This Week I Learned Kendama

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A fun skill to learn might be throwing a Frisbee! It is deceptively difficult (especially for forehand flicks), and it'd be really fun to see your learning processes applied to it!

you are actually doing harder variants of the trick than you gave yourself credit for, you caught the ken in penguin grip on the bottom cup and you are doing an inward half flip during your lighthouse. Much harder to do in my opinion. Nice job!!!

Nice one!! You even did a few things the hard way! Here are a few bonus tips 1. Always start from a stationary, still, untangled position. 2. Tie a small knot in the string on the outside of the ball to prevent the bead popping out of the hole on your lighthouse. 3. Hole control! Try to land the tama on the cups in a way that you can see inside the hole, and try not to spin in so the string twists or tangles. 4. The direction things move can make tricks easier e.g. Lighthouse -> in is a bit easier with the lighthouse falling toward you so you can watch the spike. 5. KNEES!!!

1 man 2 cups

I immediately went and bought a Kendama because of Mike. Looks challenging, but so satisfying and addicting.

As a semi-professional kendama player, this was very exciting to see, and I’d love to see you learn how to whirlwind next!

The exact, almost involuntary way he cleans the kendama at 9:59 shows the hours he put into this thing. Mad respect.

Mike this was INCREDIBLE! I always thought the artful wizardry of the Kendama was lost to time, where I personally learnt it from one of the last few successors we have today - the great Ryan Higa. He moved mountains for the practices of Kendama, championing it across TV, demonstrating the limitless real-world applications of this mere ‘toy’ that we love. Thank you for this video Mike.

This man has learnt more things then my entire class has at school😆

Dude, these were sooo huge in Romania in 2016-2017. Literally EVERY KID had one. And we would go outside and play "game of KEN" for HOURSSSS. Good times! Edit: I mean, I know kendamas were huge worldwide a few years ago. I just pointed out that this brought back good memories!

Hearing Mike's wife and her joy at his successes just makes me smile.

If you found this addictive, i feel like youd really enjoy diabolo-ing as well. There are so many cool diabolo tricks, my favourite was yeeting it up in the air as high as our house and then catching it :D

I will not rest until I see Mike perform the backflip

Thank you so much for making this video and helping grow the Kendama community! This is very valuable. I really hope you continue your Kendama journey!

Dude, the quality on this video was insane! Your shots were beautiful, and everything was so coherent. So well done!

I managed to do 'Faster then Gravity' while sitting on a chair, because I was fed up of everyone constantly saying "You've got to use your knees". Have you looking into going to a BJC (British Juggling Convention)? We have a bunch of things you've already done (Juggling, Knife throwing, Unicycling, Kendama, Slacklining) and maybe you'll find a new thing you'll want to learn.

Really hit the nail on the head with this one Mike!

Ive been kind of waiting for this one because i always thought this would be the perfect thing for you to learn! Would love to see a followup video too. The possibilities are really endless on the kendama, you can always add another trick, or do the trick differently. And once you learn juggles and stalls, this really becomes a ton of fun! I definitely encourage you to stick with it. Great video as always!

LOVE to see this nice long video! Thankyou so much. I always find them so inspiring as I see the time it takes you and what frustrations you overcome to get there. Also Milanote looks perfect to help me with my dog training business to chart each clients progress so thanks for the tip!