The 10/10 Challenge

[Tristan Foy]

Not much cracking practice today. I think I have found another spot I can go to. It's actually a spot I've been to twice before, a more recessed part of a park. As long as I get there before 10 it's not a big deal. But as easy is that might sound, my schedule actually tends to be rather chaotic and that's not always as easy as it sounds. I'm more of a natural night owl and am more geared to doing things later in the evening.

That said I found a temporary spot today near the park where I was able to get in a few minutes of cracking, simply to try the paintbrush motion. No matter how slow I went though the whip always strayed to to hit my back, though.

But the video Ben put up made a good point: sometimes you feel like your body is in a certain position and you are actually in a different one.

This would be so much easier if there was someone to actually give me live feedback. Most of us would probably agree on that. :-)

[Robert Gage]

Tristan, Robby has more than once pointed out to me a simple fact: if the whip hits you in the back, it means it wasn't lying straight to start with. In one of our sessions last week, just I was ready to repeat a crack, and Robby said, 'Stop! Look where the whip is!' I felt sure it was straight out behind me. I looked. It wasn't! Simple explanation.

Watching Robby crack, the whip is always absolutely straight out behind or in front of him before he moves. This is one of my big goals. But for the time being, I have to use my eye, rather than go by feel. (This also helps slow things down.)

I've been happily cracking whips for well over half a century - but there is always room for improvement!

[Ben Varsek]

Tristan, it's good news that you've found a new whipcracking spot !!!


Thank you for sharing Robert !!!


My last 10/10 practice of the FC didn't feel good at all - I've had "better" FC cracking sessions during the past days of my practice.
One of my major problems with the FC is that I'm bringing my handle to the 9 o'clock position but the thong doesn't travel to 9 o'clock (because I don't give it enough time to travel to 9 o'clock).
It's kind of embarrassing to post this video but that's how todays practice was (not good at all ):


http://vid1098.photobucket.com/albums/g ... d3yvey.mp4


have a nice day everyone !!!

All the best
Ben

[Ron May]

Ben, you are still making progress. It looks very smooth and you were getting positive results.

While we change to a new crack tomorrow you can still practice the forward crack on the side. I think you just had an off day today. It happens to every one

It might be that your target is too high. Maybe think more towards the front at eye level.

Ron

[Guest]

Just a quick five minute practice after martial arts training. I was about to film before training but the hall was taken so tomorrow morning I'll film the last day of forward crack and the first day of overhead!

[Ron May]

My practice today was better than yesterdays but I think it's getting easier.
At least it's feeling a little more comfortable.

Here's the video for day 1 forward crack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDEdxbzlxU

Here's the comparison video for day 10 forward crack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MFTNQ8ErNo

Ron

[Ron May]

Erik , I'm looking forward to seeing the progress you are making.

Ron

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

I didn't have much time to practice, but I did do a bit more. My left arm is still bad, but I'm getting a slightly more consistent movement. Will need to practice much more in the future to get good at it :P

[Ron May]

Brandon, it's the point of the whole exercise is to practice more.
You will get more comfortable with your off hand with every practice.

With practice we gain consistency.
I'm glad that you are finding that with your practice.

Tomorrow will be the first day of the horizontal crack /overhead crack.
Happy crackin' .

Ron

[Robert Gage]

Ron, and you all move on the forward crack, I might mention another thing Robby said to me last week: 'Imagine someone holding out their hand to you with an apple - and imagine reaching forward to take that apple.' I don't know if this makes much sense out of context, but I found it very helpful.

It's been a long day. Bedtime!

[Ron May]

Mr. Robert, I'm not sure what you mean by, " you all move on the forward crack".
Can you clarify that for us please?
Reaching for the apple is a good illustration.

Ron

[Tristan Foy]

Ok, so I went to my new adopted spot, and worked on my cracking for the FC. Small steps. Currently I just swung the whip behind me to see if I could get it to go straight behind me, but after watching Ron's video head-on, I think I might be holding everything too close to my body, for one thing. Like, as if the plane the whip is on is attached to to my shoulder.

Also, I think a lot of the issue comes from the handle moving around in my hand making the thong fishtail around behind me, like a cat getting ready to pounce. So somehow I'm holding the handle incorrectly and it moves as I come up from my downward swing and up into the forward motion. I'll try to get some video of this sometime soon. Tonight was too dark.

I had a nice view of lighting popping off on the horizon while I practiced. It rained briefly too, getting my whip wet. It's waxed nylon so I wasn't concerned, and it was fun to see the spray from the cracks.

[Robert Gage]

Sorry Ron! I should know better than to post anything when I'm very tired. (I've also been wondering for a while if I need new reading glasses.)

Of course, what I wrote is nonsense. What I meant was, 'Ron, and all of you who've been practising the forward crack' - but it somehow came out as gibberish!

Tristan, that's exactly it: if the thong moves around in your hand (generally from twisting the wrist - at least, that's my problem) the whip will inevitably 'fishtail' around behind you. (That's an excellent word for this!)

[Ron May]

Mr. Robert, my question is about the word "move" . I'm not sure what that means.

Ron

[Robert Gage]

Ron, the word 'move' was an aberration of my brain. Please forget it - it doesn't mean anything!

[Ben Varsek]

Thank's Ron !!!

Your day 10 video shows very good improvement - I'm impressed how good you're doing this crack with your off hand !!!


Thank you for your advice Robert !!!


Todays first 10/10 horizontal crack session was okay. My major problem with this crack is that I've devloped bad habits with this crack.
It was the first crack I've "learned" by following tutorials on Youtube and I thought it would be okay to do this crack in a diagonal plane.
Robbys video on the horizontal crack shows very good how to avoid this mistake but I need to constantly focus on that until (through practice) I'll do it by nature.


All the best
Ben

[Robby Amper]

I still love the fact, that you guys help each other! That's what I call a team. Be sure that I watch the videos; but I don't want to interfere. In case someone starts to kill himself - or others... - I will. But until then, you folks do a great job!

Thanks to all of you - and when I say "all of you", I mean those who are participating here!
And - Ron - you do a great job as Administrator!

Robby

[Jessie Edwards]

I agree, Ron, you have been such a great help. Thank you so much for taking the job. I think helping each other creates better relationships for the group overall as well.

[Ron May]

Ben, he also recommends lifting you hand as you finish the reverse movement to make sure it finishes horizontally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzoL1ZjA67Y

Ron

[Guest]

This morning was not my morning! It felt like all the stars were aligned against me an there were a dozen things making it uncomfortable for me: It was cold: basically a tiny blizzard so it was very windy also, there were people going around, I was in a hurry to leave town, the lighting kept changing and it was impossible to keep up with the camera with the hurry, and first and foremost...

Coffee. Note to self (and any coffee drinker out there): never leave your home before you've had coffee. Hell, don't leave your bed, don't even open your eyes before you've had coffee if it's possible. It's absolutely crucial to have coffee before you immerse yourself in any daily task (other than making coffee).

So that said, I was very annoyed the whole time I was making this video. What made me also annoyed I don't see much of a progress on my forward crack: I still take the hand behind my back - not a straight line at all. Well, it's only 10 days of which I took off at least a few so I can't punish my self too much.

Well now that I've said it it's actually pretty silly and I'm feeling better already

Anyway, here's my first video of all the cracks from before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thmm8PTb60I

And here's the forward crack day 1. I'm still doing all the cracks but in the end there's some forward ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwdv1Jk-i8w

And to the present moment, here's all the cracks from day 11 (:D) of forward crack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_wgXP7bH0

Here's just the forward crack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh_cEWFNqgw

And here's day one of the overhead/horizontal crack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWPaQCHZYc8

When you see the video skip that's where I cut out 30 seconds of untying a figure 8 knot from the fall. Every time I tried to lift the movement a little bit for it to be horizontal rather than diagonal, I created a knot in the fall. Might not be the ideal whip for the crack either and the wind certainly didn't help - It's also plausible that it's just me : D Seems like I didn't have the patience to crack for longer - I was also running out of time, but at least I got something done!

Anyway looking back now It's not so bad I suppose, at least the forward- and sidearm crack are more consistent, but I need more practice!