Hi, everyone, my name is Kate and I'm from Calligraphy Circus. And today I'm gonna teach you how to make your own spinning poi.

Now, we can make these at home with some objects that you'll most likely have. Otherwise, you may have received your box of materials. If you have your box, awesome - you should be ready to go. You can follow along with the instructions in there as well as this video to make your poi. If you do not have the box, don't stress. You can use things that you have at home and I'm gonna show you those now.

So the things you're gonna need to make your poi. First of all, we need something to go on the outside. So we need a nice pair of long socks to use. Now, be careful - if they've got holes in the bottom, it's not gonna work, OK? You'll need to stitch that up first. But you can definitely use a pair of old long socks. The longer, the better for this one. So we want a nice long sock so you can hold onto it.

Then we also need something that's gonna go inside. So if you did our Learn How to Make Your Own Juggling Ball tutorial that we did in one of the previous school holidays, you can use those juggling balls that you made. Otherwise, you can check out the link to that video and you can go and make those juggling balls before you continue on with this one. Then you'll have juggling balls and you can also use them for your poi. So it's a win-win. If you don't have the materials to make those juggling balls, you may have some tennis balls at home or you might have some bouncy Super Balls, or any other kind of small sports ball will work perfectly fine.

Grab all those materials and then we'll be ready to make your very own poi. OK, now that you have all your materials ready to go, we can make our poi. This is a really nice, simple activity and it's a great one for all different ages, OK? So if you perhaps have younger siblings that wanna join in, give them a little hand and everyone of all ages can enjoy making their poi together.

So what we're gonna do first of all is we're going to grab our sock. Now, with our sock, you might like to roll the top of your sock down especially if you have really long socks. You can also use stockings. So if you have some stockings, you can use those too. And this is the important step if you have the stockings, otherwise it's hard to fit your juggling ball in. Then we're gonna grab one juggling ball or your tennis ball, whichever one works for you. And we're gonna place that into the bottom of the sock. Now, if you've got the juggling balls, like me, that are made with balloons, they're a little bit sticky, so you've just gotta wriggle it in place. And then you can pull your sock back up so it's nice and long.

Now we have a long, weighted sock. When we spin our poi, it's a little bit tricky to keep holding onto the sock as it is like this. So you just wanna tie a knot in your sock. You're gonna grab the end. And I like to wrap it over my fingers like this. And then you're gonna cross it over the top, OK? So you've got a nice cross there. Now you're gonna slide it off your fingers and you're gonna sneak your other hand into that gap and you're gonna pull the tail through until you have a nice, tight knot.

Now, we wanna try and have that knot right near the end of the sock, OK? Alright, well done. You have your first poi finished. Now, we're gonna put that one to the side and we're gonna repeat the same steps for the other one so we have a pair. Awesome! We now have our poi ready to go.

So now that we have this fabulous set, we are going to learn some moves that we can do with our poi.

OK, now that you have your very own fabulous set of poi, we're gonna learn some of the basics of poi spinning. Before we get started, I would like you to make sure that you have enough space that when you turn around, you're not gonna hit anything. If you're to swing your poi forwards and backwards, that they're also not gonna hit anything. And when we're spinning our poi, something really, really important is how we hold onto them.

So we wanna squeeze the fabric, or the socks, between our fingers like this and hold on really tight. Because if you swing your poi and you're not holding on tight enough and it goes flying across the room, you might hurt someone else, you might hurt yourself and you may also damage something in your house and we really don't want that to happen. So please make sure that you're holding on nice and tight and that you have a clear space around you. If you can get outside to do this, even better. Then you're not at risk of damaging anything in the house.

Trick number one is going to be forwards-and-back swings. So we're gonna hold onto the poi between our thumb and our fingers and squeeze nice and tight. And we're just gonna swing the poi forwards and back and you're gonna see whether you can keep them nice and even. It may depend - if you've made your juggling balls a little bit uneven in weight, they will swing slightly different.

So that's where it's a little bit tricky when we make our own. I think I have one that's slightly heavier than the other in this set. It swings a little bit higher than the other one. So see if you can swing forwards and back. Nice and even. So you're gonna coordinate those hands.

For our trick number two, we are gonna see if we can take those swings into a full circle. So you're gonna start with your forwards-back swings, and then see if they can go all the way over. And swing and then... all the way over. So I've done two backwards and then I'm gonna swing and see if I can swing them forwards. And we're trying to see if we can keep them nice and even. And then swinging forwards. That's it.

So swing, swing, up and over. Swing, swing, swing, up and over. That's it. See if you can do a few swings. And then keep them in rhythm when they come back from their up and over. That's the way. Good. Very nice.

Trick number three, we're gonna see if we can consistently turn them in the circle. So see if you can turn them forwards, and keeping them in the same rhythm. That's it. So we don't wanna have... If our hands are in front of us, we're gonna hit ourselves. If our hands are way out to the side, it's harder to control, but also we have to be careful that we're not gonna knock into anything so if you keep your elbows close to your body, then you can turn them by the sides of your body. Excellent.

Now let's see if we can spin them backwards. You might like to start it by rocking backwards. And then up and over we go, backwards, for our turning. And see if you can get them nice and even. And you can try opening your arms out and see if they stay ..together. That's it. And then you can bring them back in. And keep them turning together. Good. We want them to be going like propellers beside us. That's it. Very nice.

Trick number four. We're going to do alternating turns. So this time, instead of both of them spinning together, like we just did, up and over, we're gonna try and get them going at opposite times. So you're gonna start one and then the other one chases. So you're gonna go over, over, over, over. Over, over. That's it. So you're chasing. Always one is following the other. So when one's at the top, the other is at the bottom. Very nice. See if you can go forwards. And then also see if you can do alternating going backwards. So you're gonna see. If you go too slow with your turning, you'll find that they start to fall. So you do need to get a little bit of momentum to keep them going. So the weight in the end is gonna help continue the movement.

So if you're finding that it's constantly hitting you or it's sort of falling into the middle, it's possibly 'cause you're going too slow. Or your hands are too close to your body and you're getting and going "Ahh!" all the way over your head. So nice... Elbows in by the sides. Spinning beside the body. And keeping it going at a reasonable speed. Not crazy fast, but not super slow. That's it. Very nice. And remember, are we holding on nice and tight? We haven't launched any across the room, I hope!

Now our trick number five. This one, we're gonna start to get a little bit fancy. So we're gonna turn ourselves into a helicopter. So we're gonna take one arm up by our ear. Now, I'm just gonna bend down a little bit for this one so I can show you that position and you can see me. So my top hand is gonna stay by my ear. And I'm turning the poi above my head. If we bring our hand out to the side, that's when we can hit ourself in the face. So I know it's a little bit scary when it's over your head but if you really glue that arm to your ear and keep your hand nice and strong, and draw little circles you'll keep your helicopter above your head and you can pretend to take off, you can fly around the house, you can be a fast zooming helicopter. Excellent.

So see if you can do that on both sides. So the other hand as well. So gluing it by your ear. Sometimes one hand is a lot trickier than the other hand. That's pretty normal. We're usually a bit more coordinated with one hand. So don't worry if your other hand is a little bit harder to learn. Lovely!

Trick number six. And this is gonna be our final trick. We're gonna get super fancy and we're gonna combine two things that we've learned today. So I think you're all doing a fabulous job with your poi spinning and you'll be able to master this one. But if it's a little bit challenging, 'cause it can be when we're first learning, it takes a lot of practice to get the coordination with these things... Don't worry if you don't get this one right away. You can keep practising all the other ones until you can master them individually and then you can put them together.

What you're gonna do is you're gonna take one hand into your helicopter overhead. That's it. And then the other hand is gonna spin by your side. So you might find it's easier to start this with your helicopter hand first or you might find it's easier to start with the side spinning hand and then add your helicopter in. That's it. I'll crouch down a little bit so you can see what I'm doing. Lovely! And then if you want an extra challenge, you can try the other side. So other arm goes up to the helicopter and your other hand is spinning on the side. That's a little bit of coordination sensation for me! (LAUGHS) Awesome!

Lovely! Lovely, lovely, lovely work. Well done. You've all done a fabulous job with your poi spinning. I hope you enjoyed making your own equipment and then learning a few tricks. Keep practising them. See if you can put some combinations together. You might be able to put a mini routine together that you can show your family. If you just pick, like, three tricks that we did and you can do them one after the other and then you can create a little routine with your poi.

Thank you so much for joining me today for our poi tutorial. 'Bye!