Do you sound like a galloping horse when you do Florentine? Or are you struggling in general to do it smoothly and consistently? If so, here’s a series of progressive exercises to help you with your rhythm and timing.

The first set of exercises is for four-point Florentine, also known as the two-beat weave in poi spinning. And the second set is for six-point Florentine, also known as the three-beat weave. For more information on the different types of Florentine, click here.

In order to focus on rhythm and timing, no floggers are needed for these exercises. All you’re going to do is sit on a chair and slap your knees.

Yes, seriously, this is all you’ll be doing to get the movements into muscle memory.

No, I’m not kidding.

Yeah, I guess it’s kinda like patty cake. On yourself.

Really, just try it. You may be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

A Few Practice Tips

I recommend that you do these exercises to a metronome. Start at a slow, comfortable speed (I suggest around 100-120 bpm), and then push yourself faster and faster as you get more attuned to each speed. Check out my previous post for more information on using metronomes to build consistency and versatility.

As you do these exercises, focus on making each slap a solid, precise strike. These strikes mimic the sensation of making impact with your floggers, which you’ll obviously need to get used to when doing Florentine.

I designed these exercises so that you can practice them pretty much anywhere. When it comes to complex, but repetitive movements like Florentine, the only way to get the timing down is to get the moves into muscle memory. And the only way to get the moves into muscle memory is with practice and repetition.

So, whenever you have some downtime, as many times as you can throughout the day, take a minute to sit down and do a few sets of these knee-slappers. And soon enough, Florentine will start to feel natural.

Four-Point Florentine Exercises

In the first exercise (Four-Point Basics 1), alternate slapping down with each hand in a palm-down or palm-up position. Count “down-down-up-up” to yourself if it will help you to remember the movements.

The video is at a relatively mild 120 beats per minute (bpm). Start there, then use a metronome to push yourself faster as you get each tempo down. I suggest being able to do this at around 240 bpm before moving on.

If you don’t have a metronome, tap on or hover your pointer over the video, click the gear icon in the lower-right side of the menu that appears, and you’ll see the option to speed up or slow down the video.

Once you’re able to maintain a consistent rhythm slapping palm-down and palm-up, move onto the next exercise (Four-Point Basics 2). Now, instead of slapping straight up and down, slap using a side-to-side brushing motion, alternating between brushing each hand inwards and outwards. This exercise will help you replicate the actual wrist movements in flogging.

As before, I recommend using a metronome to make sure you’re brushing at a consistent rhythm, and then to push yourself to go faster while still keeping your movements crisp and clean.

Six-Point Florentine Exercises

Once you have your four-point Florentine down and are ready to take on six-point, move onto the exercise below (Six-Point Basics).

We now have six distinct moves, each representing one strike with the flogger. Start by crossing your hands, which I count off as “ready … set.” This gets us into our starting position. From there, follow along on the video as I go through the six moves, which I narrate as, “brush-down-across-brush-down-across”:

And that’s basically Florentine! If you’re struggling with it, replicating the basic hand movements and the sensation of making impact without floggers will help you focus on the rhythm and timing.

And once you the rhythm and timing down, add back your floggers and see if you feel a difference!

Looping Videos

One final note: to give you sometime to practice along to, I made the two videos below. You can adjust the speed and also loop them, so that they will play over and over again. To loop the videos on a computer, right-click your pointer over the video, and you’ll see the option to loop. To loop the videos on a smartphone, tap on the video in the YouTube app, tap the gear icon that appears, and then click Additional Settings.

Four-Point Looping Video:

Six-Point Looping Video: