Do you cover your tama’s hole?

Do you cover your tama hole when you do balance tricks? I’ve been noticing that a lot of players have been using the side of the tama to land their tricks to avoid part of the cup landing in the hole. Personally, I’ve always covered the hole because that’s what tutorial have thought me to do but lately I’ve been trying to land on the side of the tama. How do your balance your tricks? Do you think it should cover the hole? Do you think during the side of the tama is good or bad practice? Let the community know!

 

Well for me, despite on the kendama I using.
Each of my kendamas has different "sweet spot" for lighthouse and lunar, so I just follow how they want me to BRUH
But mostly won't (cover the tama hole) , even my lighty can't balance right above the hole.

 

glad you posted this thread...
I started out covering the hole for both lighthouses and lunars, but now I've switched it up. my lighthouses and lighthouse flips do not cover the hole, they are on the side of the tama. My regular lunars, it either covers or is very close to the hole. My inward lunars do not cover, I do them on the side. But of course, for trades, I cover the hole on all of them (I'm grinding a trick for the DSCE which is kinda like an around trade- small cup spike, lunar trade, big cup spike, inward lunar trade, base cup spike, lighthouse trade).

 

That’s about exactly what I’m doing. Also if it’s a trick that I’m not sure I can land over the hole I’ll use the side or set myself up for it to land there. For example let’s say I want to go from lunar to small cup inward lunar. I’d pull my lunar up and land it more right of the hole(tama hole is slightly covered) that when I go to inward lunar I have a pretty open spot for the small cup to land without losing balance from possibly clipping the tama hole. Then if I wanna do a trade or something I set my self up by going back to lunar but rotating the tama a little bit so that I’m right over tama hole when I land. Then I do whatever.

 

I use the side for everything because I have learned that if the hole is beaten to shreds from missed spikes and so forth that it will grab my base cup or lunar cups and knock off my trick. So the side is more uniform and won't act so wonky. That's why I do it.

 

Just to get some more information, what side of the hole do you land your tricks? And also do you have an adjusted grip for pulling up for a trick?

 

Regular lunars, I'll land on the tama hole unless I want to do something like a tre flip or mulitple lunar flips. Lighthouses are always on the side of the tama. Because I'm a righty, I usually put the tama hole to face my palm so that I can just slightly rotate the tama up like how Cooper Eddy did in his Tightrope tutorial. Not sure if this applies for anyone else, but it definitely does for me.

 

This literally exactly what I do.

 

Same!

 

I'm a lefty but I leave my damas strung righty so it's a little weird to explain. But the hole is pointing toward my palm. I find it easier for trades as well bc if I get lazy I can loft the tama up and spike it horizontally without much effort. But yea my grip is adjusted the most for inward loons. I kinda grip it like your going to go for lunar rover but all the time. Again. Kinda hard to explain. Maybe u picture it. Idk. In short, I would say that the balancing with side tama helps more than it hurts. But again it's all preference. When I started playing I did everything hole up and gradually figured out that side was better. For me anyways.

 

For Lighthouses, I cover the hole. Makes it easier for me to do tradespikes.

For Lunars, however, since I learned them using the Kendama USA tutorial, I use the side of the tama. I'd like to think it gives me more control when the ken makes contact.

 

Does anyone play with the string hole facing your body and the tama hole facing away from you towards the tip of your fingers? I’ve seen some people do this as well which is also a good position because you are free to get into a stilt without much effort. But it’s kinda hard to rotate the tama hole to get it under the cups for a trade.

 

Yes, I land my balance tricks over the hole since that's what I'm used to and I like to tradespike. An exception is inward lunar flips: I put the hole under my thumb so the edge of the big cup cant end up on top of the hole. Another exception is when all of the paint near the hole is chipped off.

 

For me it's not really important as long as the ken is steady except for lighthouse I usually balance it on top of the hole

 

ive been getting better lean houses on the side of my tama vs trying to land in the bevel cleanly. but i dont cover the bevel i just turn the tama to the side before i pull up vs straight up like a normal pull up.

 

I use the side of the tama when I can, but I don’t really worry about or redo a trick because I was unhappy about hole-position.