I like doing juggles here and there and I do swaps and stuff but when I do that on a solid kendama like a natty or just plain purple I can track the hole. But when I use a kendama with a stripe (like a striped zen for example) it's way easier.
Yea, I mean, pretty much. Pay close attention to the tama and you'll be better able to track the hole with a solid colour. It is tougher though, thats why a lot of players like a striped tama.
I feel ya. I mean that's pretty much the whole purpose of stripes. My advice would be to get the muscle memory down with the stripes so that it'll just transfer over to solid tamas. I've been trying to hone in on jugs to spike using both striped and solid tamas. Same applies for swaps, just get the muscle memory down so you won't need to rely on the stripe as much.
it takes a bit to track a solid tama. you can use the string and hole and the top for help to know the bevel is on the other side.
Here's a tip for you, recently I have been doing these eye excersises that works on how much I guess you could call it information your eye can get. For example if you looke behind you really really quickly you probably won't see and remember much but if you use certain excersises your eyes will be able to gather more information in less time and it's really helped me track the hole and bevel on tamas! Hope it helps!
It's sort of hard to explain but I'll try my best. It's a book for these excersises (it's in Japanese) and the general idea is your eye needs little time to see anything in the excersises, a example of an excersise is you look up blink twice as fast as possible while your eyes are still looking up, then look straight then blink twice again and try to observe as much as you can while you do this. You keep going doing the exact same thing except you will look north west blink twice then back to looking straight blink twice then look west then blink twice then back to looking straight blink twice and keep going like that. It has definitely helped me personally because when I tried it out on multiple earth turns and even when the Tama was spinning really quickly I could track the hole because my eyes could see a lot in a short amount of time. I'm not sure if you will get the same results but for me it worked very well! (You need to this everyday for results!) Hope this helps
Yeah that's why I only have one natty a five hole kendama and I get less spikes on than than on my striped kendamas
Interesting, I might have to try this. Seems like a plausible way to improve. How long have you been doing this? Is it a daily routine? How long will you do it for?
I've been doing this for about 1 month for every single day, I only mentioned one exercise so it will take you about less than a minute to do that exercise but you can do multiple sets or go the other direction or do some different exercises. If you have an questions feel free to ask me anytime! I'll try and answer as best as I can
What are the other exercises? Did you find them somewhere, or come up with them on your own? I'm interested
Sort of the same concept as the last exercise but you have one object far away from you and one very close to you. You can start with the distance being quite small but once you get better you need to look really really far away. Anyway you basically place the objects so one is in front of you right eye and one in front of your left. You switch focus between these while blinking twice everytime your focus switches, you also blink once with your focus on the same object. I got some from a book I found (it's in Japanese though ) but you can create many exercise if you keep the concept close!
To track a solid Tama I usually follow the hole withe my eye and it is also a motion you have to get for an earth turn
What is the name of the book? My 日本語 is very poor but it might be fun to see how much of it I could struggle through. As far as advice, I might work with light colored or natural Tama's. I find GT Raw ash tamas really easy to track, but have a lot of trouble tracking darker colored tamas like my ruby red mugen.
Practice practice practice. Start with easier tricks to track the tama hole on solid tamas (earth turns, lighthouse trade spikes, swing spikes, etc) and just work your way up from there at whatever pace you’rs comfy at. If you’ve got those easier tricks down, I’d say work on more difficult/leveled up versions of them. Spacewalk trades, juggle spikes, juggle downspikes. Any trick that emphasizes tama control to the max.
Hello, So, I’m having the hardest time tracking. What method(s) are you all using to better track the hole? By the way, I’m playing on a KUSA Kaizen, with red(top) white(bottom) half split Tama. Peace.
@kendamasix we had a similar thread so yours has been merged. Also here's a related thread: Favorite method of tracking and one more Tama Control
I’m not a fan of half splits for this reason.. for the same $20 entry level prices kendamas, u can find a Krom Pop or a Sweets boost Radar that had a 70/30 split which really helps to track the hole better. Muscle memory is going to be your biggest help I’d say
Not all ways of tracking do the same job imo. Stripes and halfsplits help you track the tama in rotation while it is in the air thought you are more aware of which half the tama hole is on halfsplits compared to striped tamas, 70/30 splits and low tracking stripes (stripes circling the bevel) help track the hole better. That said, some people prefer one over the other both aesthetically and for the tracking. Some like the halfsplits for their tracking, some dont, a lot of people like all of them. This is why you are hard pressed to find solid colored tamas nowadays from companies that have been in the game for as little as a year now.