7 beat weaves. dangerous?

Hi everyone, I'm rather new to poi (just kinda-sorta have been messing around with it the past few months), but I've been getting more into the past few days and can definitely see a new obsession developing

Anyways, I've been doing 5 beat weaves pretty much since my first month of poi, and I figured I'd give the 7 beat a try just for fun (didn't think I'd at all be able to do it), and after just a little bit of trying I can do it rather well. I'm pretty sure it's a true 7 beat weave (my arms double cross and everything). I can nearly do the reverse 7 beat, too!

I was wondering if there's any real risk of injuring myself doing this? The move does admittedly but a moderate amount of stress of my shoulders-not so much that it's really painful, but there's definitely some noticeable discomfort. My one shoulder also makes a cracking noise that sounds similar to someone cracking their knuckles, but not as loud. Not trying to be a worry-ward, just wanna make sure I'm being safe.



And just for curiosity, is there such thing as a true 9 beat weave?

Edit: And sorry if this shouldn't be in the advanced moves section. It seems advanced to me, but what do I know?

Well, to me it appears as though you may be putting some strain on your tendons. Tendinitis in the shoulders is actually fairly common in flow arts. I'd watch out for it. I injured my shoulder mildly and had to stop spinning poi for about a week. I had to be careful when I started up again the second week too.

To be honest, I don't really like 7 beat weaves. They can be cool if you're doing the augmented version, but they just don't flow well to me. Also, if you're wrapping up your arms in such a way to make it work, it doesn't really sound all that graceful either. Obviously, it may also be strenuous, so that's even more of a reason to not do it. I would just keep it simple and work on your foot work, if I were you.

Sorry if that wasn't helpful. I was just being honest. If you still really want to do the 7 beat weave and lesson the chance of shoulder injury, try doing the augmented version or letting the poi wrap up and unwrap instead of your arms doing that. A 9 beat weave is definitely possible. Again, just let the poi wrap up instead of your arms. Honestly, I don't even think the 9 beat is possible with just wrapping your arms up, unless you're a contortionist or something (maybe).

I've seen a 9 beat twisting only with the arms. The flexibility involved was impressive, but besides that it was nothing special, visually speaking.

I saw the title and immediately thought: Not dangerous, but certainly pointless.

I think more than usual, stretching will be important: the movements are certainly not natural.