Clutch Kendama Trick Core
Left Handed?
Learn how to do the Clutch Kendama Trick
For this kendama trick we also recommend:
Clutch Kendama TrickThis trick is called Clutch and it looks like this:
Just like that. To do this trick the only thing that you need to know how to do is Pull Spike, because that is the real basis for the whole trick, so if you haven’t already, go check out our video on Pull Spike and make sure that you’ve got that trick down really well.
To start the trick off, the tama is sitting on top of the ken, on the spike, and then what you are going to do is spin the tama. As you spin it, you are going to pop it off of the ken. Now there are two ways that you can spin it, one is that you can use your thumb to spin away from you, or you can use your fingers and spin towards you. Either way is fine, it does not really make a difference, just use which ever way you are comfortable spinning it.
I like to use my thumb because particularly on the LK standard I can put my thumb on the stripe and that helps me to keep it nice and level . That is important because if you are spinning it in a way where the ball is uneven or wobbling, you will see that will make it more difficult to do the Pull Spike.
So if you can get a nice even spin and pop it straight up and then you will see it spin at the bottom. Usually if you give it a second it will pick up speed and straighten itself out. When it does that you will be surprised that the Pull Spike with a spinning tama is actually very easy to do. Before you do the Pull Spike once its down at the bottom and its spinning, what you’re going to do is take your pinky and put it down on the bottom of the base cup, and I like to use the very pad of my pinky so that it is not like the tip, you do not want your nail, but just the pad of it, sitting down on that. It will be a little bit tricky because you have got to make sure that pad is on there but you still have also got to hold the ken in some way, I like to put my thumb on the big cup. You can also just hold it down at the bottom if your hands are small. You have just got to make sure your pinky is on that pad.
Once you have got that, you are just going to spin it, pop it up, and let it hang on the bottom. Then you are going to do your pull spike, and this is the next tricky part. Once you get that spike, if you let it spike and sit, you will see that the tama loses its rotation, so then if you let go the ken will not spin at all.
So you actually have to time this trick so that when you are landing it, you let go with these fingers and you are balancing the ken just on your pinky. The momentum of the tama will cause the ken to spin around. Again like I said, that is all about timing, about letting go. If you worry about balance, you will actually be surprised to find balancing the ken for a rotation or two is not that hard, as you get better you will find that you can let it go through more rotations, and the harder you flick the tama, the more rotations it will do.
The only other tip for this trick is sometimes when you are doing it, if you do not pop the tama off the correct way you can see the string is coming around the outside and then when I pop it up that will actually cause some problems. It will make it more difficult to do the pull spike, it might also cause the string to catch your fingers when you let go, so it’s kind of important to make sure that you pop to the inside of your body here. Let it down, pull up, and that is Clutch.