Your opinions on "Paying to Learn Poi"

Yeah, I got Riz' story already.

Drama queen.

Before I say anything, I have to admit to seeking out Nick Woolsey to practice with earlier this year... Although it wasn't a paid lesson or anything, it is not like I can speak from a pedastel of NEVER having sought out teaching...
I too am a predominantly HOP-molded spinner -- learning my skills from the lame-ass text descriptions of moves, and from the few-and-far-between videos that USED to be posted occasionally in threads, before there was a video section... (try learning hyperloops just from text -- it sucks -- but it IS possible ;))
Ted-- the only reason I made any cookie-cutter comment in the intro to this thread, was, as Mike said, DIRECTLY in reference to your "Ted-Ward Eats Crow" post...

Heath -- I really like your comments: "I want to encourage people to take responsibility for learning rather than paying someone else to take it. I believe that'll yield a better spinner in the end. " and "I want to encourage people to take responsibility for learning rather than paying someone else to take it. I believe that'll yield a better spinner in the end."

I would say that my number one criticism of learning poi through lessons is that it removes empowerment from the individual -- they cease to believe (even if just unconsciously) that they can take personal responsibility for learning ANY DAMN MOVE THEY WANT without having someone teach them how.
This isn't a fault of poi teachers, or of those who seek lessons -- it is just an inherent problem with the dynamics of a teacher/student relationship in general...
I truely believe that if I had been ABLE to go to a teacher whenever I had problems with a move, that I wouldn't have a learned a LOT of valuable lessons along the way -- lessons which allow me to learn new moves much more quickly now...
This will sound like a criticism, and it isn't meant as one -- but I feel like if poi teachers REALLY wanted to produce fantastic poi-spinning students, they would need to teach motivation, not "moves".
SOOOO much is gained in the struggle to learn a new move... It is like story I recently heard, about a young kid who caught a bunch of caterpillars, eagerly watched them build cocoons, and then waited patiently for the butterflies to emerge...
When the time finally came for the butterflies to emerge from their cocoon, he watched anxiously as the first butterfly struggled and struggled for nearly an hour, trying to break its way out of the cocoon. Finally, after immense effort, it tore free from the cocoon, and crawled around a little bit, then spread its wings and flew away.
As the boy watched the other butterflies begin struggling within their cocoons, he had a brilliant idea! He took a small pen-knife, and carefully slit open all the cocoons so the butterflies wouldn't have to struggle so hard to get out. Proud of himself, the boy watched all the butterflies quickly crawl through the slits in their cocoons with no effort at all, and begin crawling around.
However, as the boy anxiously observed over the next several hours, not a single butterfly took flight. Every single butterfly he had helped emerge from their cocoon, sluggishly wiggled on the ground for nearly a day, then fell on its side and slowly stopped wiggling its legs -- dead.
What he hadn't known, is that the brutal, tiresome struggle to emerge from the cocoon releases important fluids from the butterflies legs, into its wings and the rest of its body -- giving it the ability to fly...
By making it easy for the butterflies to emerge from their cocoons, the boy had actually robbed the butterflies of an INTEGRAL aspect of their development -- a struggle without which they were incapable of surviving.
Similar stories abound regarding wild salmon, and attempts to make it easier for them to spawn. Removing obstacles and making it VERY easy for salmon to make it up the river, actually end up having a negative effect on the salmon population... etc etc