The Comprehensive How To B Boy Guide

The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide
By Ziveeman
Table of Contents
Title Introduction FAQS Author Ziveeman Ziveeman Page 4 5
The Basics
Title Where Do I Start? Newbies and Powermoves: What You Should Know Toprock Author STIFF_UK Redeyedol AlphaTrion Page 6 8 16
Footwork
Title 6-Step 2-Step 3-Step Helicopter/Coffee Grinder 12-Step Author Moochy Mania bboyarfen B-boy Jp Maximum NRAdam Page 21 22 23 25 27
Drops
Title Coin Drop Suicides Author BreakuRspinE Goose Page 32 35
Freezes
Title Foundational Freezes Airchair Adding to your Airchair One-Handed Airbaby L-Kick/Nike Kick Transitions Author mr. Boogie bboyCliche BboyStylistics Bboyhops66 Sum1datbboys D.n.A Page 39 44 52 54 56 60
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Powermoves
Title Windmill Compilation of Milling Notes Tips on Perfecting Windmills Learning Windmills: Common Pitfalls and Solutions Windmill Variations Flares Flares Flare Problems + Answers The Truth About Flares Good Flare Practice Tips Hopping Flares/King Flares Circles One-legged Swipes Turtles Turtles Crickets/Jackhammers Darkhammers/Hydraulics UFOs UFOs UFOs Headspins Handglide Handhops/Solar Eclipses Halos/Tracks Halos/Tracks Airflares from Standing Front Handspring/Front Tuck Backflip Spinning Flag Author Bboy Drizzt Do Urden jleefl1202 Bboy Crescent Mistah P Swiper Anubis2002 Unknown Ek0 Bboy Angel nidimin Sekto|Z, -SektorMarsio Bboy Crescent Bboy Drizzt Do Urden President ManHy xD and Bboy Du X-Bobby Bboy Drizzle Do Urden Anubis2002 Anubis2002 D.n.A -SektorAnubis2002 Kujo Anubis2002 Mali-bootay Hiddin Image GrandMoren Page 64 66 69 71 76 79 81 86 88 91 94 102 111 112 114 116 120 123 124 126 128 131 134 143 146 148 151 156 158
Other Moves
Title Broncos/Donkeys Kip-up/Chinese Get-Up Handstands Author ManHy xD Break Master A ManHy xD Page 162 168 171
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Introduction
Hey there Bboys and new bboys, This is my compilation of all possible stickied text guides on www.bboy.org (with the exception of a couple, and for good reason) I figure that most bboys dont practice near their computer, they probably practice at a gym or some sort of place like that. Thats why Ive compiled these guides into one. I know how hard it is to watch a video guide or read a text guide and remember how to do it when you go to practice the next day, I compiled these guides so you can bring them around. No longer will you have to keep on going back to the computer if youre at your house practicing, you can just look at this guide. Its also convenient if you dont have Internet, you can just put it on a flash drive and take it anywhere, so you can read it at school or work if youre bored =D (just dont practice there). Ive edited these guides for grammar so you dont have to wade through text like u, itll seem like a regular book. Ive also removed all sentences relating to the forum or something outside of the guide itself or pictures that I believe arent necessary. Some guides I got very lazy and decided not to edit too much. Haha. I swear, editing peoples writing is just like trying to teach a Bushman how to fly an airplane. Just impossible. However, I have not edited these guides extensively and you may find some inconsistencies, such as from the 2nd step of the 6-step (which it does not specify from where you started, etc) or if it mentions something that you dont know, something that is a given when these guide writers have not collaborated together, so youll have to figure that out yourself unfortunately. In addition, do not take these guides exactly as they say. Innovate! Come up with your own variations after youve gotten these moves down! Watch other peoples videos to get ideas (but dont bite). Also, videos are a much better way of guiding you than text, so watch those as well. The problem with text guides is that you dont actually see what the move does, rather the author is attempting to recreate the image in your head, which is a problem because if you miss a word or two, your entire image of the move may be skewed. So, as a solution, dont just use text guides! When youre done practicing and relaxing at home on the computer, match these guides to the video guides on the internet and see how they look. Also, I am aware I am missing several guides that are essential, such as the knee drop. If you are willing to write a guide, or found a text guide, please contact me on the bboy.org forums or bboyzone.com forums at Ziveeman.
Thanks for downloading, Ziveeman
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FAQS
Who created these guides? Various members of the bboy.org community. Why were these guides chosen? Because they were, for the most part, stickied on bboy.org. This signifies that a guide is qualified enough to teach. Why wasnt so-and-sos guide chosen? Well, here were the rules for picking the guides. No video guides. Thats a given, of course. You cant have a video guide on paper (if you can, PM me, Im interested). Any guide thats dependant on other guide as a prerequisite is eliminated (however, the onehanded airbaby guide is an exception because its a popular, if not essential, freeze). Also, any text guide thats dependant on video as well was eliminated. However, take note that some of these guides do have video accompaniments that arent required to understand, but used as a booster. What use does this book have? It was mainly for people to have a printer friendly version of these guides so they can take it to their practice place, although it can be used as a centralized version of the text guides so you dont have to fumble through all the forums to find a guide you need. All in all, its basically a Game Boy version of bboy.org. It doesnt have everything the bigger version has, but its good enough to bring around. I know this is a long book so use a library or school printer to print it out, hehe. Then you can use a three-hole puncher and make a binder for thisthatd be cool not to mention efficient for everyone at your bboy practice to use. Dont keep this all to yourself! =D
Disclaimer
In no way, shape, or form are the authors of these guides or me liable for any injuries or damages you or another being or object may incur. Do these moves at your own risk. Got it? Good.
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Where Do I Start?
By STIFF_UK
Breakdancing Okay - listen up. Most of the world know this dance as breakdancing. So you may be surprised to hear, that that isn't the name of the dance. The dance is actually called BBOYING. The name breakdancing was actually dreamed up by some reporter who confused the idea of dancing to the break (where a funk track is all drum) with the name of the dance hence "breakdancing". The dance is called bboying whether you are a boy or a girl. BBoying = the dance BBoy = Break Boy (a boy who dances to the break) BGirl = Break Girl (a girl who dances to the break)
Where did bboying come from? BBoying was created in the Bronx in New York sometime around 1973.
What do I learn first? Okay - here's where you should start. The basics of bboying are very important and really shouldn't be glossed over or skipped. Start off with this stuff, and you can become a better dancer quicker than you could by going straight to the harder and more impressive moves.
TOPROCK - The stand-up part of the dance. Very important. This is where you can really let loose and enjoy yourself. It's this part of the dance that you can play with the music a lot. "If you don't toprock before you go down and do footwork, you're not really bboying." - Popmaster Fabel (Rock Steady Crew) DROPS - This gets you from your toprock, down into your footwork. The four basic drops are: The sweep. The back sweep. The kneedrop. The corkscrew.
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FOOTWORK - This is what most people know bboying as. When you are down on the floor (usually on hands and feet) doing a lot of complex looking steps. This is probably the most creative part of the dance. As a starter, you should learn 6-step and 3-step (learn them BOTH ways). Then when you have perfected them, start to move onto more technical stuff.
FREEZES - This is the traditional way to finish your throwdown (a throwdown is what we call it when you visit the floor to take your turn) The basic freezes to learn are: Chair freeze. Baby freeze. Turtle freeze. These are the most fundamental freezes and it is very important that you learn them early on as a lot of other moves build on them.
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Newbies and Powermoves: What you Should Know

By redeyedol
Alright, to all you new Bboys and Bgirls who really want to do certain powermoves or even be a powerhead, you better read on if you want to head anywhere. Alright, first thing is first. Power is NOT gonna win you a battle against a good stylehead, no matter how hard your powermoves and combos are. You WILL get respect, but chances are you won't win. Powerheads actually do have style, they mix in something unique in their powermoves or combos, and if you only plan to rely on power without having any style or even being able to toprock, you better join a gymnastics team and stay there, otherwise you're gonna have your ass spanked in a Bboy battle and called a boring gymnast or another Mike Garcia. First Part: Learn the BASIC shit of Bboying. TOPROCK Learn how to toprock. If you're gonna walk in a circle cruising like a pimp, chances are you're gonna be bitchslapped like a hoe. Learn those basic toprocks. Observe videos and other bboys/bgirls JUST before they do a powermove. They often slow down a lot, tend to minimize a lot of their arm and leg movements, sometimes tend to kind of hop around, and sometimes tend to pull up their pants as if they were gonna fall off (I do this ). THAT is practically the most basic a toprock can get while being a toprock. You should start off with that instead of biting off someone else's toprock completely, as they're probably gonna drive-by shoot you if you do and give you a bad name in the Bboying world. Once you can do something THAT simple (trust me, it's NOT one bit hard, even a poser could do it), start to move with the beat and other components of the music. Change your feet and leg positions, hand and arm positions, even make gestures if you feel COMFORTABLE with it. Note that if you ever try to bite someone's style, you're probably not gonna feel comfortable with it as it's something that probably won't come naturally to you. Now just make sure that you have fun when you toprock, you don't feel like you're gonna trip over yourself, and you think it looks fine in your own opinion (don't give a fuck what others say about your style). After this, move on to the next part. FOOTWORK Alright, this you NEED. Not only because it is a HUGE fundamental of bboying, but for one other part. FINDING OUT WHAT DIRECTION/SIDE TO DO YOUR MOVES IN. Learn 6-step first, and find out what direction you can do it the best in. If you do it better clockwise, then you're a clockwise person. If you do it better counterclockwise, then you're counterclockwise person, etc. If you're clockwise, you should stab with your right hand. And vice versa for counterclockwise. It's very useful. Now learn other basic footwork moves such as pompo/sideshuffles, coffee grinders/helicopter, knee spins, and 8
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide other stuff. Now learn to mix up moves together, and once you're good with them, try to do your footwork with the beat/music, like in your toprock. Start off with slower songs and them move your way up to faster ones. Once you can do this, try learning your footwork the other way, and then even make your own variations of footwork, ect. Now let's move on:
WHAT YOU NEED: Alright, if you plan to ever do power, you should learn these, and I'll also tell you why. BE AS FIT AS POSSIBLE - Alright, most powermoves don't require shitloads of strength, and some, barely any strength at all, but you should be healthy, and have certain muscles and areas of your body built. Do pushups, sit-ups, and handstand pushups (against a wall or free). Abs are probably the muscles that will be needed the most in a lot of moves. Having them strong can help you control your movement, balance, and just do the moves easier. Arm strength is an extra benefit. Just try to get in as best as shape as possible. If you're a little overweight, don't worry too much, you're gain strength and endurance while practicing. HANDGLIDE - Aight. The handglide position is a very commonly used move. It is used in between powermoves, freezes, and even footwork. Now, one major benefit for the handglide is wrist strength and endurance. You really need to build up your wrists, as a lot of moves will put A LOT of strain on your wrists, and you need to be well conditioned for this kind of activity. Also, it helps build up balance to a certain degree. And memorizing the handglide will help you switch in between certain moves easily. HANDSTAND - this is VERY useful for moves that require you to be in such a position. Helps very much on balance, endurance, and strength to a certain degree. ONE-HANDED HANDSTAND - some moves will rely on you being in such a position, and it will help you as said above for HANDSTAND. PLANCHEZ (optional) - for some of those moves that require A LOT of endurance and some considerable strength, this will be of great benefit. You'll gain strength and tons of endurance for moves such as UFOs, where your body weight is placed on only a few muscles and balance is dependant on how well your muscles can hold in that position. HEADSTAND - helps for balance, neck strength, builds up forearm strength a little bit, and is very useful for moves that require you to use the headstand position. FREEZES - helps with balance, can be used in combination with powermoves, every Bboy/Bgirls needs at least some freezes. KIP-UPS AND RUBBER BANDS - helps build up quick reflexes, and also helps with some ab strength. Very useful to use in between moves and whatever. 9
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And now we move onto the POWERMOVES!!! Hopefully, you've worked on what I've mentioned earlier on, and you're ready to take on these whipping bitches. NOTE: Powermoves aren't something you're gonna learn in a day. They require a lot of practice, patience, and for some, COURAGE. UNDERSTAND HOW THE MOVE WORKS before you try to get VERY into it. Get to know how the motions and positions work, and try out the moves slowly. And don't give up. Also, for you Bgirls who want to learn powermoves, I don't mean to lower your self esteem or anything, but it WILL be harder for girls. Girls have heavier lower bodies, and less strength than guys (although if you PRACTICE, this won't be anything of a problem). But girls can achieve what we guys do, so just practice and you'll get it. =P
The Easy Powermoves:

WINDMILL: Ah, yes, the famous windmill. This move is a very popular move, isn't that hard compared to some others, and also helps you learn how to control momentum. I'd recommend this to newbies who want to learn powermoves which can have A LOT of power in them. Windmills can be slow, or VERY fast, depending on how much power you put into it. You should have the handglide position down before you move onto this move. RISKS: This move really isn't THAT dangerous. But every powermove has its potential dangers. In most cases, bruising of the hips, shoulders, ass, breast pain (for girls), wrist pain, scraped/bruised knee, sore ankle and sore elbow/forearm will be the only things you will encounter. Some people might get sore hips. In severe cases, fracturing of the knee, and even dislocating part of your arm could happen. Some people might even smash their face against the floor. These ones are less likely to happen, though. TURTLE: Turtles, often thought as VERY hard and in need of great arm strength, but really, not as bad as thought. It's all about technique, not strength. Practice a lot with the turtle position, and hanglide position with both hands. Really, this move is all about practice and getting the technique down. RISKS: Sore wrists, sore knees, could fall on face. Really, you won't hurt your self much or anything at all when trying this. But in extreme cases, you could break your wrists, and in VERY rare cases, dislocated or break an arm. SWIPES: Easy, simple, and fun to do. Start by learning them 2-legged, then 1-legged, then superman-style (your arms open as if you were flying like superman in the air). Then learn them from standing position, also known as airswipes. Baby swipes are a more closed in variation, used with footwork. Elbow swipes are also nice to do. All swipe 10
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide variations look impressive if done smoothly, legs wide, fast, and especially if in a tight circle. RISKS: I dunno, somehow falling on your ass and laughing at yourself? This move is EXTREMELY low risk. You must be a real idiot to dislocate your arm or something while trying swipes. These are swipes, not a game of Twister. BACKSPINS: You should be able to learn how to generate momentum, windmills can be helpful for this, as can flares (later on in this) and other moves that generate a lot of speed in a spinning motion. Backspins are really easy to pull off, that is, if you can generate momentum. If you know no damn clue about how to generate momentum, then don't try out backspins, you're gonna look like a poser when you only get about 2 spins at the most. But I'd still suggest learning them, as they can look nice once you're good with controlling and generating momentum. RISKS: Bruising your shoulders, sore arms and back, especially along the spine. More of a learn to cope with some pains in the process of learning than worrying about potential injuries.
The Advanced Powermoves:

CRICKETS AND JACKHAMMER: Another impressive yet relatively simple powermove. You should master the handglide position first, then learn how spin in the hanglide, then learn crickets. Once you've mastered crickets, as in being able to do them in practically whatever direction you want, and not losing balance, move onto jackhammers. Jackhammers will be almost instantly gained in your arsenal if you've mastered crickets as I've mentioned. Really impressive move to the ladies, as it gives the impression of super strength. RISKS: Sore wrists, bruising of the knees, sore hips from stabbing, sore elbows if you fall on them, and in EXTREME cases, you could break your wrist or dislocate your arm. Not a very dangerous move in general.
COINDROP: Very good way to generate momentum and drop into moves such as windmills and backspins. Part of learning the coindrop is technique, another part is confidence and courage, as you'll probably get a feeling that you might hurt yourself somehow. RISKS: Bruising of legs, arms, shoulders, back, ankle, pretty much whatever lands wrong and hits the ground, even your hand if you REALLY fuck up. Best to wear something thick such as a thick sweater or something when practicing this. Also good to practicing falling down on something soft, such as grass or carpet, as that will help prevent injury. In extreme cases, you'll probably land VERY wrong and fracture something. 11
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FOREARM AND SUPERMAN WINDMILL: Really not much different from windmills except you'll find that you can go faster rolling on your forearms or stomach than the stabbing method. Must have nice, fast and smooth mills to move onto these ones, though. RISKS: See WINDMILL. HEADSPIN: Yet another famous move, for this one you need to be able to hold headstands for a long time (at least 2 minutes if you plan to do long headspins) without wobbling or falling over. This also ensures that your neck muscles are conditioned enough for this move. Headspins are all about technique, not strength. All you have to know is how to generate some momentum for headspins, the technique for tapping whenever you need to, and holding the balance. Good move to learn. RISKS: Neck a little sore, bruising of arms, side, legs, or wherever you fall on. A lot of people have this paranoia that you'll break your neck if you do headspins, but your neck is much stronger than that. Pretty much the only way you could break your neck is if you fall on your head while it's slanted at a 45 degree angle or something, which is VERY unlikely to happen. Not as dangerous of a move as believed. NOTE: These can ONLY be done on a nice smooth surface. MASTER SWIPES: Ok, incase you were wondering, I didn't put these with swipes is because these ones need A LOT more technique and more power than those other swipe variations. You need to have airswipes, 1-legged and 2-legged and superman-style swipes down before you even think of these. Master swipes combine those parts all into one pretty much, and are higher and wider than other swipes, and can even resemble airflares to a certain extent. A good move to learn if you're dedicated enough. RISKS: Falling down and bruising wherever you land on is pretty much the only big risk in this, since you'll be falling from a high position while momentum is moving you. Still not very dangerous or anything. FLIPS (gainers, backflips, frontflips, handsprings, ect): These really aren't as hard as thought to be, it's all about TECHNIQUE and CONFIDENCE. If you have these two down, then they shouldn't be too hard to learn. RISKS: Falling down and brusing yourself. In extreme cases, falling down really hard and severely injuring wherever you fall on. Safer to practice these on something soft, like grass or a gym mat. 1990s AND 2000s: These require a mix of balance and use of momentum very much like in headspins. Not 12
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide very hard to learn, though. I might even go as far as recommending 1990s to fairly new bboys/bgirls. Should have handstands and one-handed handstands down, though. RISKS: falling down and hurting yourself, injuring wrists. Not too much of a chance of hurting yourself badly, usually at the most, bruising yourself. In very unusual cases, one could lose balance and fall on his/her face, or somehow do something VERY wrong and slam oneself hard against the ground.
The Hard Powermoves:

HALOS: These require a mix of balance, some strength, and a lot of technique. Having headspins and windmills down will help a lot in halos, as this move has very similar physics to both moves, especially windmills. Takes a while to learn. RISKS: Sore elbows, wrists, falling on face, falling on legs, and other windmill-like injuries. Also in extreme cases, chance of fracturing neck. Dangerous move if not careful with and if technique is very sloppy. NO-HANDED WINDMILLS (nutcrackers, confusions, eggbeaters/barrelmills, ect): For these, you MUST have masted the windmill, otherwise you're going to have a VERY VERY hard time trying to get these down. They're very fast, require very good control of momentum, and technique would make a HUGE impact in how well these moves are performed. Takes some time to get down. RISKS: All of windmills and more. You could REALLY slam a part of your body hard against the surface you're on, as you'll be moving very very fast. And bruised/sore shoulders will probably be often encountered in learning these, as you hop from shoulder to shoulder while rotating. And especially confusions are dangerous, because if your hand presses hard against the side of your head and the ground, you could even break your neck. Practice with caution and take it one step at a time. UFOs: If you've mastered turtles and got planchez down, too, then you're ready to move onto this one. This move takes a lot of technique and a lot of endurance. They are one of the most impressive looking moves, though, especially if your legs are extended fully, the effect is even better that way. Takes a lot of practice and patience. RISKS: Pretty much what turtles can do, but actually, this move really isn't that capable of causing much damange/injury. FLARES: Amazing move taken from gymnastics, this move is a total bitch to learn and even more of a bitch to master completely. It really doesn't need much strength, just enough to hold yourself up on your hands with your legs forward for about a second or two. But it needs 13
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide a lot of practice, very good control of momentum and motion, good form, and a lot of effort to do (mostly for multiple flares, though). Having windmills down could help in learning flares, as they both have similar motions. Not a good choice for beginners, also many people encounter MANY problems with flares, and they can take a while to correct. Can take anywhere from 4 months to up to a YEAR to learn, depending on the person. RISKS: Sore wrists, spraining wrists, slamming your leg(s) hard against the floor, falling on your ass (usually not much of a problem, though), bruising whatever part of your body that falls on the floor if momentum is strong enough. If you lose total control of your momentum, you could even fall hard on your stomach or face. In extreme cases, you could fracture a part of your leg or foot or whatever slams onto the floor REALLY hard. Best to practice on grass, carpet, or a gym mat. VIRGIN FLARES/CIRCLES: A variation of flares that's easier for some, harder for others. They're harder to gain momentum in due to the fact that your legs are closed together instead of open wide, and often the number of circles done continuously is considerably less than regular flares. Having flares down helps, and it's always best to know how to generate a lot of momentum. RISKS: not nearly as dangerous as regular flares, the worst you could probably do to yourself is make your wrist really sore and bruise your leg a little. AIRFLARES/AIRTRACKS: These don't use too much balance, but having some balance down does help a little bit. But airflares are all about having almost perfect form, and very good control of momentum. These are also another of those moves that are mostly technique-based and not constant effort in doing the move, as are flares. Elbow airflares are an easier variation of airflares. These can take less time to learn than flares, sometimes more, but hitting multiple airflares often the hardest part by far. Not a very good move for newbies to learn. RISKS: Falling down and slamming oneself against the floor, sore wrists, spraining wrists, in VERY EXTREME cases you could fall on your head or neck and even cripple oneself. Best to learn on Grass or a gym mat. BABYMILLS/MUNCHMILLS: These are very hard, you must've mastered windmills before you move onto these ones, as these require VERY well performed technique. They're often tricky to start up, and also tricky to continue, as you must have very good form to continue going. Having nohanded windmills help, as they have similar physics. These will take long while to learn, and will take horrendously long if you don't have regular windmills down well. RISKS: hitting your face hard against the floor, hitting your head hard against the floor, brusing your sides, shoulders and back, hitting your leg hard against the floor, bruising forearms. Safest to do with a beanie/winter cap on. 14
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TOMBSTONE MILLS: One of the hardest, if not the hardest, powermoves that exist. You MUST have babymills down, be very very good with momentum, can do your powermoves very fast and smooth, and have perfect form. Your legs are closed up together like in virgin flares and you're hopping around like in babymills, this move requires perfect technique to be done. RISKS: same as BABYMILLS/MUNCHMILLS.
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Toprock
By AlphaTrion
The Importance of Toprock
First off...It needs to be acknowledged that b-boying is first and foremost a DANCE. If you don't know how to dance there's a good chance you'll never get too far in b-boying. Toprock is also a lot more than just "making room for you moves." You've got to remember that b-boying had already been around for a few years before the first b-boys (The Nigga Twins are usually given credit for that) ever went down to the floor. So what were people doing? Toprocking. Basically what this means is that no discussion of the foundation of b-boying should ever be without Toprock. Toprock is really the only surefire way to show that you know how to dance and how to rock a beat. Its also the beginnning of any throwdown that you do so for most people its the first impression they'll have of you. Sure you can have shitty toprock and a good blow-up...but why would you want to do that? Grab the cypher or your opponent's attention right from the start. In a set you want to show that you have everything so to be complete you NEED toprock. Toprock ConditioningThere's really no conditioning required for Toprock. It doesn't really require any major straining on the muscles or any sort of complex momentum to figure like in power moves. However, that does not mean toprock is without its difficulties. One tip that will help is that before you start practicing your toprock, bounce from side to side on the balls of your feet like a boxer. Try and get used to staying on your toes as much as possible. Your toprock needs to be able to adapt and you need to be able to constantly move therefore its important to stay on the balls of your feet so you can keep everything bouncy and ready to change to variations in the music. It also helps you have smoother transitions into your footwork, flips, freezes, or whatever you want to do from your toprock. Toprocking with flat feet will make look slow and make it look like you're trying too hard.
A Note on Rocking the Beat

Rocking the beat is more than just stepping out on the snare. That's just the basic aspect of it. Rocking the beat basically means expressing the music through your dance. I doesn't just mean the drums but every single aspect. Drums, bass, horns, lyrics, everything. However, for those just starting out...just worry about the snare drum. That's the only thing that matters when you're first learning. It's how most people judge whether or not someone is "on beat." Once you become more advanced you can then try to rock the horns, lyrics, bass, and everything else.
Song Structure Almost all songs that we dance to in the west are made using a 4/4 pattern. What this means is that there are 4 beats per measure (therefore 1 measure=4 beats). For example,
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide let's take the song "Dance to the Drummer's Beat' by Herman Kelly and Life. The drum pattern repeats every measure and goes BOOM---BIP-BOOM-BOOM-BIP (BOOM = bass drum, BIP = snare). Listen to the song and nod your head. If hearing the beat right you'll notice that you're nodding in time with the hi-hat of the drum. Typically changes occur at multiples of four measures, this is important because it will allow you to anticipate changes in a song even if you've never heard the song before. Now, listen to "Dance to the Drummer's Beat" from the beginning, after the first horn blast begin counting out every beat. Remember how I said changes occur on multiples of four? Typically, small fills occur after 8-12 measure and bigger changes occur after 16-32. Now as you're counting notice that the piano comes in at 32 measures. 16 measure after that the bass riff changes and 16 measure after that the cowbell comes in. Ok now, it's been 32 measures since the piano started...and we know have all the instruments playing. Now what do you think will happen in another 32 measures? Yup...the vocals start. Now if you were dancing to this...you would start with basic toprock...change it up after about 32 measures and add in some more intricate hand motions to match the piano. Then maybe do a skip step for the cowbells and act out or lipsync the vocals as they start. I know this all sounds very complicated but to be honest, I'm really just telling you this to know what to listen for when you're just hearing a song and not dancing to it. Learn to understand music and when changes occur. After a while you won't need to count and you'll just "feel" when a change in the song is going to occur. If you study songs and not just listen to them in your free time it will be possible to gain the "Sixth Sense" of toprock; Knowing when to change up your style when you've never even heard the song. I'll give tips to beginners and advanced toprockers. Beginners, ignore the fact the advanced tips are even there. You shouldn't be trying them until you think you've got the most basic techniques down. Indian step AKA Cross Step AKA Front step I consider this to be THE most important toprock style and my personal favorite Why? Because it's very easy to do and very easy to keep on beat. It's also adaptable to a wide range of BPMs (Beats Per Minute, the measurement that determines how "fast" a song is), it is also has a wide range of modifications you can do to personalize it and make it truly "your" cross step. 1. Stand with feet together (But not touching) and hands together in front of you. 2. Step forward with right foot slightly in front of left and a litte turned out. Open arms out. 3. Return to step 1. 4. step foward with left foot slithgtly in front of right and a little turned out. Open arms out. 5 return to step one. Beginners: you should be hitting the snare on 2 and 4. Advanced: try adding in some hops before doing steps 3 and 4. For example, if you have a BOOM-BOOM-SNARE beat, hop on the "BOOM's" 17
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Also try coming out farther with your foot on 3 and 4, dropping lower to the ground, maybe even touching it. These are some of the more basic and common modifications to the cross step. Back step - Exactly the same as cross step, except step back instead of forward. Charlie Rock AKA Charleston Rock Developed from a popular dance in the 1920s called the Charleston. To do the Charlie rock: 1. stand with feet together (but not touching). 2. step in front of Left foot with right foot 3. step in front of Right foot with Left foot 4. step in front of Left foot with right foot. 5. Step behind left foot with Right foot 6. Step behind Right foot with left foot 7. Step behind left foot with Right foot. return to step 2 Beginners: This can be done repeatedly but most of the time it's done just once. You should be trying to hit the snare on 4 and 7. Foot placement can also be a little to the side if the song is a bit to fast but you should still be doing the basic forward and backwards movement. For Your Arms: just swing them as if you were walking. Advanced: can't think of anything right now. Skip Step AKA Hopskotch: Both of these names are ones that me and my crew use and I don't know what anyone else calls or if anyone has even given it a name. 1. Stand with your feet together (but not touching) 2. Hop and kick your legs out and point your toes to the right side. Your left foot should be on the balls of your foot and your right foot should be on the heel with the toes pointing up. 3. Hop and go back to position one. 4. Hop and kick your legs out and point your toes to the left side. Your right foot should be on the balls of your foot and your left foot should be on the heel with the toes pointing up. Beginners: This is a very quick toprock so in a song with a 4/4 pattern you jump out on 2 and 4 (usually the bass and the snare). Just think of someone playing hop scotch. Pointing your toes to one side isn't necessary. You could just as easily keep your toes forward. With your arms just hold them in front of you on 1 and 3 and hold them out on 2 and 4. Advanced: Rember how I said this was called hop scotch? Well...do a hopscotch motion. On 1 and 3, instead of landing on both feet try landing on just one, or try leaning to the side when you land one foot. This is also a good toprock to experiment with your hand motions since your feet aren't doing anything to exciting. 18
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Latin Rock: I'm pretty sure this gets its name from the latin dances that inspired a lot of the early uprockers and toprockers. This is a pretty difficult step so I wouldn't recommend trying it until you've gotten the others down pretty well. 1. Stand with your feet together (but not touching) 2. kick your right foot out. When you kick you don't want to kick real high or hard or anything just give a small kick straight out. 3. Now bring the ball of your right foot back down to the ground and hop and end up in position 2 of the skip step. 4. Bring your right foot back and stand on the ball of your foot while kicking out with your left foot. 5. Bring the ball of your left foot back down to the ground and hop and end up in position 4 of the Skip step. Beginners: The kick from steps 2 and 4 should be on the 1st beat of a pattern (usually the bass) and you should end up in the heel-toe position of steps 3 and 5 be on the snare. Advanced: Try to alternate between this and the skip step. Apache: Again, this is another one that I'm not sure of the name. This is just what I call it, not sure why. I think I heard someone a long time ago call it this, and it just stuck. If anyone knows another name let me know. It's essentially just a variation on the indian step. 1. stand with feet together (but not touching). 2. Bring your right foot across and step down in front and to the side of your left. Similar to Indian step but turn your torso a little more and step a little farther to the side. When your right touchs, your left foot is going to come of the ground a little. 3. Bring your right foot back to center and kick out (same kick from the Latin step). 4. Put your right foot down and at the same time lift your left foot off the ground. 5. Bring your left foot around so it steps down to the right of your right foot and turn your torso to your right side. 6. Bring your left foot back to center and kick out. repeat. Outlaw: Sort of a cross between the latin rock and the backstep. 1. stand with feet together (but not touching). 2. Kick out with your right foot and then put the toe of your foot on the ground. 3. This is where it's gonna get complicated...Do a small hop off of your right foot do another small kick again with right foot (not high) and put your heel down. It's barely even a kick...your just going from the ball of your foot to the heel. AT THE SAME TIME 19
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide your left foot goes behind your right foot just like in the back step. 4. Now, rock back onto the ball of your right foot and kick out with your left foot, again, not high, just putting your heel on the ground. 5. Rock from the heel of your left foot. 6. Rock to the toe of the left foot and kick your right foot behind. (repeating steps 2-4 but on the opposite side). Now steps 3 and 6 should go by very quickly. You should be hitting the beat on steps 3 and 6. Basically when the ball of your foot touches down behind the other foot (the backstep). House Step: Loosely inspired by house dancing. This is just what I call it. 1. stand with feet together (but not touching). 2. Kick your right foot out and then rock back onto the toe (similar to what you did in the outlaw) 3. When the toe of your foot is on the ground do a small hop and kick your left foot back and tap the ground with your left toe while hopping a couple of inches to the side and forward with your right foot. At this point most of your weight should be on the right foot. 4. Now, slide the right foot back to the center position while moving the left foot forward and kicking out. 5. Rock back onto the toe of the left foot and step back on your right foot (step 3 but on the opposite side)
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6-Step
By Moochy - Mania
Start standing with your legs apart some (same as step 6) 1. Put your right hand on the floor a couple of feet in front of you, then step your right foot in front of that so that your left knee bends . 2. Then cross your left foot behind your right foot (so that your shins are making sort of an x) . 3. Step your right leg parallel to the left and put your left hand down so that you are in a crab position facing up to the ceiling. 4. Then do exactly the same thing going around to the back - left leg crosses over the right, lifting up your right arm 5. Right foot steps back. 6. Left foot steps sideways to get your legs parallel to each other and now you are facing down to the floor, legs in the wide V where you started.
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2-Step
By bboyarfen
------ Way #1 -----I think this is the easier way but its kind of hard to explain . 1) Ok, first step get into the starting position for a six step (all fours facing towards the floor). 2) You can go from a six step right into a 2 step from the 4th step. Its the one where your right leg hits/sweeps around your left leg if your going CCW and the opposite if your going CW.(I try sweep my leg a little when I 6 step) 3) Instead of just sweeping your leg kick hard so that both your feet get into the air. Its kind of hard to explain but your really gonna do a sort of swipe move. YOU CAN ALSO START FROM A CRAB POSITION 1) For CCW. Get in a crab position and stick your right leg out while keeping your left bent. Make sure your right leg is in a position where you can easily kick it to your left leg. Bring your left hand up like off the ground and put all your weight on the right. 2) Kick your right leg towards your left while throwing your left hand to the ground on the right side of your body. After the second step you should be back in the same position you started in then just get your balance and kick again. Keep trying until you can go in continuous circles; onceyouget that down its easy to work on going faster. You can't just kick your legs and expect to end up back in the starting position. You have to use your hips and twist. It might seem weird the first couple times you try. -----Problems------When I first learned a 2 step I would push off the ground with my right foot after i kicked it towards my left. Make sure you keep it smooth and kick your leg parallel to the ground.
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3-Step
By B-boy Jp
Step 1 From a sitting position on the floor. Bend one leg and keep the other straight. Depending on what leg you bend that sides arm goes over. So for example if your left leg is bend your arm goes over and touches the other side of the floor. Step 2 Now get into a push up position. From there you raise your right hand, and put your left leg where your right hand was. Step 3 Drop your bum down (put the right leg next to your left leg) and you should be in the position you started with. All you have to do now is switch the bend and straight leg order. So if youre left leg is bend it goes straight and other way around. Then you start from step 1 again. EDIT - I had 2 posts where people got confused with the switching legs in step 3. Okay when you have done one occasion of a 3 step you maybe end up with the wrong leg bend when you are finished. Example you start with left leg bend and do your 3 step. When you are finished you have the right leg bend. If this happens then do something what i call a momentum jump. just transfer your weight from one leg to the other or simply just switch legs. If you never had any problems like this then ignore it otherwise you will be confused.
TIPS + Some professional B-boys shift their weight from the palm of their hand to their fingers. Try it out if it works for you, well every bboy should do this. It is not exactly the fingers all the weight is shifted on. it's the back of the knuckles (not sure what the correct term is), meaning your palm is perpendicular to the ground while your fingers are flat and parallel to the ground. (thanks to semo for clearing this up) + To get faster try the 3 step very slowly, then increase the tempo by a little bit every time. + To add style and make them look better in general. Again go over it very slowly and try to do whatever your trying to do. Then try doing it normal speed.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide + If you re wasting too much energy doing this move just a couple of times try working out. a little exercise on your legs and arms maybe (I had to do this so dont panic that your overweight or something) + If you want to learn the 6 step. Being able to get down the 3 step no problem will make it much easier. All it basically is is adding one more step from the leg that isnt used. + If you want to learn powermoves but it seems like your not getting enough momentum. Try 3 stepping and then going into the move. This works especially well with backspins, floats (handglides) and therefore even windmill. This will help getting faster into the move and making more turns. + This could be classified as a quick 2 step tutorial: see the guy youngbboy14 the one that steps before the you got served film clip ? I not too sure but I think thats a 2 step. To do this once you get your 3 steps down at an acceptable speed. Try not too touch the floor with your feet when your in the Push Up Position and get straight back to like you where in step 1. + This is a little hard to explain but try to slide your leg under the other one when going into push up position with a little hop. And dont try to make it look to mechanical the way I showed you in the video is how to do it. But you have to make your own style into it. Like I did (or tried) when it says this is how it will look like. + Once you get that down and dont know what to do next try learning the 6 step or if you already got that down try swipes. Hope this guide helped and I will try to get a video soon of the sliding thing and not making it too mechanical. I know youre sick of hearing this but to get better: practice, practice, practice.
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Helicopter/Coffee Grinder
By Maximum
Helicopter Guide (Clockwise) "Helicopter" (also known as "Coffee Grinder", "Ball & Chain" and "Clock") Reverse all RIGHT to LEFT and Vice-versa for CCW This is the helicopter guide I promised; I'll include a written guide, a bitmap image of the starting position and a video (which is not mine since I dont have a camera) This move is easy, it shouldnt take long and the only difficult thing to explain is the starting position. 1. Starting Position: Sitting on the floor, only toes touching the ground. Knees fully bent and ass not touching the ground. Stick out LEFT leg so that its straight and pointed North-West from you. Put LEFT hand directly in front of you, on the floor, between your legs. Put RIGHT hand on the floor on the RIGHT side of your RIGHT leg. Youre now in the starting position 2. Begin moving your LEFT leg in a clockwise circle around u, when it reaches your LEFT hand, pick your hand up and place it on the other side of your LEFT leg as your leg slides by 3. Now your LEFT leg should reach your RIGHT hand. Again, pick your RIGHT hand up slide your LEFT leg under and put your hand back down 4. Your LEFT leg should now be on the RIGHT side of u. Keep moving your LEFT leg. When it comes to your RIGHT leg, hop with the RIGHT leg and quickly slide your LEFT leg under. 5. Continue Sliding your LEFT leg around u. It should now be almost behind u- While it is behindyouit should be bent at 90-140 degrees. 6. Move your LEFT leg aroundyouuntil its in the starting position once more. Now those were the steps, here are the tips 1. your leg should be straight while its in front ofyouand bent while its in back of u 2. In an Ideal Helicopter, your moving leg NEVER touches the ground 3. This is a footwork move,youcan use it in your 6step, and it will be easier to understand the 4 and 3 steps knowing the Helicopter 25
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide 4. I dont advise having more than 2 or 3 helicopters in-a-row in your combo's 5. Progress to 1-handed and no-handed helicopters 6. You can try a backwards helicopter (no not CCW, I MEAN BACKWARDS) its a little more difficult but think of the combos you could make 7. Good Luck (Not that youll need any as this move is pretty easy) [] 9. ITS EASIEST TO LEARN THE MOVE IN SOCKS ON A MARBLE, LINO OR POLISHED WOODEN FLOOR 10. Practice people practice
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12-Step
By NRAdam
12 Step - An official guide for bboys 12 Step are not hard as what you guys will think when you see a video of it. Actually it is the easiest footwork available (I guess so). The 12 Step involves you rotating around yourself taking 12 step in the process. In this guide all the 12 Step are explained individually and it is also explained from the push-up position because it cannot be done in the crab position. Any suggestions and queries could be reported. Hope this will help ya guys out there! Art Of 12 Steps : Prerequisites: None, maybe knowing other footwork may help a bit. Fact: This guide is for counter-clockwise(CCW) bboys. Clock-wise(CW) bboys will have to change the left and rights. The 12 step - A detailed guide for newbies Starting Position: The starting position of 12 step is also known as the the push-up position or invert bridge position. Basically, you will have to stand on all fours(2 legs and 2 hands) and you should be facing the ground. When in this position you'll be able to see nothing but the ground, got it. This position is same as the second step of the 4 step. Step 1: From the push-up position, Place your left leg to the right side of your right leg. Oh shit, this may get confusing!! This move is same as the 'first step' of the 6 step in the push-up position but here, you will not have to place it too much in front of you like in the 6 step. Step 2: Now raise your right leg and move it 'over' the left leg and place it to the right of it.Now you'll be in a push up position.
Step3: Now raise your left leg and move it 'over' the right leg and place it to the right of it(Holly 27
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide shit). In the Step 1 you did the same move but your left leg traveled under the right leg. This time move it over the right leg. Step 4: Move your right leg under the left leg and come back to a push up position. Step5: Place your left leg to the right of your right leg. You will have to move your left leg under your right leg. This move is same as Step 1. Step6: Now raise your right leg and move it 'over' the left leg and place it to the right of it.Now you'll be in a push up position. If you had noticed, this move is same as the Step2. Step7: Now raise your left leg and move it 'over' the right leg and place it to the right of it. In the Step 1 you did the same move but your left leg traveled under the right leg. This time move it over the right leg. This move is same as the Step3. Step8: Move your right leg under the left leg and come back to a push up position. This move is same as the Step 4. Step9: Place your left leg to the right of your right leg. You will have to move your left leg under your right leg. This move is same as Step 1 and step 5. Step10: Now raise your right leg and move it 'over' the left leg and place it to the right of it. Now you'll be in a push up position. This move is same as the Step2 and Step6. Step11: Follow Step7 or Step3. Step12: Follow Step8 or Step4.
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I know that all you guys out there are confused. Even i got confused on reading my guide! The most important part is that after covering twelve steps you should be back on your initial position, that is, you should complete one circle after completing all twelve steps. This means that your third push up position should be opposite your first push up position. That means that if you started doing six steps from '12AM' of a clock, you will have to go to a push up position at 2AM, 4AM, 6AM, 8AM, 10AM and 12 AM. A nondetailed guides for referrers is also provided. The 12 step - A non detailed guide for referrers. Angle measurements are used taking 360 degree as one circulation. Starting Position: Start in a push-up position (At 0 degree)
Step1: Move left leg to your right under your right leg.
Step2: Move right leg so as to come back to the push up position. (At 60 degree)
Step3: Move right leg to your right over your left leg.
Step4: Move left leg so as to come back to a push up position. (At 120 degree)
Step5: Repeat Step1
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Step6: Repeat Step2 (At 180 degree)
Step7: Repeat Step3
Step9: Repeat Step1
Step11: Repeat Step3
Step12: Repeat Step4 (Back in 0 degree)
Continue... I hope you understood my guide. Further comments, criticism, suggestions and queries are to be reported. TIPS: 1 Move your hips towards the sides while doing steps. This will create better fluidity as we are supposed to rotate around like a stick with your hands as the pivot while doing this move. 30
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PS: I didn't write the hand movements to make the guide easier. Also it is pretty natural.
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Coin Drop Guide

By BreakuRspinE
1- Whats a Coindrop :Its a "safe" spinning drop of the body onto the ground,to your back, its called a COIN drop because if you actually watch a coin drop it mostly spins around then lands with no "impact". The spin actually diminishes the impact. If you have seen any breaking videos it is the way you start a windmill from standing. 2-Prerequisite :- None really , but in order for it to be useful at least have a backspin down. Oryoucan jump up to your legs (if you can) after yo drop (But not exactly in a kipup style). 3- How To :- (This Goes Counter Clock-Wise)
1Stand legs apart in any comfortable position (Some say double shoulder width, some say less, Id say anything over or equal to your shoulder width apart is ok) YOU and only YOU should decide which position you start from, Ive seen peeps do it from almost normal standing, but the smoothest and best looking is from double shoulder width apart. 2Look at the ground, spread your arms apart, "wind up" by throwing your arms to your RIGHT (Twist your upper body right too) Now BEND..!! Bend slightly forward, twisting your upper body back to the left and throwing your RIGHT arm in front of your LEFT leg, but before your RIGHT Hand touches the ground, kick (Or jump with) your LEFT Leg, both back and up, and slightly to your right in a SMOOTH circular motion. Keep The leg STRAIGHT, its good form above all. 3Here's a VERY IMPORTANT POINT, notice that you just TWISTED your body, this means that the top of your head should be facing a bit to your left (Or North-East, ifyouunderstand bearingslol) 4You have to jump with your RIGHT Leg as soon as your LEFT Leg leaves the ground, now you dont have to kick the RIGHT Leg up as much as your LEFT Leg , just enough to make it travel into the spinning motion itself. 5So now you should be in this position :- Right hand on the ground, body about 45 32
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide degrees, left arm God knows where (see Note No. 1) and legs in a V-shape with the LEFT Leg higher than the RIGHT Leg. IF YOU'RE NOT IN THIS POSITION THEN SCREAM GODDAMIT!!!! YOU'RE GONNA CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [[This position is briefly described as a 45 degrees one-handed handstand -Brief, yeah right,,!! ]] Oh and your body should almost face your left (the ground on your left, haha). 6Now EAT SHIT...lol, Here is where most peoplel differ in style, you can either PLACE Your LEFT hand down to your RIGHT hand's Right side (Confusing , isn't it?) [[ This Means like "L R" where L is your left hand, R is your right]] Or you can be HARDCORE and tuck your LEFT arm in (You'll do that anyways later) without making your left hand touch, a good alternative would be to place the side of your hand on the ground without actually placing any pressure on it, then collapsing to your LEFT shoulder. 7- a - IF YOU PLACED YOUR LEFT HAND DOWN Place it down but don't shift your body weight to it, Also, keep your elbow bent as much as you can (i.e. DONT lock your arm) this will stop you from shifting weight to it naturally and ruining the entire move. Now Do All this simultaneously:-Lower your upper body towards the ground by bending both elbows (But the LEFT elbow should be bent more so you'd lean to the left and forward) -Slightly Lift your right leg , twisting your Lower body to the RIGHT (i.e. Bringing your RIGHT leg slightly higher than your LEFT) -Tuck in your LEFT ELBOW, preparing for the collapse on to your shoulder, By now none of your legs should be lower than your shoulders. -Now THE most important part, this is where all the learning takes place, THE COLLAPSE!!! The Shoulder Killer, I personally HATE the time I learned the collapse, it hurt my shoulder like hell, if you dont want to hurt your shoulder read the collapse miniguide down here otherwise if you have enough shoulder protection (or are HARDCORE and can take the pain) keep trying to smooth it out. Anyways just collapse to the back of your LEFT shoulder and roll to your back, keeping your Legs apart, you'll notice that (If you did it right) you have a bit of spinning momentum. 7-b- IF YOU'RE HARDCORE!!!! (i.e. You Tucked in your left arm from the beginnin' ) Its Almost the same as doing it in "7-a" , But you'll have to depend on your RIGHT triceps to loweryoudown slowly enough not to get hurt, then roll (Or collapse) to your shoulder and Voila, you look like a Pro! Esp. if you make people notice your left arm isnt being used by waving it and tucking it in before you even start, HARDCORE!!! NOW MILL !!!!! 33
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8- Now kick both your legs towards your face (Yeah another U-shape!) , the manner and sequence in which you kick your legs (i.e RIGHT or LEFT first, or even Both at the same time) Depends on wether your gonna mill, backspin or spring up to your legs. 9- You got a coindrop!!!! Now go find someone to battle.. :P Notes :1- What doyoudo with your left arm from the beginning? Its optimal use is for the wind up (More momentum) If you keep it high and stretched out, it may cause you a lil trouble putting it down in the right time, but it also would emphasize your motion, so its all up to you. 2- Keep your legs STRAIGHT ALL ALONG, I cant stress how much form is important in breakdance moves, a "Clean" move may be a common term in tricking and gymnastics, but for moves like mills, coindrops and downrocks, there is no such term, its either "RIGHT MOVE" or "WRONG MOVE".... So Stick to GOOD FORM.. Keep your legs straight ! 3- If your shoulder hurts, your either a- Dropping straight down, in which case you need to focus on the circular motion involved, here's a helpful thing to do, stand in a place where you can mark your left, right , front and back (a Square room is a good example) now you want to drop down so that your legs go (for CCW) from back to right to front, and your head looks to the left then UP to the ceiling (or Sky!). And once your on the ground look at the space between your legs, if you see the wall (or whatever) you started facing , then you've done it right if you see anything that was to your left, you should practice mills, because thats even better (because that'd meanyougot good spinning momentum) IF , however, you finished facing your right, or just twisted around and faced your back, youre screwed, RE-READ the guide.
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Suicides
By Goose
Because suicides are drops, too. Note: for all y'all who hate long-ass guides, I'm going to try to keep this as concise as possible without sacrificing information. But be warned, there are many factors and moves in a suicide, and I am trying to be as complete as possible, so this is definitely one of the longer guides. For those who don't quite know what a suicide is, it is a dramatic form of drop that gives the viewers the impression that you have just killed yourself, as you flip or fall sideways and land flat on your back or stomach. It looks like it hurts, and if done incorrectly, it does. Like Hell. This guide is designed to address the common problems one may encounter while attempting suicides, therefore minimizing the risk of very painful or even serious injury. Therefore, this guide couldn't possibly be very short because "do a frontflip and land on your back... don't get hurt," quite frankly doesn't cut it. So, here we go. =PART I: STRETCHING= First you'd want to make sure your body is very loose and relaxed. Do all the stretches known to man, and make sure you are RELAXED. Any sore muscles would really do a number on your body. Stretch your arms and upper body extensively, for these muscles will play a very important role. Once you have finished stretching, go find someplace soft. =PART II: MENTAL PREPARATION= You are about to do a flip (front, back, whatever). Make sure you aren't going to chicken out at the last second. Go find your mattress, put it on the floor, and practice front flips if you know you have problems following through with a flip. If you cant use a mattress, go on the grass, on your school's wrestling mat, trampoline, wherever there isn't a danger of breaking your tailbone. Do it enough times so that you are comfortable. Tell yourself, if you could do it on grass, you could do it on cement. Next comes the actual suicide moves. I recommend practicing these on the grass with a blanket (unless you like chlororphyll stains). =PART III: PHYSICAL PREPARATION= While you are practicing on grass, there are a few things to keep in mind: 1. RIGHT WHEN you hit the ground, straighten your arms, keep the hands palms-down, and smack the ground with your whole arm. Not just your hand, or your forearm... I am talking about the whole shoulder-to-fingertips arm hitting the ground at the same time. Your palms should get red and uncomfortable by doing this. Take a short break, then 35
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide keep practicing this again. 2. Your arms hit the ground the same time your body does. Anytime sooner, then your hands hit and hurt like hell, your body then hits and hurts like hell. Anytime later, then you get the wind knocked out of you. Your arms are supposed to act as shock absorbers by "hitting back" at the ground THE INSTANT your back touches. TENSE your arms, the whole rest of your body could remain relaxed, but with your arms tensed, your force would go straight into the ground and not back up at you, therefore, you won't bounce. 3. Your legs also hit the ground at the same time as your arms. You pretty much want your whole body to hit simultaneously, therefore the force would be spread out across the whole surface, and not in one isolated area (like your ass, for example). This makes it so that suicides are much more bearable, and over time, you hardly feel a thing as others gasp just watching you. A good place to start is to bend your knees slightly (while keeping your back and hips straight just before you land), so your feet hit the ground right when your arms do. Gradually extend your legs over time, as you begin to get familiar with the force your body endures. 4. As you hit the ground, breath OUT, and emit a sudden and powerful breath of air once you hit. The less air you have in your lungs, the less your body would hurt. Keeping air in your body during a move like this causes your lungs to expand laterally, which pushes against the diaphragm and internal organs, giving you that extremely uncomfortable feeling of getting the wind knocked out of you. For starters, keep your mouth open and keep breathing out as you jump and approach the ground. Try to get ALL OF THE AIR out of you as fast as possible before you hit the ground. =PART IV: THE ACTUAL MOVES= Remember, you have to get the motions PERFECT before even attempting to go on a harder surface. Doing it wrong might not cause permanent damage, but it sure hurts like hell for a few days, which really kills your toprock. These are only a few of the many suicides there are out there. Note: I don't know the official name for them, if anyone does, please comment, thanx! Suicide 1: Frontflip suicide/flatout - Everyone knows how to front flip... on a trampoline. Not everyone likes to do it on a wooden floor. The only thing to keep in mind is: (once you have the guts to follow through with the move), your feet hit simultaneously with your back/ass. This is very important, for obvious reasons. People have broken their os coccae by doing it wrong on hard floor. When you come around, just before you hit the floor, straighten your back and hips, and bend your knees slightly (for beginners). Upon landing, you'd want to keep your arms out at about a 90 degree angle from each other, palms down, TENSE. SMACK the floor with those arms the instant your body hits. Remember, ass first sucks. It's safer to have your feet land first, then the rest of your body hit, as long as you eventually get it synchronized with your fall. Note: this could also be performed by simply falling backwards. Just keep that back straight and butt tucked in, and keep your head down (as in keep facing your feet the whole way, so that your head doesn't pound against the floor). 36
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Suicide 2: Front-side flip - I am going to describe this suicide for right-handed people. From standing, you will take your right arm and swing it from slightly above the right side of your head, to below your left hip as hard as you can. You should feel yourself wanting to flip over and spin in midair, and that is exactly what you will do. During the flip, your body will spin towards your left side, so be prepared: straighten you left leg (i mean, LOCK YOUR KNEE and stiffen the muscles) while keeping your right leg bent. Your left arm will also be straight and tense (palm down, again), as you keep your right arm relaxed. YOU WILL LAND ON YOUR LEFT SIDE, as the whole of your left leg hits at once, at the same time, your right foot lands right behind it, and your left arm smacks the ground beside you. Remember to breathe out. Your right arm does whatever the hell it wants, i usually just fold it over my chest. Remember, everything lands at once, your WHOLE BODY acts as a shock absorber. Note, while doing this move, sometimes I like to keep my right arm straight and in the air, giving the impression that some JuJitsu man threw me over his shoulder. That's a good trick to play in team battles. For lefties: just reverse left and right. It's the same thing. Suicide 3: Face Falls - now these are dangerous. For both Boys and girls... because of... extending anatomy. Due to this, a slightly different approach has to be used. Breathing out is the same, but not the whole body landing simultaneously. Here, one would have to use either arms or legs to protect these vital body parts. In all cases, ALWAYS TURN YOUR HEAD TO ONE SIDE unless you really want an excuse for expensive nose surgery. 1. Knee fall - notice this is different from the knee drop. From standing, you will kick one leg out to the side, while the other completely bends BENEATH you. So, I kick my right leg out to the side, as my left leg bends, and turns slightly to the right, so my thigh and calves supports my chest. When I mean bend it, bend it as far as it could go. The knee should be a few inches DIRECTLY below your chin. Make sure that when you leg bends beneath you, it does it so fast that you actually have to FALL to the ground, and not just float down. Turn your head to one side, and your hands land on each side of your head, for support. Note: this move doesn't look that great from standing, its better if you jump very high in the air, land straight into this. This is one of the easiest "suicides" (it probably really isnt a suicide) but it still looks pretty cool with the right toprock. 2. Front Fall - From standing (easier if your legs are spread WIDE), simply fall forward onto your face, but dont hit your face! Keep on your toes!! This is especially important for guys with important packages south of the border. Stay on your toes. As for the face thing, Practice first by stopping your fall usng your hands, so that your face comes only inches of hitting the floor (turn head to one side, again). Even better, use your whole forearm to stop your fall. As you practice, you could allow your face you get closer and closer to the ground... eventually you could have both your arms outstretched above you so that only your arms and chest hit, and not your face. Bgirls must be careful with this, though ! Again, try this from the air. 3. Backflip suicide - Oh god i don't know. Good luck with this one, i can't even do a 37
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide valdez. If anyone knows anything on this move, please share the wealth. For suicides, you could do anything crazy - Suicides are up to you. They could be performed from any moves, at any time. Just be careful. Make sure to have the proper form: Landing on your back - Breathe out, your body is a shock absorber, arms smack the ground; Landing on your stomach - Breathe out, arms and legs protect your body parts, turn face to the side. This is just a basic guide for those who want to learn and make up their own moves. I might get on to more specific suicides and how to do them, if I figure them out myself .
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Foundational Freezes
By mr. Boogie
INTRODUCTION
Okay, here's my attempt to write a good guide. It's my first one, hope it'll help you guys out. Before growing big, you should have the foundation down. That is for every aspect of the dance, also for freezes. Thats why I made this guide for all the newcomers to the dance, to teach you the foundational freezes so you can advance to a higher level. This guide exists from the following freezes: * Turtle Freeze
* Handglide Freeze
* Baby Freeze
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*Chair Freeze
* Combining I'm sorry for the quality of the images, but it's just to give you an idea of what it looks like. Warm-up Before you start practising any of these freezes make sure you are warmed up and do some stretches. For freezes you have to use your wrists a lot, so your wrists are most important to warm up and stretch. Start with a little jumping/running around to get warmed up, swing your arms around and do some wrist rolls. Now that you're warmed up go on with some stretches. At least make sure you're shoulders, arms and wrists are warmed up and stretched. For stretches I recommend you to take a look at bboy Mystic Monkey's guide: click here
THE FOUNDATIONAL FREEZES

Turtle Freeze
This freeze is one of the easiest existing freezes, in the beginning it can feel a little unnatural to you, but with good practise you'll get it in no time. If you don't know 40
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide what a turtle freeze is, take a look at the pictures which I linked to at the top of this page. Okay, first I'll explain it in little steps and then there's a vid to visualize it. Step 1: Sit down with your knees bend, top of your feets flat on the ground. When you sit down you should rest on your legs. Maybe there are more ways to start this freeze, but this is the way I learned it. Step 2: Place both arms between your legs, bend at the elbows and hands pointing outwards. Step 3: Now you should put both elbows in your stomach and lean to the front. Step 4: Bring your legs to the back, but they should stay bend. Step 5: Now bring your legs up by pushing them outwards and at the same time bring your head to the floor (it shouldn't touch it). Step 6: Now try to find some balance in this freeze until you can stay comfortable in this position and breath at the same time.
Handglide Freeze
The handglide freeze is the same as the turtle freeze, but on one hand. I call it a handglide freeze because this is the beginning position for a handglide, but its also called a one-handed turtle. For this freeze you do exactly the same as with the turtle freeze, except the use of only one hand. The free hand is placed at shoulder width in front of you.
Baby Freeze
This freeze is a bit difficult to explain in words, but I'll try to do my best. Step 1: Go sit in a squat position. Step 2: Both your arms should be on the right side of your legs. So place your left arm to the right of your legs. Your fingers should be pointing to the front and your hand should be placed slightly before your legs. Your elbow (still left) will be touching the outside of your right knee. Your hand has to be flat on the ground. Step 3: Now for your right hand. Point your fingers to the back (so opposite to your left, which is pointing to the front) and your hand should be flat. Place it at the same line as your heels are. Step 4: In this step you leave everything in the SAME POSITION except from your right feet. Slide it to the front of you, the side of your body should fall and rest on your right elbow now. As you slide your right feet to the front your ass can rest on your left heel. Step 5: The only thing you have to do now, is falling to the side (right side) with both your elbows still supporting your body. So your left elbow touches the side of your right knee and your right elbow touches the right side of your body. You can place the right side of your head on the ground and just stay poised in this position. Once you are comfortable with it, try to raise your head slightly above the ground and stay balanced.
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Chair Freeze
If you don't know what the Chair Freeze looks like, take a look at the picture that I linked to at the top of this page. There are 2 different ways to get into a Chair Freeze, the first one is from Baby Freeze and the second one is from the ground, going into it at once. It's easier if you do it from Baby Freeze, but better if you can do it right away. So take a look at both, maybe you can start out with doing it from the Baby Freeze to get used to it and then practise doing it the second way. From Baby Freeze: Step 1: Get into the Baby Freeze. Step 2: Place your right foot on your left knee. Step 3: Place your left foot on the ground. Step 4: Now place your left arm in your side. Straight away: You can do this by getting in a handglide position and immediately go into it, I don't know any steps to explain this [] TIP: The further you arch your back, the more balance you get.
Combining
Once you master all of these freezes, you can start combining them. I don't have an explanation for this, but these combinations just make common sense if you already master all freezes.
FAQ
Here are just some questions that people asked me, not all of them, but only the most important ones. If you have a question not mentioned in this FAQ feel free to ask me or someone else in this thread! Q: If you're doing the turtle freeze, should my toes touch each other like in the image, or apart like in the video? A: Remember this... bboying is a danceform wherein you can put all your creativity. My guide is just to illustrate how a basic freeze is done. Put your own creativity in it and develop your own style. Do it the way you think it looks best or you feel most comfortable with. This is for all freezes. Q: How long should it take me to learn each of these freezes now? A: You'll probably get them in a couple of days if you practise hard, maybe even in one day, or even some minutes. But don't be discouraged if you don't get them so 42
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide quick, just practise hard and you'll be able to hit them soon. Q: Am I too tall/fat to dance? A: You never are! It will probably be easier if you're not very tall and if you're not overweight, but don't let it stop you from dancing, just work hard! Q: My wrists hurt! What am I doing wrong?! A: You probably didn't warm up and stretch them, just do so and when practising keep stretching now and then. In the other case, you practised the freeze over and over again. In that case, just stretch them and take a rest, continue practising later.
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Airchair
By bboyCliche
First of all remember that this freeze takes blood (literally), sweat and tears to learn. So if you're the type that doesn't dedicate himself/herself to what he/she is doing it will take you enormous amounts of time to be able to stay poised in this freeze. Airchairs, one of the most stunning freezes out there. If you don't know what it looks like:
One thing you should know is that the airchair is mainly about balance and flexibility. Balance is gained by executing it with the correct technique (which you gain through practice). And flexibility, mainly back, shoulder, and hamstring flexibility. Stretches: Hamstring Flexibility: Hamstring flexibility allows you to pike your legs. Piking is bringing your legs (legs have to be straight) close to your body. Piked Airchair:
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Unpiked Airchair
Static Stretches: Toe Touches: Static Stretch 1: 1: Sit down with your back perpendicular to the ground, right leg straight and left leg bent at the knee with the foot beside your right legs thigh. 2: Reach for your right legs toes. If you can, try to put your head to your knees or shin. 3: Repeat stretch for your left leg. Static Stretch 2: 1: Lie down on the ground. Legs and back straight. 2: Get your back perpendicular to the ground. 3: Now reach for your toes, if you can try to put your head to your knees or shin. If youve just started working on these and they are hurting you a bit, do 1 set of 10 seconds before practice and 2 sets of 10 seconds after practice. If you can put your head to your knees or shin then increase the time to 20 seconds. Active Stretch: This stretch can really hurt, but its probably the best stretch there is for piking airchairs. Just ignore the pain. 1: Sit down with you back to a wall, legs straight and back perpendicular to the ground, parallel to the wall. 2: Lift up your right leg. Keep it straight. Try to touch your head to your knee. 3: Remember to keep your back straight and parallel to the wall. 4: Repeat stretch for your left leg. If you start to feel a burning sensation on a muscle beside your knee, that means you tore a muscle. Thats a good thing. If you tear a muscle it grows back stronger. But usually this burning sensation is really painful, so drop your leg straight away once you begin to feel it. As I stated earlier this stretch is really painful, so before practice do only one set of 10 seconds. Do 2 sets of 10 seconds after practice. If you are the flexible type then do 2 sets of 20 seconds. Shoulder Flexibility: Without shoulder flexibility you wont be able to stab an airchair.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Shoulder Stretch 1: The Chair freeze, this is basically an airchair with your head and feet on the ground. This is for a chair on your right hand. 1: Go into a baby freeze. 2: Shift your legs over, so your left leg is bent at the knees and the foot is on the ground, and your right leg is bent at the knees but the foot is placed on your left legs knee. 3: Pick your self up a little with your free hand and your left leg. 4: Quickly stab your right hand onto your back. 5: Lift up your free hand. Chair Freeze
Ok this freeze is really easy you can get it within a day or two if you put your mind to it. To develop shoulder flexibility just sit in your chair (pardon the pun). Stay poised in your chair freeze for maybe 30 seconds at a time. You can do these basically anywhere, you can watch TV in them, you can play Game Boy in them etc. Just do these a lot. Shoulder Stretch 2: I find this stretch a much better stretch than the chair freeze, as it also gets you used to the airchair position. Remember that where you stabbed on the chair freeze is where you shall stab for your airchair. 1: Stab your elbow into your sweet spot on your back. Use your free hand to stay balanced if you are having trouble to without it. 2: Lift your legs onto a couch, maybe 1.5 feet off the ground. With the aid of your free hand stay balanced. 3: Lift your free hand off of the ground and balance solely on your stabbed hand. This might take some getting used too, as this is the airchair position. Stay in this position maybe 30-40 seconds. Its not very hard to hold because of your legs on the couch. Just like the chair freeze you have a free hand, so you can play Gameboy, watch TV etc. Just enjoy yourself! Back Flexibility: Back flexibility is mainly so you dont hurt your back with your stabbed hands elbow, as all of your bodys weight will be on it.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Forearm Hollows:
Just jump into this position for a while. Dont worry these are so much easier to hold than normal hollows. Hold these for like 15-20 seconds. Do 1 set before practice and 2 sets after practice. The Actual Airchair Guide: Ok I would advise you, if you can to try and practice this everyday. For maybe 20-30 minutes. If you can do it in front of a mirror, or better yet record yourself; to see how youre doing. Try to end each practice with you feeling a feeling of accomplishment; dont stop because youre tired. Stop once you are feeling you have done something well i.e. the airchair. Trust me on this one; it REALLY helps. If you still dont know where your sweet spot is click here ; this might help a little. Airchair from squatting: 1.Crouch down with your knees bent and your thighs resting on your calves. 2.Place your elbow in your sweet spot. 3.Lean back and put your hand on the ground, slide your legs forward so you arent compact. 4.Shoot your legs up straight, you can try to grab your toes if you want. But remember not to lean forward to do that, otherwise youll fall forward. Instead bring your legs closer to your hands, instead of bringing your hand closer to your legs.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Leaned Forward Airchair:
Leaned back Airchair:
5.Try to fall back down the same way you came up, you can jump out of airchairs by shooting out your legs and moving them in an arc towards the ground. You can choose to do either the leaned back or leaned forward way, the leaned forward way seems easier. But its much harder to hold than the leaned back. You don't have to pike your airchair if you wish. If you aren't going to pike then change step 4 to: 4. Make your torso parallel to the ground, and slowly lift your legs shifting weight to your stabbed hand. These type of airchairs are much much easier to hold than piked airchairs. If you are planning to do it this way then remember to place your elbow in the middle of your back; but if you are planning on piking your airchair then place it lower on your back. Practice, practice, practice and you will find your equilibrium, record yourself to see your mistakes or just session somewhere where there are lots of mirrors that you can see your 'whole body' in. Soon enough you will have some sexy airchairs! Once you're comfortable with the normal piked airchair, begin working on variations: 48
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Cross-Legged Airchair:
Airchair Double Variation:
Unstabbed Airchair:
*Gasp* But how? It's not that hard guys. Mostly flexibility. If you can kick yourself in the head then it won't be a problem. That's not reccommended though, but go ahead, tape it if you can. Haha. Basic tips needed for this skill are: 1. When bringing your legs up and grabbing your toes take it a step further and wrap your arm around one of your legs. The one that is on the same side as your stabbed hand is best. 2. When you have grabbed your leg PUSH UP! I can't tell you how important this is. Push up and back at the same time, this assures balance. 3. Try not to bring your head forward, you'll look like a retarded turtle and you'll fall forward. Instead, keep it back. Bring your legs to your head, not your head to your legs. It'll look better like this, trust me. 4. Again, flexibility. Hamstring flexibility is the main factor. Not flexible? Stick to the stabbed. Get flexible.
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Unstabbed Airchair:
FAQ If I got CCW can I do the airchair with my right hand? Yes, of course you can. But it all comes down to difficulty. If you're doing a flare going CCW and then you want to transition into an airchair onto your right hand it would be pretty dang hard; if you were going CCW and decided to do it on your left it would be significantly easier. It might look better transitioning into opposite arms, but then again, not everyone is a Baek. I keep falling backwards when I try to go into an airchair, what can I do? I keep falling forwards when I try to go into an airchair, what can I do? Airchairs are all about balance and being able to find your equilibrium. If you're falling backwards then you should stab back more, if you're falling forwards then you should stab more into the front. It's all about balance. Imagine yourself as a see-saw, when nobody is on it then it will balance perfectly, it's being held up right in the center. Now, if someone went on one side then it would fall on that side. Just like this you need to evenly balance your weight out. I can't find my sweet spot, help? Okay, first you need to realize that it's YOUR sweet spot. It's not something I can magically point out to you. I'm no leprechaun. You'll have to find it on your own. I have included a video of VP holding an unpiked airchair for a while from different angles. It should help you. How long did it take you to have consistent airchairs? If by consistent you mean being able to hold for a while then I would say around 3-4 months. In the first month I got used to that position and then I got around to actually holding something.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Shiite, the colors look ghey max. Haha. Have fun. Silly ninjas.
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Adding to your Airchair

By BboyStylistics
Mad compliments to Soviet for his guide to airchairs, but I just want to add to what he said he couldnt do and give some touch-ups to his guide. the Airchair is a move not based around strength. Trust me on this, it's more about flexibility and balance. To practice balance, you should position yourself into the handspin position and lift you free hand up. When you can hold this position for at least a good 4 seconds, then you're pretty much gravy baby. To stretch for this beautiful pose, find a wall or a structured surface. Pull your arms back against the wall, so your hands are touching it, and slide your ass down so you feel the stretch on your shoulder. You can do this on the floor as well, I've seen some bboys go straight down to the floor the freaks. When you are feeling pretty damn good about yourself, you're pretty damn ready you cocky bastards. 1) Get into the handspin position with your head on the floor like a normal chair. (hence the name "air"chair.) 2) Twist your body over until your elbow is placed on your hip, back something else. the placement of the elbow is very important for the different variations of your leg glamorization. (I'll talk about that later) 3) When you are twisting your body, keep your head on the floor and place your freehand to the side of your head as in a half bridge. From here newbies, adjust yourself and find the equilibrium. 4) From here, push with your freehand and lift your upper body so you can gain strength and flexibility. this will help you a lot when you try roll back airchairs. 5) Now you are ready to pop up and show me that beautiful airchair. The placing of the elbow is crucial at this point. If you are planning to pike, place your elbow lower, towards your ass more, because your legs will carry more dead weight when you are in the position. Kick up hard, but at the same time lift you upper body as high as possible. Grab with that freehand and adjust your head in the direction of your opponent. If you are planning to lay out, place your elbow in the middle of your back, and from here you must learn to balance with out your free hand. I use these in battles sometimes so just to boost your morality rate. Punch out your arm behind your head, (with a middle finger, 52
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide a thumbs up, point, peace sign, I'm versatile ) and lift your legs. If you have a dance room with mirrors, or any type of way to see yourself, use it to find your equilibrium. Most likely, the most difficult way to variate on your airchairs, is the threading process. You will have to learn to balance with your stabbed arm, your head, and one foot. you may want to begin with your threading leg on the bottom, the other crossed on top. with your free hand, grab the top foot, balance, and thread your legs like there is no friggin tomorrow! Balance remember, this DOES NOT require strength. 6) The falling process is the probably the easiest part for me . You can fall both ways, just be sure to not hyperextend any muscles. So when you get down this basic, part. You can literally squat and fallback in the airchair position. you don't even have to place your head on the floor this way. You can just go straight into with speed and grace. Good luck! Stay True! I might add to this if you keep me up at night you marauding whores. Keep bboying fosho!
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One-Handed Airbaby
By Bboyhops66
Editors Note: This guide refers to his own 2-handed airbaby guide often, however I cannot locate this guide. If you can find a text guide or have Bboyhops66s 2-Handed Airbaby Guide saved, please contact me, but in the meanwhile, youll have to manage =(. I apologize.
This guide is for one-handed airbabies on your right arm. If you are doing them on your left, simply switch the lefts and rights 1) Begin by getting into a two-handed air baby (refer to my previous guide for instructions). 2) Lean your body to the right onto your right arm but try not to move your right elbow or your right knee at all in any way. This will take some practice but is necessary to learning the proper way to open your body up 3) As most of your weight is on the right, it is natural that you should pick up your left hand. However, do NOT whip it up because you will be thrown off balance 4) Point your left arm upward towards the ceiling or in the direction your right arm points. Left arm placement is not essential but i find it helps in balance. *Remember that when you pick your left hand up, you will lose your balance. The important thing here is to anticipate the off of balance before you take your hand away 5) As you pick your left hand up, your left leg will drift right. This is usually an involuntary action and should be because it's really fucking hard to control the little motion I'm talking about 6) As your left leg drifts right, try your best to lean backwards because if your leg drifts too far, it won't have any room to go right and will go the only way it can: up. You will then topple head-first into a somersault. This will happen plenty while you learn this move so relax and be patient *The cure for the somersaulting is to lean backwards, as stated above. By leaning backwards, you move your leg downwards, instead of upwards, meaning you have more control of your balance THE NEXT TWO STEPS ARE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT TO COMBO YOUR AIRBABYS INTO FOOTWORK SO READ THEM ONLY IF YOU INTEND TO DO SO BECAUSE THEY CONFLICT WITH WHAT YOU LEARNED IN MY 54
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide TWO-HANDED GUIDE. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ THE NEXT TWO STEPS, YOU HAVE FINISHED YOUR AIRBABYS! 7) Once you stop drifting right and you have your left arm in a comfortable position, you've almost finished your airbaby. The last and perhaps most difficult part is closing your body up. this happens at relatively the same time as your leg drifting and your body leaning back: you must close your body up slightly. 8) The point of slightly closing your body up is that you are in a position close enough to a six-step position that you can drop backwards off your elbow and into footwork smoothly. If you try doing this with your body open, you will most certainly roll over right instead of left and end up flat on your back which is not where you do footwork from, usually. WELL, THERE YOU HAVE IT!! REMEMBER ABOVE ALL THAT I STATED IN MY GUIDE THAT THIS FREEZE TAKES PATIENCE AND BALANCE. YOU WILL NOT GET THIS FREEZE IF YOU GET ANGRY, FRUSTRATED, OR IMPATIENT!
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L-Kick/Nike Kick
By Sum1datbboys
Editors Note: These are two separate moves covered in one guide. Ok this is my first ever guide. Ive noticed that a lot of beginners want to learn L kicks or nike kicks.....so I made this. First of all, L kicks aren't that hard. It just takes practice to hold them. You only need to hold them for about 1 - 2 seconds. People say that you need to have really good 1 handed handstands to do these. Well guess what? You dont. I can't even do 1 handed handstands but I have decent nikes. Ok then, lets get started. (This is with your left hand) 1) Look at the ground where youre gonna put your hand.
2) Step back with your left foot.
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3) Swing your right foot up as you put your hand on the ground (Keep looking at the ground it sorta helps you balance)
4) Now this is the part where most people stuff up... you gotta turn you hips slightly up towards the sky so you can kick up (Kick towards your face) (Look to the front as well)
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5) Now straighten your legs out.
Grab your kicking leg to help you balance. If you are flexible enough, you could try to pull your leg in towards your body. It makes it easier to hold. Now nikes are the same except that you bend you other leg as youre swinging your right leg up.
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Stuff to remember ----------------------> Swing you legs hard to get up higher. (not too hard that you fall over) >TURN YOUR HIPS > The closer your legs are to your face, the better it looks. It's easier to balance as well. Ok hope that helped. Remember... PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
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Transitions
By D.n,A
The freezes are going to be: Baby freeze Chairfreeze Shoulderfreeze If you don't know how to do the first two freezes, check out Mr. Boogie's Foundational Freezes Guide, just look up at the beginning of the freeze section in this guide. This is a CCW guide. Baby freeze Prerequisite: Baby freeze to handglide freeze can be very helpful, but isnt actually necessary. Its simple, but needs practice in the beginning. This is how you do it: Get into a baby freeze like this: put your arms on the side of your legs and just lean to that side. Youll be in a baby freeze instantly. Now kick back with your left leg. Dont get lazy, kick hard!! Well, now youre in the handglide freeze. Once you master this one you want to be able to do handglide freeze --> baby freeze. Read what I said in the baby freeze part (lower body) and youll know how to do this one, plus if you do it from footwork itll be easier, because of the momentum and speed you already got from the 6 step. Upper body: From the 6 step, do the first, second and third step. Now, as you do the forth step, your upper body must turn to the right. When you switch arms (you always switch arms in the 6 step when you do the forth step), so when you switch from left arm to right arm, you dont put your right hand down like you usually do. This time, you put your right hand down with your fingers pointing to the BACK, but you turn your upper body, so your face turns 90 degrees, which means when you look at your right hand, your fingers will be pointing to the right, away from your feet. Now that you have put your right hand down you want to put your left hand down also. Your left hands fingers will be pointing to the front, but you have turned your upper body so when you look at your left hand, your fingers will be pointing to the left, to your feet. When you put your left hand down you must already stab with your same left elbow. Lower body: This is the next step. You now already have turned your upper body and have put both your hands down. You also have made your forth step (from the 6 step). And now, raise 60
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide your left foot (and leg), so your body is successfully turned now. While you raise your left foot (and leg), you have to kick with your right foot. Give it a push and then also raise your right leg. Now as you have done this youre kind of in the handglide freeze. But dont stop, it all has to be done in one fluid motion. Now try to kick your RIGHT shoulder with your LEFT KNEE. Simply kick hard!! Once youve done this your left knee should be on top of your right elbow. Congratulations, you just have done the 6 step to the baby freeze. Chairfreeze. Prerequisite: Again this is not necessary, but it sure will help: baby freeze to chairfreeze. To do this you must first get into the Baby Freeze. The next thing to do is you have to put your left foot on your right knee. Once you have done that, the hard part comes. Now you must put your right foot on the ground. Heres how it works: you must arch your back and move your head to the back. As you do this your legs will follow and the best thing to do is putting the right hand above your head. Big shout out to Mr. Boogie for making the guide that taught me. Upper body: Same as Baby Freeze in the beginning. But once you have done that you must arch your back and your head should not be in the same place as you would have it in the Baby Freeze. Lower body: Same as Baby Freeze until the part that you throw both your legs up. When you have done that you must put your left foot on your right knee. Then do the same thing you did in the baby freeze --> chairfreeze part. Explanation isnt really needed, just practice and watch the vid. Tadaaa youve done the 6 step --> chairfreeze, congratulations. Heres the video: 6 Step to Chairfreeze
Shoulderfreeze. Ok this might be the hardest one. Prerequisite: None, except for shoulder freeze of course. And good understanding of the upper body movement in the 2 other transitions.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Upper body: Again, from the forth step turn your upper body, I assume you already know how to do this, and btw its easy, the turning -.-. Anyway, after the forth step, when you already have placed your right hand down, you dont place your left hand down. Instead of that you get on your forearm. No explanation needed, just make your forearm point to the right. You have turned your body, so what you will see is your forearm pointing to the front, this is good. Once you have put your forearm down put your head down, this will make it A LOT easier and is a lot less dangerous. (I was so stupid to do dangerous transitions, like handstand to shoulderfreeze. Now Ive got a tear in my key bone or something, I cant do anything on my left arm, so that SUCKS like hell.) Anyway, when you have put your forearm and head down, you just have to make a CLOCKWISE circular motion (try it, it makes so much sense) with your forearm to drop into the shoulder freeze with your ear on the ground. Your right hand is still in its place. Lower body: Exact same as chairfreeze/baby freeze in the beginning, but you dont switch legs. You just kick up with your right foot, so both your legs are in the air. As you get into the forearm/head position your legs will almost automatically raise. So just go up and get ready for the awesome Nike sign youre going to make with your legs. When you drop you have it. Congrats, you just did the hardest transition of this super important list. Quick thingy: Baby freeze 1. Put right hand down. 2. Put left hand down and at the same time stab with it. 3. Kick up with right foot. 4. KICK YOUR RIGHT SHOULDER WITH YOUR LEFT KNEE (key part!!). Chairfreeze 1. Put right hand down. 2. Put left hand down and at the same time stab with it. 3. Kick up with right foot. 4. Put left foot on right knee. 5. Arch your back (!!). 6. Put right foot down and put your right hand above your head. Shoulderfreeze 1. Put right hand down. 2. Put left forearm down and at the same time kick with right foot. 3. Place your head on the ground. 4. Make a CLOCKWISE CIRCULAR MOTION with your left forearm. 62
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide 5. Make the freeze look cool. Tips might be added later on, the only one now is: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!!! PS. This guide was a PAIN in the @SS to make, so lay off the hating, spoiled brats. And the vids arent super good, because of my key bone. Im actually not allowed to break, but I just cant sit my lazy @ss down here and not do anything.
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Windmill
By Bboy Drizzt Do Urden
Alright, I've resurrected my famous guide and added on details to it so its easier to understand, and you'll be able to learn faster from it. Since all ya peeps be asking bout the windmill, this post hopefully will help with all the problems you have and for all that have other tips and guides of windmill, post them here or site references of other sites that have good guides. Heres my NEW complete Guide, Some steps are still the same:: (Counter Clockwise) ___STEP 1___ Get in a kneeling position and place left hand on ground in front of you with fingers facing back towards you or to your left. Take right hand and place near where your head would be if you leaned over your left arm. (Experts have told me its easier to start in a kneeling position than that of putting a lot of weight on your arm in the handglide position.) ___STEP 2___ - The Initial Kick This is initiated by 1st picking your left leg up, (doesnt have to be straight out, or that high) followed by swinging your right leg directly up and to your right side, try to get it up high and directly to your right side of your body. This SHOULD now pull your left leg towards and below your right leg. Now swing your left leg hard and low under your right leg in a wide arc like your drawing out a circle with your foot. This action of left up right up and out and left under should be like a boxers 1, 2, 3 punch, fast and smooth to gain momentum onto your backside. ___STEP 3___ - The Collapse While you are kicking your right leg up and sweeping your left under it you are going to "collapse" literally your left arm so that you roll to your left upper shoulder to your back. Pretty much this is like rolling off your arm and onto your upper back. The less weight you put on your left arm the easier it is and faster you will start the mill. Also, push off with your right hand to gain speed. Keep your legs open wide ALL THE TIME, and you should now be on your UPPER back with your legs wide open in a V-Shape. Not too high or low on your back, just so your hips are off the ground. ___STEP 4___ This is the part where you get your legs up behind you while facing down. When you reach the V-Shape position on your back you are going to roll over your right arm to get to your front side. To do this you must perform the most important 2 kicks of the windmill. The 1st kick is initiated by kicking your left leg high up while rolling over to your frontside, and hold that leg up, while swinging your right leg low under your left almost near the floor. (You also want to push up with your right arm as you roll over it 64
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide and keep the left arm curled or stabbed in your gut depending on learning stabbing mills or no stabbing mills. I would suggest learning stabbed 1st however.) IMMEDIATELY, when your right leg is passing directly below the left leg kick it hard directly up behind you, keeping your legs in that open V-position behind you. (This will be very difficult at 1st but once you get the feel of it from practicing lots you'll find its what keeps the momentum and form of the windmill.) Try to keep your legs straight and catch yourself with your left arm so your legs dont fall. Your forehead should also come within 3 to 4 inches from the floor. ___STEP 5___ The Final Kick - LINKING Alright, if you are able to get your hips off the ground and your legs up while facing down you are ready to initiate the final kick with your left leg. This kick is done by holding your right up in the air while swinging your left leg low and under your right, almost exactly like starting the mill. Remember to collapse your arm the same way and to roll onto your upper back again. That way you'll be able to keep going. Keep your momentum going so you'll be able to make the next face down part of the mill, and you should have it done! Remember, keep your legs out straight and open WIDE! I cant say how much this helps your windmills look, and how easy it is to keep going once you learn them the right way without sloppiness. Watch your wrist to make sure you take it away before you roll down off of it and twist it the wrong way. Preview a lot of videos on windmills, and study them to see exactly how your going to move your legs. Remember, the windmill is not a spin, its a roll, and its done by multiple kicks/swinging of your legs. The better kicks you get, faster and better you'll get the windmill. Concentrate while your doing the move to make sure each part of your body is doing what it should be doing. lol. Hope this guide helped.
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Compilation of Milling Notes

By jleefl1202
The following is compilation is not composed of all my own personal notes. Some notes are revised or copied from guides and posts/reposts from this forum but have helped me personally get through the learning curves. I'm no pro and not a genius by all means but what's helpful to me might be helpful to others too. Just so you get a little idea of me, I started not flexible AT ALL, no real previous breaking experience, but a good strength/size ratio (as in i can lift myself up, do a lot of pull ups, etc) Anyways, cut to the chase. So... I'll just cut and paste, kinda messy but I'll try to organize it as much as possible. Stretching exercises (it DEFINITELY helped with mills, remember I was inflexible, and by that I mean I couldn't touch my toes without farting ): == Leg stretches == * Wide leg stretch (just go straight down, sidesplit) * Front leg stretch (both legs, just bend one knee and stretch the other one straight and switch) * Sit split (do the splits while sitting down and lean forward) * Sit stretch (bend one leg and extend other and lean into the stretched leg, then switch) * Stand up stretch (touch toes first then try to bring head to knees) == Back stretches == * Cat back (kneel and put hands right in front of knees and bend back into a circle as if you're trying to touch the ceiling with your back) * Back stretch (lay down face flat and lock arms out to stretch your back backwards) * Back twist (put one bent leg over the other and twist in opposite directions, i.e. if you have your right leg bent over left, twist to the right) A helpful note on stretching is that there's 3 main types of stretches: Dynamic: Like kicking up as high as you can, a muscle movement which involves stretching Active: Holding a stretch Static: Holding your leg out and holding it (like some van damm move) ** You should do dynamic stretches BEFORE milling and do active and static stretches after ** You can pull muscles if you do too much active stretching before any exercise ** Hold stretches for approximately 15-20 seconds each and it should sting a little otherwise you're probably not stretching ** Try to stretch everyday a little before and more after ** These are made-up names for stretches by me 66
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First couple days: * Learn hand glide (I did some cricket practicing, my wrist got sore but this helped balance and wrist strength a ton) Starting the collapse: * Lock right leg out when starting * Stay low to the ground and keep momentum parallel to the ground * Turn and lean towards your left to bring right leg up, don't try to just bring right leg up, it can't happen * Swing left leg under as hard as you can towards your right arm and then hold high to keep rolling on upper shoulders * Spread legs out far as possible LOCKED OUT * Roll hard as you swing left leg under (which is why you see some people bounce) * push with your offhand To the stab: * LOOK where you're stabbing, and stab early, keep head down and hips HIGH * When you get towards your front for the stab, stay HIGH on the right shoulder while stabbing with your left and pushing with right forearm * Push with your free hand when re-stabbing to roll over the stab arm * Kicking mistaken for swinging. just swing hard. kicking is related to bending your knee and you want to keep them locked * Kick your legs as soon as your stabbing hand touches the ground (wasn't completely sure on this, feels like one smooth motion later but i was watching a mill clip in super slo-mo and it seems like a logical explanation) * Pull FORWARD with free arm to turn your body when in stab * hold right leg up These 3 stars stuff was what got me through some mental roadblocks: *** Stab hard, don't fall on the stab, if anything think about not letting your body touch your stab *** LOOK WHERE YOU'RE GOING, YOU CANNOT TURN YOUR HIPS AND EVERYTHING WITHOUT YOUR HEAD LEADING YOU *** Kick left leg toward YOUR LEFT and some forward and right leg toward YOUR RIGHT and some back (in general), not necessarily up and down... what i mean is, LEFT is LEFT, and RIGHT is RIGHT not in relation to ANYTHING but your own body. (in relation to the ground it'll be to the side or up or whatever you need) i found the forward and back to be less important to me than left and right, which is why i capitalized *** Think about not letting your hips touch ground (its like overcompensation so that when you're actually doing it, your hips will have enough room for error) Random notes to help clean up my mills and checklist myself, if i wasn't thinking or doing one of 'em, it was probably messing things up: * High on shoulders * Torque hips 67
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide * Keep hips HIGH * Keep legs straight and locked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! * Push HARD * Stab EARLY * Torque more with your hips, go faster * UPPER BODY first into stab, LEGS FIRST out of stab... That's windmill right there Pommy or someone (sorry if I misquote) * Rotate on shoulder blades to get the right leg under clean while split * Left leg towards LEFT and UP on the first rotation and every rotation to get right leg under * Pull toes up, easier to lock legs * Dont look down, look up (look where you're GOING, not behind you or you'll slow down) * 2 swings occur: the swing with left leg forward and under and then the right leg backwards and up Hope this helps, I think that if you can checklist your way through, you might find it handy and help you past some blocks to your motivation and improvement. Last note to people like me who have/had temptations to give up (in anything, not just millin of course): 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration (and bruises, and cuts, and just plain out banged up) - Joe
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Tips on Perfecting Windmills

By Bboy Crescent
This is my first guide so let me know what ya think =)
First of all... Make sure you know how you want your mills to look. Some people spin on the ground more than they turn their bodies. These type of mills generally have straighter legs and look smoother. In this case you need to know how to whip your hips around kinda like when you're doing a flare (Easier than it sounds). Also pushing your body off to the side with your hands will help with speed (speed with respect to the ground as in bird's-eye-view... not rotation of your body). Other people like to rotate their body around more than they spin on the ground. These mills are generally more elevated and easier to do no-handers with. What I mean by more rotation of the body is that it may take you 2-3 windmills just to get a 360 spin from a bird's eye view... if you spin on the ground more it may only take you 1.5 - 2 mills. In these mills, most people kick their right leg upwards (CCW) when they're linking windmills (facing the ground) and that's what gets them more body rotations. The Legs: I'm assuming you can do mills now so I don't need to explain the movement of your legs. Just remember to keep them straight and try locking your knees. To perfect your leg movements however, you need to condition yourself. Most people can do wider splits when they're bent down than if their back is straight. You need to stretch out your front leg muscles located on your thigh by straightening (or even bending backwards) your back as you do your split stretch. If you just can't seem to open you legs up any wider when your back is straight, then close up your legs a little as you're rolling from shoulder to shoulder on your back. The key is to keep your split constant - it helps your windmills look smoother. Opening and closing your legs will eat up a lot of your momentum. One last thing... bend your heel/ankle, don't point your toes outward. This should be natural when you lock your knees. In my opinion it just looks weird when your toes are pointed outward... your legs look extra long and your feet look extra small. The Arms: (only if you use them) As you all know, stabbing windmills aren't the best looking mills around. When you roll off your shoulder to turn onto your hands, pushing off of your right shoulder (CCW) will give you more elevation. This leaves less work to be done by your hands. Don't use your hands to push off to get more height. Only use them for a little push off to the side so your body keeps a good spin on the ground (if you have to). As you roll onto your hands, your left hand should be placed about 0.5 - 1.0 ft away from your right hand (CCW). Both your hands should be placed somewhere on the ground right under your neck, not down by your gut like in stabbed mills. Your arms should be in a position like halfway 69
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide through a push-up with elbows pointing out and backwards. Collapse your left arm by pointing your left elbow toward your right elbow and rolling over it. The Waist: The bending of your waist is very important to the perfection of your windmills. When you're facing the ground your waist should be almost straight but still bent forward a tiny bit... never bend your back backwards! That loses a ton of momentum and makes your mills look whack. Now when you're on your back rolling from shoulder to shoulder, make sure your waist doesn't bend forward any more than 90 - 100 degrees or your mills will look ugly. (It will look really flat on the ground and have a big "bouncy" motion to it) Most people will try this when they're learning since doing the kip up motion helps. Well now you can do them so force yourself to stop. It will make your mills look a lot more circular. Other Tips: Keep your hips elevated! That way you don't have make your split crooked to avoid hitting the ground. Don't go into a "kung-fu" windmill by kicking into it, start it from other positions such as handspin, standing, or transition from flare. There are key elements in those methods so try them out and you might learn something. Also try to keep a calm expression on your face when you do your mills, especially if you use your head to do no-handers. Don't make it look like you're hurting by gritting your teeth, frowning or holding your breath etc..
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Learning Windmills: Common Pitfalls and Solutions

By Mistah P
Preface/Notes I've been reading through the mills forum and it seems to me like 95% of the people are asking the same, or very similar questions, or are having very redundant problems amongst themselves. I've been meaning to write a guide for our crew's site for quite some time, but never got around to it -- now, however, I'm bored, and need something to do, so I'll do it =P This reference covers the most common pitfalls I've seen bboys come across - and experienced myself as well - during the windmill learning process. It covers only the *learning* of basic windmills -- not variations (IE: nutcrackers, barrels), nor how to perfect your mills (Crescent already has an excellent guide on that). The guide is organized in chronological order of problems you're likely to come across -that is, problems you'd come across early in your learning process are listed first, followed by later problems, and so on. I AM GOING TO ASSUME THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE IN YOUR MIND AN IDEA OF HOW WINDMILLS WORK -- THIS IS NOT A WINDMILL GUIDE, THIS IS A WINDMILL PROBLEMS GUIDE. IF YOU WANT A WINDMILL GUIDE, CHECK THE OTHER THREADS IN THIS FORUM, OR READ SPARKZ' GUIDE (Editors Note: http://www.geocities.com/breakafolife/windmill.html ; Amazing Guide) OR ANOTHER SIMILAR GUIDE. PLEASE NOTE that my mills are in NO WAY perfect (or even great, for that matter) .. I do, however, have a pretty complete understanding of the mechanics and physics of mills. You don't have to take my advice if you don't want it, but then, why'd you click on this? That being said, I'm not responsible if you hurt yourself trying anything suggested, implied, or for that matter related to windmills at all from here. What's suggested shouldn't cause injury, but if you misinterpret it, you might get hurt. =========================================
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Part I: Just starting out Often, the starting phase of learning a move can be the most difficult. The problem that most people come across during this phase is not having a full understanding of the windmill motion and technique. (I recommend you study windmill clips and read guides in order to improve this understanding) As a result, one of several things may stop you from being able to link mills: 1. You start from backspin, kick your legs around, turn over, and slam into the ground** 2. You start from handglide, get to your back, and stop. 3. You start from handglide, turn over to your front, lose coordination, and just flop down to the ground 4. You start from handglide, go onto your back, your legs close up/scrape the ground and you can't get cleanly back into the start position 5. You can't collapse and fall off your arm **This is probably the most common problem for beginners who are not well acquainted with mill schematics Suggested solutions for aforementioned problems: 1. Don't start from backspin. Learn the concept of the stab and collapse by starting from handglide. This will help you time your swings and turns of your torso. In general, however, the slamming legs problem can be attributed to having the wrong mentality for leg movements; you should imagine rotating your HIPS on an AXIS to your torso, like real windmills do on their towers -- NOT "kicking" your legs forward or backwards. This'll just cause them to drive straight into the ground! 2. KEEP SWINGING AND MOVING. Don't ever get lazy and rely on "momentum". Keep your legs as widespread and stiff as possible (even if it feels like your sweeping one will hit the ground) and focus on continuing. There's no remedy here but practicing and getting a feel for it. 3. This is the somewhat the same problem as 1). First off, make sure you are KEEPING YOUR LEGS AS OPEN AND STRAIGHT AS POSSIBLE. Secondly, try to kick the area above your ear on your head with your sweeping (2nd) leg. [example: for CWers, your right leg]. Turn over and remember, CIRCULAR, not FORWARDS or SIDEWAYS or BACKWARDS for BOTH LEGS .. rotate your HIPS. 4. Again .. keep your legs open and swing them the way described above. ALSO: YOU NEED TO KEEP YOUR HIPS OFF THE GROUND. This problem is very often attributed to a bad start: WHEN YOU START, YOU NEED TO COLLAPSE ONTO YOUR SHOULDER and roll smoothly across your UPPER BACK. You shouldn't be on your lower back at all -- you stay on your upper back and shoulders through the whole rotation. **Also note the reminder at the end of this guide about sitting up** 72
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide 5. Read collapse guides. You need to push forward with your fingers facing up and roll onto your shoulder. The collapse has a lot of stuff that I won't go into -- read A GUIDE.
Check the bottom for the video counterpart, which illustrates some of these problems. [Sorry, it's down -- instead, why not look at your own clips and compare them with good clips, and see where you're going wrong?] ========================================= Part II: "I understand it, I just can't do it!" You get how everything works but you can't do it. The problem? You're still thinking of the mill in steps. The windmill needs to flow -- it's not "oh I do this first, then this, then this". It's all really one motion (at most - two real motions). You're getting close to getting them, but not quite. Several likely scenarios: 1. When you come to your stab, your legs droop and your feet touch the ground. You don't SLAM, but you can't keep them from dragging. 2. You can get to your stab and all just fine, but you get stuck there -- you can't seem to collapse again, or keep going for that matter. (This is noted by Mothergoose as the flailing legs syndrome) 3. You fall off your stab as you go for your second round (related to above problem), thus causing you to go on your back, not your shoulders, and/or your leg(s)/ass to hit the ground. 4. You can cleanly get onto your stab and collapse cleanly again .. but you look like a dumbass because it's in a one-two motion and you pause and lose all your momentum when on your stab, causing you to have to "start" again (it's as if you're doing individual mills over and over, rather than "linked" ones)
And, their solutions: 1. You still aren't moving your legs in a circular fashion. Most likely, the problem is that you're going up and down -- as in, when you face up, you "bounce" directly up, then you turn over, and guess what? You come directly down. It's ok to bounce up a little, but don't jump up ten friggin thousand feet (especially for stabbed mills). Also, you could be waiting too long to stab (see below) 2. You're mentally waiting for the stab -- as in, your'e thinking as you're turning over "ok, here comes the stab, here comes the stab..." and it doesn't even cross your mind what to do next until AFTER you feel that elbow drop in your gut -- but by then, it's too late. This is closely tied in with stabbing late; you want to have your stab down as soon as you're 3/4 of the way done turning to your frontside. Make sure your fingers are pointing UP.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide 3. You're stabbing wrong or late (see above two problems), you don't have the collapse down, or you're trying to go too fast. When you stab, don't stab at a 90 degree angle to the ground -- have your arm at a little LESS than a 45 degree angle, and push forward and try to roll onto your shoulder as soon as your hand touches the ground. REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR LEGS UP AND CONTINUE ROTATING THEM ON THEIR AXIS. All this should happen AT THE SAME TIME, not step by step. Like I said, windmills should FLOW -- not be "omg i have to do this then this then this" 4. You should actively swing twice during the mill - once when facing down going to facing up, and once when facing up and going to facing down. Most likely, you're only swinging once. Since you have the motion down, you really aren't far - just make sure you have the stab and collapse smoothly, and focus on swinging more, keeping on your upper back/shoulders, and going faster.
========================================= Part III: General reminders Some things to keep in mind:

If you're just starting, learn from handglide. Trust me, it helps. Try not to stab for more than 1/4 of a second once you understand and have the motion .. at most 1/2 a second, otherwise, you'll have a lot of problems getting your mills smooth and keeping momentum up -- this can also lead to the getting stuck on stab problem (aforementioned) ROLL, NOT SPIN. ROLL. ROLL. ROLL. When going over to your frontside, DO NOT SIT UP OR TRY TO ROLL FORWARDS RELATIVE TO YOUR HEAD. I can't stress how important this is; I didn't mention it above, but this is probably the most annoying problem I've seen amongst my friends. WHEN GOING TO YOUR FRONT, TRY LOOKING AT YOUR SHOULDER OR YOUR BICEP. [This is STILL the most common problem I've seen. You really need to try to turn on one spot and not slide/spin on your back or wait or sit up when you go to restab.] If you can get through windmills (that is, not slam your legs into the ground), do at least 3 every time you practice. This'll help you get down the motions in "muscle memory" quicker and will improve your form in coming time. Take a break between practice sessions. Remember, windmills are not to be learned in a day, or even a week or two (although some people who UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT AND THE MECHANICS get them in very short periods of time). It took me 4 months of screwing around and trying them every 3 or 4 weeks to get the motions, one month of steady practicing to actually get them, and about 2 weeks of practicing every other day or so to "perfect" them. Some people are better at them; some are worse. We learn at different paces. Most of all, don't BE LAZY.
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This took way too long to write, so you better be grateful. haha. Thanks, hope it helps, and peace. Pommy from sorc [Editors Note: Now Mistah P]
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Windmill Variations
By Swiper
Hello and welcome to my guide on windmill variations. Windmill varitaions not only look cool, they are fun to learn. Most people think variations are hard, which is not true. They are actually quite easy once you have powerful mills. This guide teaches 3 different variations. They are eggbeaters, nutcrackers and barrels. All of these look good and can be acheived easily with some thought and practice.
LETS GET CRACKING: Step 1) Powerful mills: By powerful I mean that you can do fast and controlled mills. You want your mills clean and quick to be able to do variations.
How to get power in your mills: The spread: When milling you must focus on your spread. By your spread I mean the V-shape your legs make. You must focus on keeping a constant spread with straight legs. The Swing: Definately the most important part of gaining power. Try to swing your legs instead of kicking them. You must swing your legs ONE at a time. Alot of people will tell you to try to turn them both at the same time, but this is wrong! They go one at a time. So remember LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT! The Height: In order to get some variations down you will need to be high on your shoulders. Being low makes it hard to "skip" the front side of the mill. Try to be up high. The speed: Nothin much to say here. Swing your legs harder if you want more speed. Stabbed VS forearms: Everyone knows that forearm mills are lower and prettier then stabbed. BUT I would recommend using stabbed mills for variations. This is because stabbed mills are generally higher and they give you a feeling of "delayed" power. By delayed I mean that when you 76
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide stop stabbing, you feel a large speed boost. The hard part about variations is getting your windmills good. Ok once you feel your mills are powerful enough then move on to your variation
NUTCRACKERS:
Nutcrackers are windmills with hands on your man-organs. The tricks to nutcrackers are as follows. 1) When you put your hands on your groin, DONT forget about your legs, dont try to let momentum keep you going, keep those legs swinging. 2) Don;t bend your legs at any time, this greatly increases smoothness which helps nutcrackers. 3) When you put your hands on your groin, shrug your shoulders. This decreases the gap that you have to skip. 4) I wouldn;t recommend trying to hop your nutcrackers, just keep going fast and they will be easy. Also try to use your head. BARRELS:
Undoubtedly my favorite windmill. Barrels are mills with your arms out like your holding a barrel. They are fast and tend to roll more then a regular mill. If you want, barrels can replace your mills as your regular mill ( I did this). Lets talk barrels. 1) Barrels need you to roll more then you spin. In my clip you will se that I do 2-3 barrels to every 360 degrees from a birds eye view. This is a MINIMUM amount of mills to a 360. The pro barrel windmillers do 6 mills to a 360. 2) When barreling, try to twist your hips a lot when going over to front side. This makes you roll more and the untwist gives lots of power. 3) YOU MUST USE YOUR HEAD. Hopping barrels are like MIKE GARCIA and are gay. When you go to the front side, use your forehead and the front of your arms for height.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide EGGBEATERS:
Eggbeaters seem to be the favorite windmill variation of most bboys. This is because they are harder then nutcrackers and look damn nice. Eggbeaters are windmills with your hands on your thighs. 1) You probably would like to have nutcrackers down. These variations are very similar. 2) When you are doing eggbeaters you must keep the pace going. You need the pace to be constant and fast or else you will crash and burn. 3) Get high on your shoulders. This gives you less space to skip when on your front side. 4)The way I do my eggbeaters is with raw speed. The speed of my eggbeaters makes me automatically skip the front side. But this is not for everybody. 5) You can try to hop your eggbeaters if you cant do them the speed way. In order to hop you must push of with your right shoulder for ccw and left for cw. You must also swing your left leg up high when pushing off(ccw) and right(cw). Well thats it for variations. I hope the links work. Good luck, have fun and crack those nuts! SWIPER.
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Flares
By Anubis2002
Aiight I havent had much sleep but here it goes, I prefer to give you one on one answers but heres your guide. I'll to make it as helpful as possible, Ill revise it later if need be. This is for CCW...and for those of you who dont know, reverse left and rights to make it cw.. First off, remember flares dont go up and down, if anything they go side to side...think of them as OUT and AROUND! 1) Step back with your left foot, dont step to the side but go back and diagonal to the left side a little. you want to be comfortable, so not to far back but you do want to try and have it more then shoulder with apart. Bend your left leg if you need to, but keep right straight. ***This happens at same time** 2a)Take your left hand and swing it down to where your left foot WAS, or the general area. You want this to be comfortable, there is NO set way area but its more or less what is comfortable. preferable to the side of you, not right in back of you, even to the front if need be. Remember its YOUR flare. 2b) As your hand comes down you are going to swing your left foot around back, KICK it hard! Dont get lazy and try to just swing it, I mean you need to SWING it. Just as your about to come very close to your right leg you want to lift the right leg out of the way(try to kick your face, but a warning, do NOT! go straight up, you want to go out just like your hips and left leg will do.) Remember your flare goes circular!! So when you kick you want to go AROUND...so kick as if your going straight and then around. Okay, something about the kick since a lot of people can understand how to do it but not understand what makes it work for some people and not for others.. When you first start off to kick, Ive said this time and time again to people...you want to USE your hips, dont just kick your legs and expect to go anywhere but up and straight down. You need to use your hips and lift your ass!! Lock your arms and legs, do NOT get lazy!! When you go to kick, you want to swing around, basically if your facing front and you go to swing you want to kick your leg as if your going to kick out the right one with the left, and sweep it all the way to the left side. Dont just kick up or out, you want to go OUT and AROUND!! **Again same time* 3a) When you get both your legs in front of you, your hips should be out and your ass lifted with arms locked! If your butts not up and your hips arent swinging around you'll have a hard time making it past this front part. Now, when your legs get in front of you, you should be swinging around, you want to lean to the right and put your right arm 79
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide down to the side of you. keep it locked! 3b)Ss you are coming onto your right arm, you want to kick your left leg up(same as before, try to kick your face but do NOT go straight up, you want to continue the swinging movement, flares are circular!) as you kick the left leg up, sweep the right under it. Okay a few key points, if you can do windmills...think of the swing for keeping them going, its the SAME thing for flares except you pause on your hands and not on the ground with your chest or back. Also, your hips need to be doing a lot of work, dont expect to keep your body like your sitting and have your legs go around you, LIFT with your ass and MOVE your hips! 4) By now your momentum should be carrying you in a circle but it is YOUR job to keep it going!! When your legs come behind u(make sure to keep your ass and hips lifting) your hands should both be down in front of you for a split second. 4)As your hands come down, and your legs go up in back you want to use your hips now...transfer weight to the left hand again...sweep your left leg under your right and move your right leg high up like your gonna kick your face. You now can do one flareI'm going to give you all the hints right now, the guide is simple, let me know what you think and I'll make the changes, I like to work off people. Not just spell it out for them. A. I say kick your face, but you need to remember your legs will almost never go straight up!!! You want to go as if your lifting to kick your face, meaning high but at all times you should be thinking out and around! B. Your hips are probably one of the most important parts of your flare...you need to use them, they go circular, if you dont lift your hips your legs will be VERY low, you get bent in the back and you have a hard time carrying them from flare to flare. C. Another hip trick, right before you kick your left leg for the initial kick, turn your hips to the left...remember when you kick you want to not kick straight up or out but to kick around, you want to START your circle!! D. Lock your arms and legs, especially your legs...if you keep your legs straight you can almost bet your gonna have more power, more twist and your going to go a lot farther E. Dont be afraid to fall, you wont kill yourself, trust me on this. F. Locked elbows give more height, as does lifting your ass and hips!! I know the guide is vague but it gives you the idea which you need...
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Flares
Author Unknown, Posted by Azr4el
Original Breakstylz.com Flare Guide ~ Author Unknown 1) Developing Active Flexibility Flexibility is a very important aspect of the flare. The farther you can spread your legs, the better. It helps you maintain a well balanced equilibrium and it will help you slow down your flares, giving you a little more time to place that hand down. Active flexibility just means being able to hold a stretching position by using your muscles to hold that position. To develop flexibility, do left, right and center splits every day/night. Left splits are where you have your left leg in front of you and your right leg behind you. Right splits are the exact opposite of left splits. When you do center splits do them slowly so you dont tear a muscle. Try to relax your leg muscles and let gravity push you down. You should feel your leg muscles tighten and when you reach a certain point you should feel a bit of relief. Another good way to do center splits is to face the floor and do the splits on a wall behind you and use your hands to push yourself back. When you are doing the splits, NEVER bounce to go further down because you will just tense up the muscles because the muscle cells think that your legs are in harm so they counteract with the force and tighten the groin muscles and we want them to be as relaxed as possible. Do splits everyday and you should notice a difference in just a week. It will hurt for about a week or so but after that your body will release endomorphines which will counteract with the pain and it will actually start to feel good. 2) Developing Upper Body Strength Your muscles play a very important role in the flare. You will have to have a fair bit of strength. Now most people will tell you that the flare doesnt take much strength cause you can rely on speed and momentum. Well that is kind of true. The faster you go the less strength it will take but it will still take a fair bit of strength. If you slow it down the gymnasts do during floor routines then you have to use a lot more strength to pull off a slow flare. Most people think that the most important muscles in the flare are your abs. Sorry to disappoint you guys but it isnt the most important set of muscles used in the flare. What momentum will take care of is you abs. It is because you are only in the position for a couple brief seconds, the power and momentum from your legs will keep you hips up and you wont have to use your abs 100%. The most important muscles used are your triceps and your shoulders. It is still a good idea to build your ab muscles by doing upper and lower ab exercises. To build your tricep muscles get a chair and prop your legs up on to it. Now place your hands on the floor behind you and lean back on your hands and straighten your body so that you are now facing the ceiling with your hands on the ground and your legs are on the chair. Hold this position until you get tired. Try to bounce back and forth a bit on each arm to give it a little workout. Now for your shoulder muscles, all you are going to do is 81
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide turn over and face the ground so that your legs are still on the chair and you are now supporting yourself on your hands while you are facing the ground. Hold this until you get tired. Practice these everyday to help develop strength. Just practicing the flare will build muscle. After a month or so of practicing you should notice some changes in your abs. They will appear and you may even get a nice ripped six pack. The girls love it. 3) Performing the flare (CC) Now you are ready to start the flare. What you have to do is start in a standing position. Now you are going to slide your left leg back and a bit off to the left so you are kind of doing the splits. Your right leg should be bent and just in front of you. You want to keep your left leg straight the whole time.
Part 1. Look at the above diagram. This is a birds eye view of what the flare is based upon. The triangle symbolizes you. Now if you have done the above correctly your left leg should be straight and close to the blue line in section 1. Your right leg should be bent and just in front of the blue line in section 3. Now you are going to bring your left arm down and put it on the blue line just in front of your left leg so it kind of knocks your left leg away. Now swing your left leg around so that you are trying to draw the red circle with your foot. The whole time this is happening your right arm will still be in the air. Now once your left leg reaches the blue line in section 2 then you are going to kick your right leg up towards your face. Now a common mistake is to lift the left leg too. Keep it on the ground for a little longer. Continue to draw the imaginary circle with your left foot and when it passes the blue line in section 2, this is when you place your right hand down. Remember to keep your left leg straight and continue to draw the circle. Now when your left leg is directly in front of you or in other words when your leg hits the yellow line in section 3 then your left it up high and try to kick your left ear with it, keep it high! Part 2. Now your have the start down. Your legs should be spread in front of your in a v shape. Now you are going to kick your right leg down straight and continue the imaginary circle from where you left off. The yellow lines are your exchange lines where your legs change positions and the blue lines are where your hand placement occurs. You 82
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide are going to continue the circle from the yellow line in section 4. Your right leg will be close to the ground, but make sure it doesnt touch the floor; it will be dragging above it. Keep your toes pointed when you do this. Now when your right leg reaches the blue line in section 4, you are going to left your left hand and reach over your left leg to allow your right leg to pass by. Dont kick your leg backwards; make sure you continue to swing it around in a circle. When it reaches the yellow line in section 1 you are going to place your left hand back on the ground but make sure it is on the blue line so you dont begin to turn and at the same you are going to bring your right leg up high and you are going to bring your left leg down low to continue the circle until it arrives in front of your again. Lean forward so that your legs get high in the back. Just continue from there. Keep your legs spread at all times!!! Remember when your leg reaches a yellow line then it will be going into the air while the other comes down low to continue the circle and circle and when that leg reaches the next yellow line they will switch again. Tips: 1) Keep your legs spread at all times! 2) Try to picture the circle when flaring and when your legs reach the target points they switch positions. Meaning the one in the air will come down and the one that was previously scraping the ground will go airborne. 3) Point your toes. You wont believe how much this affects your flare. Point your toes so it is easier to get your legs behind you. 4) When you are kicking your right leg behind you make sure you kick hard and keep the left leg high. The right leg can bend a bit but try to keep that circle as smooth as possible. 5) Keep your legs straight at all times. The circle is perfectly round and I expect you to draw a pretty good circle. When I see bboys do a flare and bend their legs when they are behind it looks totally whack! Dont do it. If you do your flares like this do yourself a favor and dont do them because you will get yelled at by a lot of good bboys. 6) Have fast hands. Pretend that you are doing your flares on a stove and your hands are getting hot. Move them hands before they get burnt! 7) Practice, practice, practice. It will come with time. 8) When your legs are behind you lean forward! Common Questions: Q: I can get my legs in front of me but when I go to put my right hand down. My body comes crashing down and I land on my ass! How do I transfer my weight to that hand without landing on my ass, it hurts! A: The reason your body comes crashing down is because you have too much vertical momentum. You are lifting your left leg too early! When you swing your left leg around kick your right leg up as usual but dont lift your left leg up yet. Once it has past your right hand place it on the floor behind you and wait until your left leg is directly in front of you, then lift. Make sure you kick it up high. Try to kick your left ear. Q: Okay, I can get my legs in front of me but then when I kick my right leg behind me I smash it into the ground. What the frick am I doing wrong?
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide A: You are probably not elevating your hips enough which will cause you to smash into the ground. What you have to do is when you kick your right leg down, immediately lift your left hand and REACH over your right leg and place your hand on the ground. This should elevate your hips high enough to let your right leg pass under. Make sure you kick your left leg high enough as well and try to hold it there while kicking your right leg under. Q: I can get my legs behind me but my right leg bends and it hits the ground. Sometimes my left leg comes smashing down too and it hurts. Help me! A: This is a very simple fix. The solution. Point your toes when kicking your right leg behind. Youll be surprised what this does. It will give you a fraction of a inch of more room to let your leg fly back and up. Make sure to draw a circle and not kick it straight back. Now for the bending part, it is a natural reaction because your body fears hitting the ground so it brings your right leg in so you dont land on your (at least for bboys). You have to re-program yourself and just force yourself to keep this leg straight. You will notice after pointing your toes you can pull a full rotation now but your legs are bent. Try to fix it! Do not learn with bent legs or you will waste a perfectly good flare and if I see you doing it with bent legs behind you I will personally slap you. Q: I can do everything but when my legs are behind me they are too low. Whats up with this? A: All you have to do is kick you right leg back harder and lean forward. Stick your butt in the air. It will fell just like you are in a half handstand. Try to kick the back of your head with your right leg to elevate the hips. Remember to have fast hands too. Q: Okay! I am fed up with hearing all of this stuff about learning forward and sticking your butt up in the air to get your legs up higher when they are behind you. Like gimme a break, this is easier said then done. What the hell am I doing wrong? A: You are right, it is a lot easier said than done. But there is a way to get your butt higher to get your legs nice and high. What it will fell like is a half handstand. So spread your legs and jump up a bit to see what it will fell like. Now to get in this position, most people have trouble because they start to Czech their flare. In basic English this means that your body starts to turn the opposite way your legs are flaring. For example, if you are facing a wall when you start and then start turn and being to face another wall then you are starting to Czech your flare. It is very bad form and looks pretty whacked. This is also a common problem for going too low in the back because people start to Czech by reaching too far over their left leg and when they place their left hand back down it is too far over and it is just too hard to lean forward in time to get those legs up. And when they actually end up leaning forward they end up landing on their face. I know this is a bit long but to fix this problem you will have to left and place your left hand down in good timing. When your right leg is kicking under your left leg and your are lifting your hand, dont lift it over too hard. Try to focus and work on lifting your hand up THEN STRAIGHT BACK DOWN so that it is in line with your other hand. This 84
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide may feel a bit awkward but this action of reaching down instead of over will start your lean. You should feel it, just go with the flow and lean a bit more and you might just surprise yourself and get some nice continuous flares going.
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Flare Problems + Answers

By Ek0
Okay, flares... people are still having lots of questions about em, ill try to think of all the problems I can and post them with answers. Before I start... Flares are purely about the correct motions in which you do the flare. Someone who magically has the correct motions for flares will do them much better than someone who has the feel for them and has been trying for months.. Why? This is because flares are all about momentum and your hips. To do a flare you must control your momentum to its fullest, its what keeps you off the ground and going around, thats why if you kick wrong or in the wrong motion, your flare is a complete failure. Flares are AROUND, not up and down. Terms...(Just so no one gets confused) Kicking Leg (initial leg) - Which ever leg you are starting your flares with. (the leg the sweeps under the other) 2nd Leg - The leg that you kick up whenever you sweep the Kicking leg under. 1st hand - hand you start with on the ground when you flare. 2nd hand - hand you put down as you flare. 1.) Land on your butt after you sweep under. -Personally I never had this problem, but there are many reasons for this to occur. a.) You may just be kicking your non swinging leg not hard enough so you dont lift your hips up. Try to kick your face with that leg, and keep your hips up. b.) You could be swinging your initial kicking leg at a wrong angle and losing your momentum for the flare. You must kick low, almost at the ankle of your foot that jumps and sweep around and up, if you dont, your kicking leg will send its momentum straight up, and you will come straight back down. c.) You may not be placing your 2nd hand down fast enough, you want to put it down quite fast, right after your kicking leg sweeps under your jumping foot. 2.) Your 2nd leg drags when you sweep it under. -This is probably the biggest problem everyone has. a.) You are not kicking your left leg high enough. If you dont kick high enough with your initial kicking leg, and dont hold it. Your flares are gonna end because if you dont kick high enough, you're losing all your momentum. If you cant hold it, you're not correctly doing your flare. When you reach the V in front of you in your flare, your right leg should start its sweep under as the left is going up because if not yes, your leg will strain and you wont be able to lift it up and you will lose all your momentum. What does losing your momentum mean? it means your flare ends. -Start your sweep with your 2nd leg while your 1st leg is kicking up. -Lean to the side of your 2nd hand 86
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide b.)You may be lifting your 1st hand too quickly and losing some height that you needed. What happens is if you havent shifted most of your weight to your 2nd hand and pull out your first, you are going to lose some height and lean to the side that you're trying to get your 2nd leg under and drag your leg. -Keep your hand down. 3.) cant keep your flares going... -Practice... Practice... practice... and remember, kick the right way to keep all your power. ALSO, THIS IS FOR NUMBER 2 AND 3. KEEP YOUR HIPS UP AND USE THEM! HIPS AND KICKING CORRECTLY ARE WHAT FLARES ARE ALL ABOUT. PLEASE REMEBER THIS! KICKING CORRECTLY GIVES YOU POWER/MOMENTUM AND MAKES FLARES POSSIBLE! Good Luck, hope this helps.
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The Truth About Flares

By Bboy Angel
Power Vs Momentum: I hear all this shit like "flares are pure momentum, and "all your need are good and fast kicks" well it isnt true!!! even for the fastest and wide open flares you can do, you need a lot of strength not only in your upper body, but your must have strength, and you all say "I WANNA BE HIGH AT THE BACK" well it's STRENGTH!! I'm gonna give you a list of main muscles that i think that you must have them strong for flares (maybe there are more): Deltoids(shoulders) + Triceps(back of the upper arm): * Handstand Pushups(15-20 slowly and full are enough) * Dips(about 80-90, i know Kujo says 30 but it just not enough!) * Freezes : 35-50 seconds Tucked Planche (seat on your knees and but your arms on your sides and just lift yourself , keep your hands straight). after you gain control of this freeze your can do Advanced Tucked Planches which is the same freeze but with your hips and ass higher , ass high as your shoulders. Abs n Hips : This is very important for flares!! * 10 Straight Hanging Legs Lifts(see in the pics
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) * 60 secondss of L-Seat(seat on your ass between your hands with legs closed and straight in front of you and lift your ass and legs with straight hand, you can start it with legs bent until you gain enough strength) and try to do 60 seconds of the same freeze but with on hand between your legs try to do 60 secondss with both of you hands between your legs like in a boomerang which is a very good exercise for hips strength. There more active muscles like the Latissimus Dorsi(Wings) and a lot more in flares but the best way to train them for flares is by practicing flares.
Key Points(for people who knows a little basic flare or 2 at least: * the best advice i can give you is move your hands F-A-S-T-!-!-! very fast!! as fast as your can! * hold your right leg as high as your can and as long as you can in the transition from to back! this is important!!! if you kick right leg under left in the beginning(clockwise from above). * Open, Point and Straight your legs! all the time!! * Train to do as much as you can even if you touch the floor and bend your knees try to continue as much as you can this will give you strength , go for the amount not the quality until you got 8 and more, don't to just one and stop because you touched the floor a little. * In the Transition to the Back kick your left heel to the back left upper corner and hold it there, if you kick right leg under left in the beginning(clockwise from above). * Don't listen to all the people here and in your practice that give you advice without having perfect flares, they just don't know and in flares not everything seems logic, trust people like me who spent years mastering flares and teaching bboying. Gymnastics start: For people who kick right leg under left in the beginning(clockwise from above). Gymnastics starts from a pushup position with wide spread legs, left leg on heel edge and right on toes. they hit the floor with the left hand for a second and then start their flares it puts your shoulders in the right place this is important for tech but not for momentum, try it sometimes. 89
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that's it for now, I'm B-Boy Angel from Israel, a B-Boying teacher for about 4 years. peace
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Good Flare Practice Tips

By nidimin
LEARNERS NEED TO REMEMBER ON TOP OF HAVING PERFECT FORM: Practicing flares is like lifting weights. You need to continuously workout all the muscles that are required in the movement. So that means, when you're tired of practicing your flare, you should do it more just to take those muscles to fatigue so they can heal, and end up stronger.
~~~~~The Difference Between this Guide and the Rest.~~~~ This guide was created while in the process of learning flares. Instead of someone who has mastered flares teaching someone how to do flares. For that reason, I believe I have some suggestions that maybe more helpful to people learning flares.
I've been practicing flares for more than 3 months now. Experimented with various practicing methods and training techniques until I realized what people have been advising in the forums is 100% true. But one thing that they did not put enough emphasis on (for practicing flares), that made my flare about 100% better, is what happens when the second leg goes under. If you're practicing flares. you'll notice sometimes, when you sweep that 2nd leg under, your legs lock up and your flare ends. You want that, that's a good thing, it means you're swinging that leg under, once you get past that, you'll feel that torque people are talking about and realize how a flare is really suppose to be done. People fail at the back because they're really not swinging that second leg under at all, so swing that leg. after that its just practice, practice, practice. Don't give in, and think that if only you made it once all the way around with bad form, it means you're getting there. I found out the hard way and realized I was getting no where. I still have trouble remember to keep my legs straight as possible. After u get use to the swing of your 2nd leg so that its 2nd nature, focus on holding the other leg up until it becomes 2nd nature to. The swings are the same as a windmills, one leg at a time. The main reason people bring their legs in at the back, is due to a natural sense that they're not going to make it all around. Bad habit, hard to correct, try to change it as soon as you're realizing you're doing it It's better to not finish one complete flare than be practicing ugly flares forever.
Make sure you rest well between each practice flare, its when you get tired that the bad forms kick in.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide I'll post up more practice tips once I figure them out and have mastered continuous flares. Let me know if these tips help. They certainly helped me.
***Shifting Weight Shifting weight Although, it has already been mentioned that you should put your hand down fast, maybe the importance of it has not been driving in. When you're shifting weight properly, you should not be feeling any stress besides the stress u feel while walking on your hands. That means you should not be slamming your hand down on the ground and your arms should be locked. If your hand slams on the ground its a sign you're not shifting your weight properly. This is what you must focus on: When all your weight is balance one hand, the other hand should be coming down to catch you. Not only does this cause your weight to shift due to the extra force of the arm coming down, but it allows you to easily catch yourself because your hand is already near the ground when it hits. If your hand is slamming, it means two things, you're weight never shifted at any point in time to one arm, or you hand is just not coming down fast enough. Sounds repetitive, but its important to realize the reasons behind each problem in order to better focus on correcting them.
*****Continuation So, you're able to do one rotation. The first question I'd ask is if it TRULY is a full rotation, and not just a crappy version of one that you say to make yourself feel better. People have the tendency to lie to themselves, and thus never get flares down in good time. Anyhow, for continuation, you start feeling that continuation when you feel a significant lift in ur body when one leg kicks up. Flaring clockwise, when your right leg kicks up, and you feel that lift, that moment when the flares don't feel heavy, that's when you know you're well on your way to continuing flares. Again, the speed of your hand placement and bringing them down quickly is very important if you want continuations. So when you have one rotation, focus on putting your hand down fast and finding that feel for the lift in that leg and your body.
***Feeling a pull to the left? 92

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You should not be feeling any significant pulls in either horizontal direction, but your feet should be sweeping wide and circular. The only significant pull you should feel is vertical, and it isn't suppose to feel like hard work. Vertical as each leg lifts to allow the other to pass under, you should significantly feel that pull. A lot of being able to do a flare is training your muscles, which would mean you also need to allow them to heal and build up.
*****Something is better than nothing? In my opinion, if you're the type that needs some kind of motivation to keep you going, then just go for ugly flares. You'll feel good about yourself. But I've seen people who have supposedly "mastered" flares do just horrendous looking flares. They got the continuation down, but never quite get over fixing their mistakes. Anyways, its up to you. If you feel you're good at breaking out of bad habits then go for it. Above is just the way I wish I could have learned it. Maybe I wouldn't have had to waste so much time fixing my problems.
Since I created this guide. I've gone from one to continuous flares. SO THERE IS HOPE! Once you hit continuous flares. REMEMBER REMEMBER, don't let those legs bend, don't let them start close in. I think that's of the up most importance if you want to get better and better at that point. Keep On Flaring
Hope this helps.
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Hopping Flares/King Flares

By Sekto|Z,
INTRO Back with a hopping flares/ king flares guide! This probably won't be as long as the other ones, that's simply because this move is easier to explain... and also to learn in my opinion. It does look hard, but don't be discouraged by the appearance and you'll get this in no time. I first went ahead on them thinking at a nice flare variation, when I had never seen them yet, and so I had never heard about how hard they were supposed to be, and I got them around my second try. It's all psychology
This is for CW ones, so if you go CCW reverse all the lefts with the rights. GO!
PREREQUISITES Hopping flares are very similar to flares and involve czechin in some way, so if you want to have something to help you, that can only be some good-form flares. The czech motion isn't that important, but if you want to learn these I recommend gettin some nice, clean flares down... that's all you need. NOTE- for those who don't know, the term czech means the movement that makes you turn in the opposite way you're going during the flare. For example, if you're flaring CW, you're czechin it if you're turning to face your left a bit more at every round. And no, I have no idea where the name came from =]P Another thing that should help, at least for the most common method -see below- are hopping mills. They make you understand how important piking and kicking out is, and how much height it can give you. And not only for THIS move either.
THE TWO WAYS TO LEARN Although it doesn't look like it there are two ways to learn hopping flares. The difference is about the same there is between learning hopping mills by piking or by plain momentum. The most common way is to learn them by piking- you pike your legs and kick them out to gain enough height. To do this you need to bring your body to closer to vertical, the 94
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide more they're vertical the more height the kick out will give you. Then there's some people who prefer learning without the piking motion. The main disadvantage of this is, you have NO height this way! All you can do is to be fast enough to replace height with momentum. In the case of hopping flares, though, this is a bit lighter since you're on your hands and so you have more margin between you and the ground. This is the most instinctive method, either for mills and hopping flares, but to me it's not the best one. The majority finds it easier to learn mills piking, but a few go by momentum. Chances are, if you learnt mills by piking you will go by the same way here, while if you haven't used it to learn mills you won't use it here neither. However, try both ways and see which one you like best.
STEP-BY-STEP As I said, I think flares are a prerequisite for this move- so I'm going to explain the whole thing assuming you have good flares and know how to do them. 1- Ok. You're standing here, preparing to go. Take the usual step to the right with your right foot, "YOU" know how it's got to be in order to be comfortable for you. Just like a normal flare.
2- Now, this is where you feel the first differences. On a Flare, you'd do everything you can to keep your feet low to the ground (as opposed to your waist, which stays high). Here instead, what you've got to do is quite the opposite. By this I don't mean you have to throw your legs straight vertical, the idea is STILL to get a mainly circular movement (which is why you start flares swinging low in the first place), just with your lower body a bit higher than usual. In other words, take a bit away from the horizontal swing and put it into height.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide The idea behind this is- This is a disadvantage for the flare in itself, but makes the hop easier. You can choose not to do this and to go with the second way to learn the move (in fact the use or not of this movement is the difference between the two methods) but if your flares are clean enough this won't be much of a problem. So, while you'd swing your leg totally horizontal if you were going to flare, what you want to do here is to make your legs reach the front of it piked and a bit higher than usual. This is meant to give you a higher angle in order to take the best from the kick out.
3- Now you have reached the front- your legs are piked and ready to kick out and you're at a relatively high angle with your lower body. To have an idea of the angle, just think at two things: - the higher you are, the more height the kick will give you BUT - the higher you are, the harder you'll have to fight aginst the force of gravity right after every round. So, find a way betwen these two and you'll get the idea of a nice angle. Again, we're talking about an "angle" you don't even notice if you're looking at the move from outside. So that you have an idea of the proportions, it's something you don't notice unless you're the one who is doing it.
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4- The kick out! Not much to say here, just kick out your legs to start the hop as your right hand starts getting off the ground due to the flare rotation. Instead of keeping the hand up there and waiting for the time to put it down again, like you'd do with a flare, throw it around over your front, towards the ground.
5- After your left hand following your right and a brief airborne phase, catch the ground with your right hand and make your left follow in order to get back to the position you started with... the front of a flare. Remember to pike back your legs while you don't need them and your hands are doing most of the work- that's the catching phase. A little note about hands positioning there: if you want to turn 180 degrees at every round, youll have to follow a precise hand positioning. Ever done skyscrapers? They're basically walking around in circles into a handstand, but there's a precise way to do it. Every time you lift one hand up, you turn 90 before putting it back down, in order to form a square/rectangle plant. Try and do that, place your hands in order to form a square or a rectangle. That will make you turn a nice, clean 180 degrees at every round. It's a bit complicated to explain, but you'll see it from the clip and the pics. Turning 180 may be a nice add-on to your king flares, personally I dont like it because it looks too regular and foreseeable to me... kind of gymnast-style. But its up to you to decide.
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6- This is a little disadvantage of the piking method: it makes single rounds easier, but sticking them together may give some problems. That's because every time you catch you have to keep the "high" angle in order to go for the next round, and if you fail to do that your right foot tends to hit the ground. However, not that much of a problem, mainly because you have all the momentum from the previous round to help you. Aid with some abs work, and there ya go... pretty much like the previous round, when the rotation makes your right hand leave, pike out again and make it travel in front of you.
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7- Catch with your right hand again focus on your right foot, dont make it hit the ground! Like the previous round, help with abs work and if youve managed to save enough momentum youll be fine. Depending on how much you have turned it may be hard not to crash your foot, Ive found the more you turn the harder it is to keep it up... and thats pretty much the only thing I like better about 180 turns I like challenges...
8- There ya go, second round done! Youve just linked hopping flares... dum de dum dum...
TIPS - First of all Ill say it one more time: your flares have to be CLEAN! All the stuff youre gonna do requires pretty comfortable and clean flares. I did say this move is overrated to me, and my opinion is still the same, but it comes from the presupposition you could flare on your pinky fingers... IF you can then this move can be no pain for you, else I strongly suggest you to go back working on your pinky flares. - Dont try and get momentum from some flares first, just go for it. In my opinion the best is to first learn a move raw, so that you have the most volubile form of it, and then work on the connections starting from that. Sure, that isnt always the 99
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide best way, some moves like airflares have quicker ways to learn, from flares for example, and its worth to think at it in those cases... but here the difference is minimal, and the only big difference youll notice if you learn king flares from flares will be that you still wont be able to do them from standing. Trust me, flare-started ones doesnt help with standing ones as much as standing ones help with flare-started ones. - Maybe rushing to 180 turns isnt a good idea... Lets suppose you want the half-turn ones, where you turn 180 degrees each round. If your foot just cant help but slam on the ground after every round (and you probably dont go past the first one that way) then your trouble is right there. Try slowing down a bit, starting from a less wide angle and gradually getting up to your 180s. The mechanism is the EXACT same thing, either wtith a small or wide angle, with the only difference you can gain experience and muscle memory with smaller ones first. - Abs are your friends! Earlier I told you about using your abs to prevent crashes, right? Nice strong abs can do miracles! Since here you want them to keep your legs up, if you get problems with the linking part you could also go working your abs out a bit. The best workout in this case would probably be the classic one, where you hang on a or anything similar and lift your legs up into an L or at a closer angle, keeping them straight all the way. I do mine touching my wrists with my feet, almost like a crunch. Besides, do you think Id make you workout your abs just for a single move? You need abs for anything!
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Again, I've completely skipped the problems about flares and only counted hopping flare related ones. ARGH! I don't get the whole piking thing! What the hell are you talking about?? Lie on your back and get your legs straight and open, then pike them and bring your back more or less vertical. Now kick your legs out (by bringing them back in-line with your body) and if you do that hard enough you'll notice you get a little hop off your back. That's at the base of hopping mills, and of hopping flares as well if you chose to go that way. I can't tell much about the non-piking way because I've learnt with the piking way, that's why I haven't written much about it, but it's really instinctive. I don't even think you'd need a guide if you could learn fine that way. I can get one round but as I go linking with the second one my foot hits the ground. What's up with that? As I said in the tips section, it's probably got to do with the wideness of the angle you're trying to turn. If you're trying to cover a whole 180 and have no experience with the move yet, you may be going to have some trouble. Start from small angles and get it wider with time, you'll get more results and less frustration. 100
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I can link it, but my legs are low during the second round... Apart from practicing more (duh) you may be piking too soon. If you pike when you're still in the airborne phase, you get to link to the second round with your body closed up and that doesn't let you get as much momentum as you could. Try and delay that a bit.
Hope this helps... Peace
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Circles
By SektorThis is for CW ones, if you want to learn em CCW just reverse lefts with rights. Here we go... --GENERAL INFO-Ok now, remember it HELPS to have Flares before attemptin Circles, but that's not NEEDED. See it this way, unless it's a part of the move you want to learn, then nothing is fundamental. It may make your job easier, but nothin more. Now let's get into Circles: First of all, there are two main starts for this move: the New Yorker Style start, which is the most used by bboys, and the gymnastics start. The New Yorker Style is a start that's good only after you learned Circles with the other one, which seems easier at first. Once you got this move with the gymnast start, move to New Yorker Style and you'll see it feels easier. So it works just like with Mill starts: the standing start, which first felt harder, becomes the more comfortable way right after you learned the Handglide one. Also remember Circles are a bit harder than Flares just cause here you have closed legs, and so the main way of getting momentum in Flares, which was by swinging your open legs, now can't be used. For replacing this lack of speed, the main keys are a good start and, most of all, using shoulders more than in Flares. Leaning more to the sides. Al ot more. --NEW YORKER STYLE START-As I said, you should learn Circles with the gymnast start first, it is easier at first. But after you learned to pull some of them with the easier way, you want to move to this start. This is just a small section for those who doesn't know how the New Yorker Start works.
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1- Since this is the same start of a 90/Airflare, just do what you'd do for a 90: from the standing position, take a step behind you and to your right with your right foot. Not too huge and not too little, you have to find which is the more comfortable length for you.
2- Throw your left hand to the inside of your right foot, and at the same time or right after your hand swung towards the ground, swing your right foot off the ground in a circular motion (as low as you can) and try to follow its movement with your whole body by turnin to your right. Kinda hard to explain if you've never seen it, look at the pic.
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3-Now you have your left hand on the ground and the leg is still straight behind you, still swingin. When you have done about half a twist to the right, the left hand which you placed to your right now is to your left, right under your left shoulder. So it's in the Circle position.
4-Just leave the ground with the left foot and make it do the motion of your right one. From now on your legs will always stay closed together. Place your right hand on the ground, and have your shoulders leanin forward to keep the balance. Now you are in a position similar to a planche, and are about to lift your left hand to make your legs pass under. This is the New Yorker Style start, from now on just continue from Step 5 of the real guide!
--CIRCLES GUIDE-Ok, here starts the proper Circles/Virgin Flares Guide. This is what you should do and learn in the first place, before movin to New Yorker Style Circles. Here we go... 1- The gymnast start is the one that feels easier in the first place, so learn like this first. 104
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Start in a push-up position. Do NOT stick your butt up high in the air, keep it low to the ground. If you don't you're gonna crash on the ground right after you started.
2- Take a big step with your right foot and raise your left hand at the same time- it somehow helps. Have your right leg -the one that you took the step with- bent, your left leg still straight as in the beginnin. Like with the New Yorker Style start, it's up to you to decide which width is more comfortable for you.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide 3- Swing your right leg back HARD. This will affect your whole Circles, so be sure you execute this step smoothly and fastly. Be sure to swing your leg as low as you can too, if you swing it high you'll fall right after you got in the front. While you do this, place your left hand back down on the ground for a second. I know this is contradictory, cause from there to a millisecond you'll be forced to lift it again to continue the Circle, but trust me, it works.
4- Until now your left leg didn't do anything. There it comes. As soon as the right leg comes to it, make it leave the ground, still keepin both of them low and straight, and start the rotation. From now on, they'll always stay straight and closed together.
5- If you didn't raise your left hand yet, do it now to allow your legs to pass under it. It's just a personal preference to make it sooner, when the kick was about to end, or later. As soon as you raise your hand and your legs come under your left arm, lean right with your shoulders. The trick for Circles is to lean further than with a Flare, cause there you have your legs 106
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide closed, so a longer corpse to counter-balance. Also remember, the more speed you have (so the harder you swing in the beginnin) the less you have to lean with your shoulders, and vice-versa.
6- Do NOT enter the front of the Circle with your feet, but with your groin/belly. This means do not make your feet go before the rest of your body keepin it bent in an L position, keep it open and your legs straight. Put your left hand back on the ground as soon as you can- you'll need it very soon. While puttin your hand on the ground, since you are on both your hands again, shift your weight from the right side back to the centre. So, now that you are in the front of the Circle and your body is nice and straight, it may be necessary to put your shoulders a bit back, not at the centre. It depends on how much momentum you have, cause as I said before, the more momentum you have, the less you'll need to shift weight. However, even with a standard amount of speed that shouldn't be necessary.
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7- As you lift your right hand to make legs pass under it, there's one important thing to remember: as you have to enter the front of the Circle with your groin, you have to exit it with your heels. NOT with your butt, so not with your body bent into an L shape again. That kills alot of momentum, it's pretty much the same thing as bendin legs in Flares. Lean left with your shoulders to shift weight and counter-balance of course. At this time you should already have an idea of how it works.
8- You're almost done with the first round now! Once you are in the back of the Circle don't stick your butt up tryin to gain height, that's not the right method. What you want to do is tryin to lift your whole body, always keepin it straight, by goin forward with your shoulders. This is NOT like the other leanin parts. If you can already do Flares, you'll know at this point you have to lean further than you ever did durin all the round. 108
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You're a bit helped in this by the fact that you can prevent yourself from fallin on your face by usin your wrists. This is because in this position your hands point the same way you'll be leanin into. So, in the end, it's not as hard as it seems, though it's the hardest part of the move.
9- Now, since the back of the Circle is the part where both your hands are down for the longest time, I'll tell you a very useful trick I found out when learnin Flares: To gain more momentum, the moment you are on both hands move them like you want to make them draw a CCW circle, yes, CCW! Since they're on the ground they won't move at all, but they'll make your whole body move faster. To understand what I'm sayin get into the turtle position. Both arms stabbed. Now try to move em in a CCW circle and you'll notice your whole body rotates CW. Helpin the rotation with this trick you should have enough momentum to lean on your right as you lift your left hand. Now do what you already did on the first steps, pass legs under, put your hand down again.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Connectin Circles/Flares is hard cause many times you don't have enough momentum to stay up in the back. With this trick, that won't be a problem. Now go practicin!
--TIPS-- Havin Flares helps, but it isn't needed. - Learnin on mushroom first helps, but it isn't needed. - A strong initial kick is fundamental to have speed, but it's up to you to keep it durin the move by keepin your body open and swingin it all HARD. - The main shoulder movement is from side to side. THEN there is the forwards leanin while you are in the back part. - Unlike Flares, here bendin legs makes the work easier... - ...though it makes you lose alot in the form. - The more you lean with shoulders, the less speed you need. - The more speed you have, the less you need to lean with shoulders. - Practice like crazy.
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One-legged Swipe
By Marsio
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Turtles
By Bboy Crescent
Okay david_hsingyu here's your step-by-step guide for turtles (CCW). I'll post this as a separate thread so others can read it too. Pictures probably won't help much for this move so you'll want to watch some videos and look at how the guys toss their weight around. "Flying Steps - Breakin It Down" is a good one. Watch the guy with yellow pants. 1.) First off, remember to breath when you're in a float position. Turtles don't last very long if you don't. When you're spinning don't hold your breath either. FLEX your ab muscles a little to prevent face from turning red or running out of breath. Before you start learning the turtle, you probably wanna be able to stay in that floating position for as long as you want. If you're tipping over on your face, close in your legs (bring feet closer to your ass). If your feet keep touching the ground, bring feet farther away from your ass. Find an equilibrium... it depends on how you place your arms. Forearms should be vertical and perpendicular to the ground; that will give you a good height. 3.) Now try start walking in circles slowly. Remember to DO NOT LET YOUR ELBOWS LEAVE YOUR HIPS! You need to keep your height with your arms or else you will lose your balance or your arms will simply collapse and you'll just go flat on the ground into a bellyspin. When you're walking in circles, shift your weight to the hand that's holding you up and lift your other hand off the ground. Just place your hands where it'll continue the spin. Keep practicing on this and build up speed... you probably won't get too fast so don't worry too much about it, just get efficient enough to be able to maintain your balance. Remember don't shift your weight too much that your tip over on the arm that's bearing your weight. When you're learning to walk, make sure your arms remain UNDER your body, not outwards or you will fall. 4.) If you have really good speed on that last step (possible) and good balance you can probably stop there if you're happy with your turtles. But if you wanna learn how to really toss your weight around you can go even further. At this point you're pretty much just perfecting your turtles. You need to learn how to wag your butt around and toss your head/upper torso in the direction of your spin. Your waist will be bending from left to right (vice versa) every time you place your hand on the ground. If you want good speed right away, start your turtles from handspin position or from standing. Otherwise you can still start from your float and build up speed. Now I'm going to be describing everything in CCW. From the handspin position, you will wanna wind up your body. Look to your left and SPREAD your legs apart behind you, you will be pulling them in when you start the spin to gain more speed. Turn you hips in the direction you wanna spin, which is to your right if you're going CCW. 5.) Once you start your spin, pull your legs in immediately to get your momentum going. First hand placed on the ground is the right hand pointing forward (your left hand should already be on the ground from starting position and should now be pointing left). As soon 112
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide as your right hand is placed on the ground, you wanna bend your waist to the right so your body goes into an "L" shape. Your weight should be resting on JUST your right arm now. Now your upper torso should feel like it wants to be tossed to your left. So lift up your left hand and throw your upper torso to your left while KEEPING YOUR LEGS WHERE THEY ARE. This motion should look like you're trying to draw a rainbow (starting from the right) with the top of your head. This is the part of the turtle where you can hop off the ground really high and get a TON of speed. (Looking to your left can help with speed) After you finish drawing the "rainbow", you left hand should be down on the ground somewhere close to your right hand facing backwards. Be careful not to twist your wrists here... AS SOON AS your left hand hits the ground, your body weight should now be on JUST your left arm. Lift your right hand (from down there by your right hip) and place it on the ground under your right shoulder with fingers pointing forward. Your left hand should now be pointing to your left. Your waist should be bent to the left if you kept your legs where they were and your body should look like a backwards "L". Now your hips are ready to be tossed to the right again...so go back to the 3rd sentence of this paragraph and repeat the process. Other tips: Look DOWN when you're learning... It helps with your balance. Keep elbows tucked in... trust me it saves you a LOT of pain and gives you more height. When you're whipping your waist and torso (in step 5), focus on whipping harder every turn and getting as much speed as you can. You don't need to worry much about balance like you did before because your head and feet will be going up and down from the "rainbow" motion and your momentum should keep you on your hands... Turtle is all about transferring weight from arm to arm and whipping your hips and torso so concentrate on learning that. Good luck. ~Bboy Crescent
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Turtles
By Bboy Drizzt Do Urden
Alright, this is the turtle help post. Give details on your problem and we'll do our best to solve them. Heres my guide and tips: 1st- The two main keys you need to turtle are balance and wrist strength. There are many exercises you can do to build wrist strength, a few are - hand stand pushups against the wall, and the handglide position (where you put one elbow into your gut right above your hip bone, with your arm straight down to the floor, perpendicular with it. The other hand is by your head used just to balance yourself. Pull your legs in like a frog would and put all your weight on that arm under you. Do this alot, switching off arms) Building balance is done by putting both arms under your body and holding yourself off the ground with both of them. Your body should fairly horizontal, with your head 2 to 4 inches off the ground, and feet like a frog tucked in. Your left hands fingers pointing left of you, and your right fingers right. Dont leave your hands facing forwards or backwards to balance, it will just be harder. You then slowly rock (switch weight) from one arm the the other. Try to get as much weight as you can off one arm and still stay balanced. After building balance and wrist strength, you can begin to learn how to WALK backwards, forwards, and in a circle. Walking backwards and forwards is done by shifting your balance to one arm while in the turtle position, and moving the hand that has the weight off of it forward or backward in that split second. This will build intense balance, strength, and give you the feel for moving each arm while distributing weight to the other. Now the turtle spin: Step 1 - Start Position - (Counter Clockwise) Start in the kneeling position and put your left hand on the ground, finger FACING left of you. It should be much like the hanglide position. Then leaning over your left hand put your right hand LESS than a foot from your left hand straight out from your body and parrallel with your left hand. Fingers pointing to the LEFT, like the left hand. Step 2- The First Swing Putting your bodyweight on your left arm like the handglide position swing your body in an arc (feet off the ground) and land on your right elbow in your right side gut. When you transfer all your weight to your right arm, move your left towards your body and under you by your left hip to catch yourself from falling off your right, feet and head are still off the ground during this point. (if you fall alot, or dont have the balance yet, just practice your hand movements and swinging arcs of your body without all your weight on your arms) It should just be like putting your weight on one arm, moving the other and putting your weight on that arm, moving the other, etc. Step 3 - Catching yourself 114
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Now that both arms are under you for support it should be easier to hold yourself up. However, this is the hardest part to not touch the ground on with your feet, because your left arm cant get under you far enough in time to catch your body from falling because of all that momentum you gained from swinging your legs. Dont worry if you touch down though, just keep going. The key to not falling is bringing your face closer to the ground and your arm a bit back further in your gut almost on your hipbone to catch yourself. Sometimes this results in hitting your face down, but let me tell you, if your touching your face down and not your feet, your alot better off and will learn alot faster. Step 4 - Last Step Remember, that you'll only be on both arms for just a split second, dont just hang there on both and then start the movements again, its got to be a continuous movement, switching your weight off each arm while your legs are in a continous swinging arch behind your body. In the last step, you just re-balance your weight on that left arm that came back under your body and bring your right out in front again, like the first step. Then you just keep continuing that movement and you'll find your body going in a small circle or even a figure 8. Remember, balance and wrist strength are crucial to learning the turtle. So, if you cant keep balanced and you keep touching the ground with your feet or head, just keeping building strength and the rocking balance. It took me about 3 months to get turtles down, so try hard to improve and dont get dissapointed. DONT RUN, WALK! Dont go into the turtle really fast thinking you can make it around. You have to learn how to walk in a circle before you can run. Pay attention to your direction of your fingers so that you dont swing your body weight onto a hand and have it twist too far the wrong way. This happens ALOT in turtle, and its due to how your place your hands. Go slowly, and try hard. Keep your head about 4 inches or less from the ground, and feet tucked in to get better balance. Since this explaination is really long and complicated, feel free to ask for any help or clarification on what I was saying on the move. And give details about what your problem is with it. Hope it helped. Peace! BBoy Drizzt
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Cricket/Jackhammers
By President
Editors Note: Crickets and Jackhammers are two different moves contained in this guide. Jackhammers Intro: I would first off like to say that you cannot rush through this guide. Read it slowly, read it multiple times if you have to, but read it by sections. If you havent mastered one section, do not move to another. Trying to learn it too fast WILL hinder your ability to learn it. Learning moves takes time, so dont expect to have mastered crickets within a week. Try maybe a month if youre lucky. Alright, jackhammers are probably one of the best power moves out there. Its fun to look at and it gives the illusion of strength, but in reality, there is not much strength involved. If you dont know what jackhammers are, you probably shouldnt try it. The move itself is simple, just hopping and rotating your body on only one stabbed arm. To most nonbreakers, this looks impossible, and thats what I like about it. Prerequisite: To start off, to be able to do jackhammers, you need to have your crickets down like cake. The hard part about learning jackhammers is mastering crickets, because once you can do crickets with lots of ease, youre ready for jackhammers. And since the move is so similar to crickets, youll probably get some jackhammers within 5 minutes of practice AFTER you master crickets. If you dont know what I mean by MASTERing crickets, I mean being able to do normal crickets, crickets forward and backward, crickets sideways, and just being able to screw around while in handglide position. Since the fundamentals of crickets are so important to learning jackhammers, Ill include a cricket guide too. CCW Handglide position first: To learn crickets, you first have to master the handglide position. Thats a simple one. Get on your knees and put your left palm on the ground in front of your left knee. Point your fingers back toward your left knee. Now bend your left elbow and lean your body forward so that your elbow is stabbed into your gut. Youre probably gonna have more of your weight above your elbow, so put your right hand down wherever comfortable to balance yourself. Now that youre balanced, lean forward some more and get your knees off the ground. At this point, the only thing supporting you is your arms (left arm under your gut and right arm outside your gut to balance). Also, bend your knees accordingly to balance yourself. Think of it like a see-saw and you need equal weight on both sides of your stabbed elbow. Get VERY comfortable with this position; youll be using it a lot. You should be able to hold the handglide position for 20+ seconds with ease before you start on those crickets. Do not forget to breathe when youre in this position, that way 116
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide you will not turn red and pasty. Dont read ANY further until you have handglide position down. That way, you wont try anything that youre not ready for.
CCW Crickets: Now that youve mastered handglide position, its a good time for crickets. Crickets are like handglide position except your body hops and rotates around both your hands. Your left arm is always stabbed, and your right arm is never under your gut. To hop, you must pump your left hand. To get the circular motion, your right hand must sweep against the ground to propel your body counter-clockwise. To get momentum, you must swing your legs to the right after your left hand pumps. Do NOT swing at all until you are ready for the speed. Do not forget to breathe. Start practicing by getting in handglide position and try to lift your right arm and balance only on your left. You dont need to balance for long, its just to get used to the feeling. Probably 1-2 seconds balancing like this is all you need. Just keep lifting your right hand up and down without touching your knees to the ground. Start out slow if youve never done these before. 1. The position. Start out in handglide position. Your feet should be off the ground and your body is supported only by your arms. VERY IMPORTANT: keep your back straight, do not arch it. You cannot do jackhammers with an arched back, and your crickets will be fugly. If this isnt so, then you messed up.
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2. The tap. Use your right hand to give the ground a little tap. The force that your right hand exerts on the ground is exerted back at you equally and oppositely; this means your body should be pivoting on your left arm. The fingers on your left hand started out pointing at your knees, but after your body turns from the tap, your fingers should be facing up toward your face. If they arent, then you messed up. Be sure to practice step 2 before you move on to step 3. Just practice tapping and letting your body pivot. Then you can put your feet down and re-cock your left hand and do it again. 3. The pump. Now, get into handglide position and get ready for step 3. Tap your right hand like you did in step 2. As your body starts to turn, give a little pump with your left hand (this is done by straightening your left arm a LITTLE bit). You dont need to pump HARD, but enough to get your hand 1-2 inches off the ground. After you pump your left hand, you should bring your right hand down. While your left hand is in the air, turn your left wrist back like it was in handglide position, fingers toward your left knee. The purpose of the pump is so your left hand can re-cock itself while it is in the air. Your left hand should come down shortly after your right hand does. If your legs didnt hit the ground, then good job, you just did 1 cricket. If your legs DID hit the ground, then you messed up. Try keeping them bent. Be sure you can do step 3 with ease before you move on to step 4. 4. Continuous crickets. Step 4 shouldnt be too hard if you can do step 3 easily. The point to step 4 is to keep your momentum; do this enough and you will gain speed. You should now take note of where your right hand lands when it comes down after tapping. You should put it down under the right side of your head so that your arm is bent. This way, you can straighten your right arm a bit to TAP AGAIN and continue your crickets. You should already know by now the step that comes after you tap. Pump with your left. Right hand comes down, left hand comes down. Once your right hand comes down, it taps IMMEDIATELY. Pump it before your left hand comes down. 118
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Be sure you can do a clean 5 rounds (NOT PUMPS) of crickets without your knees banging the ground and without any fidgety halting motion before you proceed onto step 5. 5. Perfection, fluidity and speed. Practice makes perfect. You should spend as little time on your left hand as possible, and pump it quickly. This keeps you from turning on your hand too much; if your hand turns a lot, you have to pump higher and faster so that you have more time to re-cock your wrist. Pumping higher means more impact on your wrist and youll get tired faster. Remember that this move is based a lot on momentum, which means you need speed. If you want more speed, swing your hips CCW as you pump with your left hand. When you swing your hips, your legs should follow. Do NOT swing your legs upward. That will give you too much height and you wouldnt turn sideways, youd hop up too high. Make sure to do all the steps (tap, pump and swing hips, right hand down, tap and left hand down, pump and swing hips, repeat) FLUIDLY. Dont think of it as a step-by-step move, but in one fluid motion. And remember to keep practicing until you can do crickets like its nothing.
CCW Jackhammers Once you perfect crickets, jackhammers should be a breeze. The hard part about learning jackhammers is getting your crickets smooth enough. All you need to do is lift up your right elbow while doing crickets. This step comes right after your left hand pumps. Keep your right arm close to the side of your body. Remember that youre supposed to keep your body as compact as possible. That means: legs are bent, right arm is in, and body is leaning to the left. The video should explain it for you. Remember to keep pumping and use your hips to conserve your momentum, that means keep your hips high/elevated. Now your hips have to turn your body for you, because you dont have your right arm to tap and make your body turn. Dont try to do anything special with your head or eyes, just turn your head to the left a bit. All you gotta do is remember to keep going, keep your body in, and keep your legs bent. If you happen to lose momentum, just go back into crickets, which should be easy because those are mastered. A common problem that I had and some others who have asked me for advice have also had is that after they pump with their left, they forget to re-cock it. If you pump and don't re-cock, you could seriously damage your wrist. It doesn't take much wrist strength to do jackhammers, but it does help to have wrist strength when you mess up. And if you can only get a couple pumps on jackhammers, you're probably not re-cocking your left hand enough. Try to turn it back some more before you put it back down. I hope I didnt miss any main points or leave out any details. Any questions just ask.
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Darkhammers/Hydraulics
By Manhy xD and Bboy Du
Its late at night im bored, thought I?l write a Dark Hammers, hydros, Drunken Turtles, Fire Crackers, or w/e you call it guide since there isn? one, or maybe I cant find it. For all of you who don? know what this move is, its practically a turtle combined with a cricket, but instead of hopping on one hand, you alternate between hands, sort of like a jack hammer but switching arms, and you don? start out in da handglide position. So here I begin my first guide written by a newb. By the way the pictures you see isn? me doing this, I don? have a camera to take pictures of me doing it so I improvised and used a video I found on dis site, I think the person doing it is BBOY DU, well im just giving him props if he sees this. Prerequisites Good Balance in the turtle position, a good cricket, and at least a lil bit of muscle strength so you can easily do at least 4 or 5 hops, (no need for you to know how to do a jack hammer, but it helps.) UFO? I think would be needed for an extra step, but I dunno. OK Step #1 ) OK get down on your knees and get into the turtle position, and im assuming you know how, since I did post da ?ow to do turtles?link. But if you to dam lazy to click it, here? a little guide, or if you do know how, just skip the bolded paragraph, then on your knees, stab your elbows into your obloquies or ab area. never really stab into your stomach, unless its hard, cuz it hurts sometimes.?Then lunch your self up by kicking feet up into air, just enough that your balancing on your hands/elbows. To balance most Bboys or Bgirls bend their feet toward their ass, but that? them, do what ever feels good. Always look at the floor if you want to, cause it helps you balance better (well for me), but don? over do it or your face will be going there. Well that? the turtle freeze, to spin, pick up one hand and step in circles. Don't flair on me if you don? understand the turtle guide I wrote, not me fault you were to lazy to click Bboy Crescent? turtle guide. Picture
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Step #2) Ok here? where I consider the start of the move. Once in the turtle position you need to push up, Not too hard, just enough so you can lean on one elbow (which ever side you pick) You don? really need to pushup, you can just lean on one side and pick of the other hand, but the way I said adds a little bit of flare and lets you throw out your legs better if you ever consider stretching them out. Picture
Step #3) Time to add what we learned from Crickets or Jack Hammers, The Pumping Action. As I said in the 2nd step, once you lean on the arm you want and lift up the opposite arm off the ground, PUMP! The arm your leaning on, (And again if you were too lazy too click the first link too learn Crickets/Jack Hammers, you can just go screw yourself.) When your pumping on the leaning arm your leaning on you need to push off diagonally to your other arm. For example, if your lean on your left arm and you pump, you pump diagonally to your right side so you can restab and lean on you right elbow so you can throw your left arm up., Well thats how i do it. Theres also BboY Du's way of going into the move "first...try to build up your handglide position with your other arm...at first i would just hop from handglide with left arm stabbed...to handglide with right arm stabbed...once i got that good i started lifting my non stabbed arms" This is pretty helpful too, i would hav nva thought of learning it from da handglide position which is easier to learn from. Pictures
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Step #4) Now for the extra step, ?pinning?you can choose to this or not, doing this in one spot is much easier, then spinning around. Personally I cant spin but I got the jist of it. This would be much easier if you have decent speed when spinning in a regular turtle or If you know how to do Turtle UFO? it would be great I guess, If you don? click the link at the top of the page to learn it. If you watch BBOY DU? video you see him throw his legs a little bit to the left (If your watching it, it looks like he going to the right, but from his perspective its left.) And as he plants his hand down he turns a bit to the left. So im guessing that? how you spin, remember I cant spin, so I dunno.
Q and A Q: I dont know how to pump, turtle, or spin help me. A: Go back to the top of this page and click the links to the guides I have presented you, and dont come back till you can do them decently. Editors Note: The links are just links to turtles, crickets, etc, which are above. Q: So do I really need Jack Hammers for this? A: Yes and no, The strength, balance and skill would benefit greatly to you learning this move and probably will let you get it on your first try, but Jack Hammers are too complicated too learn for most people, so if you just learn to do crickets you still be able to do Dark Hammers. Plus learning Dark Hammers first could help you learn how to do Jack Hammers, You never know. Q: I think Im gay, what do I do? A: Your problem, cant help you there buddy
Re-read this whole guide before you ask a question! chances are da answeres are in here some where.
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UFOs
By X-Bobby
Ok everybody...I finally got UFO's...or at least I can do them pretty decent....lol...so I thought I post a guide in here for the ones that were asking' "how to do it....or what is it" UFO's...Air Turtles are really tough if you don't have a well build upper body...but with a lot of practice...youll get em!!!! This is for Counter-Clockwise....I do it like this...ever since I saw Storm doing it!!!! 1) Place your left palm on the ground....the legs should be behind u and spread...knees bent a lil' ....so you're comfortable on the starting position....right arm in the air....notice that the left palm should be more like under your abs...not in front of your face!!!! 2) The weight should be pretty much on the left straight arm...so now u can step to the left(left hand stays down)...right leg first...it should come near your left one...then the left leg goes left ass well..(sound weird...but trust me!!! )....u should be in the exact same position like in the beginning...BUT...the lower part of your body moved to the left....again notice that the left palm does not leave the ground!!! 3) You should do the movement of the legs fast...but not too fast though'...and help yourself with the right arm for the wid-up!!!...also...when u do this movement...u should go a lil' backwards...just a lil' ...so that the left palm...which was under your abs....ends up in front of your face!!!! 4) now u should pull the left leg to the right...the next moment u lift the right leg of the ground(more like it lifts itself )and in a circular motion to the right ass well...and while u do this the right arm must go down next to the left one...keep 'em both straight(keep your whole body taut)...legs spread...knees bent (it's easier at first)...butt up in the air(not to high at firstor you'll land on your face )....head and chest up!!!! ..the weight is on both arms now!!!! 5) keep walkin' around in circles as long as u can...shifting the weight from one hand to another really fast...keep your palms close to each other for speed...!!!! This is it people....hit me and let me know what u think!!!
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UFOs
By Bboy Drizzle Do Urden
Sup, I didn't see and guides for UFO so I thought I'd do a short one with a few tips for more advanced breakers that might like to learn it. These tips and stuff come straight from Kujo himself btw. UFO's really can be done with legs open wide, or closed straight since basically they are both the same type of float. 1st, Youre going to need prerequisites to get this move down, so u should be able to turtle, flare well enough, and have started working on planches. Even though UFO's require a lot of strength to keep them going, learning the movements and techniques can help u to get them much faster than you normally would. 1st, work on planches as much as you can by kneeling down, putting your hands at your sides, cross your legs at the ankles, and pick your body off the ground with both arms. Attempt to extend your legs uncrossed straight out in back of you, or into an V. Basically planche. Try crossing your legs and pulling them through to the front and extending until your legs are straight, try to get them up towards your face as well. This will really strengthen your abs and arms. Then cross em again, pull em back through and extend, pull em forward through and extend as much as possible, and so forth. This strength exercise should be done often. 2nd, work your hand placements with turtle over again, this time walking it through with your arms straight out in the UFO position, legs out straight, but feet touching. Go through those UFO movements so much u get sick of it. lol. You'll begin to see how u have to swing your arms around and body following. 3rd, now realize, in order to keep this move going, its going to be alot of thinking ahead of yourself. The way you keep your body moving and keep off the ground is by doing the steps you learn ahead of what your body does, so you can catch and push through before you touch down. 1st way to work UFO's: Start in turtle position, and begin turtling. You should have no problem rotating forever if you know turtles well, so gain some speed. You want to be looking out, not down, Kujo keeps telling me its really important, lol. Then when you have enough control and speed, your basically just going to attempt to push up into straight armed turtles, while extending your legs in the back into a straight, or slightly curled V shape, and locking them. I've found u really have pull hard into it when u push up, much like doing a flare from turtle, which BTW, you should practice as well cause it really helps. U'll begin to get it further and further each couple of days while your body and u begin to catch on. 2nd way to work em is start from standing position and work buddhas. If ya dont know what buddhas are, they look like UFO's with legs tucked in, rotating fast in a small circle 124
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide using both hands. Buddhas will give you that circular movement, although they are tough moves themselves. Try also doing flares to UFOs, or flare to buddha by entering your first or second flare's backside by turning into that turtle/UFO turning movement. U have to have flares well to do that one though. Oh also, if you have use of a "mushroom" gymnast thing, that can help u out too. And if you have circles on the floor it definitely helps you out. 3rd way to work em, is just to start straight armed UFO's or buddhas from kneeling or footwork and use those other exercises of walking the UFO to help you out. I got maybe 1 crappy fast rotation the 1st time I tried it, so dont get bummed out, this move is definitely one of the hardest. And lastly, think ahead, move ahead. In order to keep your body from falling, you NEED to move ahead of it. This naturally happens while you do any powermove, because your body has gotten used to your arm moving here, your leg swinging there, ya know, but on this move, concentrating on those steps are essential. I have yet to find a more complicated thinking move. lol. Get your arm around ahead of you while your rotating to catch that balance and strength point of the UFO before you reach that point, and keep those legs locked hard from touching the ground. The hardest is hand placements to balance your movements so work on placements to keep yourself going. Its just too damn hard to say where u place your hands without showing someone next to them, so experiment, and you'll start to catch on. Careful also your wrists turning, cause much like jackhammer and turtles u need to pick your wrist up before you move too far over it and twist it. UFO's are extremely hard, but planches can get them accelerated so you learn it very fast. Flares are the same kind of strength so having them will help you too. Well, thats it, I'll try to ask Kujo for a few more little tips I might have missed, or just ask any questions you have or problems you have with it and I'll do my best to help. Peace out ya'll, and LEARN THOSE FETCHING UFO'S!!!
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UFOs
By Anubis2002
Aiight, these are for the UFOs that double as airturtles, not the damn merry go round spins. this is for CCW You want to start off like your gonna do a flare, I know this sounds weird for a turtle type move but still, it helps for speed, something you want and NEED to keep. 1) Step back as u would for a flare 2) Instead of doing a 90 type thing and reaching with your right hand your going to swing to your left and put your left hand down on the inside of your left foot * This means, you swing down and want to be going circular. I said inside of the left foot because you want to be under u, not on the outside 3) As u swing down your going to kick your left leg low and swing it around you 4) As you do that your right hand will come down...now this is important! **UFOs use cross hand positions, NOT normal turtle ones) 5)As your right hand comes down your right leg will be swinging around you too Okay, here we go, I know that was confusing so let me do some explaining for you lol. a)Those steps should almost if not be down at the SAME time. b)Your legs are going to swing around but as they go around you want to bring them in, around and under you(the UFO position if u needed a picture) c)You need to have your elbows LOCKED! d)Lean foward onto your arms, it what gives your more height and makes this a lot easier. e)I cant stress this enough, u need to swing your legs but right afterwards u need to bring them UNDER u!! Okay, now that you have how to start it, to keep them going there are a few steps 1) KEEP UR DAMN HANDS CROSSING!! if you just do turtle style your gonna lose speed and it will be harder to keep elbows locked and even stay up, and not to mention it KILLS your wrists, trust me! 2) Same as turtles, as u transfer weight from one hand to the other u want to swing your hips to the hand your weight is one 3) Unlike turtles though, your hands will stay right under you and you do NOT under ANY circumstances want to remove them from your center of gravity...think about 126
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide whats holding you up people! *some things to remember a) It helps to be able to do turtles b) You need to keep your elbows LOCKED c)You cross your hands, not just turtle them. You dont need to but it helps more then i can explain d) Its not exactly like a turtle, only some properties e) Your hands are holding u up, they need to be directly UNDER you. f) It helps to swing around then bring your legs under but not needed(Im trying to give u something with momentum first.
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Headspins
By Anubis2002
Aiight, heres a Headspin Guide because I see a ton of threads about this move. Have fun First off, you do NOT need to sit on your head for any amount of time to "warm up" And you wanna know why, first off, Standing there has NOTHING to do with spinning, it wont make u comfortable spinning and it doesnt help you learn. Not to mention the point of headspins is to get no handed, and id LOVE to see someone balance without hands for 5 minutes. Aiight, this is for CCW, if u want CW, mix the left and rights, aiight? This isnt for dropping into them, its for starting the newbie way. 1) Get on your knees, yes your knees! It is an easier place to start! 2) Lean forward and get your head on the ground, have your hands by the side of your head *Remember u shouldnt be on your forehead or way in back of your head or the side, u should be somewhere in the middle, but a little closer to the back. Look at a helmet, u see where it gets flat, thats NORMALLY where you want to be on your head too but its what is comfortable and works for YOUR head. 3) Kick your feet up so you are now balancing with your hands on your head, make sure your on the correct point of your head *Once you are in this position u have multiple options, some of them are choices some of them you NEED to do. a) Your legs dont need to be in any set position, you can use a 4, or a V, or an L, or any number of positions comfortable to YOU, but remember each position has pros and cons. b) Your legs can NOT drop below your hips!! if they do your going to go off balance, its easier when your good to catch and keep going but learning it makes things VERY hard c) Your back, neck and body should be STIFF and straight, if your neck isnt stiff your not gonna do well and could hurt yourself, if your back isnt straight your either going to fall back off balance or forward off balance. d) You can adjust your hips as u see fit, but make sure once u have them in a position you like, LOCK them. 128
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Now that u have the position you want, ur first object is to learn to tap, not kick or swing but TAP! tapping is a crucial step to headspins and anyone who says your not headspinning because your tapping is an idiot! Okay, be comfortable! here we go 4) Do NOT kick or swing at this point, but push your hands off in a circular motion, and then catch. * you want to practice tapping, the best way to do that is to keep your body stiff, push off a lil then catch and do it again and again slowly. Until you learn how Okay I need to discuss tapping because I can hear the questions already a) Doesnt matter if u use whole hand or finger tips, finger tips are easiest b) You are going circular, do NOT push straight up or off, because it throws you off c) Do not CATCH the ground and THROW, the only time you catch is when your practicing by tap, catch, stop, tap, catch, stop *this is beginner tapping, Im quite aware that when tiu get more advanced tiu do other things like reaching d) Remember tiur learning u can tap as much as you want to, I used to doggy paddle my headspins to learn them. You know what, it helps! The point of tapping is to be on your head, get use to it, and to have momentum to let go. 5) Once u learn to tap and catch(if u do that step) your going to continue tapping. Lock your body and tap in a circular motion, now when u travel a lil bit, tap again... *Youre going to notice your tapping A LOT if you do it like this, WHO CARES! your learning 6) Once u learn to tap a lot and often, you can tap less and less, say you tap once ever 1/8 of a turn, then you learn to tap every 1/4 then every 1/2 then every turn then every other turn. Soon you learn how to do rotations between taps. *Make sure you have tapping DOWN, its a VERY CRUCIAL step, once you get the basics you can spice it up a lil. These next things are for the more advanced headspinner. instead of locking your hips and not kicking, when you go to tap, reach ahead of your body and tap, as you tap kick your legs to catch up to your body. Each time you tap you 129
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide can twist your legs/swing hips to get more speed. *The reason you cant do this starting out is your not comfortable with going, let alone KICKIN to do it. When you want to let you, you dont NEED to be going fast but it makes it harder, a good rule of thumb is when you cant feel your legs anymore, let go. ***Important, when you let go LOCK UR DAMN HIPS!! otherwise youre gonna sway and rock and it throws you off.
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Handglide
By D.n.A
Ok, lets start off.... THIS GUIDE IS FOR CCW. For CW just switch right and left ;] Its my first guide, and its hella long! Well... just accept it lol The Handglide/Handspin is a VERY easy move! Believe me, its even easier than the backspin.... I really love the move, cuz it looks damn hard, but isnt ;]! Here we go Step 1: Turtle freeze If you dont know how to do this freeze you wont get far.... Just put your elbows against your abs, maybe a little bit on the side, but DONT put them too low (the bones) or you wont be able to hold it for that long. Also dont do it too high! I dont have to explain when its too high, youll see cuz if you do you cant freeze. Now just lower yourself, put your hands on the ground and have your LEFT hands fingers face LEFT and your RIGHT hands fingers face RIGHT! So left-left and right-right.
Step 2: Handglide freeze The handglide freeze is the same as the turtle freeze, but you only use 1 hand to freeze and your other hand supports.... There are 2 ways to do it: You could do a turtle freeze, lean to the left just a little bit and remove/lift your right hand and put it down next to you. Or you could just go right into it, this is easier to me: instead of putting 2 hands down, put 1 hand down (left) and lay the other hand down next to you for support (right). When youre in the freeze, try to lift your right hand and lean a little bit more to the left, now you do the freeze by only using 1 arm. SEE THIS: You dont have to be able to hold this freeze for a long time! Spinning is easier ... Why? Just ask your physics teacher =P Step 3: Rotation Now, do the handglide freeze, but instead of putting your right and supporting hand next to you put it in front of you! This is very important for later, if you want to make some speed! Now do the freeze, and wave to the right to get a circular motion... You will notice that your wrist is going to hurt at some point, just rotate back: wave to the left. Try to lift your legs, keep your back straight and do NOT arch your back.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Step 4: First circle Now go get a glove, hat, sweater or anything else thats good to spin on! Now do step 3, but dont let your rotate on your left hand! Right before you do it wave to the left a little bit to do a mini reverse handglide, this will help you to gain speed and balance. You almost dont have to lift your legs, because if you spin faster they will automatically lift (momentum n stuff). After youve done your first rotation just repeat and practice!
Step 5 (Final step): Result... Yay! You got handglides, but... now you have to do them fast! Just wave fast and remember to put your hand in front of you! If you want to, tuck your legs in... But I have to say: Its harder! Well actually, it's just which one you practise harder. If you move on to crickets, I recommend tucking your legs in... And besides: Handglides with straight legs look a LOT better! A lot of people, which includes me, bend a leg somehow, just practice and itll go... I can now straighten both legs, but I practiced stuff like jackhammers so I usually bend my legs slightly, also for some speed lol. Some tips: - DONT (!!!) arch your back!!! - If you want to spin without using your supporting hand lean forward a little bit more (lower your head). - Lay your free hand down IN FRONT OF YOU to gain speed. - Right before you spin rotate a little bit in the opposite direction to get a swing effect. - REMEMBER TO BREATHE!!!! IF YOU DON'T YOU AREN'T ABLE TO DO A LONG HANDGLIDE!!! - If your wrist hurts, build up some damn wrist flexibility lol - You don't actually have to lift your legs, they automatically will as you gain speed. - If you spin on your LEFT hand, your fingers should point to the SOUTH-WEST If you spin on your RIGHT hand, your fingers should point to the SOUTH-EAST So it's: Left, South-West and Right, South-East - While you're spinning, try to lock your whole body, which means don't rotate the most important part (apart from the stabbing spot), your hips. So keep your hips locked or you will flip and fall!!
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Im out, PeaCe - Bboy D.n.A -
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Handhops/Solar Eclipses
By Sektor-GENERAL INFOAight first of all, it's easy to look at the move and think you need lots of strength. That's wrong actually, because it's mostly a matter of balance, so if you want one handed Solar Eclipses, you must either have very comfortable handstands or a natural sense of balance. Having both ones help lol, and many times one comes with the other. For strength, you don't need an extreme bunch, just enough to hold a one handed handstand. Anyways, if you want this move I recommend you to try it when you already are at a pretty good level. Just remember the golden rule lol, the more experienced you are, the less time it takes to get moves. And don't get me wrong, of course having strength still isn't a 'bad' thing for this lol. Another 'myth' is that you NEED one handed handstands to learn this move. That's not true, cause for some aspects of it this is easier than one handed handstands if you do it right. I know this sounds like BS lol, but take a look at the tips section and you'll know why. Then, one handed Solar Eclipses are a balance move most of all, and if you have any other balance moves or work a lot on freezes you know that balance moves are the kind of moves that need practice the most. On special cases you may hit Mills, Halos, Backflips and a lot other moves at your first try or in a very short time, but balance moves are royal bitches to learn, cause no one can teach you how or how much you have to lean and balance on a 90, Headspin, L-Kick and any other move or freeze that's mostly balance, you've got to find it out with practice. So DON'T expect to know all you need for this one from guides, neither this one or every other you'll find around the net. I can try to get you an idea of it, but you have to learn how much exactly by yourself- it's all up to practice. This move doesn't go in circles, but usually CW bboys hop on their right hand and CCW ones hop on their left... another advantage of going CW Though I've seen some people doing the opposite sometimes, like with 90's it's a personal matter.
-PREREQUISITES...?I always say something is a prerequisite to another move only if it's a part of it, so in my opinion the only thing you need for this is HANDSTANDS- It's good to attempt learning one handed Solar Eclipses only if you've got good handstands because they're the 'basis' of the move. I started tryin this move when my handstands already were at a decent level and that made me learn it in a short 134
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide time. So the better your handstands are, the easier it will be to get this. Make sure you can at least hold a handstand for a good time with straight, closed legs and WITHOUT movin your hands. Then, if you want to make your way to it some more easy, you should also work on ONE HANDED HANDSTANDS- I dunno if putting it as a prerequisite or not haha... you don't need to be able to hold a one handed handstand -I'll explain why later lol-, but it still helps a GREAT bunch. If you're lazy and don't want to spend too much time on prerequisites and helping stuff, I still recommend you to practice at least handstands both with two hands and one, cause they're the most helpful. OTHER INVERTED POWERMOVES- I recently found out that many powermoves help one with the other. For example, as SOON as I started practicin one handed Solar Eclipses, my 90's got damn better. So if you're patient enough you'd better practice other inverted powermoves, especially one handed ones. Two handed ones don't help much with one handed I reckon.
-ONE HANDED HANDSTANDSAs I said above, one handed handstands are the only thing you must practice -except handstands of course lol- if you've got a damn hurry to learn one handed Solar Eclipses, so I'll get in a couple lines on how to practice it in a good way. Trust me, they'll make your work a LOT easier if you work on them a bit. Gettin into a one handed handstand is more or less the first step to pull out a one handed Solar Eclipse -that's why it helps so much to have it down good-, so to practice it you'll do something like the starting of a Solar Eclipse. 1- Get into a handstand as you'd usually do, but this time let your legs hang in front of you, over your back (this time... cause you usually don't, RIGHT?? ). Beware, doin this, not to arch your back- it should stay straight in order to make your legs kick out vertical when you kick them for Solar Eclipses. 2- Now hold the handstand for a lil bit... when you feel ready, SLOWLY shift your weight on your supportin hand -right one if you generally go CW, left one for CCW... but someone does the opposite for a preference matter- and start takin your other hand off. Doin it slowly is the key to hold it comfortably and for a long time because it doesn't make you rush and lose balance. Think of doin it in slow motion lol... however, as you gain confidence with them you'll learn doin it quickly. So, your hand has got to be right under your center of balance. 3- As you lift your non-supportin hand up, stop your arm straight out to your side, more or less parallel to the ground. This helps with balance and I find it prevents your body a bit from leanin sideways. 135
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Aight, now you're in the standard one handed Solar Eclipse position, from there you can make up your own stuff after you learnt them from this position. Balancin on one hand, other arm straight out to the side, legs bent and ready to kick out and straight back. Practice holdin this position for as long as you can WITHOUT swayin and doin weird movements with your body to keep the balance. You have to practice holdin it without movin, completely still. When you can hold that for some seconds -not many, even just 4 or 5, but feelin the balance- move to hopping.
-STEP BY STEP...finally [1] Basically now you have to do what you did durin the one handed handstand trainin: you get into a handstand with your legs bent and 'hanging' over your back. I bend my legs from the startin of the handstand, but some people prefer to get into a stable handstand and then make their legs hang. To me it's less comfortable tho. Startin from now, always keep your back straight. Don't keep it arched, or else when you kick your legs to hop the kick will get more horizontal than vertical -dependin on how much you arched- and it will result in a loss of momentum and you'll hop lower. So bent legs, but straight back.
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[2] When you have a good balanced handstand and you feel the balance, slowly begin takin the weight off your left hand and leanin more on your right... SLOWLY! You'll work on makin it faster once you got comfortable hops from a slow start, and plus it will become faster by itself with practice.
[3] Now you're balancin on your right hand only. Keep your arm straight, it will drudge much less. Make your left arm, the one you put off, be horizontal. That will save your balance.
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[4] At this point you're ready for the hop- kick both your legs up vertical and straight. Your hand should lift off a bit from the ground, don't worry if it's a low hop or if it doesn't even completely lift off- that's not that important at all, just make sure you're havin the hopping feeling. Don't think too much about kickin hard too, or you may get off-focused and lose balance, a medium kick will still do the thing. Of course if you want higher hops after learnin with normal ones, you've got to kick harder... but there's time for that
[5] Landing here... There aren't many pointers to give on this part, but there are lots of things to make it more comfortable. The most important thing when landing is to absorb the shock, and there are many ways to do it. These probably should go in the tips section, as you don't really need them for the move in itself, though I'll put them here cause this is gonna be a lil long. As your hand comes back to the floor, bend back your legs and maybe bend your arm A BIT too. Think at a jump, especially off a wall or any other high point. What do your legs do when you land? They bend! They do it automatically to absorb the landing shock. Now try doin a jump (not from a high point, just from standin- from a high point is one of the best ways to crack your knees) and landing without bendin your legs. Keep them completely straight. Do you feel a light pain in your knees? That's because you didn't absorb the shock with anything and so you have to handle more pressure. Now imagine doin it on your arm Would hurt, wouldn't it? Even if that legs movement in the jump landind resembles more the movement of your arm -bendin just a BIT, remember?-, the main thing to absorb the shock is to bend your legs back to their startin position as your hand gets back on the ground. You have to do this also because if you don't and keep your legs straight, they won't be able to kick up again for the next hop. Bendin your arm, that helps much, but it isn't needed as the other one and I recommend 138
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide you to do this only if you have a strong arm. Not Hulk muscles ya know, but just decently strong. The problem is, if you bend with a weak arm it may sometimes cave in and make your teeth meet the ground So do this if your arm is strong enough. SO TO MAKE IT SHORT: As you land on your hand, bend your legs back to their startin position and, if you've got a strong enough arm, bend it a bit. Still have your other arm horizontal for balance.
[6] Aight, you just did one hop. If you did all the stuff I said you're in the exact landing position and, maybe, with enough balance to go for a second hop... though well, for that it may take some more time, but not always. On the first try you usually get 2 or 3 hops, so... Unlike most of the moves, this one doesn't have particular tricks to get it continuous -as I said you usually get a couple hops on the first time-, just practice. Practice will make you improve your hops record, try to take your max number and you'll see it improves in no time if you practice it regularly. This is a guide for the easier but less good lookin start. Well people, you've seen people do that nice, quick start, right? Haha, it's nothing more than this start done fast! They just do it quicker so that it doesn't look the same, so with practice you'll simply learn to take less time and just go into a handstand, liftin one hand and start hoppin on the other one, simple as that once you've got enough experience with it. I've also seen some people not even usin the non-supportin hand, just goin into a one handed handstand and startin to hop, but personally I think it's just harder and not as smooth.
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-THE MASTER TIP!Aight, there's a tips section just down there, but I wanted to reserve a little section only to this tip because it's DAMN IMPORTANT! lol... This is a tip to have more hops. This works with Jackhammers as well, I found it out right when I learned those, so probably who can do Jackhammers feels what I mean. If you feel you're losing balance, when you land from a hop place your hand where you feel it helps to regain it. For example, if you're leanin too much back -so you're about to get back on your feet- hop and put your hand more backwards. Vice versa, if you're leanin too forward, you place your hand on a more forwards spot. Kinda hard to explain lol, but everyone does it while they perform this move, it just is sometimes more, sometimes less evident. Look at the clip at the end, it's there too.
-TIPS- First and most important, you don't NEED one handed handstands to do one handed Solar Eclipses! I told you I was gonna explain it, didn't I... hehe To make it simple, think at it, with the 'master tip' above here you move your hand from spot to spot to keep balance if you lean too much towards any part, right? You can't do this with one handed handstands, if you lean too much in any direction you fall, ends there. So the move in itself is technically easier than one handed handtands. But then again, even if you can physically do it even without them, ONE HANDED HANDSTANDS HELP A GIGANTIC BUNCH WITH THE MOVE, so I suggest gettin them down for some time, the longer you hold it the better it is of course. - After you trained good one handed handstands and moved on to one handed Solar Eclipses, you can still include one handed handstands in your practice. For example, you warm up, work five minutes on one handed handstands, then ten minutes of Solar Eclipses, then other five minutes of one handed handstands... or however you want to set 140
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide it. I don't use warm-ups, but whatever... lol - Do not practice them for long times. This is a move that is better to practice when you're fresh, else, apart from the fact that you can get hurt, it gives bad results. Trust me, 20 minutes every day is better than 2 hours. - Take your rest times. This is kinda similar to the previous one, but referred to days instead of hours. There may be days in which your arms or shoulder muscles hurt, when it happens rest them for some days -dependin on how much they hurt- and they'll get better in no time. This one doesn't work only for one handed Solar Eclipses but for bboyin in general, it just happens more frequently with this move cause it tends to fatigue your arm pretty quickly. - NEVER have blind practice. Blind practice is when you just try a move without thinkin about your errors, without even tryin to find them out. If you practice like this, you'll still eventually get the move, but in a very longer time and with much more drudgin. So always know what you're doin and mistakin and try to correct it every time, rather than just tryin over and over like a donkey. - It's good to bend your arm only at the landing from a hop, NOT at the beginning! I've seen people bendin their arm at the beginnin of a hop to make it higher and collapsin on their arm because they couldn't hold the weight. It's good to bend your arm at the landing to soften it, but not to do the opposite, you'll just have to do alot harder work! It's not worth it!
-QUESTIONS & ANSWERSQ: Argh, I can't even go into a handstand before taking my other hand off! What's up with it? A: I said how important one handed handstands are for this move, right... but how can you have good one handed handstands without havin them two handed first? So go practicin them, then move to one handed, then get back to Solar Eclipses. Q: As soon as I take my left hand off, I fall, sometimes after doing one hop. What can I do? A: You're probably takin your left hand off to suddenly, do it slowly and gradually puttin more weight on the right hand until it's all on it. At that point, since there's not any weight on the other hand anymore, you can take it off. Remember to feel your balance and to be sure of what you're doin before tryin to take the hand off. That's a part of the one handed handstand trainin too. And for the one hop, don't be too excited about it: it's probably not a good one if you did it like this, because you did it without balance and you've got no chance to continue it beyond the first one or two. It's like when gymnasts are learning Circles on mushrooms, the first times they just jump up and do one, then they fall down. That isn't a good one, cause when they do it that way they won't be able to continue it, that becomes just a 141
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide matter of how much you can turn before the gravity brings their feet back on the ground. Feel the balance when you're hoppin, even if it's just one. A good thing to try is to do your one hop and stop for awhile in a one handed handstand- that's a good hop, cause you have the balance to continue it if you wish to. Q: While I was hopping I hurt my supporting arm, it was like my elbow bent the other way a tiny bit and made a little creek. What's that and how did it happen? A: Don't worry, you just slightly crooked your elbow. It feels like it bends the wrong way, but if it actually did it would be cracked -and it NEVER happens, unless you're a real chump with it-, so it's just a little pain you'll no longer have in half an hour generally. If you land without absorbin the shock right with your legs and at the same time keepin your arm perfectly straight, it sometimes happens- that's why I recommend bendin your arm a bit in addiction to using your legs as soon as your arm can make it: if you bend your arm it's impossible for it to get that kind of injury. Q: I can only get a little number of hops, any other tips to raise it apart from practice? A: Apart from practicin more... try to stay on the thumb side of your hand. It sounds weird, but I've found out it helps. Must be because that side of your hand has got your thumb sticking out to its side, so if you lean too much towards that side you can oppose that by pushin with it to regain balance, while the other side of the hand hasn't got any fingers sticking out that way and so it can't do that work. Though I don't know, it may just be my impression. Anyway, the first thing still is to practice it more. Any other Q's, PM/E-mail me or ask here for A's. Hope this helps.
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Halos/Tracks
By Anubis2002
Put this where you will...spins, windmills, wherever. I care little. this is for my boy xantos n a couple people who have asked for it. I'll try to do the best I can witmy wrist in shit so if any spelling problems, kiss my butt okay LoL These will also be uni-direction. meaning by the time u get to halos u should know which hand is used for what...the only things ill put is little pieces of insight incase its confusing. Okay, now the first thing you should know about halos in my opinion is that in general there are TWO main kinds of halos. Some people would say classified as easy n hard, well thats just not true. Depending on what you like you may find one harder n one easier but theres not set rule for this. The first thing I think anyone should do is try both styles out or pick one that is best suited to their own brand of power n would work well n stick with what you like!! Ive seen to many people try one kind, only to try another only to work on the first n never understand why they havent gone anywhere. They work on different principals! The two kinds are as follows: 1. The way almost everyone in BOTY(battle of the year) does them...the simplest way to put this is you slide your head on the ground n then kick over. Basically airchair with head on the ground, slide your head n kick over back to airchair wit head on the ground. This is good for people who want smooth control n want to set up for many different things 2. This is usually done by people like Iron monkey and Ivan. Instead of sliding your head along the ground n throwing up which takes time and some of your momentum you basically end up doing quick taps n kicks along the side of your head. Basically doing a headspin along the outside edges of your head. This is good for POWER n a lot of nice combos when u want speed n dynamics. Not so good when learning because u tend to go to headspins quickly by accident. I will try n get clips up as soon as I can of the two kinds to help with the clarification. The way I am going to describe it for type 2 which I believe are the more powerful n more interesting of the two. If I have time I'll try to do something quick for the first type. Now providing you have mills...they dont need to be extremely good to try this. After all your not gonna wanna whip them your first time off the bat, youre going to be able to follow this guide rather easily....I hope. 1. Start off like a normal windmill but RIGHT as you get on the ground, put your head on the ground! I'm not saying going on it or put weight on it, I'm just saying put it on the ground. In essence you should be rolling around the same part of your head as you would while actually doing the halo....after all it is a windmill variation in most aspects. 143
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2. Do step 1 a couple times n get the feel of what your head will feel like, depending on your body it could hurt, be irritable or something to that effect. Not only that but you really need to get the feel of something before u actually do it, it helps when it comes to throwing n swinging if you dont need to think "ow my head hurts" and can concentrate on the move itself! 3. Okay when you have step 1 down pact, now do step one...you all remember when you learned windmills you had to stab to get over? Well you are going to do the same thing here. Once your head is on the ground you are going to set up for your halos by rolling with your head on the ground(the reason u do it from the beginning is to set up and not have to rush) n as youre turning over to your front side(where u would stab normally for beginner mill) you lean forward onto your head. *****What I mean by this is that...your head is on the ground for most of the first windmill but you do not have a lot of pressure on it. When you go to stab...u actually lean forward onto your head so quite a bit of pressure is passed between your hands and your head only! You might want to practice this step a few times for the same reason I wanted you to practice step one. Get the feel down!! It is VERY important because from here you are going to do a few things at once. Now here is where u decide if you want to do type one or type two...if you want to do type one it is very similar but you slide your head in a semi circle before you let it. this instruction though is for type two. 4. Once u are comfortable getting up onto your hand and head n feel comfortable to go on this is how you continue. Do steps 1-3...u should now be going to the point where u need to kick/swing. For this type of halo what you need to do is tap/push like you are going to do a headspin n kick/swingyo ur legs up as if your doing normal headspins or windmills...something of that nature where you need the swing. Unlike windmills and headspins though...one ur leading leg will actually go first....like if you are doing airflares, ie...if your doing cw you will swing right leg first and if you are doing ccw your left leg will go first 5. All of these things are done at once! You tap or push off from the ground...generally speaking your leading hand will do the work(Ie...left hand for ccw n right hand for cw) the other hand is more of a guide n helping hand. it can be used to catch quicker or get more power. You allow your legs to swing up and continue the momentum. Okay...now heres a VERY important part of halos. once u forget about keeping your legs up you are going to come down VERY quickly. One of the most important aspects of halos in my mind is remembering to swing your legs up every single time you tap/push off. And I mean that, each time u do it, remember to swing your legs up. If you dont then your hips are going to drop and your halos will get lower and lower, uglier and uglier until they slam into the ground.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide If you dont keep your hips up u wont be doing them correctly or very nice. Do not try and power halos are first, both kinda can stay nice and controlled. There isnt much of a difference until you get going faster n faster. 5. Catching halos is very easy, when your legs swing and you push off your going to turn around your head. Remember to LEAN on your head and put most of the weight there. it is okay if you go on the top of your head while your learning just as long as you remember to allow yourself to come back down and not keep doing headspins!!! When you swing over your non leading hand(ie right for ccw n left for cw) will be there to catch you. You end up catching in sort of a turtle position but your leaning on your head more. Youve just done one halo...to continue to doing more halos, the set up is the same. Once you catch your legs n hips should swing first! Why? because they will allow u more time n give u more speed n height. If you just try n throw again your gonna be off balance!! General Tips 1. Remember...its similar to turtle or handglide position with your legs straight and your head on the ground. If you got into a handglide position and leaned forward to put the weight on your hand youd be in good shape 2. Try both types of halos and see which one works best for you...this is important to stick with one and not keep switching. 3. It is okay to go on the top of your head but let yourself come down after while your learning 4. Its helpful to practice from a number of positions, like handglides, footwork, windmills... 5. Do not expect yourself to keep going, it takes work to keep the momentum so you better keep kicking! 6...And the most important I think is that you can fix problems by concentrating on your hips! If you go to high then let your legs and hips swing lower and if you want to keep going let them swing back up. its your responsibility to do this, dont expect them to work for you.
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Halos/Tracks
By Kujo, posted by D4RKNnja
The best way to start halos is of course out of a windmill, being that halos are basically windmills without your back. It's a little more difficult to learn halos without the windmill, because you won't have any momentum. These instructions are for spinning counterclockwise. 1) Do a single windmill and catch yourself on your hands like you normally would do to set up for the next windmill, with your left hand tucked into your left hip and your right hand to the side, and rest the left side of your head on the floor. 2) Push your body up with both hands so that you are in sort of a diagonal headstand, and at the same time push with your right hand like you would for a handglide. This maneuver is called a headglide or an Icey Ice. Your legs should be automatically wound up to whip your body around, without you actually thinking about it. Tip -- it's a good thing to practice a headglide, without the spin, out of a single windmill before going on to halos. Just windmill, catch, push sideways (but not up), and attempt to spin on one hand while the side of your head glides on the floor. Wear a beanie or grow an afro. 3) At the same time as #2, unwind your legs by throwing your right leg up first, then immediately throw your left leg up and around your right leg in a circular motion. #s 2 and 3 will be done all at once, very quickly. Remember, this is basically a windmill motion on your head, so think of it that way while you're doing it. Make sure you keep your legs split, as they have a tendency to come together, causing your body to drill. 4. You are going to let go of the floor with your hands when you start the headglide, one hand at a time. First the right hand lets go, but not until after you've initiated the glide and begun to turn over on your head, then the left, but the left hand should stay on the ground until you have spun around to the point where the left hand is forced to leave the ground. This should be automatic also. You then need to whip your shoulders around in a headspin-type motion after letting go and while your legs are swinging around as mentioned in #3, then you need to catch the floor first with your right hand before you complete the full 360 degree spin, then with the left hand, and your left hip should come to rest right back on your left elbow. From here you should be able to set up for another spin, by winding up your legs all over again. Keep in mind that you must have a strong neck for halos, and your windmills should be pretty advanced. It's also good to warm up and stretch out your shoulders before practicing halos, because the rotator cuff is very sensitive and can be injured very easily from being twisted in directions that it's not supposed to go. The wrists, fingers, elbows, neck, and cranium are also at risk from doing this move. Headspins are NOT a requirement for halos, as is somewhat commonly believed, but being able to headspin 146
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide doesn't hurt, because the more moves you have down pat, the more coordinated your body will be, and power moves are ALL about total body coordination.
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Airflares from Standing

By Anubis2002
**CCW** aiight, for those of you who can start a 90 or a flare this part isnt needed but for those who want a refresher, here u go.. 1)Stand up with legs shoulder width apart, now you want to step back with your left foot. Your left leg should go back and to the side, farther then shoulder width, you want this far enough to be able to swing down but close enough to be comfortable *For anyone who doesnt get that part, just step back with left foot and make it comfortable, aiight? Now, this is similar to a 90! And should be done at the SAME time during the move. 2) You want to swing down to the left side with your right hand, it should be going to where your left foot WAS. As you swing down, your left leg should be going up behind you and up. As if your going to be tryin to get into a handstand.(The simplest thing I can do is say watch someone do a 90) *This should be done same time, you do not put your hand down then kick,yo u swing down as you kick up in back of you. 3) As your right hand comes down and hits the floor, your left leg should be up in the air behind you, NO WHERE NEAR a handstand but more of the back part of a flare *That means its not high, it looks as if your in the back of your flare 4) Now a split second after your right hand comes down your left hand will mirror that, and i do mean a SPLIT second, if u wait to long your going to twist up and not go anywhere *So as ur right hand comes down, start bringing your left hand down 5) As your left hand comes down, ur right leg will start to kick up and swing in back of you. by the end of these 5 steps u should have had both hands swing down, right first then left, and have your legs kick up and swing in back of you...by the end of the 5 steps your legs will have gown higher step by step and be close to handstand but you want to be layed out and have it more of a 45 degree angle or a lil more, not a full handstand *This means as u go thru the steps your legs will swing in back of you and get higher, also as u get higher u will lay out and NOT be in a handstand, but more of the back of a flare. 148
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****A BIG THING TO REMEMBER!!**** As you swing down you shouldnt be going straight up and down, you want to Lay out, so when you swing down REACH away from you, this forces you to lay out and not go up and down. Its a part flare, part 90 type deal! Now that you are on your hands your legs should be in back of you and swinging...theres something I need to explain and its a lil weird. As your on your right hand, your legs want to be swinging already, but as you come down on your left and both your legs are up, u should be swinging with legs and hips until you cant swing anymore, and THATS when u jump 6) When your on your left hand, you should have swung until you cant anymore. *YOU need to do this as a wind up, otherwise your gonna have a harder time 7) As you get to that point you want to do a slight hop with your left hand and catch with your right, this is how u do it and some things to remember! Remember an airflare is NOT a 360, it is a 180 and its a small hop. Watch Ruens airflares, mad clean and good to learn from. The hop, pretend your wiping sweat away from your face with your left hand because your left arm should swing over your head. Remember your swinging during this, it may sound weird to just hop from hand to hand but you should be swinging out like a 90/flare and that causes u to hop anyway do NOT push off with both hands, and do NOT bring both hands at once, and do NOT go to your side You go over your head one hand then the other! Keep your hips up!!, its your job to make sure your legs and hips dont get lazy!! 8) As you hop, turn your head so u can see the floor, dont rush it, it should be smooth. 9) As you land on your right hand, keep your hips and legs up, that is YOUR JOB!!! 10) Now bring your left hand down, now bring your feet down. Congrats you just did one airflare ***Key Points*** Do not PM me or message or post a thread saying you didnt land to windmill, flare, or 149
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide another airflare. You MUST learn the basics before you do something else, that means learning to land on hands, pause and then bring feet down. When u can do that, start linking them, and heres a lil fact...if u can do this to a perfect airflare and land on ur hands then feet, just KEEP your legs up and youll be fine to go into windmill, its just like dropping from 90,flare or even jumping into it. Remember to be swinging damnit, dont just go into a handstand and push! it wont work! Your legs will swing behind u then in front, they will TWIST and kick, all of that comes from the initial swing while your on your hands. It is possible to airflare without the kick/swing but its harder and not as good looking. Youre not straight up and down, youre more of a 45* or a lil more.
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Front Handspring/ Front Tuck

By mali-bootay
--------------------FRONT HANDSPRING--------------------
1. Start running at a controlled pace.
2. Now lunge with your dominant leg. If you don't know which is your dominant leg, then try this. If you were to kick a soccer ball and you would use your right foot, your left leg is your dominant leg. At that same time, start going outward with your upper body.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide 3. Plant your hands AND swing your back leg up HARD!!!!!!! You don't wanna swing half-assed and expect to land it correctly. These should happen simultaneously. Keep your arms straight.
4. Like i say in the video, try to get into a bridge really fast and snap out. If you try to land standing, you will land in a crouch. If you try to get into a bridge really fast, you will land standing. Also, think about driving your heels as hard as you can to the ground.
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5. Now plant your feet, and the momentum will take you off your hands.
6. The momentum will take you from there. If you did it right, you will be standing.
*Keep your arms straight throughout the move* *Remember to DRIVE your heels to the ground so you will land standing* *If you try to go from the handstand to standing, you will land in a crouch or on your ass. If you try to go from the handstand to bridge, you will land standing*
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---------------------Front Tuck-------------------1. Unlike front handsprings, you will have to punch upwards, not jump. Jumping requires you to bend your legs, and punching you run, hop, and then throw your body upward. Have your elbows by your ears, not your hands. Have your hands parallel to the floor.
2. Now THROW your torso to your knees with FORCE. Grab your knees if you want, and stay in that position until the landing.
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3. Let the momentum you created carry you over so you land in a crouched or crab position.
4. Make sure to stand up right after that to make it look like it didn't hurt, or that you meant to do it.
*PUNCH, not JUMP* *Start with your elbows by your ears and your arms parallel to the ground. If you don't think this will help, try it standing. Try your hands by your ears and throw your arms down. Now have your elbows by your ears and parallel to the ground, then throw them down with the same force. You should hop a little with only using your arms.*
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Backflip
By Hiddin Image
-Step 1A) Stand up tall B) Lean back and try and look behind you. (Further you look the better) C) Hold this position for about 20 seconds. Repeat this step until you feel your comfortable to move on. Also the longer you hold this the better. -Step 2A) Sit on the grass with for feet pulled up to your chest. B) Roll yourself backwards (Backwards summersault) C) First few times roll once. After comfortable roll 2. 3 times is pointless. This step is just to prepare you for the next step and so when you do your back flip you to them right and not twist your body and break a bone. -Step 3A) Stand Tall B) Bend Knees C) Sit down and once your close to the ground do a backwards summer sault D) When your almost done of the summersault, use your hands to help push you up and land back on your feet and stand tall. Hold that pose for a few seconds REPEAT this step many times also!! -Step 4A) Lay down facing up B) Get on all fours still facing up. Now make sure your hands are in the right position, like your half way done of a backflip. Meaning wrist towards your feet and fingers towards your head. C) Kick up with your feet and land on flat feet. This step took me a few tries to get comfortable. At this point you must realize in your head that when you do attempt this backflip everything will feel natural and you will not mess up. Unless you rushed too fast pass one of the steps. So please make sure your comportable with all of them before moving on.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide -Step 5A) Stand Tall B) Hands out in front and swing down and back up over your head. C) Look behind like in !!Step 1!! Then land on your hands. You do not have to jump in the stage. Just put yourself in the position like the start of step 4 D)Kick feet up like in step !!4!! E) roll yourself flat to your feet like in !!Step 3!! Now your completely used to doing a backflip!! Now as you practice it you can perfect it and jump and land on your hands and everything. I wish you the best of luck. I have no camera to make a video of each step but its all common sense anyways, Peace...
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Spinning Flag
By GrandMoren
Ok first things first, if anyone can tell me the real name for this move, then i can change the topic name. But for now, its a spinning flag. Ok, first things first, ill also include how to flag in this guide, because you obviously need to know how to do it before you can make them spin.
Before hand things to learn AND perfect. Hand stands: You will need awesome balance on handstands for this, because if you dont, you might be doing the move and just not be able to hold it because of lack of TWO hand balance. Meaning you cant hanstand. You might also want to have one-handers down pretty well. (2-5 seconds hold. Trust me its a long time for one handers.) One handers will really help you know where your center of balance is, and makes it easier to spin. Not only on this move, but on all 90 moves. Flag First, get into handstand position. Your hands should be planted further apart then a normal hand stand. None of that open legged shit, and try NOT to arch your back. (It helps if you pull forward with your hands a bit to catch the balance. And i dont mean towards the floor, pull towards where your back is pointing) Now depending on what hand your using, you need to lean to the opposite side. Ill write this guide as the lefty that i am, if you have problems, then copy the guide to a file and change all the sides. Ok, so i pull my arms to my right, and lean my legs to my left. Now, bring your legs down slowly, and pull more to the right. This will center out the balance. When your legs are as vertical as you can get them, let go of the hand that has no weight on it. If you leaned far enough, there should be no problem, because all of the weight is off it already, and you just lift it up and nothing happens. If you DIDNT lean far enough, then your body will struggle. Now heres the tricky part, you need to twist your shoulders and upper body to the right. LITERALLY twist it. Very important. Make the whole process easier, and less frusterating to know this. I wish someone had told ME this when i was learning these. Now while your twisting, hold your arm out straight from its socket. That means straight out, this will help for balance. Dont put it at your side, or over your head, this will throw you off when your starting. 158
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This is what it should look like.
Tips: 1: Practice. This move does NOT come naturally. Its a hard move, and needs practice. 2: Remember to twist your body, look at the picture. His chest is twisted. 3: To get your legs lower, combine more twisting, and more leaning to the opposite side. Spin it! Alright, you all ready to spin that fucker? Before hand things to learn AND perfect. 90's or any other handstand spinny move You need to know how to do a 90 because you need to know how the hand spins, where it spins, how to keep your balance (not really THAT relevant because its a different balance then 90's, but not that much) First steps, i need to explain how to get into it one handedly without going into the whole "Getting into a flag" process. Getting into it Ok, you want to start this off like a 90. If you dont know how to start off a 90, check out bboy.org (Editors Note: Sorry, I cant find a 90 text guide! =( ) Bring back your leg, plant that hand (Remember to plan it inverted, Finger inwards for that extra spin) now you dont want to plant your second hand at all. Your going to spin on that hand. Now if this feel awkward for you, or you do it the other way, then get used to it, because 159
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide you need to learn this way first before you can start to do it flashy ways. Now look at the video, his legs are open, you CAN do that, but it looks sloppy, if you want a better reference go look for a junior video, hes got them down mad. Now as you put your hand down, you want to push off with BOTH feet, have them a bit apart, and when you get into the air SNAP them together, this gives you extra speed, and helps with the balance. Remember to twist your chest, if you dont it will come out some strange wanna-be 90 with bent legs. Now its very important to keep your legs straight at the beginning, because if you dont you will fall most chances. But after the first couple seconds, you should start to bend them at the knee. This helps keep you going, because it build momentum, and doesnt stop by hitting the air and stopping the aerodynamics. Ah, i forgot to mention, when you put your hand down and push off with your legs, your going to want to pull that hand towards your belly. not in, but to the side, in line with your legs, or else you wont have the balance we worked so hard on with the flags. Also, your going to want to arch your back, it helps with the spin, and actually helps you keep it up as well. Dont arch it too much, look at the video and see. You can arch a little bit more than that But thats about where it is. Remember to spin on the bone on the bottom of your hand, or else you just wont go anywhere. Tips: 1: Practice, as always, but dont practice for 2 minutes and say fuck it, keep going, this is a hard move. 2: Try different methods of getting down, this way is just the most comfortable, but maybe not the easiyest, its just the way i perfer to do it. 3: remember to twist that chest! This is VERY important! 4: Dont forget to pull your arm down, or else youll fall after 25% of the spin. Variations, and endings: Ok, here are some variations and endings. One leggers: One leggers are just the same as the regulars ones but with one leg being held by the other arm, you should hold it close to your chest for good balance, but play with it for more results. V-flags: These are the open legged ones, some people that i have taught this to say its easier, and some say its harder, for me its easier sometimes, and harder othertimes. To do this just start with closed legs and open them as you get up. (Note: You can also start these by starting with open legs, but only do that after you can 160
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide do it with opening them in the middle, or else it will be hard as hell) Ball-Flags: These are my favorite, but usually i use only as an ending to my flags. These are what i would call the munchmills of 90's if you ask me. What you do is, which that hand thats not doing anything, catch your legs and bring them into your chest, so it feels like your a ball. This move spins VERY fast, so try it on grass first, even if you have perfect spinning flags. I actually seen a guy that did these, and then shot his legs out, went all the way around, and cought himself into a hollow. My mouth was wide open. I never could do that move because i crushed my shoulder and cant do hollows anymore SO anyone who tries that and can do it, send in a video for my sake Well, thats about it, im sure some other people on this forum do these, so you guys help me with whats missing, and answering the questions please. Once i get an extension cord for my camera ill hopefully get some videos up for you guys, maybe make the whole thing a video guide. But for now this will have to do. -GrandMoren
Edit: I forgot to add. BREATHE! If you dont breathe, you wont be able to do this move for more than a second. so breathe.
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Broncos/Donkeys
By ManHy xD
Oook Imma make the best bronco guide on this site, Period. This is the easiest move ever, I dunno why I even wrote a guide. Many people think this move is wack, makes you look gay, and is a poser move, then theres the other side who says, This move is awesome if you do it right in a combo, or calling this move a poser move is like calling the windmill a poser move. I agree with both sides, cause this move is a cool looking retarded move. personally I like this move because.... 1. Helps you learn how to go into a handstand without going all the way over. 2. Helps gain wrist strength, for floats. 3. Helps gain Calf Strength for jumping. 4. Gets you use to the feel of being in the air without any limbs touching the ground. 6. Helps you learn Round Offs, (well it helped me) 7. And it may also help build other parts of the body i may not be aware of. Since I don't have a camera, Ill use that one picture in the other forum to help guide you people to learn. This is one of the first moves I mastered including all the variations of it, when I was first starting out as a bboy. ==================================== Prerequisites Doesn't really have any but i think you should have good back flexibility, and pretty decent arm and leg strength. If you know how to do handstands, then this move is a piece of cake. But theres no point in knowing how to handstand since youre not gonna be in that position for more then 1 or 2 seconds. Step 1 Practice getting in to a handstand, but dont just swing your legs up, just bounce, and get the hang of being upside down.
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Step 2 Once you got step 1 down, do it again but this time once your legs are at least over your head or up in the air, swing your legs back down by torquing your hips downward. Don't let your hands leave the ground when your swinging your legs back down, this is just an exercise,..get used to this feeling.
Step 3 Once you have step 1 and 2 down, you pretty much have the move down. Now do everything in step 2 again but this time when your swingin your legs down, push off with your hands so that hands and feet are off the ground. Most people have a fear of doing this, scared that they gona hurt them selfs, so this this on grass, a bed, or a trapoline, what ever makes you feel self.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Step 4 After you done step 3, your hands should now be in the air, and your feet should be on the ground, you have now done one broncos or kick, what ever you kids call it these days, lol. To do consective bronces, when you land on your feet you have to land on your toes, so then you can bounce off of them back in the air.
Step 5 Once you bounce off your toes, you willl be in the air again with no limbs touching the floor. Now this is diffirent from step 3 where your legs came down first. Unless you are not retarded and don't put your hands back down to floor once you whole body is in mid air, you will land on your face. So what im tryin to say is that once you bounce off your toes, and throw your legs back up, you will be in mid air for a split second, then you need to spring your hands back downand land in a handstand position.
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Step 6 and Last Step ok when you go back in the handstand position, your legs should either be over your head or diagollay like this --> /, Then just go back to step 3 and continue.
==================================== Variations 1 HandedThis one is hard for some people, The easiest way to do it is place the one hand your gonna use in front of you rather to the side where you would normally place it if you were using two hands. Thats hard to understand, lets see how can I simplify this, Like when you do a two hand bronco you put your arms shoulder width apart, but in this case the arm your gonna be broncoing on, will be at an angle in front of you. Or you can jus do the shoulder width apart version of it. To do that one you gotta lean on the arm that your are gonna be one handed bronco with. AlternatingSame as the 1 handed but alternate hands after each bounce. FingersJust do it normally as you would with hands, but try to bounce off your finger tips. Becareful though, you dont want to extend your fingers all the way, jus enough to make them look like Right Angles (90 degrees) 165
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide KnucklesVery easy just turn your hands into fist, but becareful it hurts on diffirent types of surface areas. Forearm/ElbowsQuote: Originally Posted by ja's finest Bend your legs when you do broncos as your hands touch the ground bend your legs /knees and kick out again, when you jump to your hands if you bend your legs behind u and then kick them out it will help you to spring back to your feet, and you can do this in fore arm/elbow bronco's as well, it will help u to balance as well as spring to ur feet 180 Ugh lets see, you can either run into this by skipping 2 steps and jump as in a regular bronco but whip your legs around, so that if you were facing north your now facing south. Theres probably more but I dunno. ===================================== Combos All these combos are possible, I either seen them or done them. You can mod these moves any way you want, just take caution. Bronco to Back Hand Spring Back Hand Spring to Bronco Bronco to Front Hand Spring Kip Up to Bronco Bronco down to any Variation of Worm Bronco to Front Flip Bronco to Back Flip <- I thinks this is possible Bronco to Any Front or Any Air Twisting Suicide Bronco to Solar Elicpse, Lunar Elicpse Bronco to Invert or Hollow Back Bronco to Any Handstand Freeze Bronco Down to a Turtle Freeze. Bronco to Air Flare Bronco to 90 or 2000 or Flag Pole Bronco to Any Type of Swipe Bronco Down to a Frog <-I thinks its called Frog, Frog is a bronco but in da turtle position, Hop from knees to hands and etc. Theres a whole crap load more combos that are possible. ====================================
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Faq: Q: Once I go into the handstand position, I can;t bounce back down, I just pause for a while and then come down. Whats wrong? A: Yea I used to have this problem, what you need to do is just swing your hips downward, by letting your legs drop back down, or you can force it down. Q: I have the same problem as above but instead I cant seem to bounce back into the handstand position when Im on my toes. A: This one was also tricky for me when I was first learning, what you need to do is get the feel of it by doing this, Once your on your toes just place your hand down without jumping to go back up into the handstand position. Then once you get the feel the bounce will come naturally. Q: I cant gain enough height, I can only do 2 - 3 and I just fall back down. A: Hmmm i never had this problem but Im guessing in order to fix this, I think you should get your leg and arm muscle's stronger, so you can throw yourself up.
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Kip-up/Chinese Get-Up
By Break Master A
Hi ppl! Wassup? People seem to have problems with Kip-Ups, so here's the solution! NJoy
Anyways here, were talking about Kip-Ups, A.K.A. Chinese Getups. Its a nice and sweet move, used in Martial Arts and Breakdance to get up in a cool way, which is much faster than normal. Ok, now lets get to know some physics of Kip-Ups. Many beginners think of it as a push up motion, but thats wrong. It is more of a spring-type movement. For a start, Kip-Ups involve the work of legs and hands. The amount of momentum provided by the legs is about 3 times as much as the hands in normal Kip-Ups. In No-Handed Kip-Ups, the legs provide nearly 100% of the momentum. So you see, legwork is very crucial in Kip-Ups. Returning to the fact that Kip-Ups are not push-ups, but spring-ups Many beginners try to push themselves up with their hands onto their legs and end up crashing on their backs. Think of a Kip-Up as you becoming a spring, which springs up DIAGONALLY, QUICKLY and AIRBORNE, thus landing on the feet, legs slightly bent. Lastly, dont forget: it takes time. Practice every day and you will get them sooner or later. Ok, now lets move onto the actual guide. 1. Start off by sitting on your butt and your legs bent. If youre feeling a Pro, lie flat on your back. [For beginners, I recommend the sitting position, because the back rolling action gives you a beginning boost of momentum]. Now, from sitting position, your job is to roll back really fast (not too fast, because youll roll over your head, screw up and freak out). 2. Ok, now you do a backward rollie-pollie quickly. When you are rolling over your back, prepare to catch yourself with your hands, so you dont roll over your head. Also, bend your neck towards your chest, so it doesnt bang the ground when youre on your upper back. Keep your legs tucked in close to your chest. 3. Now is what I call the Catching Part. While youre rolling on your back, quickly fold your arms upwards, so that your hands are on either side of your head and above your shoulders, fingers pointing towards your shoulders. When you roll onto your upper back, your hands will catch you. Do NOT roll any further backwards! 4. Here comes the tricky bit. It requires getting used to and correct timing. The following happens at the same time. 1) Kick your legs together as hard as you possibly can DIAGONALLY. Many people kick their legs upwards, gaining much vertical momentum. This leads to you crashing onto your upper back; trust me, thats not nice. Beginners also try to kick their legs more towards the front (gaining much horizontal momentum), making them hop and land flat on the back. Your have to kick diagonally to 168
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide maintain the balance between the vertical and horizontal momentum for a clean landing. Also remember to keep your legs together. 2) Not much to explain here, just push off with your hands upwards as hard as you can. The hands help to elevate your body and give an extra push off. 5. You should be in airborne at this point. Heres a part where you can polish your KipUps. Many beginners keep their legs bent about 90 degrees. This shows that they havent kicked their legs hard enough and these Kip-Ups looks ugly. This leads us back to the fact that the legs provide the MOST momentum, so kick them HARD. If you succeeded in kicking hard, your legs will be straight in airborne and they will look reasonably better. 6. The landing. Quite simple. The legs will be the first part to touch the ground (what else?). When landing, your knees have to be a bit bent, to absorb the landing shock and making the landing nice and smooth. There you have it! You are done!
Important Key Points: 1. Kick hard with your legs! They provide 75% of the momentum in normal Kip-Ups and nearly 100% in No-Handed Kick-Ups. 2. It is a spring action, not a Push-up movement. 3. After you get em, keep practicing them to make your Kip-Ups look cleaner. 4. Slightly bend your legs when landing, so that your knees absorb the shock from landing. If you do not bend your legs, it is possible to hurt your knee joints or cause injury there. 5. Use Kip-Ups in your Breakdance routines and combos, in Marital Arts or to show off. 6. You will fall on your back and get hurt many times! 7. Vertical mom. + Horizontal mom. = Diagonal mom. = Clean Landing 8. Never practice on beds or mattresses. They give you an extra trampoline-like spring, making it easier, thus you will have a hard time getting used to the actual floor. 9. Dont limit yourself to just normal Kip-Ups! Try different variations! (No-Handed, 180 degree, 360 degree, etc.) Also, you can move onto doing Cradles (continuous bouncing Kip-Ups). 10. Remember, it takes time! Dont expect to get your Kip-Ups solid in 2 days. Practice 15 minutes every day, but dont give up! It took me 3 weeks of everyday practice before I got them. Build up strength and technique, then you will get them sooner or later.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide 11. Good luck in mastering Kip-Ups! I hope this helped. Feel free to ask any questions about Kip-Ups. Peace
Break Master
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Handstands
By ManHy xD
PROLOGUE: Prerequisites You need........ -->Some or little shoulder strength. -->To lose the fear of falling on your back. (Tips provided) -->And at least access to some open space. SECTION 1 : The Guide Begins: The guide its self is crap, so once your done with the guide skip along and go to the Important Recaps & Misc Tips section near the end. Step 1: First step and the easiest, Stand with feet shoulder width apart (or how ever your comfortable with.) There are two noobie ways you can start a HS, with hands straight or bent up in the air like a dork and by your side like a gentleman. Now if you hands are up in the air like a dork, throw them down to the ground in a calm but strong manner and have one of your legs kick up in to the air. Heres Banshee demonstrating the dork way, lol.
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Now if you hands are by your side then just place them on the floor and kick one of your legs in the air, Here is Vice Prez Demonstrating this way.
Step 2: Now which every way your started, your hands should now be planted on the ground shoulder width apart (Or to your liking) And one of your legs should have been kicked up. Now to continue with the motion, As that one leg is being kicked up, let the last one (cause we only have 2) follow through and also get kicked up. When you kick your 1 leg or both legs up, you got to control how much power you put into it. To little means your not going up and to much means your going over.
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Step 3: At this point both legs should be or about to be in the air and straight. To help balance in this step, most people will arch their back a little bit, as you can see VP is doing in this picture.
Another way you can balance more properly is to use your hands more then just plant them on the ground. If your legs are carrying you forward you will push your palm into the ground, if your legs are falling backwards, push your fingers into the ground. SECTION 2: Going Up & Staying Up Without A Fear: Ok most of the time when first learning HS, your gonna have the fear of falling on your back and hurting yourself. This little tip will help you lose that fear. Tip #1: Go into a crappy HS (legs open, closed, twisted, etc.) Tip #2: Arch you back and just fall forward. If you arched your back enough one or both of your feet should hit or should I have said "touched" the ground first. Tip #3: Do this over and over again on grass, sand, concrete, etc and the fear will go away eventually. Even if you landed on you back, it does not hurt, cause im pretty sure your back absorbs some of the shock. Believe me I landed on my back so many times when I first started 173
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide out, and it never hurt so much that I was gonna cry. SECTION 3: Walking on your hands Walking on your hands for me was a very hard thing when I first started HS for some dumb reason. But what helped me through it was to first get HS down decently, Once I had that I just went into a HS and picked up my left hand like half an inch off the ground and move it about 1 inch forward (Same with the other Hand.) At first the most steps your probaly gona get is about 2 to 3 steps, but as you practice you will gain more and more steps. I suggest learning to move in all directions, Left, Right, Back, Forward and if you want "The Diagonals" Just apply the same concept of how I said to walk forward and apply it to the other directions. But yea as you progress you will get use to taking much bigger steps. SECTION 4: 1 Handed Stands (1HS) Removed, because I realized how stupid it was. SECTION 5: Important Recaps & Misc Tips: -->When I say falling forward I mean legs over your back and when I say falling you backwards, I mean falling back the way you started. --> Using your fingers and palms help very much when trying to balance in one place. --> Arching you back some how shifts you weight evenly. --> Practice falling forward to get rid of that falling on your back fear. > You can always use a wall to help you, but thats for pansys, your not a pansy are you, I hope not. > Try to be some where with lots of space because your mind tends to focus on not hitting anything when your trying to do HS in a room full of random valuable or crappy stuff. And when your mind focuses on that, it will then be a little bit complicated to do HS. > Your legs positions plays a big role when your first learning HS, to be specific, having them spread out like a V evens out the weight, Having them bent behind you for some people makes HS a lot easier. > Your head sort of helps you balance because when you try to look up it arches your back, and arching your back some how helps. > When learning to walk in a HS, take it slow then eventually your can speed things up. > 1HS take time and patiance, so keep practicing and eventually it will come to you. SECTION 6: The AfterMath, Final Chapter: After you have gotten down HS, move on to variations (There are not really variations, just new moves.) Moves like........ Hollow Back Invert Side Invert 174
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The Comprehensive How to B-Boy Guide Invert Hollow Solar Eclipse and Etc....... =================================== Then 1HS moves....... Lunar Eclipse L Kick Y Kick Nike Kick Pikes and Etc........ Conculsion: Some Quotes and Wise Statements Practice when ever you can, it helps greatly. <-> Unknown, so Me if you can't walk on your hands, then you have poor control of your handstands. the less you walk, the more control you have (this is funny because non-bboys, or at least the ones i know, think it's harder to walk). just keep practicing and put your hand down in the direction you feel that you're about to fall in. eventually it'll be second nature. <- > Vice President Your feet are like your hands. a hand stand is like a regular leg stand <-> Muffin Juice The End
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Updating the Guide

If at any time a guide is updated or stickied, contact me and Ill add it to this guide. However, I will not officially post the updated guide until there is a significant change to the entire guide (probably a change to two or more guides or a whole new entire guide)
Needed Guides
Knee Drop Sweep Drop Invert Hollowback 1990 2000 CCs/Pompos/Switches Head Hollow Head Invert Combos (like how to combo flares -> windmills, etc) If theres a move missing that I forgot, please notify me about that and/or make a guide! We need guides!
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The End
This took me a whole day to do without breaks, so be happy with itplease?
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The Comprehensive How To B Boy Guide

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