Safety!!!
Ok now the REALLY important stuff, how to be safe while you learn to use your new whip. So here are a few tips to help keep you and others safe.
First off you should know that the crack you hear when working with your whip is the tip of the cracker breaking the sound barrier or about 1400 ft / sec or around 800 mph!! needless to say if this hits someone it is going to hurt and qute possibly break skin when it does so. As everyone who has worked with a whip before knows "ouch" is something that is heard very often when you are first learning. Oh and you will without fail hit yourself on many ocassions when you are learning, it's just one of those things that you will have to get used to and yes it does hurt.
Now with this in mind let's go over some ideas for how to keep injuries from going from a minor bruise or such to a major mishap.
1) ALWAYS wear some form of eye protection!!! This is the most important thing to remember. You were only given 2 eyes and they don't grow back if you damage or loose them. Wear a good pair of safety glasses as you practice.
2) You may want to wear a wide brimmed hat to help protect your neck and ears from inadvertant strikes and follow throughs.
3) Wearing long pants, long sleeves and maybe even a leather or heavy vest are good ways to protect yourself further. Wearing looser fitting clothing will help to absorb the impacts a bit better than tight fitting jeans.
4) Always be aware of everything going on around you, both in front and behind. Remember your whip has to go behind you before coming to the front so make sure that area is clear of people and objects as well. Be on the lookout for people, kids or even dogs that wander into your clear zone.
5) Remember you need to have a "clear zone" that is not only the length of your whip but also includes the length of your arm plus the fall and cracker. This means that your 6 ft bullwhip is going to need a cirle that is 24 ft in diameter that is kept clear of all people while you are practicing.
6) Be very careful about letting your whip hit the ground. Not only will this damage the fall over time but you can also end up throwing rocks, gravel etc around. Remember if your whip cracks as it impacts the ground you could potentially throw those objects at close to 800 mph which will diefintily not feel good.
7) Practice and get good at the basics first before moving on to fancier tricks. After all they are all based on those basic throws so the better you can do them the easier it is to learn new stuff.
