THE TRAINING PHASE: THE STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO MASTER ANY MOVEMENT
The best way to approach training your break dance moves
Discover the secret to mastering any movement you have learned
As a dancer, we are always striving to be a master of our craft. It is good to have a library of different movements that you know how to do. However, simply knowing how to do those movements will only get you so far. You must know how to utilize them in any situation that is presented. That is how you transition from a good dancer to a great dancer.
A good dancer has knowledge of lots of movements but, a great dancer has mastery of his movements.
Mastering a movement requires 2 things. A complete understanding of how a move works on its own, which is what you get from the learning phase and an understanding of how to transition in and out of the movement in multiple ways, which is what you get from the training phase.
Check out the entire "The Learning Phase: The Step By Step Guide To Learning Any Movement”
In this guide, we will discover how to take a movement that you have learned from the learning phase and master it through the training phase.
This guide includes:
IMPORTANT: The Various Start and End Steps
Before you begin the training phase, It is important to know that every movement can start and finish at any given step. This is a little confusing at first to understand, but once you grasp the concept, your understanding of a move (all movements in general really) will expand far beyond the mere beginner.
Let me demonstrate how this works. Let’s use the 6 step as our example
Let’s talk about the starting step first…
When learning a 6 step, you most likely were taught starting from the frog position and then proceeded to do all 6 steps and ended back in the frog position.
Now if you learned from me, you know that I teach the 6 step starting from the neutral position. That means when you complete all 6 steps you end back in the neutral position
Is either one wrong? No, because you still completed the pattern of 6 steps and if someone were to watch both ways of starting it would still look the same.
So who is to say you cant’s start your 6 step from a hook or say a crossover step in the back and then complete the pattern and end back where you started? No one of course!
This is super important to understand. Knowing this will open so many possibilities to your training phase because you won’t resort to finding a way to start your 6 step in only one position. You will be able to use different “In” moves (“In” moves will be covered later in this guide) to transition to multiple starting points of a 6 step and then execute your 6 step.
Now let’s talk about the ending step…
The important thing to know for the end of your movements is that you can cut your movement short/end it early when transitioning to another movement
Let’s say you started your 6 step in a frog position and you completed one 6 step already. From here you can now use any step to transition into the next move. Let’s say the next move is a CC.
- Option 1: From the frog position, you could hop your legs into a neutral position and then stick out one leg to CC.
- Option 2: (Let’s say you are going counter-clockwise) you could take step one of your 6 step (back crossover with your left leg) and bring your right foot under your butt and then CC to your left
- Option 3: (Again, let’s say you are going counter-clockwise) you could take step one and two of your 6 step (back crossover with your left, bring in your right for the left hook) and then bring out your left leg and CC to your left.
- Option 4: (Again, let’s say you are going counter-clockwise) you could take step one, two, and three of your 6 step (back crossover with your left, bring in your right for the left hook, bring left under butt to neutral position) and now you are in a neutral position and then can stick out one leg and CC like option 1
As you can see, you can transition to your next move by stopping your movement at any step
Again, I know this may seem confusing at first but it is so important to understand that I will repeat it one last time…
Every movement can start and finish at any given step.
Unlock The Rest Of This Guide By Becoming a FREE Member
Become a FREE member by entering your email below
One Simple Rule
I will give you one simple rule (I guess it’s less of a rule and more a suggestion) when taking a movement through the training phase.
Always complete at least one full execution of the movement you are training
For example, If you are training your 6 step…
Complete at least one full execution of the pattern (complete all 6 steps) – before you transition to your “Out” movement (“Out” move will be covered later in the guide)
This will ensure that you retain the technique you gained from the learning phase. Don’t sacrifice your technique when training. To master the movement you need both perfect technique and the knowledge of how to utilize it.
Stage 1: Find Your “In”
The advantage of utilizing this training phase is that you will inevitably be training 3 movements at once.
- The “In” movement
- The “Focus” movement (the movement you are training)
- The “Out” movement
Although you will be giving more attention to the “Focus” movement, you will still get the residual benefit of utilizing the “In” and “Out” moves.
To start, choose a movement to execute before you transition into your “focus” movement. There are 2 ways you can go about choosing this move.
- You can choose the move and then figure out how you can flow/transition into your “focus” movement
- You can choose a start point of your “focus” movement and work backward to figure out what move can get you to this start point
Everyone creates differently so I would suggest trying both methods at first and see which one is more suitable to your style of creativity.
I will say that you may find that doing one method yields creative ideas that you may not have thought of if you had only created in the other method. So, don’t set in stone that you will only use one method to train.
But, to start, just choose the method that works best for you.
Once you choose your “In” move, practice going from your “In” move to your “Focus” move as smoothly as possible. Again, you should do a complete full execution of your “Focus” move after transitioning into it. Do as many repetitions as you need to be able to flow from your “In” move to your “focus” move without thinking.
Stage 2: Find Your “Out”
Now that you have a smooth transition from an “In” move to your “Focus” move, it’s time to figure out how to transition out of your “Focus” move. Again, you can go about this in 2 ways
- You can choose an endpoint of your “focus” movement and see what moves you can smoothly transition to
- You can choose the move and then figure out how you can flow/transition out of your “focus” movement
Either version will work, but to start, find the one that works best for you.
Once you have your “Out” move, practice going from your “Focus” move (remembering to complete at least on full execution first) to your “Out” move as smoothly as possible.
Don’t practice piecing it all together from “In” to “Focus” to “Out” yet as you want to master the transition out of your “Focus” step first.
You should do as many repetitions as you need to be able to flow from your “Focus” move to your “Out” move without thinking.
Stage 3: Move In, Move Out
Once you have a smooth transition from your “In” move to your “Focus” move and your “Focus” move to your “Out” move, it’s simply a matter of piecing it together into a small combination.
Make sure you are completing one full execution of your “Focus” movement after transitioning into it from your “In” Move before transitioning into you “Out” move
The beauty of this stage is, not only will you be training to master your “Focus” movement, you will be training a short combination you can use as well (Not to mention the extra training you get for the “In” and “Out” movements)
Stage 4: Rinse and Repeat
Once you have mastered your short combination, you have various options to repeat the process over again.
- Go back to Stage 1 and choose a new “In” move but keep the “Out” move
- Go back to Stage 2 and choose a new “Out” move but keep the “In” move
- Repeat Stage 1 and 2 choosing new moves for both your “In” and “Out” moves
You are essentially creating short combinations with your “Focus” movement being used as the transition from your “In” moves to your “Out” moves.
A number of combinations you can make is endless and that means you will have endless amounts of opportunities to master your “Focus” movement.
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,00 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” – Bruce Lee
Continue Your Break Dance Training…
Congrats! You have now completed the training phase of a movement. Now you have the blueprint to training your break dance moves. The next step is to approach each training session in the best way possible
Read the complete Break Dance Training Blueprint Guide here:
If you liked the guide and found it helpful can you do me a favor? Share this article with at least 3 people by clicking one of the social media buttons on this page =]