Practicing wrong !!

[Misterwhang]

So today I met up with a new friend in Hong Kong and he helped me tremendously with my dama skills. I have been playing for a few months now and today I found out I was doing some tricks "wrong".  First off for airplane and swing in spike, I would start by swinging the ken/dama in a big arc motion and would then try to catch it when it reached a high point. This made doing the two tricks pretty inconsistant for me, even though I practiced them soooo much. At one point I couldnt even land airplanes anymore which really frustrated me. But then today my buddy showed me the *correct technique...first he told me start with the string totally straight with the dama/ken free hanging and then dip down making a small dipping "u" motion with the dama/ken (keeping the string straight). Then instead of swing up he told me to do a slight jerking/pulling motion to finish the trick.

After I practiced a while and got the hang of this new jerk/pull up "u" motion and it hit me...THIS is how people are able to do lunars without using the string hook technique!!! (I just never understood how ) With this new technique in mind I was able to land a no string hook lunar! (even though it took me a billion tries haha)

In conclusion I dont know if anything I just wrote made any sense but the main point I am trying to get across to my fellow beginners is to.... MAKE SURE YOU ARE PRACTICING YOUR BASICS *CORRECTLY! OR else you will have a hard time with more advanced tricks in the future!! Keep on truckin!

*I dont know if this is the "correct" or "official" way of doing these tricks but it seemed to make a lot more sense to me compared to what I was doing before. If someone could help me explain in better words please post!

[PikWik]

hey whats up,
what you just described is exactly what i recently corrected as well!

for furiken/airplane/hook-lunar/1 turn lighthouse/etc. i would always create a big arc in front of me

BAD


then i really tried to learn 1 turn lighthouses and realized i was doing something wrong :/
i did some research and found out that slight pull is needed to get a more controlled landing.

GOOD


there is a specific moment where you need to pull towards you, but with practice ive almost got it down.
i was making these tricks far more difficult than they needed to be. not that i can land these 1st try now, but they dont feel like a "gamble" like they used to.
also be sure and 'catch' at the apex and try not to let it drop on the landing

[Misterwhang]

LOLthose pictures are on point!! Perfect! I hope this post will save a few other beginners from the frustration of doing these tricks wrong! Thanks for the post 

[br4d24]

Yah figured it out! I put something about this in a tutorial i did on 1 turn lighthouses - couldnt explain it as good as you did though

[PikWik]

@br4d24 - it wasnt until i saw your tutorial/description on your 1-turn lighthouse that i finally got my technique sorted. thanks man, i shouldve mentioned that

@Misterwhang - some of the airplanes i was doing before this were ridiculous. it was like i was throwing the ken over my head and then trying to wildly catch while also trying Not to step on the dog

[AlexSmith]

The pictures in this thread are top notch!

Really though, the 'circle' vs 'u' thing is a solid tip, its much more difficult to land tricks when the ken/tama is thrown way out in front of you.

[Kendama+cliniK]

Very informative! Thank you! Thank you!