Wow, that guys sure knows how to spin a stick! 

But what was with the swinging water bottle at the beginning? What did that have to do with the stick twirling?

Nothing, really. 

But it was also probably the main reason why you watched the video in the first place.

Let me explain.

Demonstrating the marital arts technique of twirling the stick (I have a feeling that “stick twirling” is not the technical term for it, and I mean no offense to anyone who practices this art, but I’ll continue to call it “stick twirling” out of sheer lack of desire to Google the proper name for it right now), demonstrating this technique was the “reason” for this video. This lesson is the “meat” of the message. 

But, as entertaining as the demonstration is, it didn’t start with that.

No. It started instead with the guy pushing a water bottle suspended on a string at face-height, away from himself and letting it swing back and forth for a moment.

Why did it begin this way?

Two reasons.

One is good, old, reliable, attention-getting curiosity. 

Perhaps you’ve seen other videos online of physics professors letting heavy lead balls that are suspended from strings drop away from their face and then swing back towards their face? Of course through their knowledge of physics they know that the heavy weighted ball will not hit them in the face due to the loss of energy. (This only works if the professors lets the weight drop, not if the professors pushes the weight. If they push the weight then it will gain some momentum and have enough energy to come back and hit them square in their over-educated faces. Hard, too.)

I was reminded of those videos when I first saw the beginning of this clip. 

“Oh boy, I wonder if this guy is about to get hit in the head with this water bottle?”

That kept me watching. (I know, I know, I’m an immature sucker for a cheap laugh. Well, in the words of John Lennon, “But I’m not the only one.”)

But this swinging water bottle trick subtly does even more to engage the viewer.

You see, the back-and-forth swinging motion actually cues our mind – like a hypnotist who holds a pendulum in front of us and begins to speak, “You are getting sleepy… very sleepy…” – so that we pay attention. It gives us something to focus upon. This is called a “hypnotic induction”.

When our focus is fixated on the swinging bottle we are mildly “hypnotized” and are more open and receptive to the next message.

At this point we are prepared for the lesson.

It happens very quickly, so you may have to watch the video a few times to really see it.

But think about this subtle yet powerfully persuasive sequence:

1 – Curiosity (to gain attention)

2 – Hypnotic induction of some kind (to focus the attention)

3 – The meat of the message (which will be super-charged from the fixated focus)