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Water, water, water before during and after! Watering the brain helps you train!

Through my experience I found train the hand that you don't write with first i.e. your weaker side, your training time to learn new moves will be lessened by 50 %.

Moves that are challenging: keeping in mind it takes time to master any move. You should visualize yourself doing the move before your arms do the move. Understand the move and plan it in your mind first. Ever begin a new move from an old flopped move? Always stop reassess and then try again. Trying a new move from the exact place the first incorrect move was done will prove unsuccessful.

Speed of the poi can at times be an illusion, when you see a poi player going really fast most of the time there's an extra beat or rotation in the move. So slow down the movement.
An excellent poi player knows exactly where the poi’s are at all times during a move.

Remember whatever goes forwards can go backwards, therefore everything going forward should be able to go forward and backward at the same time!

It’s amazing to watch yourself in the mirror. However learning new moves can be deceiving when done from one’s own reflection, it can complicate matters but also help you see where you are going wrong.

Once you know a few moves why don't you put them together, put on some music and try going from move to move without pausing/stopping your poi. This way you will develop some of your own awesome combinations of moves. It is also good to try to go into moves more quickly. So you are doing a move for only a few beats then straight into the next

Never panic don't try to hard just sleep on it it’s as easy as that at night while you are resting your brain is filling everything. In the morning one of the first things you should do it just pick up your poi and do that challenging move, good chance your brain has organized the move for you and your body (arms) will follow your brain mapping slightly better.

In my 8 years as a poi instructor I have never ever seen a wrong move. There are no wrong moves only moves done clean or sloppy. Poi is developing all the time almost daily, the moves and levels I (Aunty Yo) have established are moves that have been registered with the academy, all accumulated from the thousands of children out there that have contributed to this development so far.


Tiny little tots can start from toddlers keeping the cord short and allowing them to hold the wick. Before 3 years of age tiny tots can’t really comprehend the length of the cord. Tiny tots usually start with backward movements first as a general rule so leave them going backwards, they’ will soon gain confidence and understand there is a forward and backward by 3-4. After 4 you can teach specific moves forward or backward by 5-6 they are poi players of note. The academy’s youngest poi and fire team player is 4 year old Zoë Tursha from Margate, KZN

 Author: Aunty Yo

Before we start physically spinning the staff there are a couple things I want you to know and consider carefully. These tips are meant to get you thinking and get you into the right mindset for learning staff.

1.       Your staff will become an extension of yourself. at first the movements and flow of the staff feel weird and you might struggle but this is the same thing as when you learn to ride a bicycle or car. At first it’s awkward and hard but before you know, it has become second nature. I say this all the time Dedication is the key to becoming a good spinner one must invest the time and effort if you want to be good. This applies to anything in life.

2.       Stay motivated. Any spinner knows of the frustration that comes along with learning any poi art. My best advice is if you’re getting frustrated with a move take a break or practice a different move. Sometimes it just takes the brain some time to rest and register what you have been trying to learn and then it comes naturally. Go watch some clips online get some new inspiration and keep reminding yourself that you are learning and getting frustrated is normal. Keep pushing, keep spinning and you will overcome.

3.       Find the center of your staff and make sure it is marked clearly. The center point of your staff is very important as it is the central axis where most spinning takes place.

4.       Mark the ends of your staff with different colors, be it with tape or placing different colored socks over the ends. The reason I say make each end a different color is because it’s easier to learn staff if your only concentrating on one side. The color helps you distinguish the Front end and Tail end of the staff. When holding the staff in a closed grip, the end your thumb is facing is the front end and the opposite side would be your tail end.

5.       Slow down your moves. When you spin your body is learning a new motion, if you’re still learning staff and you speed things up your movements will become erratic and so your body is not learning a single movement but multiple movements because your hands and wrists are doing different motions. Slow it down, think about what you’re doing and try repeating the same motion over and over. Once your body has learnt the motion you will find speed will come naturally.

6.       With single staff many people only learn the moves in one direction and only with one hand! This is a big NO NO! One can become good only playing one direction but that’s like only learning how read but not how to write, It is essential for you to learn both directions with both hands. If you can learn the basic staff moves with both hands and both directions your well on your way to becoming a great staff manipulator.

7.       Dedication. Every minute you spend playing with your staff you improve. If you keep spinning every day even if it is only 15-30minutes. Within 5 years imagine where you will be!
This is my motivation seeing the progress I have already made and thinking about where I could be if I keep spinning.

These are tips I believe to be important when you are learning staff. Think about what I have just talked about these are all important and if you can get your mindset right you are well on your way to becoming great staff player.

*Note this is a general discussion to get ones mindset ready for poi. This is my personal opinion and experiences, please feel free to comment and add your ideas to this. Author: Bruno Kopf

Many people come to us after a performance and ask how they can start learning. They then pick up a set of poi/sta ff and and attempt to wildly spin it about before hitting themselves. At this point many people want to give up…. WOAH hit the brakes man! Don’t jump off the cliff because you couldn’t do something on your first attempt. I have spent thousands of hours practicing with my staves. Hours upon hours of the same thing just to get it perfect, regardless of how simple the move is.

How quickly you learn to play with poi or staff ultimately comes down to your dedication and determination to learn.

I played on a daily basis for 8 months, I had gotten the basics down nice and clean, my throws were looking great and I was getting a nice flow in my performance. I had moved from a 1,5m staff to a short 1m as I became addicted to twirling and throwing. It was about here I became a little stagnant and didn’t know where to go next.

It was not until I met Trevor Botha and introduced him to a staff that my mindset on poi was changed. Trevor is a shining example to any poi player out there.

He bought a staff and went online to see if he could learn something. He then stumbled across a contact staff clip. He had no idea what contact staff was but when he saw this clip he was determined.

Not two weeks later Trevor came to the next fire night at my house. With a small grin on his face he said “guys I learnt something cool, check it out”. He took his staff and pulled off a 360 halo. I was amazed I had tried to learn the move a while back but gave up in frustration shortly after starting. This was a major turning point in my mindset. I realized anyone can do anything. It all comes down to your dedication and determination to learn and understand.

Now 1 year on Trevor is one of my star performers. In the span of 1 year he had learnt almost all the contact moves. The Steve family, the Matrix family and much more. Not only did he learn the moves he learnt to combine them so to keep a constant contact flow. His dedication and determination to understand and do drives him to new levels all the time.  

The point is one can’t pick up a staff or set of poi and instantly be good BUT if you dedicate yourself you could be very good in a short time span. It all comes down to you, every second you spend playing you become better.

What I do is every day when I go outside to practice I remind myself of the following:

Every minute I spend playing with my poi I improve if I keep spinning every day even if it is only 15-30minutes. Within 10 years imagine where I will be!

 This is my motivation seeing the progress I have already made and thinking about where I could be if I keep pushing.

Eventually you might reach a point where you feel you’re not learning more and nothing is coming to you. You will get frustrated this is natural. I once read something that I thought was silly until it came true. The saying goes or kind of goes like this

 “ At first poi cames slowly and one can  easily feel stagnant in your training, Then all of a sudden ideas and moves came so fast I didn’t know where to start.”

 So even if you are feeling down remember to keep pushing you will get through the block you will learn and evolve more. Sometimes all it takes is to watch a couple inspirational clips and off you go again. 

After playing with poi or staff for a while it is only natural for you to start understanding the motion of your toy. Once you understand the movement and geometry of your poi a whole new world of possibilities will arise. Remember it comes down to your dedication and determination! If you have those two and add some time you will be a top class spinner in no time.

 Spinners always say keep burning, keep spinning! This is because each spin, each burn improves your skill.

So never stop spinning and keep that Desire for Fire Burning!