Poi has a long tradition with the Maori people of New Zealand. Spinning Poi are weighted balls at the end of strings, which have a long, colorful ribbon attached, so they can be spun around the body creating hundreds of different patterns.

To get a basic understanding of how the poi works, you need to consider that you are inside a large die. There are 4 walls surrounding you (in front, left, behind and right of you) and of course the floor below you and the ceiling above you. These six walls will form the planes/areas in which your point of interest will move. You have a poi in each hand. Try the following basic moves to get started.

• rotate both poi going forward
• rotate both poi going backwards
• turn one poi forward and the other backward

Now combine these movements (above) with changing the speed of the point of interest, so that:

• points of interest move at the same speed (synchronized)
• one waypoint is half a circle ahead of the other (out of sync)
• rotate one point of interest overhead and one to the side (out of sync so they don’t collide!)
• draw circles in front of your body, both in the horizontal and vertical planes

Basic Tricks to Try Once You’ve Mastered All of the Above

crisscross

Use just one point of interest to start. Begin to rotate the POI forward, then cross your arm across your body so the POI rotates forward but on the other side of your body, then bring your arm back so the POI crosses to the original side. . Try to get this so that the point of interest does one rotation to each side of your body. Now switch hands and repeat the procedure so that both hands can do it. Now finally try this with a poi in each hand

2-stroke fabric

This is actually an inbreeding with the desynchronized poi. Each poi makes one rotation on the same side of the body.

Butterfly

Hold the point of interest in front of your body at arms length. Turn the point of interest inward so they rotate in sync and slowly bring your hands closer. Eventually one hand should be on top (and slightly ahead of the other). This works well if your wrists are very relaxed. With the shiny poi this trick looks great, and you can really see the wings of the butterfly.

circles

You can spin large circles that keep your arms outstretched, or you can spin many small circles directly in front of, behind, or to the side of you. You can spin circles under the leg. The only place you can’t make a big circle is behind your back (unless you’re double-jointed!) Practice with a point of interest to discover all the different places you can make a big and small circle, then try 2!

tadpoles

Draw a circle in front of you with a point of interest parallel to the ground (as if you were stirring a cup of tea). The circle must be small. Bring the second POI to make an alternate circle (for example, so they don’t collide). This looks like 2 tadpoles swimming in a pond. The tadpoles can then go in the same direction.

Poi can have a steep learning curve while learning certain tricks and it’s much easier to learn by finding someone at a juggling club to teach you (or looking at diagrams in a book or watching someone on DVD), but with enough practice and With some occasional guidance, you’ll soon be moving the poi fluidly across your body and even becoming more flexible as you attempt behind-the-back tricks.