Around Japan (help needed)

[Cliffdama]

Hi everybody,

I'm playing kendama now for almost 2 weeks. Most basic trick are no real challange anymore. The only thing until now that really gets me frustrated is Around Japan.

My problem:

Small cup, to big cup is no problem at all. Big cup to spike is my problem. If the hole faces me most of te time i can spike it woth no problem. But how can you get the hole in the right direction all te time? If i watch the movies on you tube is see people (kendalex etc) do it like 20times in a row. To me it feels like het got so much ball control to turn it around good all the time? Or am i missing something else?

This can als help me i thung for around the world i thebear future

[BKA]

Hi Cliff,
Check out the advice in these threads:
http://www.kendama.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,7.msg846.html#msg846
http://www.kendama.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,540.msg3913.html#msg3913
Then stick with it, keep practising all the Arounds. I'm sure you'll soon get a feel for it.

[Cliffdama]

Hi Cliff,
Check out the advice in these threads:
http://www.kendama.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,7.msg846.html#msg846
http://www.kendama.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,540.msg3913.html#msg3913
Then stick with it, keep practising all the Arounds. I'm sure you'll soon get a feel for it.

Thanks bka for the quick tips . Just goin to work more and more on the ball control and spiking. Things do allready go alot better than 2weeks ago so i see a difference. Practice makes perfect i think... A whole lot of practice ^^

[br4d24]

Im too lazy right now to check out what has been said in those links But I am a pretty fresh kendama player as well so luckily i still have the techniques i have come across fresh in my mind - and dont take for granted the little things you gotta do just yet (im sure its second nature to the pro's). I will try and give you some detailed tips that may help!

Okay so first off with any kind of around the "___" tricks that end with spikes or require a spike somewhere in the combo; you need to try your best to get the ball in a spike-able position from the initial cup catch. After you have that down, you will have to focus on keeping the ball in that position as you toss it from cup to cup, leading to the spike.

This might sound like an impossible task, i know it did when i first started. The best thing to do (it will improve your playing overall) is to try and get the ball in the air and off the cup before you start to move your ken to its next position. A good way to describe this in words would be talking about orbits, which is how i found out this technique. If you watch Colin Sanders early edit videos you will be able to see him doing it, especially with orbits. The key is to not spin the tama whatsoever before its going to be in the air (so it doesn't roll around and change positions between cups). Knees are a crucial part of making this work properly (especially when first starting). Its rather difficult to describe it without actually being there to show you but hopefully this makes sense...

Practice some orbits and try not to let the ball spin when you get it up off the cup - once you got that down keeping the ball in a spikeable position shouldnt be too difficult.

Additionally, when you get more time under your belt you will start to get the eye of the tiger and will know which way you need to get the ball to spin (off the cup) to make the hole point in a favorable direction - or you can just be a boss and look at where the string hole is and try to spike it towards yourself or something but thats still hard and awkward feeling for me so i dunno.