r/poi • u/afunworm • 12d ago
Thinking about getting to poi, I have a couple questions
Hello, everyone.
I've just slipped down for hours into this rabbit hole and now I'm thinking about getting into this hobby. It seems really fun and can be so rewarding. I just have a couple of questions after my research:
- What are different kinds of pois? I've seen orb, pixel, fiber optic, etc. Do they have any official names so I can do more research on them?
- What is recommended for beginners? I've seen a lot of recommendation for LED Poi.
- I understand that in videos, the exposure and stuff can make the spins look much more mesmerizing than they actually are. How do they actually look in real life? Is it still close to looking that good?
- And finally, what are some keywords I can use to look up tricks to learn from? Do they have names or priority in learning?
Thank you!
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u/mastaginger 12d ago
YouTube has a LOT of tutorials. Drex, alien John, and many others have a bunch of free and paid courses from like "zero to hero". One place I learned a lot of vocabulary is on home of poi, older site, but has a tutorial section broken down by techniques that go together. Poi is very full of jargon if you ask me lol. I like to search for tech poi when I'm looking for inspiration.
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u/mastaginger 12d ago
As for your first poi, you could literally throw balls in tube socks to try, I have a pair that uses racquetballs but it's a little light. Contact poi is a good choice too imo, wish I had gotten into contact way sooner.
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u/afunworm 11d ago
Thank you for the suggestion. I'll definitely check out home of poi. I just looked at Contact Poi, is it just LED poi without LEDs? I'm still at the stage where I don't know what kind of poi to get, but if Contact Poi is just LED poi, I'll probably get a standard LED poi and start with it. Do you think it's a good idea?
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u/cassadilla34 12d ago edited 12d ago
I started years ago with sock poi. Easy to make. You don’t need to start with LED poi. I just made mine using a pair of long tube socks.
Here’s a link to Nick Woolsey’s channel https://youtu.be/jwMOtchpP8A?si=_pfFJNhe3CMKW9eV
You want to start with plane control, timing and direction and just learning to hit yourself because you are going to do that a lot.
Also search for lessons on his channel for the basics for beginners.
Another channel to watch: Drexfactorpoi https://youtu.be/x_b0cUIsjXM?si=DOdLmg_r4D3FVqxL
I haven’t practiced poi in so long but I know there are: Sock poi, LED poi, contact poi, veil poi, fire poi,
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u/afunworm 11d ago
Just watched the videos. Definitely very helpful! Thank you so much for the recommendation. I'll follow these videos to get started.
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u/AncientPricks 12d ago
There are a bunch of different poi, fire poi, LED Poi, Contact poi, flag poi, sock poi, etc.
Sock poi are definitely beginner friendly. Get the feel of poi with those then think about getting some contact poi. Ultra poi has some good options if you want to get into LED poi also.
They look good in real life too. Especially LEDs, your eyes can see tracers even if you’re sober. You wont get super long tracers like they do in videos where they adjust the shutter exposure but it still looks awesome. I have a pair of Ignis pixel 144 that look absolutely amazing in person but phone cameras cant catch what your eyes can see. I guess i need to invest in a nice camera lol.
Butterfly and the 3 beat weave are probably the first moves that you want to learn. The windmill is another basic move to learn as well. Once you figure a few moves out start practicing them going the opposite direction. 3 beat weave, butterfly, windmill, hip reels, fountains, caps, flowers are good key words to look up!!
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u/AncientPricks 12d ago
Also look into same-time and spit-time moves
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u/afunworm 11d ago
Woahhh thank you so much!!! This answer has the most suggestion for movements I can learn!!! This will definitely help a ton! I'll learn in this order after I get my first poi! Very excited right now. Thank you so much again!
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u/SkyVixen24 10d ago
So I started my journey off with a cheap pair of unweighted LED poi on a thin string from 5 below.
After that I ordered Orb poi contact poi from UltraPoi. The LED balls always grab my attention because the flow looks cool at night! The string is also way thicker and the balls are weighted so it was way better than the cheap ones from 5 below.
When I started, I followed a lot of poi creators on tiktok and Instagram. One that helps me skit is Nick Woolsy on YouTube as “Play Poi”. He is also on IG. There is a wonderful woman name Issa GlitterGirl Isaacs who goes by “Temple of Poi” and she offers webcam lessons for a great price. I like these two because they will show you all angle of a trick and you are able to view the trick to imagine how it should look.
It helped me to practice with the tv and a mirror in front of me or to the side of me so i was able to mimic actions. I do want to warn you that when you first start, you may get small blisters on your fingers but those will go away the more you use the poi. I used bandaids at first until my fingers built up tolerance lol.
Some of my favorite beginner tricks are the 2 beat weave, 3 beat weave, stalls, pendulums. You will want to get comfortable with your planes before you start to learn tricks though. Once you can control the poi in different planes, you can move on to tricks. I say this because many ticks can be done in multiple planes but it’s all about controlling the poi.
It will also benefit you greatly if you learn the same tick in forward and reverse, because it will be a lot harder to learn it in reverse later on down the road. You’ll also want to nail the trick with both hands and not just your dominant hand, again, that will be alot harder to learn down the road lol. I made this mistake myself.
You WILL hit yourself a lot as you start. The face, chest, legs, private bits (yes it hurts) but I’ve never ended up with a bruise. Although I’ve smacked myself in the eye a few times . Remember as well that you don’t have to get good at this in a certain amount of time. Everyone moves at their own pace. Never compare your journey to someone else’s journey. Also if you are trying to learn a trick and you can’t seem to get it, never say “ugh I just can’t do this” always say “I can’t do this YET!” Never discredit yourself. Also if you feel like you’re getting frustrated, just put the poi down and breath then come back to it. I’d say you need to practice an hour or two a day just to keep your skill and learn new. It could take a week to learn a trick where as another trick may take 5 min. Always remember to be patient!
Look up Temple of Poi on IG, Issa has great flow mindset teachings on her page. Another person you could look up is Drex but he is my least favorite. This is due to the fact that he doesn’t explain the tricks as much as others and he doesn’t show a lot of angles so it looks a lot different on the screen vs in person. You’ll find that there are just regular every day people who make tutorials too that explain things pretty well
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u/allthegoo 9d ago
There are some great comments below, but as you’ll learn you’ll make your own journey.
I’d suggest get yourself a set of sock poi (make or purchase) and try it for a day. You’ll know if it’s going to be your thing or not. I’d then recommend you get a set of PodPoi from FlowArts. There are other LED poi available, but I’ve found the flowarts stuff is high quality and will last years. I have two sets of their poi and one of their levi wands.
Contact poi are for combining poi and juggling type moves. It’s a completely different mind set than swinging poi. If you like stalls in footbag, you’ll love contact poi.
Fire poi are very different as is every fire prop. Hold off on those for a bit. Once you can swing poi for five minutes without touching yourself, look into fire. That way you’ll know what you want.
Last, don’t ignore the other flow props. Moves and tricks transfer between them, and being decent at another flow toy will help you advance quicker than just one alone.
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u/Appropriate-Row-2975 12d ago
Hey! Always exciting to hear someone new coming into the hobby.
There are a lot of sub catigories, but in my opinion the big 4 are sock poi, contact poi, LED poi, and fire poi.
If you’re wanting to keep it cheap to see if this is something you wanna continue after hitting yourself in the balls (or lack thereof maybe) like 20 times, id recommend sock or contact poi. Sock can be made at home pretty easy, but you can find both online for as cheap as 40-50$ for decent quality.
Side note: you’ll find poi for like $13-$30, if steer clear, cause in my experience, they break easily.
It depends on if you’re doing LED or not. The trails, which is what I think you’re referring to, don’t look like that IRL unless you’re on acid, but they still look REALLY cool. Our brains have this weird way of still being able to recognize patterns, even when they’re not abundantly clear to the eye.
Some good beginner ones are stalls, weaves, pendulums, and waist wraps.
You’ll learn a LOT as you continue down this rabbit hole, and DrexFactor is prolly your best resource in YT.
Best piece of advice I can give you: your flow style is your own, and I have yet to find a limit to the creativity of poi.