From falls & poppers to plaiting & cracking technique, this section is dedicated in memory of Sergei, IndyGear Staff Member and Whip Guru. Always remember to keep "Celebratin' Life!"
1st day: playing with the whip. familiarization
2nd day: trying to crack whip but whip is cracking me!
3rd day: went to http://www.bullwhip.org/faq/cracking.html. Read the tutorials and watched Karen in the quicktime movies. Voila! Cracking 1 hr later when I want & how I want!
THE KEY TO ME WAS THUMB PLACEMENT & ORIENTATION IN THE PLANE I'M CRACKING IN.
Forward crack, overhead crack, & sidearm crack I can do over & over. I can even multiple crack & , oh, do the hungarian pig drover crack (whata name!).
My popper frequently gets tangled up in my fall & I have to untwist it.
And yes...my neighbors did come outside to see what was going on!
I used the same website, and learned the same cracks... that's a good website, huh? I'm also trying to work my way through the figure 8 crack, which isn't on that site, but I've heard of it... and I watched a guy do something with my whip that looked like a figure 8... so I'm trying to make it work. It's going well so far... just watch your ears and make sure you don't get yourself TOO hard. (My buddy had a 3 inch long, 1/4 inch tall welt across his shoulder from doing an uneducated forward crack... awesome, awesome looking welt, but pretty painful too, I'd wager)
Are you planning on getting an instructional video, too? I think I might. For targeting and cutting, which I can't do at all, except barely with that forward crack. But it's awesome that it only took you 3 days. Took me forever... I had this funky underhand crack thing going and it worked on a ratio of about 1:5 tries. lol First one of those that I learned was the overhead, then the forward, then the side, then the Hungarian Pig Drover.
I may get a video later but now I'm just going to try & perfect these cracks further. I actually thought it would take me months to learn to crack, but the website I listed above really helped. Without it, it might have been that long. I have popped myself several times & thats why the overhead is my least favorite. The neck hurts! I had my wife out watching me. She thinks its funny. My 6 year old now refers to me exclusively as " Dr. Jones" & 3 times a week we watch a "Dr. Jones movie". I Love It!!!
Sounds like you're having fun. That and safety are the most important things. Be sure to protect those eyes of yours. Once you start cracking it's hard to stop.
