Cheaper To Keeper

[Matt Henderson]

Sorry about the pun in the title, I had to :P.

Anyways, Robert's kindly been helping me work on my cracking in the 10/10 challenge and for the sake of consistency I've been using my 7ft stockwhip. Now, it's a bit wobbly in cracking compared to my bulls and even my other stockwhip, as Robert has pointed out to me, so I couldn't help wondering if it was the whip's fault rather than mine. I had a quick search of the forum and came across an old thread where Stephane Normand showed his first stockwhip, and his keepers looked just like mine. I realised that rather than making my thong keeper too big, I'd made my handle keeper too small. So instead of just putting it down to experience and making the next one better, I decided to rip it all off and do it again.

This is the keeper before, not bad but not perfect:


And this is the new keeper:




I've given it a test and it feels easier to control. I'll get some video soon and see if it looks a bit better.

[Robert Gage]

Matt, that does look like an improvement. I'll be fascinated to see your new video!

You remind me that I have a whip made by Sephane Normand, which I'd forgotten all about! I must get it out....

(You may have worked out that Stephane just disappeared one day. No one knows why. He did good work.)

[Matt Henderson]

Thanks Robert, here it is:
https://youtu.be/Grlttzid6r8

I wasn't concentrating much and so my ineptitude might disguise any improvement, but it feels a little easier to control .

[Matt Henderson]

On watching it, I've noticed that my fast figure eights are shocking :/. Still, I can do hammer-and-nail style forward cracks now, which I couldn't do before with this whip.

[Robert Gage]

Matt, that does look a bit better.

However, in the first 10 seconds of this video, do you see how far the whip handle moves out to the side, away from your body? Try to keep it in a single vertical plane. Imagine you're standing very close to a wall, so you can't move it to the side!

One other point: you almost jerk the whip forward at the start of each crack. Try slowing down, and pulling the whip forward. I think you'll find you have more control....

[Matt Henderson]

I see, thanks for the help Robert . You must get tired of telling me about the vertical plane, but I promise I'm working on it. The hammer-and-nail flick tends to need more force from the wrist, in my experience, because you don't really use your arm but I'll give slowing down a try .

[Matt Henderson]

I'm glad loosening the keeper seems to have worked though, thanks for spotting that Robert

[Robert Gage]

Don't worry, Matt, I'm very happy to try and help. I hope you don't feel I'm being pernickety!

[Matt Henderson]

Of course not Robert! I'm the one in the wrong for not getting it yet :P

[Ron May]

Matt, the rework on the keeper does seem to have improved the performance of the whip.
Good job.

Think of that little guy on the TV show "Fantasy Island" in the show towards the beginning he announces the arrival of the plane by saying a couple of times, "The plane, the plane." Maybe you could have that going in your thoughts as you practice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlnOcZK892E

Ron

[Robert Gage]

Of course not Robert! I'm the one in the wrong for not getting it yet :P

Matt, please be patient with yourself! If you can be patient, you'll learn faster! It's a bit like learning a musical instrument. One often has to practice quite little things over and over and over again. There can seem to be no progress - and suddenly, you find you're doing it! Then, of course, there's some other little detail to tackle!

[Matt Henderson]

Thanks Ron, I'll be thinking of him forevermore . I'm pleased with how the rework turned out too, although there are definitely things to improve on the next one .

Robert, maybe I self-deprecate a bit too much... I'm perfectly happy with how I'm getting on, that was just a little joke at my own expense :3. Your instrument analogy is right on the money, and I agree that these things take time. I'll be putting in a lot of stick practice over the next few months, and we'll hopefully see a bit of improvement