B-Boy Flo’s Workshop

Last Sunday me and Phil ventured down to Wakefield for Attention to Detail to attend Flo’s workshop.

Here are my key points I took away from what was covered:

• Style – use all your body parts in creative ways to add original flavour to your moves. The feet do most of the moves, but your heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes add the style
• Create new top rock moves and interpret the same moves on the floor to come up with new footwork.
• Musicality – listening to the track and picking up on the recurring accents such as cymbal crashes every 8 or 16 beats etc. Make sure you go down to the floor at the start or end of a bar (on the accent beat and not randomly part way through a count of 8 beats) and hit your freezes on beat.
• To contrast with freezes and fast footwork try to add slow elongated moves when there are long droney notes and accents in the music – this adds another dimension to your throwdown instead of everything being aggressive and as fast as possible. Mixing up the tempo and dynamics adds style and makes your set more interesting.
• Power moves – for whipping and kicking power train sweeps, both directions with both legs. Then practice entering the power move from sweeps. Sweep to flares, sweep to mills, swipes etc.

Practising power moves brought us to the end of the workshop…

I had previously done one of Flo’s workshops covering the same areas a year or two ago, but it was great to be reminded of the key aspects that a lot of people are unaware of when they’re breaking.

It’s all about the music, it is a dance after all!

I just wanted to write down these key points to review what I learned before I forgot again, but maybe you will have gained some useful knowledge from it too… and if Flo holds another workshop you’ll know to check it out because it’s all amazing stuff, going much deeper than just how to do this move or that move, instead covering the stuff that really matters for those who already have a bit of experience breaking.

Laters potatoes!

And why not a quote from Flo for this post:

“Her life long ambition is to go see Stevie Wonder?!?

What kind of an ambition is that??

My life long ambition is for Stevie Wonder…to come see me!”

Florent Gonthier

Aww man! Just as I was getting the hang of somersaults – standing back and front tucks…

At training on Tuesday I was trying to practice a new throwdown idea. I got warmed up thoroughly and had a little stretch, but I was still aching and my muscles were quite tight from training on Thursday, Saturday and Monday as well as Bradford Gym on Sunday. Perhaps the aching and tight muscles are the cause of what happened next…

I threw a standing front somersault but landed with my left leg wide, which resulted in my knee bending inwards as my legs absorbed the impact. Consequently I heard and felt (definitely felt!) a crunch in my ankle… Oooooo, that wasn’t good! I’ll just walk over to… ohhhh Jebus, that’s starting to hurt… Ahhhh – Ed, can you go get me an ice pack please? I’ll just hop over here and sit dOWwwwn.

To the hospital Batman!

My brother kindly drove me to A&E as I wanted to make sure I hadn’t broken or fractured anything. Luckily the dude at Casualty, who saw me after a painful 1 and a half hour wait, rubbed my feet and ankles a bit and told me my bones were fine. Jolly good But my ATFL (anterior talofibular ligament on the outside of the ankle) is damaged. So I’ve sprained my ankle, awesome. Off I hobbled to get the bus home, on second thoughts – let’s just stop here at the end of the street and book a taxi.

Here I am 3 days later… still in bed with my leg elevated on a pile of pillows and my handy Morrisons Value Frozen Garden Peas on and off my ankle. (Get yourself some – 89p for an ice pack is well worth it in an emergency!) I’m getting back ache from being in bed for so long. On the plus side I’ve been productive and done a lot of work on my laptop, even though I can’t actually get to my room in the attic where my PC is haha! Damn it!

Today I’m feeling a bit more comfortable putting weight on it, I can hobble to the toilet and downstairs for food without very much swearing involved. Tuesday night was a different story however, I’ve never experienced intense shivering from pain before! Gotta try everything once I suppose

Man up, Twist

Anyway, I’ll survive and if I don’t – avenge my death! I’ve just got to keep going with the ankle strengthening exercises and make sure I don’t dance on it for at least a few days, although a few weeks is probably wiser and more realistic.

Standing front tucks are evil I tell you! They look cool, but I’ve hurt myself similarly, less seriously, at least 3 times in the process of learning them. From this I have 2 lessons to choose from: stop doing somersaults… or after I’ve recovered and strengthened both my ankles and legs properly train for them a LOT more to make sure I get some mega height every time so I can land safely.

That’s enough of my wining – I’ll have to be fine by tomorrow, I’ve got a magic job to perform at.

Now how about some comedy from the gym on Sunday

Training with Bruce, B-Boy Just Me, is awesome fun – the dude knows his flips and is a really good teacher! He had my brother landing front somersaults in 20 minutes! I’d already learnt the basic technique for fronts on my own, but he helped add a bit of height to my jump and spotted me doing a few back tucks. The Allstar Aviators tumbling class in Kirkstall helped me learn the technique for back tucks, but I’d never attempted one on my own. Within a couple of minutes of Bruce spotting me, I went for it and did it all by myself, aren’t I a big boy. The first couple were pretty funny, almost burying my face in the floor, or falling over backwards. But in a few minutes I was landing, I use the term ‘landing’ loosely here, them on the gym floor. Yey!

By the end of the session I was going less backwards, much more vertical and nailing the landing better than in the following video, but this is the funniest one from Sunday:

As you can see, I clearly bailed that first back tuck before I’d even taken off the floor hahaha. Obviously I didn’t do that again! You’ve just got to go for it! Although I won’t be going for much for the next month or two

Hope you’ve learnt something from my experience – practice your flips safely now kiddies!

Time to take my frozen peas off my ankle.

Instead of a quote to end with today, I feel like adding something even more fun. I am pretty bored after all!

Yesterday was my main man Phil Tang’s Birthday, whoop! So I made him a little video montage of his recent b-boying greatness, unfortunately I didn’t have time to upload it before we had to go out and have the best night ever with the b-boys!

So here it is a day late, or 364 days early…

Happy Birthday B-Boy Philthee

Last night town was absolutely dead, hardly anybody anywhere – it was freezing and there’s an abundance of snow everywhere! However, WE ARE THE PARTY, so we had an absolutely awesome night jamming where ever we went… some were even breaking on the street… in the slush and snow! Dedication or what!

Phil was of course killing it, busting out flares to the max and everyone else was repping hard. I even popped out a couple of front flips and everyone went mental, cause they’d never seen me do it before ha ha Phil started throwing down on the road while the traffic lights were on red, then the Police turned up and told us they’d seen us obstructing traffic on CCTV… Bruce’s response – “Yeah it was sick wasn’t it?! He was killing it!” hahaha.

Monday was also Aahid’s, Afro’s and Shane’s Birthday and if I’m right in thinking Jingle’s Birthday on Tuesday too? I might as well just say Happy Birthday to all the b-boys who’s Birthday it was recently, you’re all lovely and I hope you enjoyed yourselves!

Now I’ve got to go do some real work, so here’s your ‘quote’ for today…

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Philthee
Happy Birthday to you!

Me

So 2010 is off to some sort of a start, has it been good for you so far? Well, I’m rather enjoying it at least, although the snow is getting a little bit annoying now! I might venture out into the garden and make a snow b-boy before it all melts, if I can be bothered braving the harsh conditions!

One of my resolutions for the New Year is to learn somersaults! So, just 4 days into the year I used the motivational words of Arnie – “Do ittt! Come onnn, do it nowww!” to give me the courage to just go for it and try a front somersault on a hard floor for the first time ever Trevor and… nobody died! Quite the opposite, I’m very much alive and it felt pretty good to land it without injuring my ankles as I have in the past when practising standing front tucks on grass and thin mats. Booyah!

So I suppose you want to see this miraculous event…

B-Boy Twist’s first ever front tuck somersault on a hard floor

You might also notice some new moves thrown in for your viewing pleasure there too. I’m still working on that, so shhhhh, don’t tell anyone!

I’ve just been training at the gym today with my brother and at the end of the session I managed to build up the confidence to try another front somersault. I seemed to be thinking about it a bit too much and scared myself a little, so when I eventually came to do it I didn’t feel like I set it up properly. As soon as I jumped I thought ‘Ahh, I don’t think I’m gonna make it!’ but to my surprise I landed it perfectly :O whoop!

So the moral of the story is – stop faffing about and DO IT!

I plan on practising my front tucks a lot more to ensure I can do it consistently and then I’ll start practising back tucks. Which should be a lot easier in terms of getting plenty of height in the jump, but slightly more terrifying at the fact that you’re throwing yourself in the air and using the momentum of your legs to trust you rotate over your head 360 degrees and land safely on your feet again… and not your head.

At least with front flips you’re pretty much guaranteed to rotate enough to make sure your head isn’t in danger of the floor contacting it at high speeds and severe bleeding occurring as a result. Unlike we’ve seen happen to drunken idiots who think they can backflip when we’re breaking in clubs on nights out. The moral of that story – if you’re an idiot and you’ve been consuming alcoholic beverages – keep at least 1 foot in contact with the floor at all times, somersaults aren’t a wise idea pisshead.

“I ain’t got time to bleed.”

Blain – Predator

Just a quick video update from training on Tuesday… I’ve been practising this bad ass flag freeze to windmill. I’m rather impressed with it myself  so thanks to Bruce for suggesting I add a coin drop to the end of my flag freeze!

Obviously this was the first session practising it, so it might take a while to smooth out, but here’s an inside scoop for you peoples!

I thought I would mix up the tunage a bit and surprise you with the 5th Symphony! Check me out killing those beats! Ha ha.

I’m going to the gym now so I’ll practise rolling about on the floor a bit more and then it’s the tumbling class later. Hopefully I’ll perfect my standing front somersault so I can bust it out when I’m breaking!

Until next time hombres…

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

Warren Buffet

Keep it real!

The video says it all…

Our showcase battle at the Shed Bar was supposed to be next Thursday, but it’s been moved forward. So unfortunately a couple of our crew members can’t make it – not to worry, I got some bad assssss b-boys in to cover. It’s gonna be off the hook! … If there ever were a hook in the first place…

“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.”

Louis Hector Berlioz

Sleep! Sleep! Sleep!

Greetings Earthlings!

Hope you’re all feeling fine and dandy today… if not both, at least one. Dandy is always a bonus!

I’m in a strange mood at the moment – quite happy yet a little bit sad, absolutely knackered, aching and bruised but still energetic enough to whip up a massive feast before bed… I’m smiling so I suppose my positivity is living on as always!

I’ve been a bit retarded recently and haven’t been going to bed until stupid o’clock, so training at midday the last two sessions has been exhausting as I’ve only just managed to get in a couple of hours of sleep  beforehand. Which is absolutely ridiculous – SORT YOURSELF OUT TWIST! Okay, but posting this blog in the early hours of the morning isn’t helping…

Today, which has now become yesterday or Monday, we had a funny training session at the gym. I don’t think anyone was feeling on top form to be honest. My achilles tendon seemed to be aching a lot after Saturday night’s dancing and I couldn’t even top rock comfortably. On top of that, after I did one power combo set my shoulder expanded to reveal its lovely windmill bruise again. I really do need to stop rolling about on it! Butttt I managed to get out the longest power combo in the history of my b-boying today, which doesn’t look incredibly impressive if you watch the video. However in terms of personal goals I feel like I have achieved something reasonably good.

The exhausted crew aka The Masterz training video…

Featuring B-Boy Puddles, B-Boy SchoolPumps and B-Boy Moonshine!

I had better go get some fuel in the form of food and sleep for tomorrows indoor climbing adventures. I’m definitely feeling like tearing it up at Tiger Tiger as well! Find your chastity belts ladies, this b-boy is gonna be going off!

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

Henry Ford

If you take approximately 14 seconds of your life to scroll to the top of the page, enter your current email address in the box on the right, then click subscribe you can be notified by FeedBurner each time I add a new fun post or video  for you to enjoy whenever it is convenient. Isn’t that just dandy? No? How about fine? … Interesting, neither fine nor dandy – who would have thought that day would come?!

Good night ladies and gentlemen! Safe journey home… oh, you’re already there…

It’s currently 3D Week on Channel 4 and Sainsbury’s provided free 3D glasses for the occasion. My brother went to Sainsbury’s a couple of weeks ago and acquired about 9 pairs…even though there’s only 4 of us in the house. So that’d be why they ran out and you probably couldn’t get any for yourselves.

Here is the link to my test 3D video from training:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ03SzuFFRs

Select the appropriate 3D Viewing Option on YouTube underneath the video player. For the Channel 4 3D week glasses you need to choose “Amber/Blue Glasses: Full Colour” but to be honest I’ve had the best three dimensional results from choosing the “Cross-Eyed” viewing option then going cross-eyed until the left and right video’s overlap and become focused. It looks surprisingly cool whereas using the 3D glasses looks pants because I didn’t film it correctly.

Please be beware that going cross-eyed for long periods of time can be risky! Apparently severe winds are a lot more likely when you’re cross-eyed (even inside) and if you’re not careful, you will definitely become permanently cross-eyed for the rest of your life… according to my grandma anyway…

There are now a few random 3D videos utilising YouTube’s new 3D viewing options, just search for “yt3d:enable=true” and that should show you all the 3D enabled videos.

I found a cool video which has a mixture of breaking, juggling and magic in 3D, not at the same time though – they haven’t got anything on me or B-Boy Magic Superman ha ha. Sylvester the Jester is a funny magician though, I had the pleasure of seeing him live a couple of years ago, most entertaining!

“What I do today is important because I am paying a day of my life for it.

What I accomplish must be worthwhile because the price is high.”

SUBSCRIBE BIATCH!

Word up!

Earlier, due to my tender windmill bruise, I trained some footwork and came up with a little style move. I’ve seen people do it in a straight line, but never in a circle before. It’s actually pretty hard to do it rotating around, and today I’m aching all over from breaking and lifting weights on Tuesday, so the whole throwdown is a bit dodgy excuses, excuses…

For todays video I felt like throwing in some bonus random craziness. Enjoy!

Ooo look at that, Virgin Active have painted the studio a different colour, very warming.  That should provide better lighting for filming my training sessions too.

Keep reading to find out what’s hip-hop-happening in the next couple of days. What a fun filled weekend this is gonna be!

B-Boying events this weekend you should be at:

Karl text me earlier and apparently I’m going to Mission nightclub in Leeds tonight…

STREET DANCE COMPETITION // £200 CA$$$H PRIZE // LOVEDOUGH // MISSION // FRI 6TH NOV

Let’s smoke some fooools!

SATURDAY 7th NOVEMBER 2009

THE FRESH FACTORY

Featuring:
1 ON 1 POPPIN BATTLES
1 ON 1 BBOY BATTLES

PRIZE – £100

B-Boy Judges
Jingles (ghetlow pirates)
Zorro (ghetlow pirates)
2Juice

Popping Judges
2Juice
Special K
Pierre

DOORS OPEN 6PM

BATTLES START 7PM SHARP!!! AND WILL FINISH AT MIDNIGHT

DJ’s IN THE MIX!
DR WEEVIL & DJ WHISPA

AND A SPECIAL GUEST PERFORMANCE!!!

St. Patricks Centre 2 Trinity St, Huddersfield, HD1 4DA

Sunday 8th November 2009

Attention to Detail

1on1 competition where all invited bboys/bgirls judge. Fun jam nice vibes, straight chilling!!!!

Hosted by Owdogg
DJ Wispa

8 invites and 8 qualifiers to be sorted on the day.

Prize is £50 + F-rock clothing

Entry £3, Doors 3pm, battles start at 4pm

Also Owdogg will be doing a house class and a locking class before the jam
House 1300-1400
Locking 1400-1500

£3.50 per class (if you do both classes the jam is free)

The Hop – 19 Bank Street, Wakefield, WF1 1EH

See you there homeslice!

“One good thing about music – when it hits you feel no pain. Hit me with music.”

Bob Marley

Yo, yo, yo!

I returned from  Scotland on Sunday evening – home and reasonably dry

Wow, what an incredibly grrreat experience that was! It deserves a post all of its own, which I’ll get round to at some point in the future, but not right now. Have patience dear reader, for this entry is all about my first training session back at the gym in about a month and how intense it was. Ahh, ooo, eeee, ugogheh I’m definitely aching all over today!

You’ll see why in the amusing video below…

1990′s to swipes to windmill power combo

A couple of months before running away to the land of bread-crumbed eggs I’d started to push myself to work on power moves. I impressed myself at how quickly I managed to link a couple of moves together, even if it was as sloppy as a burger named Joe.

I’m still attempting to smooth out my only power combo and get my hips a lot higher when I’m doing my swipes. Yes, I’m well aware there are lot of other things I need to improve too, but most importantly I’d like to be able to do it consistently without crashing. Please leave a comment if you’ve got any advice to speed up my learning process!

Yesterday I spent most of the time in the dance studio faffing about twisting my dreads, I don’t want to end up with shitlocks now do I? After tidying my hair up I eventually got on it:

Well, that was fun…and now I’ve got a bruised lump sticking out of my shoulder. Nice!

Safety first – bashing your shoulder into the floor is about as enjoyable as it sounds. Don’t do it kids. Or, do it repeatedly until you’re body is conditioned ready to be a powerhead bboy.

I think I’ve got a permanent lump there from all the windmill practise. What foolish earthlings us bboys are… months of: “Ouch! My shoulder/hip/wrist/ankle/knee etc. Oh well… try again…….. Ouchhhh!” and so on. Maybe we think, as if by magic, being injured will allow us to suddenly execute the move perfectly with 27 rotations ending in a triple somersault. Unfortunately I’ve yet to experience that, usually I keep on training and just end up injuring myself even more!

Note to self: injury + training = further injury.

I’ll try find some time to upload a few old training videos for your viewing pleasure and sort out a fun post to give you an insight as to how awesome Scotland was next. Make sure you subscribe to stay updated! …Which that brings me to my next point – Go away

“Always remember to have serious FUN!”

Me

Ta ta for now