Paul's tips on learning the art of cracking a whip.
Throwing
a bullwhip for the first time.
Many people want to know what kind of grip and where on the whip
should they hold it. There are many opinions about this.
To start take a comfortable stance, kind like throwing a punch
weak foot slightly forwards and dominant foot slightly back.
Grip the whip like you are shaking hands, your little finger should
close around the ball of the whip on the end at the half way point,
you do not need a death grip because with slight pressure the ball
will keep the whip from sliding out of your hand. If you notice
the whip will come with a bend built into it adjust the whip so
the bend
goes towards the ground in a straight line. Most people when doing
this the first time will tend to want to throw the whip away from
there dominant hand and away from there body. This causes the whip
to hit
there body from behind when thrown. You want to start the whip
back so it moves in a motion from your weak side to your strong
side .
A good trick is to lay the whip out in front of your weak hand
and take
the shake hands position with your strong hand on the handle look
down at the tip your strong hand should be at about the 8 o'clock
point at the tip
of the whip with your weak hand this is where you want to throw
the whip slightly across your body. Bend your elbow to start bringing
the whip up cock your wrist at about 11 o'clock and when the ball
not the handle
or tip of the whip gets to 12 o'clock push your hand out from your
body to 11 o'clock and break your wrist with a snapping motion. As
soon as
the
whip
tip goes by your hand bring your hand down to your waist. This
will keep the whip from rebounding into you. Do this slowly a few
times
with no intent to pop the whip get a feel for the whip laying out
in a straight line as you move it. You want the tip to move in
a big circle
from the ground at about 7o'clock to behind you at about 2 o'clock.
And not in a lazy snake like double curl that will make a noise behind
your
head when you attempt to throw it forwards. A whip will form a
half loop when brought forwards in a throwing motion. You want
to aim about
the length of the popper above the target the loop will decrease
because the whip tapers its this that speeds the whip up to its
terminal velocity.
If you try to force the loop down the whip with strength alone
you will find that you waste a lot of effort. Start the motions
smoothly
this will help you not over work the whip. Nothing in the world
is more frustrating than trying to throw a whip and not being able
to
make it work. Usually it's all a timing issue and not a strength
issue. If you have trouble try this, relax and just toss the
whip from front
to back like you were picking a cup off a table you don’t
want to spill what’s inside. For the forwards stroke imagine
a nail that’s almost all the way in you just need to tap
it down flush with out leaving a hammer head mark ,a firm stroke
not a death stroke
.
Author Paul Keith
