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I personaly have a masive point on the top of my head. Not sure if it was being dropped too many times as a child(seriously) or just a genetic annoyance. But i have to tilt my head at an angle to have any hope of ballancing a ball up there. Forehead isnt too bad for just stalling, but top of head is quite the nuisance. I was told, like brine mentioned, that it really doesnt matter when you start on head stuff, it takes whatever time it takes for that individual. So, you beginners, get started.

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much Love,
Dan

hiiiiii everybodyyy!!!!!
anyway
so ive been working on headstass recently, might aswell seeing as im doing everything else. and ive been finding it a tad tricky to make progress, i do understand about everything taking a while, but with other said difficult techniques i can make some noticable progress in short ammounts of time.
moving on. when learning inside and outside elbow stalls and foot stall i would throw the ball to that place and attempt to catch it. then given progress i could catch it. after i had become comfortable with that then i began rolling it.
i found it works a treat
and am now making progress
i guess im saying learn to throw a ball to a stall then move onto rolling.
i know there was a mention of throwing earlier in the thread i just think that it need a bigger mention as it can make a substantial difference

*warning* do not learn to head stall by throwing acrylic, polycarbonate, crystal or stone balls at your head. chances are you'll miss and hit the cat

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if a person wishes to make a study of illusion, in spite of the fact that his own body is an illusion, we are reduced to the absurdity of an illusion studying illusion

One thing I've started noticing:

Hand position.

When my arms are relaxed by my sides or hanging or whatever, it seems harder to do a temple-temple headroll.

Put my hands on my hips (Thank you Colin) and it feels a lot easier, and looks a lot nicer.

Still not got them solid yet, but they're getting closer. Glasses don't help

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Z = Z^2 + C
Do it slowlier, Okido?
Installer of Warp Drive Technology. Sending out Ripples and making Waves.
Chin high, chest puffed, we step right to it. The choice is; there is no choice but to pursue it.

hehe, I'm A Little (in your case LtC, a *very* little ) Teapot...

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even perfect health is terminal if left untreated indefinitely

There's a trick to balancing a ball on the center line of a pointed head like yours and mine, FireMage (I have actually felt up other people's heads to see if they had as sharp a peak, and most of them didn't), but it gets into the principles of dynamic balance because you can't really stall a ball there without making some kind of dent.

I agree that throwing is a very good way to prepare for rolls. With a light ball, throw it up to the top of your head and bounce it back into your hand. Do this several times, then aim to bounce it twice on your head, then forward into your hand. When you can do that several times in a row, do three bounces, then four, then... well, no need to go on forever, what are you, a seal?

Anyway... Generally these bounces will start out high enough to actually bounce several times, but once you develop a sense of where exactly you can bounce the ball and have it go straight up and land on the same point, you can begin to make the bounces smaller and smaller.

At a certain point, you may find that you don't have enough time to lower and raise your head in order to propel the ball back up in the air, and it will bounce several times on the top of your head of its own accord before coming to rest. At this point, tilt your head forward and let the ball roll back over your head and down onto your upper back. If you want, you can raise your elbows up by your sides like a chicken to center the ball between your shoulderblades, and bring the ball to rest. It is also best at this point to arc your back and raise your butt to keep the ball from rolling down your back. If it starts to roll down, you can lock your hands together on your lower back to form a loop the ball can't escape from.

When you're focused enough to continue, give the ball a small impulsion to send it toward the back of your head, and whip your head up slowly as it climbs up the back of your head and (probably) jumps forward to your waiting hand.

Once you've worked with the center line long enough to be relatively comfortable with it, you can play with the height of the throw, the speed of the roll, and even the possibility of maintaining a precarious balance along this line.

It's essential to get the height of the throw down pat before moving to heavier balls. One thing that can help is to throw the ball to a point a little below the center line and swoop down underneath it to catch it. Too low a throw can be painful for your neck, as you may find yourself jutting your chin forward and pinching your upper vertebrae to catch the ball, so it's best to start with higher throws and gradually work your way down. If you manage to catch it on the center line, immediately bring your head up to its normal position.

A good height will make a smooth transition to a roll much easier. A smooth transition to a roll will make it that much easier to slow the ball down when you're ready.

Once you've learned to slow the ball down, you're ready to work on dynamic balance along the center line. The trick is pretty simple, really. When the ball starts to roll out of balance, swoop down underneath it and "catch" it like you did when starting to lower the height of your throw. When the ball is on the center line, or even better, on the point you started with when learning to bounce, push the ball up by straightening your body and pushing into the weight of the ball.

You will probably find that the feeling you get from this precarious balancing varies greatly with the weight of the ball you use. Again, start light, work on height, then work your way up in weight. There's nothing quite like smacking the dead center of your head with an acrylic ball to make you understand how Sylvester the Cat felt when all the Tweety Birds were twitting around his spinning head...

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"A question is worth a thousand 'huh?'s."

Shame it seems like most of the info I found has been cut from the first post. Ah well if we'rein the mood for resurrecting things from the past I turned this into a video:

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Now all gatherymost to amuse it and have a tilty elbow or a nice cuffle-oteedee - Oh Yes!

"A little bit of neither..."

So many epic tutorials coming out recently. Thanks, Brine!

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Yeah, I didn't realize until after I was done posting that the topic was 2 1/2 years old.

Anyway, I wondered tonight why each time I've seen your video I'm reminded of Trainspotting?

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"A question is worth a thousand 'huh?'s."

That will be my smack habit.

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Now all gatherymost to amuse it and have a tilty elbow or a nice cuffle-oteedee - Oh Yes!

"A little bit of neither..."

or the accent..

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Briney I just wanna say... that image in your signature is hilarious.

Back on topic: general progression for learning headrolls (or any other roll)
1. Learn to balance a ball in the control positions (in this case, learn to balance the ball on the temples and on the forehead) Walk around with the ball in the balance position. Move your arms around, wiggle your hips.
2. Learn to catch the ball in the balance position from a small throw. Start with really small throws (eg. a couple inches..) and learn to increase the distance as you get better. Learn to cushion the catch and move with the ball, easing the ball into the balance position each time.
3. Learn to roll the ball from one point of balance to another.


The main thing is to take the time at each step to make the technique solid before moving onto the next step. Head balances are VERY SENSITIVE ... much much harder than cradle balances or arm balances. Please do not try to make a dent in your head.

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www.ryanmellors.com
www.ministryofmanipulation.com
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Here take this. It will help you on your way
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=10226&p=112187#p112187

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www.ryanmellors.com
www.ministryofmanipulation.com
www.piryokopi.net

That is a way of learning them, Ryan. I can't agree it's the only way, but it seems to be the most common one.

PorcuBrine, I'm curious about something... As suggested by your video, do you think it's important to shave your head? I can't really recommend this to my female students (for some reason, all of them are women at the moment), but what's your experience with the consequences of not shaving your head?

I've shaved my head a couple times in the past, and noticed that I felt head rolls a lot more strongly because, as far as I can tell, the "bristliness" of my hair poked my scalp as the ball rolled along it. Is this why you suggest it, or is there more? Does the short hair hold the ball better in a center position, and so would shaving your head completely bald negate any benefit?

I'd really like to hear your point of view.

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"A question is worth a thousand 'huh?'s."

sometimes but not always I am taking the piss I leave this to others to work out because I can't even tell any more.

Shaved head makes head rolls easier. More sensitivity, less obstruction, I tend to get a mean 'fro on the go if I let my hair go for more than a month or so and that stuff hates head rolls so it's out with the clippers and away it goes.

Why can't girls shave their hair? sounds like sexism to me If anyone needs a headroll cut, I do a mean grade 1 all-over, it'll only cost you a coffee too. BrianO will vouch for it.

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Now all gatherymost to amuse it and have a tilty elbow or a nice cuffle-oteedee - Oh Yes!

"A little bit of neither..."

Girls with shaved heads are hella sexy...









I rest my case.