The Matrix... HELP!!

I'm trying to learn the contact staff trick "The Matrix"... Any tips/advice on how to master it??

The staff must roll across flat sides... nearly everyone's mistake is to not bend far enough. Make sure you warm up properly first though... if your getting on a bit like me then you start to feel things a bit more!

The best tutorial I've seen is by MCP on her staff manipulation DVD.

Otherwise try breaking it down into sections and learning each section at a time.

I echo what fear pig is saying. As explained in MCP's tutorial if you practice each half of the matrix seperatly then once you can do both of these worry about trying to do them one after the other.

the trick is, "Shoulder propeller".

You must have a flexible back to be carefull, so do a lot of "bridge", seriously it can hurt really hard. Work each half seperatly is a very good idea. A good "centrifuge" force of your staff and a good grip is requiered. A lot work too ^^

Make sure you are confident with contact on the back of your shoulders and as others say you warm up. remember this isn't a move to jump on into at the start of learning contact it's demanding physically and technically.

We recently had the opportunity to shoot some footage with the camera used in Time Warp. One of the shots we got is of my friend Trevor doing a variation of the matrix.

See the below URL. As someone who does contact staff myself watching this made me realize how much one needs move your body. The slow motion really helps one.
Matrix Variation in Slow Motion

There is a perfectly valid way of doing the matrix that involves a dip and a pop, that changes the plane of the staff, and allows you to do a matrix without bending very far at all, however, I do agree that learning to bend far will help you with your matrix

shoulder propeller is the key. train each section of the trick separately, and then each two adjacent parts in series, then try to string them together.

Work it with collapsed feet and straight arm... The "matrix" is more a shoulder move than a back move, think to put an impulse in your staff with your shoulder.

For me the key was realizing that the arms do small little circles to keep the momentum going. Kinda like when you twirl a devil stick.