Handmade Hoops by Peachysteve

Front Facing Full Arm Pass Circles

Taken from Chapter 3 of
"Hooping"
An Instructional DVD by Peachysteve

This move is an extension of the hand and thumb circle exchange.
In this move we start to look at the concept of swinging the hoop.
Hoop swinging combines the rolls or circles we've been looking at with movements where the hoop is "carried" through space.
Carries can either be static (the hoop is held and rotates around an axis point on the body, the shoulder for example)
Or circling (more complex yet more usual in which the hoop travels around an external axis point while circling on the hand/thumb)

In this move there are two hand exchanges, both on the centre line,
one low, from hand roll to hand roll, one high, from thumb circle to thumb circle.
Between each exchange there is a circling carry.

I start this move coming out of a hand pass with my left hand doing inward circles. I go with the direction of the hoop so that my arm moves upward as I go into the thumb roll.
I keep moving my left arm upward as the hoop circles on my thumb. My right arm is also rising, coming up for the exchange.
As my left hand reaches the highest point and the hoop is coming down. My right arm comes in for the thumb exchange.
The hoop is now on my right arm doing outward circles. Both my arms move down for the low pass.
Note the hand position for the exchange.
As my hand passes shoulder level I move from thumb to hand rolls.
At the bottom I make the hand to hand pass we learnt earlier.

By using the thumb for the high exchange, I'm able to stretch my arms high and the hoop can still move freely.
Notice how the hoop circles while itself moving through a larger circle.
This is the basis of hoop swinging and I will explore this in more depth in the next section.

Here you can see the move run.