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String Bounce

Started by The Void, 11 August, 2013, 12:56:48

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The Void

This is the trick whereafter doing Baton Twirl, you throw the whole kendama up so that it is rotating on the horizontal plane, with the string taut. As it comes down, you bounce the string on your hand and send it flying back up into the air where it came from.

First off, I'm rubbish at this trick! If you want to see it done well, seek out a video of Thorkild and/or Mattias - it seems to be their favourite trick. :) That said, here are my thoughts on it.

Release the kendama from the Baton Twirl when your palm is facing (mostly) face-up. You should be pushing up "through" the string with your whole arm to give height to the flight. (The kendama should leave your hand at higher than head height.) Watch the kendama in flight, and be aware of the direction and speed of the rotation.

As the kendama comes down, keep your arm held high for the impact point. You want the string to come down into the crook of your thumb and your forefinger. As you catch, you need to be twisting your wrist at the same speed that the kendama is rotating. (Also, fairly obviously, in the same direction too!) Prepare for this by fully twisting your wrist in the opposite direction while the kendama is in the air. This will give you the maximum available degree of untwist in your wrist for the catch/relaunch.

As the string hits your hand, you only have a short amount of time to relaunch it, before the string will tangle up around your hand. This is why it's important to match your wrist rotation speed to the rotation speed of the kendama. You want the hand/kendama combination to be rotating as one object, as much as is possible.

You will also need to cushion the catch by sinking your hand and your knees. In a perfect world, the string would remain horizontal throughout this manoeuvre, but in actuality, the weight of the ball and ken will bend the string downwards a little. Don't worry about that. Carry on regardless.

Assuming that you can rotate your hand/wrist by approximately 360˚ in total, then you'll have 180˚ for the "sink", and 180˚ for the relaunch. You need to mesh the timing of these two half-twists precisely with your sink (catch) and rise (relaunch). Use your knees to push up for the relaunch, and also push back up with your hand and arm again.

To finish, catch back into Baton Twirl and exit with your preferred move.

Like I said, I'm not very good at this trick, but those are my thoughts on the mechanics of it. If anyone who has mastered the trick would like to volunteer more info, or indeed disagree with my analysis, then I'm all ears.

I hope that helps someone.

Cheers,
Void
If you don't want to BUY MY BOOKS 😉, then why not ask your local library to order them in, and read them for free? That would help too. Cheers!