North American team maneuvers collection

Over 40 team maneuvers are available here, each animated with its call and a short description. Some look dense at first glance — that’s normal. Look one up through the alphabetical index if you already know its name, or scroll through everything below.

Thanks to François Larouche and John Barresi for their contributions! These figures are updated as we learn from them.

Team maneuvers

Follow

Texas slide

Sometimes also called "Pez".

San Diego slide

Up-turn / down-turn

Radar

Thread

Matrix / Dosey do

2 and 3 to edges

Ball / In line

Burst / Half bursts

Fly through

Scissor burst

Scissor burst with 4 kites

Scissor burst with 6 kites

Tweak

Shutter

Twister

Twister with 4 kites

Twister with 6 kites

... by ... by ...

1 by 2 by 3

1 by 2 by 1

2 by 2

Ladder up

Pinwheel

Twisted sister

Benefits

Benefits with 4 kites

Benefits with 5 kites

Compound benefits

Compound benefits with 4 kites

Compound benefits with 6 kites

Blender with 4, 6, 8 or 10 kites

Number of kites flying

Superstop

Superstop with 4 kites

Superstop with 6 kites

Superstop with 5 kites

This maneuver is a little unusual because of the odd number of kites. You’ll notice a difference especially in the first quarter rotation.

Short blender

French gears

Slam dance

Note:

Slam dance was designed to initiate the Rolling radar maneuver below.
This maneuver could end in a follow to the right.

Rolling radar

Note: this maneuver is still incomplete:

It lacks a movement "double face" around 0:11.
Calls for each step could be made, e.g. the number of degrees of rotation, "land" to the 2 final landings.

Radar wheel

Stall wraps

Note: For the last movements, the KiteLife team uses the name "Split 80" instead of "Split 180" used in the animation, in order to go faster.

Cascade

Headrush

Pickup sticks

Pickup sticks launch

To be expanded

A few maneuvers are still missing from this collection: Flank up / down / right / left, Face out, Left / Right box, Roll out, Pill burst, Tip pivot, Weave / Double weave / Bangers and mash, Shift places, Kisses, Morph to …, Snap to cube, Snap it, Cross walk, Take down / rise in, Twin radar, Leave the middle 2, Fountain, Arch, Philly, Joker. These and other maneuvers can be added as reliable references are identified.

Observe or compare the maneuvers

The North American team flying examples show how teams connect these calls in training sessions, festival shows and megateams.

To discover another vocabulary organized by level, also browse the Jst-4-Fn maneuvers, from the basics through very advanced figures.

Last updated: Aug 11, 2026 — split out into its own page