Flair Bartending Lesson 80: Under Arm Misdirection
This week’s flair bartending move is a 1 bottle, good fun, exhibition flair move that builds off the move we learned last week, the Misdirection. It’s a great opener to the start of any routine when you have a nearly empty bottle.
Tips for learning the Under Arm Misdirection:
1) Make sure you are already comfortable with the Misdrection.
2) Practice throwing the bottle behind your back and underneath your arm/armpit, catching it comfortably at chest level.
3) Once you are comfortable and consistent with this throw, add in the misdirection.
4) Be ambidextrous. You can learn to do this with both hands by drilling the move back and forth, left to right, right to left, and so on.
5) You can do the Under Arm Misdirection with either a 1 liter or a750 ml.
6) Like most moves, start by practicing with an empty bottle or a Flairco Bottle. Once you can do the move, try putting 2-3 ounces of liquid in the bottle, putting a pour spout on it, and practicing it until you can do it without spilling.
7. In addition to slapping the misdirection and catching the bottle with your non-throwing hand, practice catching with the same hand you used to throw. Try making this a one-handed flair move.
Flair Bartending Lesson #75: Hip Nest
This week’s flair bartending move is a relatively simple under-the-arm maneuver. It’s a really great starter or transition move. It’s also one of those funky moves that is part working flair, part exhibition: you can do it at work with a full bottle but you’re going to need a 750 ml bottle.
Tips for this flair bartending move:
1) Get a good throw. Good in this case means mostly straight up and down – maybe leaning forward just a little bit.
2) To get a good catch, play with the angle of your tin.
3) If you’re having a hard time, you can cheat a little bit by using your throwing arm to “cradle” or guide the bottle into the tin. Eventually, you’ll want to outgrow this, but if it helps you learn, I’m not judging.
4) This move is really easy if your skinny and have long arms. If necessary, lose weight and grow your arms.