it seemed like everyone was aiming for me!!! First Vaughan with the unicycle (falling off and the uni landing inches from my feet) a knock or two from a hoop, hitting my knuckle with the diabolo, and another unicycle incident, this time involving Dan (who coincidently is Vaughan's brother and my other half, who also missed me by inches!!!) so I have vengeance to plan! (although I am even with Vaughan after nearly hittin his missus Cat with my diabolo!)
At the end of the club we had a meeting to discuss what to do with the funds and I think everyone washappy with the decision to save it to put towards a bigger hall (HAPPY DAYS!!!!) which is a great idea as the group is startin to get bigger, and the hall is so small when there are a lot of people there (like Thursday, 18) I tend to feel a little claustrophobic and start worryin someone is going to get hurt! There is an upside to this though...It means I can annoy everyone by getting some good footage to mess about with and put on the facebook page!!! :D

Who knew!!!!

I first joined Elephants because of Cath and Lynne, to show them support in their new venture. The first week I learnt to juggle a little but the second week I picked up a diabolo and got hooked!!!! Now I can't wait for Thursdays to learn new tricks! I've even been up on stilts which is scary but great!!! I can't wait until I get the confidence to move better on them!!!
Before the group started I wouldn't have dreamt I'd be doing any of the things I am!!! So thanks guys for opening my eyes to this great new world of yours, and encouraging me to learn new skills and introducing me to festivals.

I really want to get good on the diabolo but I also want to learn other skills such as improving my juggling, hooping, stilt walking, maybe even unicycling!!! But for now I'm gonna concentrate on diabolo, learning off people that are more skilled than me and hopefully help out others that want to learn.