Breakdancing Moves for ya to check OuT

Whats up? This is my breakdancing moves section. I'm not the best B-boy in the world or anything but I do know some moves. I'm going to assume you are a beginner so I'll go in detail about each move. Also I'm only gonna write in detail about the moves I already know how to do or am very close to doing. Click on the link at the end of the description of the move to see a couple of pictures of the move being performed. There is a how to breakdance video out and heres the link if you want to check it out. I don't know if it's any good.

I ADDED SOME NEW MOVES AND UPDATED QUITE A BIT! CHECK IT OUT

TURTLES

Ok well this move is also known as a float. In this move your entire body is facing the floor, like lying on your stomach. Except the only thing touching the ground is your palms. So you support yourself with your arms. Sounds like it requires lots of strength right? I mean supporting your entire weight like that, gotta be a physical powerhouse right? Wrong. The secret is that you are not holding yourself up with your arm muscles at all, instead you are tucking your elbows into your stomach so that both elbows almost touch. (closer to your pubic bones than your diaphram, in other words just below your ribcage) The only thing you need for this move is BALANCE. IF your arms start getting tired your doing it wrong. I've seen countless B-boys try this move but when they try it they attempt to support all their weight with their arm muscles. Their elbows aren't tucked into their stomach, under their body, but instead is completley at their sides. If your elbows aren't under your body you will be forced to use strength to hold yourself up. (Your wrists will very likley start to hurt like a mother $#@%! because they have never had to sustain that much weight before. They will soon thicken dont worry...also you might not be able to breath and your face will turn red..not to worry this is cuz you have to train yourself to TIGHTEN your stomach muscles and stiffen your body so that you can breath under the muscle..if your body is too lax you will not be able to breath)

Why is it also called a float? Because the 2nd part to this move is moving. Yup, you read right. Once you master being able to balance in this awkward position you must now be able to move around in a circle, idealy you should be able to walk forward and backward as well, using only your hands. Moving in a circle is easier than walking forwards or backwards. In order to move around, you have to shift all your body weight to one arm, so that for about a half second the only thing keeping your face from becoming a bloody mess is one arm. (kidding, you'll bruise your forehead and knees a bit but youll never need to go to the ER) Then you land on the other arm, balancing all weight on that arm, and so on and so forth. While you are on each arm you make a very slight turn, so little by little you begin to move.

When you first practise this you should move slowly. As you get better you will move like LIGHTNING speed and that's when you really wow an audience. In the movie section of this page you will find an AVI called HALO.AVI that shows a b-boy doing warp-speed turtles, and he links them into halos. That's a good reason to learn turtles, because this method of balancing is very similar to how you link windmills and halos.

-How to learn turtles-

You should begin by learning only how to balance. Don't even try moving until you can hold a turtle pretty much forever. When you first start doing this, you'll find out it's much harder than it looks. In order to start learning how to balance, try doing it on a sofa. Place both your hands on the sofa seat (the part your back reclines on, not where your butt reclines on) and hoist your body onto your elbows. This is a good place to practise because if you fall backwards (you will) you'll land on your feet. If you were trying this on a hardwood floor you'd land on your knees and beleive me, that HURTS! Also, if you fall forward you will end up eating a soft, fluffy sofa cushion, and not the hard, unforgiving floor. Once you can easily hold this turtle position, it's time to move to the floor.

On the floor, you have to able to pop into it. That means you must be able to get into a turtle easily. If you struggle too much people won't be impressed and may just decide to shoot you to put you out of your misery. Eventually, you will able to six-step and link turtles into the six-step, or fall to your side to do some NICE freezes. You'll notice that when doing turtles on the floor your face is about 1 inch or less away from the floor. Your feet should be spread wide apart (this helps big-time with balance) and bent at the knees. You can do turtles with your feet straight out but it's very very hard. IF you can do that you'r the man. Doing turtles builds up your abs hardcore. You'll have washboard stomach in no time. Eventualy you'll be able to even pop up into a headspin and spin, or link your turtles into a windmill or halos.

Pic of turtle

Another turtle

CRICKETS

This is the same thing as a turtle, except you HOP. This one requires more strength. The stronger you are, the higher you'll fly. It's not too hard to hop, the hard part is landing in a turtle position. When learning this, you'r gonna land on your face or collapse on your arms because you hit your elbows wrong. Your also gonna get hit hard in the stomach. Try to tense your stomach up so when you land on it it dosent hurt. As you get better at hopping, you'll be able to hop in a circle, or hop in several directions. Hopping in place looks impressive as well.

-Linking crickets to a suicide-

If you can hop really high, you can turn yourself over in mid-air, and land FLAT ON YO BACK. It looks massivley painful if you do it right, and if you land with your arms spread out and your legs spread out flat you will get mad applause from the audience. Beleive me, it dosent hurt. It uses the same principle as snow-shoes..your feet won't sink into the snow as much because there is so much surface area. Same thing here. You land on the entire surface area of your back so your entire body absorbs the impact and it dosent hurt one bit. I didn't even bruise myself learning this one.

JACKHAMMERS
This is like crickets, except you hop with only ONE hand. Your other hand is behind your back or holding your hat, whatever you want to do with it. Before you try this one you better be able to balance with only one hand. (Yes it is posssible)

PIC OF JACKHAMMER

ANother pic of jackhammer

HANDGLIDES

This is like a jackhammer-turtle hybred. You do a turtle except you are primarily balanced on one hand. Instead of having both hands equally under your body one hand is wedged in DEEP, like your right elbow might be almost at yourleft waist. This is just the starting position. With your other hand thats on the floor, you start to push on the floor so you start spinning on your main hand. Most people put on a glove or put their hand under a long-sleeve so that their will be less friction. If you know how to do turtles, you'll know your toes are very close to the floor. Use your toes as well as your hand to spin yourself. When you feel you have enough momentum let go and weeeeeeeeeeeee you are spinning. This is a very common move, most people learn this but don't know how to do trutles.

Pic of handglide

Icey-Ice's

This is similar to a hand-glide, but instead of spinning on only one hand you're gonna put your head on the floor and slide on it's side as well. You want to glide on it's side and NOT your forehead. This is actually easier, in my opinion, than a handglide. Also, if you can Icey-ice out of a windmill, you are very close to busting halos!

SIX STEP: CLICK HERE to see it photographed step by step

Ok this is the backbone of breakdancing. This looks like the person doing it is dancing in a circle on the floor with all four limbs. You start off in a push-up position (dosen't have to start this way it's just easy to describe it from here) and you lift your right arm.(step 1) Place your left foot through where your right arm used to be. (step 2) Now bring your right leg forward and put your right foot into your left leg's joint. (where your leg bends at, like your armpit)(3) Now, quickly kick your left leg high in the air and put it down in front of you for a spilt second, then slide it under your butt so you are sitting on your bent leg. At the same time (step 4) swing your right leg in a wide circle and wrap it around your left leg at the same time putting your right hand down and raising your left hand up to allow for the legs to pass through, so that now your left foot is flat on the floor knee facing up and your right foot is sideways on the floor , the flat part of it facing behind you. Steps 3 and 4 can be changed around in how you link them, but either way they must be done quickley. (Step 5)Now put your LEFT foot back into a push-up position, (step 6) and THEN your right leg. Do steps 5 and 6 in a clear manner. Don't do these steps too quickly. You should be back into a push-up position, just repeat the steps now. (It's really hard to describe this in text so if you wanna see these steps illustrated click here)

Eventually you must learn to link powermoves like windmills and flares into your six-step, and to "tech" the six step, which means adding extra moves or things like spinning on your knees or quickly moving in a counter-clockwise direction then moving back into a clock-wise direction. Things like that. Remember to ALWAYS stay on your toes, never use your whole foot unless its part of your tech.

PIC OF six-step

HELICOPTERS/Coffee Grinder

This is a old, over-used move but if you do it very fast or switch directions it can look phat. (also called coffee grinders) You squat down on the ground, then extend a leg forward. I use my right leg. Now swing the leg around you in a huge circle, don't bend the leg but keep it straight. As your leg aproaches your left lef, which you are squatting on, hop over the leg, like jump rope. You can also "catch" the squatted leg briefly and then let it go for style. This is a good tech for the beginner to add to his or her six-step. Try to add this to the six-step after step 4.

TOP-ROCK aka Up-Rock

This is the dance b-boys and b-girls do before getting down on the ground. It looks like your are skipping around. It's designed to take up ALOT of space so people will back da #$@! up and give you space to break. Most people keep their hand loose and limp so they dangle. This dance is hard to describe here but you can see an example of it in THIS SERIES OF PICTURES

NOTE: Uprock is not the same as Toprock but I put the name "Uprock" here cus a lot of beginners get them mixed up and then they'll know what I'm talking about.

FLARES

This is a move from gymnastics, (as are most break moves) from the pommel horse. I put some animated GIFS right here to help you to see what it involves. It's not easy. This involves kicking your feet up in a giant V in front of you, then bringing them around you without them touching the ground. THis is another move that's very hard to describe but you will want to check out the pictures to get an idea.

There is also mini-flares which is a flare from a six-step and back into a six step. It's easier to do than a full flare from a standing position but people seem to get more impressed by the miniflare for some reason.

Pic of a flare

Another flare

1990's and 2000's and Leap-years

This is a neat move that you do from a handstand. I don't know how to do one but in theory you get on one hand, then put the pther hand down on the floor, and you're in a handstand. You pick up the hand that you put on the ground first, and use it to spin on the other hand. So a 1990 is spinning on one hand while standing on it. The more revolutions you do the phatter it looks. A 2000 is spinning on one hand with the other on top of it. This one is harder to do. A Leap-Year is when you get into a handstand and jump around in a full circle, it's ok to use both hands for this one.

Pic of a 1990

Another 1990

WINDMILLS

Hehehe most B-BOy's and B-girls really want this move. It just looks so cool. What you do here is turn over and over and over, rolling on your back. Easy, right? Wrong. You must do this with your feet in the air, they must never touch the ground and you must roll only on your shoulders and upper chest, only your upper body. Also, the wider your feet are spread the nicer this looks. This moves with constant practise will take most people about 5-6 months to learn. (martial artists I have seen learn windmills in under 1 month) Respect this move if you ever see someone bust it out. Hehehe it took me 5 months to learn it but beleive me it's worth it! Theres no greater ego-trip than seeing a video of yourself windmilling!!

NOTES: People always email me saying 'Gee Neko, I can do one mill but I can't seem to continue it, my hip/knee/foot always seems to slam the ground. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?' ARRRGGHHH!!!!!!!! People dont seem to realize that what makes windmills so hard is exactly that, linking them! (continuing them) Going around once isnt all that hard, continuing your mill is hard as hell! SO please keep that in mind, linking windmills is what takes so long to do them right, and even when you do link them youll need to work on speed and leg straightness.

If you wanna watch windmills from any angle at any speed get the game BUST-A-GROOVE for Playstation, it just came out. Theres lots of breakdancing in it and this one guy HEAT does some crazy six steps and windmills, you can in the dance view option watch how he gets into his windmills and watch it from any angle. It will help you, plus its a very fun game.

Ok Im gonna tell you peeps how to do windmills, the way I do them!

I learned this by watching videos and reading how-to texts like on b-boy.com, and taping my friend Ben do windmills and then carefully observing what he is doing. I windmill the same driection I six-step, counter clockwise. (If viewed from above) This is the direction most people windmill.

IMPORTANT! Before you even start you should be able to bust some freezes, poses and six-steps. Good windmills require rythmn, flexebility and wrist strength. Some people try to windmill before they can six-step thats like trying to run before you can walk. (not because its impossible but because breakdancing is about more than power moves, its a dance, not gymnastics.)

Step 1) (again, this is how I windmill) Get in a push up position, similair to starting a six-step.

Step 2) Now, tuck your left elbow deep under you, so it's like at your center. Put weight on it. Allow your head to touch the floor. Look to your right. this will be akward to do at first. What will make this harder is you should have both legs spread and straight, and be on their toes. (I'tt try to add a picture soon of how this should be looking)

Step 3) Your right hand should NOT be under you, but out to your side. SO now, you should have your head touching the ground facing right, left elbow tucked deep under you (near your belly button) and both legs spread and straigh on their toes. So here is your first kick. It will be with your left leg. Lift the left leg, still keeping it spread far from the right and straight, and you are going to kick it UNDER your right leg, and UP as hard as you can. Now here's the tricky part; lets say you start your windmill and your head is pointing north,, when you complete this kick your head should be pointing south. If your head is still pointing north, youve done it wrong. At the same time you kick your body should swivel on your left elbow, the same direction you sixstep.

Step 4) Ok here's the critical point, LINKING windmills!!! You want to roll over very quickly, and land in the EXACT SAME position you started in. If you succesfully do that then congratualtions, you've completed one windmill. Most likely on your first couple of tries you will not succeed in landing back in your starting position, but instead edn up on your back. This is ok, youll get better.

Step 5) Now you will PUSH with your right hand to help you turn over, you KICK your left leg UNDER your right leg and UP! (THIS IS THE KEY TO LINKING WINDMILLS, kicking that leg under and UP) Keep that left leg straight, it's ok to bend it at the knee when going under your right leg but straighten it out quickly! Now you'll be on your back and you can go around again, stabbing your left elbow deep under you and whoosh there you go you are windmilling. You may be asking what your right leg is doing..well it's bascially just kicking backwards..if you kick your left leg correctly and keep them legs spread like butter your right leg will naturally go around. Kicking backwards with the right leg helps speed but it's not nessasry.

I hope this helps out a little, I'll try to be more detailed in a later update.

variations of mills:

Nutcrackers: Mills with the b-boy grabbing his nuts (Very hard to do) You need to be able to windmill regulary then, when you get good at windmills you will not need the right hand anymore, that's when you can grab your crotch. Later on you will be able to go so fast you wont need any hands and you can place both hands on your groin and continue millin' no problem.

Supermans/airplanes: Mills with the arms straight out flat on the ground. Careful trying to do these you'll smash your nuts if you cant lift your hips right.

Barrels: Mills with arms out in front of you so it looks like you holding on to invisible barrel.

Babies: Mills with the legs tucked close to your body, like a fetus position. These are amazing to watch. They don't really look like windmills in the traditional sense, they look like the b-boy or b-girl has just turned themselves into a ball and are rolling in place with no friction. It's classified as a windmill because the mechanics of it are the same.

Handcuffs: Mills with hands behind back (yea right)

Confusions: Mills with hands on face, like Mcaauly Culkin face. I have heard rumors that if you do this wrong you will snap your neck and die.

Pass-the-Hat/Strippers: This is when you widmill and then removes your hat or when you windmill and take off your shirt or pants or whatever. You can also strip while headspinnin.

Halos: Windmills completley off your forhead, instead of rotating on your shoulders you rotate on your head. Needles to say, you must be very high up and be going very fast, although I've seen peeps WALK a halo, doing it slowly. This is a very difficult windmill variation and should not be attempted until regular windmills can be busted like water.

Angels: windmills with the bboy touching belt.

Picture of Mill

THERE ARE MANY MORE go to my break links page to go to other pages with better descriptions.

HEADSPINS

This is actually not as hard or dangerous as it would seem. IF you can get on your head in a tripod position (using both your hands to help you keep balanced) you can do this. You must be able to hold this headstand position pretty much forever before you attempt to spin. Try "walking" in a circle using your hands. Do this slowly at first. Once you can do this fast (It helps you keep straight back while spinning, and trains you to keep balance while rotating) you have to twist only your hips and keep your upper body straight. By twisting your hips you are "cocking" yourself, like twisting a rubberband. Then quickly snap your hips in the other direction and let go of the ground with your hands. You'll probably only rotate about half a turn at first. Once you can get a full rotation catch yourself with your hands again. This is called a "tap" People will respect you if you can tap forever. Try to use the tips of your fingers to when you tap, and slightly lean into your hands and keep the knees above the elbows.

Always use a hat when practising or you might get a bald spot. Your hair will grow back but like, it sucks in the meanwhile. Or grow an Afro like Krazy Kujo.

Ok, this may seem logical to some but to others it is not..DO NOT TRY THIS ON CARPET FOO!!!!! Youll burn a hole in your head!

Pic of a BOWL headpsin

Animated GIF of headspin

HEADGLIDES

Ok this move is like a hand glide..except you dont spin. You get on your head and push with your hands and glide on the ground for a couple of feet, then catch yourself. It's a good idea to head spin after this. Most people travel about 5-6 feet in a headglide.

FREEZES/POSES

This is when you are in the middle of a six-step or any other move and you STOP and HOLD the position. The more awkward and broken or stuck in space-time you look the better it looks. You usually do some quick freezes during your six-step as a tech and then you finish your routine with a very difficult pose that you hold for a long time (3-4 seconds is enough) Practise poses this will build up your endurance and muscles.

Freeze Freeze Freeze!

Can't get enough freeze

MORE! AHHH MORE FREEZE AHH!

Popping

This is a method of dancing that makes it look like waves are traveling through your body, or that your are a jerky robot, or you are a puppet. This form of dance comes from mime and it's really amazing to watch a good popper. I can do some popping so I've included an animated GIF that I made (yes I created this guy from scratch!!! I've seen him all over the net and beleive me he's my creation!!) on how to make a basic wave travel from one arm to the next. It's not easy to do but when you get it you can then do just about any wave in any direction. Some popping makes it look like your are in a movie but it's skipping frames. A good popper is a sight indeed. Most poppers wear white gloves while they pop to enhance the illusion. You can see some popping in the GAP commercial.

Important thing to remember is that you must control your shoulder. The shoulder must remain nuetral until the "wave" passes through it. Only then do you raise it. It's difficult because your instinct is to raise it right away. I'll create more animated GIFS later.

People have asked me a lot about popping, there apparantly isnt much about it on the web. How I learned was studying Mime. Get some books on it, go to your local library dig up that library card thats been sitting in a pile of unused underwear and get a video or book on mime. One very good way to learn is listen to popping music, which is anything that sounds like its being sung by a robot, and then do what comes natural, pretend your a robot, or that you have energy traveling through you, and VIDEO TAPE IT!! I'll be uploading videos of me popping soon.

Good poppers are also good taunters, you can taunt people during a battle really nicley by poppin. You need to be able to isolate diffrent parts of your body, and have good flexibility as well as rythmn and knowledge of illusions. Like you should be able to understand exactly why a moonwalk looks the way it does, or why a mime that looks like hes trapped inside a box looks so convincing. Once you learn things like that you'll be able to create your own illusions and dominate the dance floor, because there are few good poppers out there.

Some types of popping:

Creating the illusion that there is a wave travleing through you, this type of popping looks smooth and makes it appear you are very elasticy. One way to try this is by creating waves that travel from shooulder to shoulder, but that dont go through your neck, in other words the wave starts at your left shoulder, hits your rightshoulder, then goes back the same way it came. Both your hands are almost touching, and this is the 'bridge' your fingers should not touch but almost touch, if they touch this creates a look of jaggedness, and you dont want that you want smoothness.

Robotic popping, this is the most common type, this is much more jagged, and the foundation is in the creation of movements that are completley unatural, movemenets that normal human beings dont do on a day to day basis. You should for example, if your head is turned to the left, keep it looking at the left for a while until 'something' moves it to another direction, perhaps your moved your hand up a bit, and if you move your head up at the same time your hand does, it creates an intresting effect. You dont have to walk like a robot, you can slide and glide across the floor as you please.

Floor popping, or popping while laying on the ground or kneeling or just basicly with whole lot of you touching the ground.

Object-oriented popping, or popping with the illusion that you are controlling an invisible object, often a globe or square, and you set it to rest in midair, and then after popping a bit return to the object and play with it. A common theme is when the popper 'eats' the object and the recurring effects of eating invisible objects.

POP LOCKING

This is a very old style of dance, some say older than breaking, popularized by re-run from WHATS HAPPENING. I dont know how to pop lock but here an animated GIF that showes what locking looks like.

Hollow Backs (backflips and poses)

It's like a backflip except it's very slow and controlled. It's ripped off from capoeria the Brazillian martial art. You don't really flip as much as place your hands on the ground and then pull yourself back. What you do is get in a crab-soccer posiiton, or almost a backbridge. You should have your feet in front of you spread and your right hand behind you (if you're right-handed) your left hand is in front of you but not touching the floor. (it can also be done from a standing position but I'm describing it this way so it's easier to link from a six-step)

Now you want to (this is the hard part) launch your left hand backwards and slightly to your right and have it touch the floor. At this point , with both hands on the floor you will be in a backbridge without your head touching the floor..your back will be very bent. Make sure you have no back problems before you do this because it requires massive flexability.

Now launch both feet over your head relativley slowly. This is why a hollowback looks so cool your feet go over slowly and almost in slow motion. It looks creepy. Prolly why it's called a hollow back too..like your back dosent have anything in it. Your feet will land behind you and you will be in a closed push-up position. This makes a good taunt also in a battle.

A hollow back pose is when you get into a handstand and then turn your head so that you are looking clearly at the ceiling, In order to acheive that position and hold it, you must have your back turned inward, and it requires good arm strength. There is also a little-used move called a Scuzzle-butt, thats when you do a hollow back pose with only one hand and hold it.

Pic of Hollowback

Mini-Flares

Here is a move that looks phat and isn't as hard as it's cousin, the full flare. This is done in the RUN DMC video by B-girl Asia 1. She does a six step..and on step 2 she launches her mini-flare and goes back into a six-step. You start this off by putting both hands in front of you..and both legs to your right. (sitting on the floor like your six-stepping) Now you want your right leg kinda bent and your left leg straight. Now the way this move looks like is that you do a flare with both legs in a big V in front of you and then you land both legs to your left and go back into a six-step. To acheive this, kick your right leg up in the air to your left. Now heres the tricky part. You want your right leg to make a circle in the air in a big clockwise motion in front of you. So when you kick it up, you kick it to the 9 O'clock position, then circle it alll the way around the clock back to 9 O'clock. This circling motion in the air is what keeps your butt from slamming the ground. I know it's difficult to imagine, but you do the exact same thing with your left leg..kick it to 9 O'clock and circle it all the way around. If you time the circling right both lesg will be in a big V in fron of you. You'll land your right leg first then your left. Both legs should be on your left side, ideally behind your left arm, not in front.

Full FLares

The following info was posted on my discussion board by Bboy Kenneth Mad props go out to him for writing such a long explanantion on how to do a full flare.

:Can any B-boy'z out there give me some tips on flarez. I'm
:having trouble starting them off. PEACE OUT

hmmm... well this is probably one of the hardest questions to answer being that flares are among the most difficult moves that anyone can try. I've been working on my flares for like 4 months and only recently have gotten them down, but I'll try to explain everything that I know. First off, the starting: There are many different ways of getting into flares, but the most common way is from a standing position with the legs spread. When going counter clockwise, you start by placing down your left hand and kicking your left leg under your right and sweeping it all the way around the front. When I place my left hand down I try to place it as far forward as I can. This forces me to jump FORWARD with my legs when I'm kicking them around and this is what I think is the most important part. When most people try to flare they kick their legs UPWARDS. This isn't good, because what goes up must come down. Instead, throw your legs FORWARDS. This allows you to maintain the horizontal momentum that you need to sustain your flares. So after placing your left hand down, you kick the left leg under the right and the sheer weight of your legs will throw your entire lower body forwards and up. Since you are driving you body in a circular motion, your body will naturally keep turning and when your body weight shifts to the left, your right arm will naturally come down to catch yourself. Just make sure that when the right arm comes down that you keep it stiff and close to your body. If you place your arm down to far out from your body then is will not be able to support the weight, or it will slip out from under you. Keep it close to your body. Now, your legs should be flying around the left side of your body. Now almost all of your weight should be on your right arm, so now you must lift your left arm so that your legs may pass beneath it. Here your body will be tilted sideways with all the support on the right arm because of the momentum of your legs. As long as you had sufficent momentum to begin with, then you don't have to worry about your legs hitting the ground. Your legs should be travelling HORIZONTALLY anyways, so even if they hit the ground, they will not stop your momentum. Now here is another important part of the flare. At this point, picture yourself leaning forwards, almost as if you were trying to ram your head against an imaginary target in front of you. But you must keep your arms stiff otherwise there is no way that you can get your legs around at the back. As long as you are leaning slightly forwards, and your arms are stiff, and you still have good mometum, your legs will have no problem with hitting the ground. Your ass should be pretty high in the air at this point and both of your arms are down in front of your to support the weight. Now when your legs are at the back, your weight will start to shift to the right side because of the circular momentum. Here, you must lift your right arm so that your legs may pass beneath it. You body will start to tilt to the left with the weight supported by the left arm. Here, just remember to try really hard and keep your right leg high, close to your head, as the left leg swings out under it to the front. At this point everything repeats itself, and if you're comfortable with all of that then it shouldn't be much effort to flare repeatedly.

Here are some general tips when flaring:

Flares are not really about power. It's more about controlled
momentum. Flares are really fast, so you never really have to
hold yourself up with pure muscle. But you do have to control the
swinging of your legs, which should be swinging completely freely.
Flaring fast requires less power but more control. Flaring
slower requires less control but more power.

When thinking about flares, don't think up and down; think
forwards and back. Throw your legs forwards, and then lean your
upper body forwards. Do this and you won't smash your legs into
the ground like most people do when trying to flare.

When flaring, let your legs relax. Don't tighten up your leg
muscles. They should be swinging freely like ropes. This will
keep you from pulling your muscles and will allow for maximum
flexibility in the muscles. You should also be aware that there
is a lot of strain on the wrists, so warm them up before hand.

Flares go by REALLY fast, so when you are trying to practice them
don't try to picture each part one by one when doing it. Instead,
go through the whole flare in your head and picture what your body
will do and what it would feel like doing it. Then try it all in
one shot. See what you did wrong or where you stopped and start
again trying to consciously correct the last mistake. But don't
think about it too much. Sometimes it's just good to let your
body fly and hope that a flare comes out. You might surprise
yourself.

Other then that, just remember that flares are one of the most
advanced moves, so expect to be spending MANY hours practicing,
and expect lots of scraps and bruises. The flare is a move that
requires you to go all out, holding nothing back when you throw
your body. And this is why it is so easy to get hurt. Just
remember, as long as you practice a lot, you will get better. And
if you practice enough and try hard enough, you WILL get it.

Well I'm sorry for the length of this reply, but I hope you what I
have said might have helped a bit. If anything is unclear or you
want to know anything else, just post it. Peace and good luck.

Kenneth

Suicides

The dude in the red shirt in the background is me, the white shirt on my right is Saffron. The guy doing the suicide is Bboy Rapid.

These moves look like they sound. (some people will say all of breakdancing looks like suicidal and dangerous but this is worst) An example of a suicide is doing a forward flip, no hands and landing on your back with ffeet and arms spread out. (this is done in the USHER video: My Way) I learned to do this suicide by #1 overcoming my fear of flipping my body forward with no hands and #2 practising on a soft surface, like a sandy beach or even over water like at a pool diving board. It's not hard but the hardest part is overcoming the natural fear of doing this move because of your brains pre-programmed survival instincts. Your brain dosen't want you to do this. Once you learn this suicide down pat you can jump high, tuck your feet to your body with your hands and then flip completley and land on your feet again for a general forward flip.

Another good suicide is jumping in the air and landing with your feet in a split position but your body backward over your rear leg and arms spread out. This is done in the RUN/DMC video. My friend Ben does a sideways suicide that I'm not even sure how to do. He like, puts one hand on the floor from a standing position and then flips his whole body sideways ladning on his head and other hand.

So any move that looks like it would massivley hurt is a suicide, usually it involves landing flat on your back or front from a flip, jump or free fall. These moves are weird but usefull to impress people at clubs, or make them wince.

Tic-Tacs/Kip-up

Ok I grouped these two moves together because they are so much alike. A kip-up is when you are laying on the ground and send your legs up so your knees are above your face, then you put your hands on the ground behind you and violently send your legs down again, pushing with your hands as you do so. The result is a dramatic leap to your feet, so that you are standing vertically and ready to dance. This move is taken from martial arts. It can be donw without hands but it is difficult.

A tic-tac is basically a kip-up done over and over again, except you dont stand up after you send your legs back and push with your hands, instead as soon as your feet touch the ground you immidietly send yourself back onto your upper back, sending your legs up again and then start over. The effect is that you look like a ringing telephone like you see in cartoons, or some kind of weird slinky.

In order to be able to do tic-tacs, you must be able to kip-up first. You also need to make sure (most important thing) that your hands touch the ground before your back does! Otherwise you are going to knock the air out of your lungs and seriously bruise yourself up. Just pretend you are punching someone behind you and force your hands backwards. This isn't that difficult of a move but if done well it can look spectacular.

POp-Tarts

This is a move where you basically jump into a windmill during your sixtep, but instead of completing the windmill you go back into your sixstep. Its similair to a baby windmill. During your sixstep, on step 4 when both legs are crossed under you and all your weight is on your right hand, take your left hand and loop it under your right arm..like a needle. You'll 'sew' it through, keeping it in a curved position, now allow your body to follow through..you'll see that you are now on your back. MAke sure you kept your legs tucked close to you. Now use your monetum and kick your legs UPWARD, like in a kip-up and continue rotating back so that you are in a push up position. The reason you need to kick your legs is that is what provides the nessasry height for you to turn aro8und completley back into your sixstep. Executed correctly, this move looks pretty tite.

Headspin to Windmill combo

I've finnaly been learning some power-move links. To link a headspin or headstand to a windmill, all you have to do is bring your left hand so that it is touching your head. Then allow your body to roll naturally to the right as you fall. Its very easy, and you'll probably get it on your first try, that is, if you have good headstand balance. Now continue rolling just like in a poptart, and this time when you are about to go into a push up position, go into starting position of a windmill instead.

Nike Kick/Capoeira Kick

You've probably seen this move done a zillion times on MTV and stuff. The dancer jumps on only one hand, and then one leg kick forward very close to the face, so that the face touched the leg most of the time. The person looks somewhat like the Nike logo when this is done, which is why its called a Nike kick. It comes from Capoeira. To do this you need flexibility in your dominant leg, which is the right leg for most people. You should be able to kick very high, and well over your head with ease. All a Nike kick really is is a high kick while balancing on one hand sideways. Dont attemot to bring your leg outward over your side...thats the ilusion of the kick. WHat your really doing is bringing the leg FORWARD, as in a high kick. If you get good at this you can link it itno flares or windmills.

Rolling/ AKA Breakdancing like you are a fish out of water

You've probably seen this before, especially from the west coast of the United States. It's a style of breakdancing that started fairly recently. It's sometimes called new skool breaking too. It rejects the sixstep as a foundation of breakdancing and replaces it with ground rolling. I personally hate this style, but alot of people do it. The thing about it is this style DOES NOT FLOW very well, no matter how fast you do those rolls, grab your foot and stick your head under your feet, it still looks like you are a fish in dire need of water. I think the original style wherin you toprock, go into your sixsteps, do your techs and freezes, then go into a power move back into sixsteps ON BEAT is the best style of breakdancing. Many people forget that THIS IS A DANCE AND SO YOU MUST BE ON BEAT. Rolling by it's very style can't be done on beat. How do you roll down a hill on beat? You don't. I recommend if you're just starting out you learn the east coast early 80's style of breakin and then change it up according to your style. This style is good to learn for taunting during battles (probably where it started) and to throw in your sixsteps now and again. WEBMASTERS NOTE: Due to numerous complaints I'm going to have to add that this style can and does look good with lots and lots and lots of practise. It's similair to Pop-locking in that in order to make it look good you must make every part of it clean and absolutley not sloppy. But I'll still stick by my opinion that it dosen't look as good as old-skool breakin.

Butterfly Kick: a graceful aerial move

This move is taken from Northen style Kung-Fu. You probably have seen it before from Iceskaters. It's a very graceful aerial kick that involves your entire body. It's hard to describe how to do this kick here, but I'll attempt it. Stand straight. Now twist your upper body in a arc, keeping your face very close to your body. So you'll send your face down to your crotch (sorry) then keep on rotating so your facing left. Basically: go from right to left in a half circle keeping your face very close to your body. Now as your face starts going to your left kick your right leg BACK and UP very hard. Your twisting motion with your upper body will ensure that when you kick with that leg your body will rotate in a counter clockwise direction if viewed from above. When you kick that right leg, immidietly kick your left leg up and back as well. Extend both hands out like you are an airplane. You should be in the air completley now, rotating. Arch your back and keep your face very close to the ground. (I know, this is scary) You should land on your left leg only and you'll find that you will keep on rotating when you land..this is because the initial momentum wasn't used up and so your body spins..since your upper body is now lower to the ground, it's a perfect position to start six-stepping.

That's all I have for now But I'll add more moves and pictures soon. Please send me feedback on what you think or questions you have. Thanks.

Wanna see some pics of me doin moves? CLICK HERE

last updated February 22nd, 2000