Yoko Haneken

[the milky oolong]

Thanks Void, no, I mean shoulder-to-shoulder direction Jumping Stick, or, as you pointed out, Jumping Stick Regardless. Have been practising my UFOs today after a wave of panic thinking I too might be a perpetrator of the 'wonky UFO'; found out that remaining totally aware of the wrist and locking out any upwards-downwards movement has actually improved my consistency in landing it (which is still far from high-frequency).

[The Void]

Good point about the up-and-down movement of the hand. The hand's up-and-down movement should only be controlled by the knees, and NOT by the arm. Try this experiment: Do a UFO, but beforehand, place your free hand against your chest, level with the start position of the other hand/kendama. Now, hopefully you'll see that while doing the UFO, the ken and your active hand remain at the same (mid-chest) height as your inactive hand.

I used to regularly miss the UFO by scooping my hand inwards at a slightly different height to the ken until I started to concentrate on this knee-control of the height.[nb]Does this make it sound like I'm now completely solid with a UFO? Ummm... yeah... I am.. Honest. No really, would I lie to you? Well, maybe only a bit...[/nb]

[the milky oolong]

Thanks to Void for my first UFOs that don't so much 'click' as 'crack' like a bullwhip.