Mag Hoops from Laura Scarborough

So what the hell are “Mag Hoops”? Well, they are Magnetic Hoops, which are an awesome creation of Laura Scarborough from HoopCircle. I had the opportunity to play with some of these awesome and innovative new hoops out at Play Immersion. And in playing, there are a few techniques and tricks which are unique to optimizing your experience. They are totally different from simply playing with mini’s, although you can do that as well. I’m gonna let Laura do some of the talking with a video of her and her Mag Hoops.

The one thing anyone playing with these hoops has to adjust to is the concept that, when isolating one hoop, your hand must be on the opposite end of the magnetic connection. This helps to balance the rotation, and creates a clearly defined driving point which propels the magnetically connected hoop. That alone provides challenges which are unique to this toy, but also provides opportunities to create new and unusual patterns.

A really awesome aspect is that these hoops make for a BIG performance. Specifically, you can use these hoops to create larger structures than you can with 1 or 2 hoops. 3 Hoops actually work very well together, and the possibility of using 4 Hoops in similar ways to eightrings tickles my imagination bone.

Another aspect unique to this toy is the fact that you have another energetic force, beyond gravity and inertia, which you must work with. The magnetism can actually give an already propelled hoop further energy, or take that energy away if it is being driven away from the magnet. You can also harness magnet’s power to rock your hoop gently from side to side.

It’s really an incredible new toy, and one that goes beyond the simple physics of hoops, but incorporates a whole new range of physical influences. It’s gonna take some time to really dig deep and discover the full potential, but with an understanding of this toy as being separate from hoops, hopefully we can unshackle our minds from the habits we have created.

 Creator of GyroPulse and Co-Founder of The Gyronauts. BFA in Theatre from NYU, 2009. Loving the Hoop since 2006. Loving the Poi since 2007. Loving the Burn since 2007 More from this author