Hey Guys ! What are everybody's kendama rituals or superstitions? I want to know what people do before they pick up a kendama to land a trick or what they do afterwards to celebrate. I've only been curious of this quite recently because when I seem to land tricks or do any combos that I like the first thing that pops in my head to do it head butt the kendama as very strange as it is haha!
I'll do some random things before trying to lace a trick, like sling the ken around my finger or flip it a bunch. Something to warm my hands up and get the reflexes ready ya know? One of the things I always do no matter what is tug the tama up and down to hear the bead click. Not sure if it actually helps or not, but I feel like it helps untangle the string a little bit. If I can do something to get that darn string outta the way I'll do it lol
Hahaha bro same af!! I always whisper "why are you being a lil bitch" in the tama when I'm throwing trash.
Yea man pretty much every kendama player does the string thing. It untangles the string but with the new ball bearing beads everyone's using you don't have to do it but it just a second nature twitch that ill always do it regardless of the string is tangled or now.
I'm crying. That's too funny. I usually just scream at the top of my lungs and throw the Kendama at terminal velocity towards the heavens...
I usually do some slingers just in my hand, and for some reason pull the tama and ken apart to feel tension in the string. and then usually when I land a trick I Shout FINALLY because it usually takes a hella long time for my brain and hand to do what I wanted it to do 1 hour before.
I always wondered why people do that! But it does untangle it!! That could have saved me so much time lol. I dont have any superstitions or rituals but a habit i just noticed today is that i like tilt my head look at my dama then the nod and look at the camera when i get a trick. idk why lol.
I end up talking to myself like a crazy person sometimes if I'm chasing some crazy trick. Sometimes the audible coaching really helps me remember what to do.
during really long grinds I do the softball pitch arm rotation. I feel it helps with blood flow. Also the knee kick to the opposite shoulder. stretches out the back. I do the string tug thing too but I did it to 'stretch' the string out. I never really thought about 'untangling' it!
Sometimes I'll watch videos or visualize what trick I'm trying land- slowing it down in my head. And yeah the string thing
I do this too, something i picked up while trying to learn poi spinning. I'd study their wrist and arm motions til it was embedded in my brain then id practice til i got it. Its really nice with kendama and youtube because now i can slow the video down and analyze every part of a trick from where their eyes are, wrist motions again, where they grab the ken/tama/string. I also have a firm belief that if i cant land a trick 3 times in a row, i have yet to master that trick.
Here's an funny 'ritual' anecdote: At KWC 2015 I was feeling some nerves going into the contest, and I had rolled my ankle and broken my foot a couple days before, so that wasn't helping the situation much (I thought it was sprained, but later an Xray showed it was broken). In the moments before my qualifying round started, I decided to just build some confidence by repeating a trick I knew I could do every single try: scramble 1 turn trade spike. So, when it was my turn to compete I stood in the square, and did probably twenty of those trade spikes in a row. The thing is, that trick puts a single twist of tension into your string every time you do it, and my string wasn't quite free enough to unwind itself easily. So, as the countdown started to begin the round, I realized my dama was all outta wack, and started shaking the tama and trying to free the string to unwind it. I guess my goal of building confidence didn't work out at all that time! (The 'building confidence' routine is something I learned during my days as a serious golfer. I would set up balls on the practice green, starting about 1' from the hole, then another right behind it at 2', then right behind it at 3', etc. You hit the 1' putt, back up, hit the 2' putt, then 3', 4', until you've sunk them all (maybe 5-6 total). If you miss, you start again. Its a nice routine because even if you miss some, you still sink the majority of putts you attempt, which is a good feeling. Do it uphill/downhill/crosshill on the same hole, and its a good way to feel out how the greens are rolling too)
I had a friend who would lick ice cubes to "reset his senses" if he couldn't lace after a few minutes.
Where would he find icecubes. I didnt noticed doing anything myself. Maybe just pause for a second take a breath and try to focus o the small movements whitch would make a difference. But thats not suoerstition