Club Obi Wan

I watched Paul Stenhouse's DVD (great video, btw!) for the first time last night and while watching him explain how to do volleys something clicked. I don't know if it was the camera angle or whatever but suddenly the hand/wrist action of the volley just made sense to me. After work today I booted it home, went outside, and within no time was doing volleys for the first time. Man, they're a lot of fun to do!

I'm so glad people like Paul, Mark Allen, and Mike Murphy have put together whip videos because if they didn't do it, we wouldn't have any! Thanks, guys!
-Dittmer

One thing that clicked recently for me was when I was watching Sebastian explaining/teaching volleys at one of our local WE practices. He compared it to the motion of a windshield wiper \ / \ / \ /...that really clicked for me. I'll have to pull Paul's tape back out.

For me it was all in the wrist. It was just a matter of getting that rolling motion with the hand.
-Dittmer

The other key point is keeping a constant angle in your elbow, between the upper and lower arm. If that angle changes, while going back and forth, then you get tied up. Literally!

-S

Sergei wrote:The other key point is keeping a constant angle in your elbow, between the upper and lower arm. If that angle changes, while going back and forth, then you get tied up. Literally!

Hmmm, that might explain the knot I put into my fall yesterday. I didn't notice it at first and kept cracking and then had a heck of time trying to undo it. Thanks for the advice, Sergei!
-Dittmer

Milo over on the Whip Enthusiasts list has a series of pictures that he calls "Tied at 750 mph" Just a bunch of weirdly tied fall knots.
And not those for the hitch either.

The more new cracks and combinations you try the weirder some of the knots become. I've had some that looked like butterflies and some, I have no idea how i got that thing tied in so many knots on one series of cracks!

Just be aware as you are using the whip and when it feels different, it usually is, and that's a good time to stop and look things over. Might save you a bit of a struggle untying those funny knots.

keep 'em crackin'

Jerry R

Here's Milo's link:
http://www.dallasdogsled.com/Mach/

Thanks for the link, ITG. It makes me wish we had a super slo-mo of each one of those volleys just see how in the world those knots came into existence.

I.J.

Joe, don't you know it! Milo really enjoys taking pics of these knots and his enthusiasm for finding a "weirdly" tied knot is fun to watch.