We've all been there. "Hey, what's that around your neck?" "What are you playing with?" "What's that ball and cup thing you have?" "Is that a yo-yo?" Anyone seeing us playing kendama and are curious and it's always cool to show off what we can do with it. That being said, what's your go-to kendama trick when you're showing off/explaining kendama to people who are unfamiliar with it? Mine; Hand Wrap > Finger Roll > Hand Roll Spike > Earth Turn or Whirlwind
ALWAYS: Cold Pizza > Basecup > Downspike > Downspike Earth I can do it 9/10 times, it's fast and it looks sort of impressive to a person who knows very little to nothing about kendama
I start off with the cups, around the world, Europe. Then I start to explain that you can also hold it upside down, and start doing houses, lunars, etc. I usually stop there most of the time because they're already interested and wanting to try it for themselves. However, if they ask to see something cool, I usually just do some slingers and earth turns and basecup throws to house. Stuff like that; it's mostly whatever tricks I'm jamming that day really
Different basic spike tricks then move on to some difficult spike tricks but I tend to stay away from string tricks and really fast tricks because they won't understand the fast tricks and it sometimes kills the joy for some people.
I usually do something like: finger wrap, pullback, gunslinger grip double clack, gunslinger spike. Sometimes I do kenflip/juggle tricks, or bird over valley But it varies slightly over time.
I usually do a lunar, rover 180, lighthouse, swap spike, earthturn. I just feel that I do this trick a lot to warm up as well.
Usually I'll do a soft trick like a quad sling quad late jug late jug dub late jug trip late jug quad late to boarders, quint boarder insta to quint boarder to tightrope jug quint late jug deca late 50 jug spike. Kinda soft but it gives them a little knowledge on the dama.
I'll do something more exciting for first timers to see like string tricks and then I'll basically just mess around with the cups and lighthouses after that
Around USA to show them the cups and spike. Then a pull-up Kenflip big cup x Kenflip again x spike to show that there's flipping involved as well. And like a spacewalk x moon circle x hand roll x reverse hand roll to swirl x in to show the string tricks. Sometimes I throw in a tornado, Sweets special, or a butterfly; those tricks get the most "WOWs." And then I do airplane x jumping stick x pop to lighthouse x lighthouse flip x trade spike to show that we can hold the tama too. Most of the time when I'm holding the tama, buncha people passing by try to be smart, and are like, "You're holding it wrong." HAHA.
For people who have never seen kendama before, I usually show them Around the World first. Even though it's very basic, they're always so blown away that I end on the spike. Then i pop out to basecup and throw to lighthouse to explain that you can hold the ball and balance it on the cups as well. I'll drop down to a lunar, then spike it afterwards. If they're interested and want to see more, I might show them some spacewalks or kenflips. Then if they ask "what is the hardest trick you can do?" I'll bust out a boarder's balance. It's not the absolute hardest trick I've done, but from their perspective it seems to defy any type of physics. I always love showing kendama to people! Everyone's reaction is a little different.
I do Around the World and tell them the names of the cups first, then I explain balance tricks and do one turn lighthouse to lunar or something like that, after that I do some string tricks like handrolls and tornadoes, and end with a spike and whirlwind.
What I like to do is as the string starts to wrap around your finger, slightly pull it tight so that when the string swings around the spike and the tama lands on the big cup, you can slightly pull the string forward, causing the string to tighten. Then proceed with the trick as you wish. Hope this helped!
I usually do around the world then earth. After that I will probably go into some juggles, lighthouses, and some string tricks.