Handstick Flourishes

Difficulty:
There are a number of different flourishes you can do with a handstick as you are devilsticking. You can use these flourishes in a similar fashion to the Handstick Flip trick. Or you can incorporate some of these flourishes into different tricks you are doing. I describe four different flourishes below.

Thumb Roll Flourish
This flourish is done by rolling the handstick around the thumb, so it spins in a horizontal plane. The right handstick flourish is spun in a clockwise direction, looking down on the handstick. You need to stick your thumb straight up in the air as the handstick spins around it. Also, to get the momentum of the spin, use your wrist not your arm motion. After each flourish you may need to adjust your grip on the handstick because it tends to crawl down the handstick with each spin. It is possible to spin the handstick in both the CW and CCW direction around your thumb. However, I find spinning the stick around the outside edge of the thumb quite a bit easier than spinning it around the inside edge.

Club Flourish
This particular flourish is a common juggling club move. The description may be a little tricky without illustrations, but here goes.

Start with the handstick in the right hand, 1/4 of the stick out of the thumb end of the hand and the other 3/4 sticking out the back end of the hand. Hold the hand so the handstick is vertical, the short (thumb) end is on top. Now use your wrist to start rotating the handstick toward your body, it will stay on the inside of the arm. Be sure to keep the handstick in a plane perpendicular with your body during the rotation. When you have rotated the handstick about 90 degrees your wrist will not be able to continue the rotation with your hand closed. At this point you will need to open your hand and pinch the handstick between the thumb and the hand. Keep rotating the handstick until you are in the position where the hand is open, palm up, with the handstick in a vertical position pinched between the thumb and hand.

Continuing the rotation of the handstick, you are going to transfer the handstick pinch from the thumb and hand, to the index and middle finger.

With your palm open, facing up let the handstick continue its rotation so that the handstick falls between the first and middle fingers. Let go of the thumb pinch once the handstick is between the first and middle fingers. You should be able to go from the handstick in a vertical position, between the thumb and hand, long end up, to the position where the handstick is in a vertical position, between the first and middle fingers, long end down. Now you will need to bend your hand at the wrist backwards a bit so that the rotation can continue with the long end of the handstick on the outside of the arm. This last part of the flourish is like a drummer's flourish. The handstick will rotate around the outside of the arm until your palm us face down, with the long end of the stick up. The rotation will then put the short end of the handstick into your palm, handstick horizontal, pointing away from you. That's it! (Good luck understanding what I just tried explaining!)

Drummer's Flourish
You may have seen drummers doing this kind of flourish with their drum sticks (hence, the name). What you do is place the middle of the handstick between the index and middle finger. Some people prefer to place it between the middle and ring fingers. Open your hand up so it is flat and the handstick is sticking out to the right and left of the hand. Then if you start to give your hand forward and backward wrist motions the handstick should start to spin in a plane parallel with your hand. It may seem awkward at first, and the handstick may not spin like it should. But, give it a little practice and it will get smoother. Also try to do the flourish with 1/4 of the handstick on one side of your hand and 3/4 on the other (this may be a littler easier to flourish). Warning: Large doses of MTV is not guaranteed to help improve this trick.

Baton Flourish
This flourish is from spinning a handstick like a baton. Hold the right handstick in the middle with the index finger and thumb, palm down. The handstick should be in a horizontal position, parallel with your body. Start to give the handstick a clockwise rotation. When the handstick is about perpendicular with your body you will need to start turning your hand so it is palm up. When your hand is fully palm up the handstick should be parallel with your body again. Keep rotating the handstick in the same direction. You will need to start turning your hand so that the palm is going to again face down. The handstick should have then done one full revolution. Also note that one half of the stick is always rotating above your arm and the other half is rotating below your arm.

Flourish Hint:
Sometimes an idle is too fast to do a particular handstick flourish. So what I tend to do is give the devilstick one propeller spin, while doing the flourish in the other hand, before I toss it back to the other side. This looks nice when done solid on both sides.


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