Club Obi Wan

Hi,
I just got a 12 foot Western stage Props swivel handle whip and was wondering: Can I put pecards on it? Is pecards just for Roo hide or can it be used on cow hide too . Just wanted to be sure Thanks
-Scott

Edit: wow, that was a stupid question. I musta been drunk.

Pecards will work on your cowhide whip. I've used Pecards on roo whips and cowhide, as well as Goat and cowhide jackets. -S

I'm sorry for asking a dumb question, that is if you think it is dumb. Well I want to learn more about whips so I am going to ask every question I can think of. Ok here it is? I've been seeing a lot about swivel handled whips and such. What is the difference btw a swivel and a regular besides the obvious and also what does it do for you as far as cracking goes? Thanks for the help in expanding my knowledge.

Well the swivel handled whip in the hands of a good performer, is good. People swear by them. These guys also swear they are just as accurate. But in my opinion, they get you into a sloppy habbit. They were designed to crack the whip easy, when riding on top of a horse. Without the swivel, you teach yourself to do the "ball and socket" technique with your wrist and hand. With the swivel you don't have to do that. So it makes the horizontal overhead crack easier. Also, in my opinion, when doing target work, the swivel has a rotational component to it, that makes it harder to hit and track your target. But the experienced whip crackers seem to be just as accurate. Which they intentionally compensate for this additional rotational vector when throwing the whip.

Whip work involves working on different planes; horizontal, vertical, 45 degree, etc. You want the whip to be in very predicable planes when you do cracks and multiple cracks. Having a swivel whip, to me, makes it unpredictable because of the way it tracks through the air. It doesn't track true, it rotates.

Bottom line: I would stay away from them and work on technique. Get yourself the "Whip Cracking Made Easy Tape, Vol 1 & Vol 2" by Alex Green and Mark Allen from Western Stage Props. Volume 1 goes through the 4 basic cracks. That's my advice. After those tapes, they are a slew of other good tapes that get you into the more advanced techniques.

-S