The 10/10 Challenge

[Robby Amper]

There's one important thing, Ron. Forget about the crack. Concentrate on the technique, the flow, the blue sky and the green grass. But not on the crack. When you improve your technique, the crack will follow. When you shoot an arrow, it will hit the target. Or not. But the same moment, the arrow has left the bow, it is out of your control. It simply happens. So why try to force a crack? When the whip sees that you worked hard enough, it will give you it's best and nicest crack. See it as a present from your whip. Not as it's duty.

Robby

[Jessie Edwards]

When you shoot an arrow, it will hit the target. Or not. But the same moment, the arrow has left the bow, it is out of your control. It simply happens.

This is actually an interesting fact. When you shoot an arrow, or throw a dart or a knife, you look at where you want the item to end up. You pay no attention at all to your arm, your fingers, the bow...If you keep your eyes on the prize, eventually it will end up there every time. Like, your body will eventually learn on it's own to do what it needs to do to get the result you want. It's actually a pretty cool phenomena, but it really is how it works and its how I was taught to use manual style weapons. What's really cool is the person that taught me was an amazing shot with everything, but he could not read or write. He had no manual to learn from or formal teaching, it was just a fact he learned and practiced every day. Like we are doing now, here, with the challenge.

So, maybe to elaborate on Robby for a minute, visualize what you want, focus on relaxing and the atmosphere (when you have Robby right in front of you, he will crack a joke or something right when you are starting to get frustrated, and you will do the crack...its weird), but also pay attention to when and why you succeed and practice THAT until you can do it every time. How do you explain, pay attention, but don't pay attention at the same time?

..."Picture the lily in the pond, Jessie..." Ugh. Yeah, yeah.

[Ron May]

Like taking a curve on a motorcycle.
You look at where you want to come out of the curve not the road one foot in front of the tire. It's amazing but where you are looking the bike will go.... with out thinking about the throttle, clutch, handlebars.... it just goes.

I think I get it... that's going to be my non-focus for this evenings practice.
Thank you Jessie and Robby.

Ron

[Ron May]

I just got through and it was horrendous and the left hand abysmal.
Nothing felt right, nothing flowed right, it just did not come together at all.
Maybe I was thinking about not thinking too much. I just felt totally out to lunch.

I'll do better tomorrow.

Ron

[Jessie Edwards]

And, tomorrow it will go better, promise. When I learned the Victorian cutback, one day I was spot on, the next day, shit.

[Ron May]

Jessie, that almost sums it up.
Yes, tomorrow it will be better.

Ron

[Ron May]

Jessie, you were right about today being better.
I did the challenge this morning and it was 100% better. Which wouldn't take much considering yesterday's practice.
It does show improvement, especially the off hand side.
I will upload a video when Mom goes down for a nap at 1:00pm when there's enough band width to support uploading. (she has to watch her story "The Bold and the Beautiful").
Thank you for your encouragement.

Ron

[Guest]

Hi all,

after not having time yesterday, I continued the circus crack today. It went a lot better than last time. Surprisingly one of my problems was not bringing the arm up correctly. Now I get that little tug when the whip is at 9, that tells me it's time to move forward/down again.

Cheers,

Alex

[Ron May]

Alex, that's the best way to time the motion.
Feel the whip and if we "listen" it will tell us what to do.
I know that's easier said than done from my own experience.

Ron

[Robert Gage]

And Robby keeps saying, 'Listen to the whip!'

[Guest]

... and answer her. She gets angry if you ignore her.

[Robert Gage]

Indeed!

[Ben Varsek]

On today's practice I've been folowing the advice in Robby's video and it has helped me a lot to slow down the movement of the thong after the crack - thank you Robby !!!
Slowing down the action is a huge milestone for me in terms of getting closer to the point of doing this crack right !!!

All the best
Ben

[Ron May]

Here's the latest video of the underhand.
I am using my first whip which is about 2' shorter.
It's a "noodleRoni" but I think it will do the job.

I noticed that keeping my elbow closer to my body helps to keep the plane of the whip better on a vertical plane and it does help with the throwing and the follow through.
I even got a couple of "pops" with the left side this time.
It's getting there.

https://youtu.be/EQ3u9XXYbiw

Ron

[Ron May]

Ben , I too have slowed down in between throws.
And it does help to get set for the next one.
Good job and I am glad that a milestone has been reached by you.
That's the way to do it.

Ron

[Guest]

That's very well put, Robby, I'll keep that one in mind!

[Ron May]

It helped me Erik.

Ron

[Robby Amper]

I'm happy to help. Ron & Ben - Give the whip a bit more time to roll out before you bring it up.
Just imagine that: You crack the whip on a horizontal plane. After the crack - when the whip
starts to flip around like a young horse - you take that energy and lead the whip over your
head and back. Don't pull it over your head. Use it's own energy and lead it over your
head. And - allow me to say that - less power. Use only that amount of power the whip needs
not to fall to the ground.

When Jessie and Robert were here, I told them this... Imagine a sculpturer. And a big stone.
He wants to create a wonderful statue. What is he going to do? Add more and more stones?
No. He will remove material. He's going to do that until all is left, is the statue.

Your perfect technique is right with you. You have it in your hands. You just can't see it, because
it's yet covered with other things. Power and speed. Take away the power. Take away the speed.
And all that will remain is a perfectly executed technique.

Robby

[Bill Jahns]

I have also been practicing a lot as usual since it is all still new. Thank you Robby, with your advice I got a little better on my underhand flick but after watching my video I am still going too fast. This is with one of my 6' bull whips.

Here is my video.
https://youtu.be/fMuVcwyMa8A

Bill

[Ron May]

Bill, your video is set to "private" . It's not open to the public.
You can change that in the settings on YouTube.
Thanks for being with us on the 10/ 10/ challenge.

Ron