Whip Basics. The Forum

Ben Varsek wrote:Tristan, practicing in front of a mirror to work on your postures is a great idea but I wouldn't recommend a 3 footer for that - 3 footers are incredibly fast which makes it very difficult to develop a muscle memory for the right way of moving your whip in my opinion.

Robby has repeatedly urged me to practice various cracks using only a handle (or any handle-shaped object) rather than a whip. This can be done indoors, in front of a mirror, and I've found it extremely helpful.

I am new to this challenge stuff but, I am in. I have my wife and kids on board as well. My wife is a R.N. so on the days she works it will not be possible, for her to practice with me due to late hours . The kids can practice with me every day after school, they already do the only thing new will be the videos. The overhead crack was the first one that they learned so this is a perfect time to get involved.

I'll keep that in mind, Ben. What kind of habits can one develop? I was thinking short for indoor practices.

No practice for me today. I have had too much going on. I almost made it to practice tonight but in the end other things, like having too cook dinner, won out. So I hope to be able to get some longer sessions in this weekend.

Jessie, I had to read that a couple of times to see what (I think!) you mean. I'm a visual learner, but I look forward to putting it into practice.

I think I am going to continue working on building my whip tonight.

Welcome aboard Johnny.

Ron

Welcome, Johnny! Your kids are lucky to have a parent who is into teaching them this early on!

Robert, I've done a little bit of that and I agree, it helps, and I'm sure I'll do more of it. One of my main concerns right now, however, is control of the thong as well.

Ron I didn't get to watch your whole video but the one thing I noticed is you could concentrate on elevating your elbow. Get your elbow up and then the rest should fall in place.

Thanks Roy, I'll try that.

Ron

hey everyone, i am hoping that in a week or so i will be able to commit to ten mins a day after work so hope i can join in.

at the moment the only place i can practice properly is the woods on a weekend.

thinking about doing it in work but not putting a knot in the cracker so i still learn the technique.

whats the thoughts on this, do you think it's worth it or should i just practice properly on weekends

Depending on where you work you might get some unwelcome attention. But the crack isn't the point for now. Trying to safely get the motions down is more important for starting out, so I think you can practice without a cracker. The whip will still be noisy as it whooshes through the air though.

I think Tristan's right.
You might get a slight "pop' from the fall but the important thing is the journey the
thong takes to get to the "crack".

I would definitely be better than not.

Mr. Robert had suggested to do the practice with a handle / stick like object on it's own when weather or location is not conducive to practicing.

Welcome to the 10/10 practice challenge.

It's encouraging to see additional members taking advantage of this exercise to gain some experience and further their cracking skills. It's a gold mine of tips and advise we are gaining.

Ron

Thank you for pointing out the "handle only" practice Robert - I also parctice with nothing but a handle sometimes (in my case a wooden rod) and find it to be very helpful to develop a muscle memory !!!


Welcome to the challenge Johnny - it's great to have another participant !!!


Tristan, by bad habbits I meant: musceling the whip to much. It's possible to develop this bad habit because a 3 foot whip needs a lot more swing than a 6 foot whip for example (besides the length it's also the weight of a whip which will influence how fast the thong of a whip will perform). This fast swing makes it very, very much harder for me to crack a 3 foot whip with finesse (instead I'm usualy overpowering the action = bad habits).


Welcome to the 10/10 challenge Mr. Cuthbert !!!


Todays parctice was nice - nothing special to report on the horizontal crack practice except that I don't constantly have to think about lifting my arm "upwards" after the crack anymore


All the best
Ben

Well then maybe I'll just plait me a handle, complete with knots and everything. :-)

Ben , that's terrific that lifting your arm "upwards" is now more of a second nature for you to do it. That is what this practice challenge is all about. Doing the right things with out thinking how to do them.
Good job.

I had a chance after grocery shopping to slip in practice before it got too hot.
One of the throws turned up a little diagonal but for the most part it's staying more on the horizontal plane where it belongs.
This whip is very heavy and it helps to slow down my delivery. I might still need to work on keeping the handle at less of an angle but it's getting better. Not so straight up.

https://youtu.be/mT5opwCnE4I

Ron

I have been trying to get my oldest son Logan to slow down a bit and stop overpowering it. I think the main reason he has developed that bad habit is because both of the kids always wanted to use one of the longest whips that I have when learning. I always tried to get them to use shorter lighter whips but something about that 14 footer appealed to them. Well they didn't have the upper body strength to spin it over there head and crack it in one rotation so they would make two or sometimes three. As they have grown they have gotten strong enough to do it in one rotation but, they really had to muscle it to get that long heavy whip moving. Well now that they will crack all of the whips that we have most being much shorter and lighter. Logan is still really overpowering his throws. I have tried and tried to get him to slow down and sometimes he will while I am standing there telling him but the next time he picks up a whip it is right back to as fast and hard as he can throw it. I'm hoping that this challenge will help up all a great deal. I think that getting them to watch a few videos and read a few posts with me will make them understand that its not just Me telling them they are doing it wrong. I have been trying to explain the reasons why but teenage boys think they know everything. I will try to get a good video this evening of all of us then figure out how to upload it. If you guys are planning on taking the crackers off of nylon falls to practice then I would suggest either watching the tip of the fall closely between cracks or tying a knot in the end. Without the cracker the melted tip of the para cord will sometimes pop off and start to fray making your fall shorter by the pop. Happy Cracking

Johnny, I think a really short cracker will keep the noise down and protect the fall from fraying like you mentioned.
He's right about the fall getting shorter. It may not be by much but over time it might make a difference in performance if it's used that way a lot.

Ron

Thanks Ron !!!

I wouldn't say that it has become a second nature by now but that's my goal and it's getting there step by step

Congratulations - your practice video shows some good improvement after such a short period of time !!!



Johnny, thank you for pointing out that a whip which is too long and too heavy for the user can also reslut in overpowering the action (not just too short and too light whips) !!!

I'm looking forward to your video !!!


All the best
Ben

30 minute practice session today, to make up for my lost time. I got a few videos that I'll upload when I have more time. It's really dark and overcast, but I think you'll be able to see enough.

@ Johnny: I didn't even realize whips had different weights (aside from the material figuring into length, of course), or perhaps better said, that weight was a designed factor, until this past summer. I don't know what the best weight to learn on would be. These past few months have been quite a learning experience for me. You're kids are lucky to have some resources at their hands to choose from. How did your family get into whips, anyway? Was it your idea? Theirs? Are you from a ranching family or Indiana Jones fans? :-)

I did just that what Mr. Robert mentioned - practiced just with a handle in front of a mirror.
Have to say it was actually pretty fun and I believe it will be very useful!

I did the overhead crack keeping in mind the elbow thing and the forward crack keeping in mind not to try to follow the line of my shoulder. I'll see how it transfers to the real whips!

I was even thinking of building an indoor non-cracking whip-practice-thing hmm...

Ron It looks nice with the longer whip! I might suggest to add more momentum to the fore-swing and decrease it from the throwing motion. Just my humble observation!

Ron, that's looking a lot better. A friend of my and my teacher (same person) once described it is cutting a plane above your head.

I'm in a new hotel with a big more room, butthere still isn't enough room to make the overhead crack. I think it's partially due to the thong being able to swing in the handle.

My boys and I had about 20 min to practice the horizontal crack today. I tried to watch Robby's WB shorts on horizontal cracks before we went out to crack but we were having some internet issues and we were not able. After we came in from practicing I tried the video again and it worked. I have never realized how much that we were all pulling the whip down on an angle until watching that video. I know that I have told the kids to try and keep the whip moving in a horizontal plain but I didn't realize that I was just as guilty of letting to drop as the were. You definitely learn a lot more about yourself when you get to see yourself from someone else's vantage point. This is proving to be very beneficial. I'll try the video again tomorrow. I made one today but we were too far from the camera and we had directing problems, I'm definitely no George Lucas.

Tristan my Dad was one of 5 brothers, and they all had whips around our family cookouts, camping trips or any other outdoor events as far back as I remember. I have had a whip since I was a teen, and I bought my sons there first whips 8 years ago, the youngest was 5 and the oldest was 8. I was watching some old home movies from 2008 with my wife a few days ago, me and the kids were out in the yard playing with their new whips. They grow up fast especially when you work away. Glad I'm home more now.