Difficulty: Easy

Safety Warning: Make sure you have enough space so that you don’t knock anything over or hit anyone with your poi. Also, be careful of hitting yourself with your own poi!

Els shows you how to do poi turns, a simple but visually effective trick for poi learners. To achieve this trick, you’ll spin your poi backwards and then turn 180 degrees and switch to spinning your poi forwards.

Els breaks down the trick into its separate components. First, practice spinning the poi forwards, both at the same time, one on each side of the body. Next, practice spinning the poi backwards in exactly the same way.

To turn, start spinning backwards. Stop the poi spinning by dropping them behind your shoulders – raise your arms up and over your shoulders. Turn, then start spinning the poi forwards. Once you’ve got the hang of this, speed up the stop and turn to make it a smooth motion.

Next, Els shows you how to start from spinning the poi forwards. From spinning forwards, bring both poi to the front, turn, and switch to spinning backwards. A harder variation is to bring the poi behind your back in order to switch from forward to backward spinning.

When you’ve mastered the basics of poi turns, you can switch between the two as many times as you like!

You can see all our poi tutorials by tagging ‘poi’ on our library homepage here!

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

Safety Warning: When poi spinning make sure you have plenty of space so you don’t hit anything.

In Poi Spinning 4 Jono demonstrates 2 new tricks; the Corkscrew and Turning.

Poi Spinning 4 begins by walking you through the basic pattern needed to achieve the corkscrew.

Starting with just one poi, you can practice spinning out the pattern; one circle above your head, leading into another circle across your legs.

Once you have mastered this pattern, you can add in your second poi. Start by following the seem route as your first poi, and then slowly start to separate out your arms so that the pattern splits.

If you want to try a simpler variation of this trick, Jono also demonstrates a fun sequence using one poi where you jump over it as it passes you by.

Next in the tutorial Jono demonstrates turning while twirling. This is an important part of poi spinning as it allows the performer freedom to start moving.

You’ll be shown how begin practicing by pretending to pass a tray of glasses to someone behind you. First passing them across your body, and then over your head.

Once you’ve mastered this technique it is time to put it to use. Why not go and revisit Elly’s 3 beat weave tutorial, or Sophie’s Butterfly video for ideas on tricks you can build into a routine.

For all our other tutorials, click here.

Difficulty: Medium

Safety Warning: As always with poi, make sure you have plenty of space and won’t hit anything (or anyone!) with your poi!

In Poi Spinning 3, Elly shows you two variations on your 3-beat weave! If you haven’t yet mastered your 3-beat weave, go back to Elly’s earlier video and practice that first.

First, Elly shows you how to do a trick called Under The Leg. You’ll start with your dominant hand and just one poi, learning how to spin one of the poi under your leg on the third beat.

When you’ve got the hand of that, Elly will show you how to add in your second poi. Try with both hands leading to get really good!

Then, you’ll learn the Backwards Weave. For this, you’re reversing the direction of your 3-beat weave.

These are difficult tricks, so don’t worry if it takes you a few tries!

Remember, if you don’t have your own poi, Elly shows you How To Make Sock Poi in an earlier video.

You can see all our videos and activities here.

Difficulty: Medium

Safety Warning: Make sure you have plenty of space. Practice away from siblings, parents, pets, or breakables!

In Poi Spinning 2, Sophie teaches you a fantastic new trick called The Butterfly!

First, learn the arm movement – without using the poi – to get used to the journey of your arms. Then, you’ll gradually let your poi out and speed up your arm movements, until you are at full length.

Sophie talks you through hand positioning and how to bring the movement from your shoulders to your wrists to get that fantastic fast spinning motion! Take your time learning this move – it’s all about controlling your poi.

If you haven’t got your own poi, watch our How To Make Sock Poi video first!

You can also learn a 3-Beat Weave in our Poi Spinning 1 video with Elly.

You can see all our videos and activities here.

Difficulty: Medium

Safety warning: Make sure you have enough space! When you practice lots, you’ll be able to control your poi and practice in a small space. But until then, avoid catching siblings, pets, parents and breakable objects with your poi!

Elly shows you some poi spinning moves that are perfect for learning and practicing at home. If you haven’t got your own poi, watch Elly’s How To Make Sock Poi video first!

In this video you’ll learn a three-beat weave. Starting with a two-beat weave, which forms the basis for lots of poi spinning, you’ll work towards three beats with Elly’s guidance. She also shows you how to make your weave look really good by polishing your technique!

You can see all our Youth Circus Home Edition videos here