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StudentPermalink Reply by Danielle Starshine on May 30, 2012 at 8:33am

are you turning while you are vortexing? i know when i was learning this move that it was really hard to do it if i was stationary. turning will help keep the momentum going.

also, when you are lifting the hoop up, you want to make a half-circle motion with the hoop in your hand (if that makes sense). there is also a little "bounce" that happens when the hoop is at the bottom before you lift it up. your arm is extended straight down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWb_K8AH9nk&list=UUVQ6AEInnrf6uL...

she explains it well.

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Permalink Reply by Christine on May 30, 2012 at 8:49am

cool, she does explain that well! Ya I haven't tried spinning at all! But I know what I'm going to be doing all day today :) Thanks a lot for the input! I'll get back to ya on any progress I make. And thanks for responding to quick I'm playing around on my hoop now and was getting so frustrated I had to stop and get my question out there.

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StudentPermalink Reply by Scully on May 30, 2012 at 9:52am

Yeah, especially if you are getting messed up on the upswing when the most momentum is in play you are most likely not reacting to how quickly the hoop is moving. Definitely try spinning to slow the hoop down and just get a feeling for what your hands and arms should be doing. At that point you should be able to stop the spin and do it stationary.

 

What are the specs on the hoop you using for this exercise? It takes a bit of wrist strength that you will develop as you hoop to really control the upswing because you are trying to support the hoop to keep it flat as well as moving it up. Wrist/hand strength will reduce your reliance on the momentum of the upswing to finish the trick and allows more control. The lighter the hoop the easier this trick will be in the beginning.

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Permalink Reply by Christine on May 30, 2012 at 12:03pm

good lookin out girl...i tried maybe 50 times that way and couldnt get the timing for my spin right, went back to not spinning and *wahlah* got it! thanks or makin my day :)

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StudentPermalink Reply by Scully on May 30, 2012 at 12:33pm

Sounds like you made your own day. Way to go!

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StudentPermalink Reply by Jessica on May 30, 2012 at 9:07am

I actually struggled with this for a long time. I eventually found it much, much easier when I switched to a lighter hoop! It got rid of the "floppy" hoop look, and gave me more momentum with it. Spinning in the direction of the trick may help too!

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StudentPermalink Reply by rainingpink on May 31, 2012 at 5:26am

Same thing with me, my vortexes looked very weird until I got a smaller and lighter hoop. I just couldn't get the flow of the move at all with my heavy one. Now I can do it on either, but when I was first learning the big hoop definitely held me back.

Another thing that helped me on the lift bit was focusing on pointing my elbow straight up, so I didn't whack myself in the head...

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StudentPermalink Reply by Ashley Pariseau on May 30, 2012 at 11:31am

My problem with the vortex is that once I get it up over my head, I still have to rotate it almost half way until I can bring it back down. I see all these people do it so fast going up down up down but mine is up...1...2...down. Am I doing something wrong?

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StudentPermalink Reply by Scully on May 30, 2012 at 12:31pm

It sounds like you are breaking it up into beats. If I had to do that it would be two beats down and two beats up. For me the hand off is on the & portion of the beat between 2&3 and 4&1. Resurrection Fern would be good to practice with because there are two rhythms…one very slow on the drone string of the banjo or the plucked rhythm which is faster for when you start to get the hang of it. You can use anything with low BPM but that is one I am familiar with

 

You can also break it into 4 actions and just work on the upswing and then reset. It will allow you to get more comfortable with that movement. Once you can go up try up pass and then back down to waist hooping. Then throw in the back pass when you come back down and voila vortex!

 

Take a look at some of the tutorials for hand placement it makes a big difference in the hand off.

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Permalink Reply by Reanna Blake on May 30, 2012 at 2:38pm

The thing that helped me get this down was rotating while hooping... it gives the hoop some momentum and really gets you in the groove... hope this helps :)

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Permalink Reply by Mina Bear on May 31, 2012 at 9:43am

that was the first trick I ever learned, and it is definitely one of the hardest since you are new to it. It took me about a month or so to have it all the way down. just gotta keep practicing, and once you finally have that epiphany and you get it, you'll wonder how you couldnt do it before lol. Just keep working at it, or find a friend who hoops that could help you, having an experienced friend helps A LOT! I learned from a mix of tutorials on Youtube, and from the help of a friend

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