Hey Donald, that's an absolutely bonkers trick with the Reverse Gunslinger, hope you were happy with it.
Today the Berlin crew entertained KROM HQ's Rolf S, Ganer, the Copenhagen big-hitter and long-time KROMIE. I didn't know much about him before today but I continue to be impressed by the KROM Kendamalove. We met on the street and Rolf showed off some serious Copenhagen freestyle trick lines (smooth diving Moon Circle into Swirl into Pinwheel into slapped Butterfly stuff to make your mind boggle).
Then we took to the park and played some games of Follow, and Rolf insisted we keep the tricks simple and just go for long lines. It was so great to be battling him with a ten, twenty trick long Follow line, just completely focussed on consistency. He showed our little team what it means to 'make everything count', as Eelco recently put it, referring to a different KROMIE. To be honest our team didn't hold up well to this sustained barrage of the most simple of tricks in the book, but I was trying my damndest, and really let things get flowy and smooth in that Danish way.
After that we bashed out a few rounds of Points in the subway, Rolf taking almost everything home and even doing several flawless rounds (5x Slip-On Stick at high speed was particularly beautiful), before discussing tricks and showing variations, at which point he was even more involved than ever, completely blown away by the tiniest differences and seeing possibilities open up he'd not yet thought about. Some of these he insisted filming for Instagram, and he seemed genuinely elated when the tricks were finally landed on film.
I know this isn't usually the place for longer posts, but I just thought some of you might appreciate, as we did today, this instance of real kendama spirit. If you ever have a Rolf in your country, get hold of him and have an hour or two of kendama with him, you'll learn a lot, and I don't just mean tricks.
