Club Obi Wan

Is it hard to do the Volley with an 8 foot whip? I've been working on it for days and I just can't get it. I end up tangling the whip. I noticed in Adam Winrich's video that he uses a 6 foot whip. I would imagine that the shorter the whip, the better.

I can do the volley with and 8 ft whip, as can be seen in my 'Cracking the Indy-on-a-Budget bullwhip' video. Though, the volley is generally easier with longer-handled whips.

I spent a lot of time mastering these tricks, so if you don't get them in a couple of days it's nothing to worry about, just keep working at it. The best thing is to get in front of a seasoned whip cracker who knows these tricks and he can tell you if you're doing them correctly.

-Adam

Hey Adam,
Thanks for the reply. I'll keep on working on it. I have one of your IOABs on order so who knows, maybe when it arrives I'll have the technique down and with a good whip it will be a lot easier to do.

BTW, your videos are a great resource. I can't imagine learning how to do some of these cracks with just a written description and maybe some still photos to go by.

Bruce

I have tons of frustration with trying a volley. I can sometimes get one going that lasts until my arm tires (not long at all), then I may go for months not able to reproduce it.

Yes Adams videos are an awesome resource.

If I remember right Paul Stenhouse does volley's and arrowheads with a 10 foot indy style on his DVD.

xoxo

Louie

It's really maddening when you get the hang of something and then your arm gets tired and you lose it. Then it takes a long time to find that sweet spot again. I'm getting closer with the volley now but my forearm gets tired from the back and forth motion. I'll have to build up my endurance along with my technique.

Also can not get the back crack when trying to do the Queensland Flash. I find that my whip springs back like a rubber band after the first crack. Is that normal or is it the sign of a crappy whip (or crappy technique)?

techrtr wrote:It's really maddening when you get the hang of something and then your arm gets tired and you lose it. Then it takes a long time to find that sweet spot again. I'm getting closer with the volley now but my forearm gets tired from the back and forth motion. I'll have to build up my endurance along with my technique.

Also can not get the back crack when trying to do the Queensland Flash. I find that my whip springs back like a rubber band after the first crack. Is that normal or is it the sign of a crappy whip (or crappy technique)?

A good rule of thumb when learning any sort of movement skill is to stop practice when performance quality decreases. Your neuromuscular system is like a computer and stores movements in little programs called motor engrams. Once the engram is ingrained it can be retrieved and the movement is executed without conscious thought. This is how highly skilled individuals can repeat complex movements with a high level of consistency. Think Tiger Woods. Tiger does not have to think "Ok, bring the club back, rotate the hips, keep the club face aligned, etc". He can just repeat a highly complex task over and over again. When you are in the beginning stages of learning a skill it is important to not feed the "computer" bad information as this will hinder progress. Junk in = junk out. Whip skills are much the same as a good golf swing or great bowling technique. A good strategy is to keep practice sessions short but frequent. Three fifteen minute sessions spread out through a day are often much more productive than one 45 minute session.

- Nebraska

Yeah, I try to limit my practice sessions to 20 minutes at the most. It really is surprisingly physically tiring.

Yeah, I've been keeping my sessions short as well for exactly that reason. Once my arm gets too tired I stop. The saying goes practice makes perfect, however when I was studying guitar my instructor always said that, more accurately, practice makes permanent. You can practice something until the cows come home but if you are doing it wrong you'll just ingrain that into your system, thus setting your mistakes permanently.