Everyone by now knows the advantages of ken shapes like Primes/NG Homegrowns, Pops, and Slaydawgs/Sol Shapes. Larger cup sizes for lunars, wider rims for birds and other stalls, slinger honed (just a generalization, some may/may not be as honed for one or more tricks compared to another of the same shape). What advantages do kendama weights bring? Not having a weight matched setup, but what do lighter setups do better compared to heavier setups. What about worse/vice versa? Which weight would be better for juggling? For balance tricks? For aerials?
I think from what I've played, lighter setups just leave the hand a lot faster and sort of stay in the air a bit longer. I would recommend these for jugs. I've never really been a fan of heavier setups, so I have nothing to say about them. However, I have heard from @Kyle diller that heavier kens are better for axe tricks.
interesting. In that sense I guess I like mid range for juggles, however, one of my favorite juggling damas has a 92 gram tama. I'm very interested to hear some responses from other people about @KeeganS's original question.
Reeally heavy damas are tougher to do high-rotation tricks. Like a triple lunar flip on a 100 g ken is tougher than with a 70 g ken, because the 100 g ken has a lot more momentum you have to catch / slow down in order to land the trick. (It is perhaps easier to start a trip lunar with a heavy ken though! You'll have a better feel for the rotation than with a light ken). Really light damas can be tough to control too though, especially for juggling kinda stuff (though I'm not great at juggle tricks, my opinion there isn't worth much)
Actually my weight estimates are based off JKA size kendama (and personal preference). Next Gen stuff is probably going to be a bit heavier I guess.
I have found that I prefer slightly heavier tamas for juggling. As fir balance tricks, I find heavy kinds useful, which kinda makes sense because there is more weight allowing it to sit "firmer" i guess. I also find heavier kens honed for stilts and axes for the same reason. Heavier kens seem to have more whip for me, which has it's advantages in flips and kenflips, but lighter kens are easier to begin flipping and to catch both on the tama and in your hand. As for aerials, the weight matching is more important than the weight range I'd say, but you also don't want a terribly heavy setup flying around in the air because it's going to be difficult to manage and also fairly dangerous. This is all just from my limited experience and knowledge though, so all of this could very well differ from person to person.
A friend had a super light KROM and the light weight of the ken made even standard lighthouse really tough. I think @htimSxelA mentioned he made a very tama heavy setup for a Poi performer. I like heavy in general but tama and ken fairly close.
In addition to my weight-matched setups, I'm also a fan of damas that are substantially tama heavy (10 grams heavier than the ken) or a heavy tama in general. They help a lot with birds and turntables (sometimes a bit too much lol).
Luke Ford gave me a great tip at TT4: He told me not to weigh my damas; his claim was that if we weigh them, it gets in our head if a dama is off weighted; on the other hand, if we don’t weigh them, we just get used to the feel of the weight difference without worrying about it being good/not good for certain tricks
reviving this thread to ask a question- do you prefer lighter <75 grams each or heavier >75 gram each setups in general? I like lighter, specifically 69-73ish grams
Personally, I like to think that different weights suit different playstyles better. I love kendamas in the low to mid 60s for my string flow, while I use heavy kendamas for juggle kenflip insta madness.