The Kendama Forum

Forum categories => Tricks => Topic started by: br4d24 on 27 January, 2013, 04:13:16

Title: Trapeze Acrobats help!
Post by: br4d24 on 27 January, 2013, 04:13:16
Hello again everyone! I was just practicing the begginer/intermediate trick ladder that is up for the british open. There is one trick right near the end called trapeze acrobats, which i really want to learn! I watched the void do it in the video a bunch of times but i cant seem to get it right! Is there any techniques or tips anyone could give me? I did some searching and didnt find anything helpful :(
Title: Re: Trapeze Acrobats help!
Post by: the milky oolong on 31 January, 2013, 18:18:16
Hey br4d,

(Thought I'd answer this as nobody else is yet to have done so; I'll do my best!)

Trapeze Acrobats is sometimes a bit of a forgotten trick as far as it goes, but it's worth learning as it's the easiest introduction to tricks with a 'Trapeze' beginning i.e. tama spiked on the ken at start, whole being slung anti-clockwise around the string looped over the finger.

Not being sure with which parts you're having trouble with, I'll talk about the things I had a problem with. First of all, perhaps the tama keeps slipping from the ken during spin, or otherwise, the spin is not even or 'tight' feeling; this was my main problem with this trick, but it's just practise - be confident when you launch into the spin part, bend your knees and try to get a good solid three rotations before you pop up. At first.

I had a bit of trouble knowing when to release, but I am pretty sure that is about finding the right point yourself. I tend to release at the forty-five degrees mark, that being, if my toe and the (imaginary) continued line of my arm made a right angle, I begin the release at the mid-point of this arc. My reason for this is simple; Trapeze Acrobats doesn't take a huge amount of speed once you get used to how the ken pops up, so you don't need the extra height for time to grab the ken for the base-cup catch. Making the release any later means reaching up and not having the ken come up at around eye-level, meaning I tend to catch it less frequently.

The 'bounce' and catch are a bit tricky at first, as two very different things are going on at once.  As is my advice with 'Hanging ...' tricks, it's best at first to concentrate on the ken's activity, as catching the ken right means the tama 'bounce' will follow smoothly, and you'll have a nice flat angle with which to bag the catch. The tama will pull down on the string regardless, and you'll feel it (so long as you've caught the ken!), so you don't need to see it until the last moment to place the base cup properly. The more you do this, the more confident you'll be in catching the ken, as the way it leaves the tama in the first place is quite regular in this trick, so long as your spin/release is clean.

Hope this helps!

Update: Was thinking of this trick (0:36) that might help you in seeing just how smooth you can get the 'spin' on this trick. Worth watching the rest of the video too!:

Kendama Edit 2 part 2 香港劍球 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Gq0t1oV08#)