hi guys, lately I've been really trying to get BB right now I'm a newbie so I find it impossible but a lot of amazing players do it so effortlessly so if you've mastered BB I would really appreciate it if you could help me out with some little tips. Thanks guys!
I am not an expert at boarder balance by any means, but I do have some tips! First (if you haven't yet), learn lighthouse. Lighthouse is a big boarder balance, and becoming proficient at it is going to help you a lot. Keep your arm and wrist as still as possible, and when you have to adjust to keep the balance keep your movements very precise. It may help to just put the ken on the tama and get the hang of balancing it there, and then work on popping the ken up to the balance afterwards. The main thing is practice. A friend of mine has been trying to learn, and he tries every day, for 30-60 minutes a day specifically working on BB alone. He has improved drastically in just a few days.
The pull up is very important, so really any trick where you are practicing pulling it up in a precise manner (pull up lunar, stilt, 1 turn airplane, etc) will be some work towards making boarder's balance easier. Once it lands on the spike, shift your focus to the bottom cup and concentrate really hard on balancing it out. Its tough, but with time you'll learn it. If you have a larger size kendama, it will be easier (I have a Boss dama that is perfect for boarder's). Like @Colin Hislop said its kinda like a very precise lighthouse
Step one for me was setting the ken on the tama and working on the balance. once you can start balancing that for like at least 5 seconds you can start with the pull up. make sure to place the tama below the spike of the ken before it starts the fall downwards to avoid bouncing. everything else has already been explained. SO practice a lot!
I always recommend you practice it on a jumbo (or larger) kendama first. Also, watching the basecup is extremely important. Lastly, I find that a tight, firm grip on the tama really helps me make small adjustments for a boarder's.
catch the boarder at its highest point, if the ken is smashing down on the tama that is bad and will fall off, make sure the small cup is facing you (all about rotation of ken when pulling up) and look at the base cup when doing a bb
Break it into two parts: Part I : Airplanes. Make good sure that your airplanes are perfect. 100% of the time, you want to land them perfect. Up the ante by catching as many "quiet airplanes" as you can (that means you gotta be precise when catching the ken!) Pull up, not out, and catch your airplanes when the ken is nearly vertical. Part II : Balance. The largest part about BBs is honing your balancing act. Don't start with a kendama, but find everyday objects at home to balance. I recommend starting out with a broom, balancing it for a full minute, then gradually moving to smaller items (broom, baseball bat, large and empty water bottle, small water bottle, marker, pencil). Pay close attention to the top of the object, be sure to make small, but concise corrections to stay in balance. Once confident, go for the kendama! Place it atop your tama, and again pay close attention to the base cup. Very small, fast and concise corrections help loads! Always keep the ken closer to your body. This puts your eyes directly above the base cup, and makes corrections easier. I hope these will help you with your quest to BB, it's certainly a difficult trick, but definitely a crowd pleaser.