A different view

if you havent seen this video yet, its all over facebook and bboy websites alike for the words spoken by havikoro's very own Marlon at 3:01 . If you take what he says about learning from other people and taking chances to learn from other people that you respect to get a view you might not normally get, then dope. this is also kind of cool for the aspect that he says don't be a sellout. but to me this would have been an opportunity to shed some light on his views that he may have shared at his workshop

 

but here is another view on the subject i thought was very noteworthy that i completely agreed with (the following is a conversation from bboyworld.com)

jollyrancher-While I am a big fan of workshops - the each one teach one mentality and the idea that our community's knowledge is passed on through word of mouth - marlon simply lacks humbleness.

It was completely wrong for marlon to speak out in such a fashion towards a community of bboys he's never seen dance and doesn't know (whom he should see as his peers). His invitation as a judge does not entitle him to be above or below any other bboy in that jam - and to further state that they "lack" technique or swag and that HE has that magic formula is a lack of foresight and a implies a clear discontinuity with what he's saying and what he's really thinking. He says learn "knowledge" but what he's implying is "learn MY knowledge, I know what's best".

He may have "made it" in terms of community recognition but that should never mean that you're an authority on technique and swag. You earned your props with rocksteady crew or whomever you look up to but you (and any bboy for that matter) should enter a new town KNOWING that you need to earn THEIR respect, you don't automatically have it for being a judge. No easy props.

Whether you're crazy legs or ken swift himself, you're constantly being tested - that's the way our lifestyle is. You can't hold up? That's YOUR fault. Our philosophy is one of a dog eat dog world - it was started those that wanted to test each other, and was a very hostile environment. A lot of bboys now give our props without giving a second thought, and idolize bboys without testing them for being able to throw a airchair ninety. Respect is earned after throwing down - you shouldn't shake someone's hand and say you're dope until you've tested them in the cyphers. Being a fanboy shows a lack of integrity for the dance, a lack of history and an inability to think and fend for oneself - which is what marlon was looking for. Fanboys for himself.

The amount of years that marlon put in is obviously respectable but his background should never matter in the knowledge aspect of this dance. If you have something to share, share it. Knowledge is knowledge.

imo, it was Marlon's fault that nobody showed up to his workshop. He's obviously not appealing enough. People don't want to learn from good bboys, they want to learn from great bboys. He should hold it up to himself and say, shit, i'm not as dope as I thought I was. I should reevaluate what i'm doing and how I approach things, not blame the audience.

And i'm not just saying that he isn't great because he can't execute an airflare, nor am I saying that he isn't a good bboy. He is original with a variety of unique approaches to modern day bboy moves/flavor, but he isn't fantastic, and that his fault. I don't doubt his accomplishments but just because someone's got swag and technique and knows foundation doesn't entitle that person to anything. There are a thousand more bboys out there who are underground, more dope, know far more technique, foundation and history than he does. And they teach knowing that their students have no obligation to them.

KAAL respondes

even though i disagree with about everything you just wrote i will only comment (for now) on that "there are more bboys out there who are underground, more dope, know far more technique blah blah"

are those bboys travelling, putting time and energy to give out quality workshops? I dont know if you know but a workshop isnt something you just do and get paid. you think about it, you get urself a plan to work with. HE went to THEIR town and brought a RARE opportunity, they didnt cease it, he said to WAKE UP

and god damn you have no shame. you need to get out of your bubble and THEN listen to what marlon has to say. marlon not humble?... what a joke

(my insight- many of those bboys are traveling, but because they aren't on the main battle ship that everyone else is on, they aren't necessarily known by the mass scene. one of the dopest bboys i know doesn't battle, he travels hours to go to jams just to cypher. aside from all the grammer and spelling issues here, he's missing the whole point of the OP)


Usernamed-

jollyrancher dig a hole and never come out again dude... Seriously?! Marlon was just stating the fact that is destroying bboying nowadays. People lacking the communication and knowledge! Kids nowadays learn moves by watching youtube and don't give enough respect to the culture. Even if he is not teaching you how to do one handed airflare to 90 grabbing feet, he will surely teach you is dance approach, he's experience in battles, the way he learned a move (which can be faster), his style, his passion, and so on!! That you can´t learn by videos fool.
What are great bboys? there is no such thing. B-boying is an art, expression, at the end of the day is all about beeing yourself with your own style and technique. If you can grab the much experience from everybody you will turn that in your favor and build up.

I started by watching videos, in 2001, when there was no youtube. Few videos gave me inspiration, but when i went to a battle and start talking to people it blew my mind! So many simple stuff i didnt know. Even after ten years i always learn from somebody, and they are not BC ONE BBOYS!
People spend money on buying gazelle sneakers, hats and "bboy" clothes. That doesn't make you a bboy. So why dont we help true bboys and receive knowledge instead? Integrity.

(my insight- this guy is stating how youtube has killed the scene but then says how he learned from videos starting in 2001. learning by the web vs learning a video is the same thing. and to me you shouldnt be teaching someone your style, and correct you can't teach inspiration. again nothing has really been offered to this conversation)

yes states-

It's about learning and not learning. It's about preserving hip hop. We as a dance are suppose to support one another. I already have my own style but I would definitely attend workshops to gain knowledge.

jolly rancher

For those of you that think that the main point of my argument was "I LOVE AIRCHAIRS OMG YES BIG MOVES BIG MOVES" then you missed my point completely and you don't deserve to be a part of this discussion. If you think i'm a fan of eboying and against the idea of workshops, then you didn't even bother reading my post and shouldn't comment on this either.


In response, I am not critiquing Marlon as a person or bboy, I am critiquing him on his speech. Everyone knows Marlon and he deserves respect. But lets pretend for a second. If you DIDN'T know Marlon, and he was some random bboy - would you not think that his speech was uncalled for? Rude even? Think before you dickride.

Marlon was INVITED to the jam to judge, and INVITED to teach a workshop. HE should be GLAD that the promoters are taking the time to RECOGNIZE him for doing what he does. THAT is the appreciation that DID occur. He shouldn't EXPECT people to show up because his invitation to teach and to judge is not a RIGHT but a PRIVILEGE. If you don't measure up to the audience's expectations, the fault is with YOU, not with them. If you think that Marlon "traveling around the country to teach and jam and judge" is so hard and difficult - why is that EVERY SINGLE BBOY'S DREAM? Wow, to be invited and flown out to dance and jam (NOT ON YOUR DIME too mind you, but someone else's) and then complain about it? Marlon is living the dream. He's getting paid to TRAVEL AND DANCE. TO DO WHAT HE LOVES. It crashed and burned when his dream met reality. He got mad. He shouldn't have. He should have been humble.

If one really knew swag and flavor and whatever else, they would be able to show it and the jam/workshop participants would have been able to SEE it. They didn't, and that's why they didn't attend. Why would you attend someone who you don't think is dope?

The idea you all are talking about is SHARING knowledge, which I agree with. I DON'T agree with his choice to critique others techniques and style and say he is a an authority figure on knowledge, swag, style, technique, or flavor. Nobody is can ever be that in our dance. Everyone is a student. To say otherwise is a flat out lie.

Everyone dances differently and mistakes are often turned into inspiration. There's no WRONG way to dance, only DIFFERENT ways. Those of you who haven't realized this yet, step your game up. It's 2011.

originalcrew-

every bboy that started in the same year as i did, tought that ken swift was wack. now half of them quit, and the other half worship him.
the problem here, is the ignorance. everybody think they are great. yeah you are. but why wouldn't you be greater. a workshop helps you with that.

Jollyrancher. i am sorry but i disagree allmost completely.
In the TRUE bboyworld. judging is a right! i wouldn't enter a competition, ever, with a guy that has been breaking for like 2,3 years. fuck his moves. he is judgind by mentality. and that mentality educates. get it why nobody went to marlon's workshop?everybody is a judge now. showing in their showcase they know bboy moves, and in their judgind that they know allmost nothing about bboying. they are stuck in moves....they forgot about all things that really matter the most. and kids learn from them...
they get to point were they don't think. "the judge is somebody important i gotta hear.see what he has to say about his history" noooo....they just see moves. and moves can be learned from YOUTUBE.

(my insight- judging is NOT a right. it's like driving- if you suck at it, you aren't allowed to do it. thats why a majority of first year bboys aren't judging, because it isn't a right. also if NO-ONE goes to your workshop, that should say something more about yourself then the scene. My scene is spread out over an hour from each crew, yet PA (PARANOID ANDROID) who was NO-ONE to us, came to NY to do a workshop and based off how he presented himself 50 people wanted to take his workshop. we just knew he was from california and had some dope training concepts, other then that we didnt know anything about him. and he ended up being super influential on our scene and would love to have him back)

to me Jolly rancher hit alot of stuff on the head but i feel everyone was so aggressive towards him because he is well loved by many people (which is totally understandable) but yet no one had anything intelligent to rebuttle his points with.

if you would like to continue following this conversation check it out here
http://www.bboyworld.com/forum/newskool-footage-section/298028-judges-showcase-marlon-nasty-ray-kevo-speech-marlon.html

Stop hiding behind text messages!

this is a reblog of my friends post, but check it out, mad funny

Stop hiding behind text messages!

Rezerection of Breaking (blog 21) let the air out of your head

- letting attitude get to your head and explanation of cypher 

battles/ respecting others opinions
 
At one point or another we've all felt on top of the world about

our breaking, we may be pumped because of a new tech or freeze,

we may have won a jam,killed it in the cypher, or we may have

beaten someone in a battle who is normally better then us. 

Regardless of what the reason is we all get big headed. 
 
This isn't always a bad thing though, its awesome for session

in terms of self gain, I feel the biggest gain on power and 

tricks is cockiness.  But in terms of attitude towards other

people it's horrendous. No one likes to talk to another person,

and feel like your bothering them, or that they look down on you.
 
 I recently went to "BBoy tactics" a new monthly bboy jam in 

erie pa. An awesome event everytime I go, judges are awesome

and fair, host is cool as hell, and you can tell the local

bboys are all family there, it's truely an awesome experience

going to events like this and being welcomed into them by 

the locals. ANYWAY, I ended up battling some kid, and my 

mistake I took it easy in the first round and didn't do anything,

and then in the 2nd round I ended a freeze (that needs to be

facing your opp) away from him. Two crucial mistakes that gave

me a loss. Now I'm cool with a loss, I've lost a hundred times

before, I'll lose atleast a hundred times more. But the 

attitude after the battle was too much. Again, I lost so you

can say or act however you want. To me, losing at a smaller

battle isn't as big of a deal as losing at a major jam like

evo, the stakes are higher as well as your name and reputation. 
 
After the battle he was walking around "yeah nigga that's how

I do. I told ya'll i'm goin win this shit" or something along

those lines. I figured he was just excited he beat me so I

said cool and moved on. ---Initially I was a little annoyed

with my loss but I know the judges make the best decision 

they can at the time, especially as a new event. The last 

thing they wanna do is make some bad calls early on because

it's a death sentence for the event. They're more likely 

to call a tiebreaker to make sure they're making the right 

call if there's a doubt.
 
So later on I was talking to one of the bboys there (an erie

local who had asked me for some pointers) while he was doing

a set and mentioned some general pointers.
 
-don't do footwork in a battle set that you don't have. If 

it doesn't feel clean, it doesn't look clean, if it doesn't

look clean obviously it looks sloppy. During a battle your 

goal is to be clean.
-if your going to do footwork one direction and freeze the 

other direction, create a transition into that freeze be it

a cici to zulu the opposite direction so you can go into 

the freeze, or something. transitions are the key for making

an awkward motion look cool.
-don't let other people tell you to dance a certain way, I 

heard the guy that beat me tell "john" that he needed to be

super aggressive and angry otherwise people will think he 

looks wack." To me I say dancing a way that isn't comfortable

to you is wack
 
So the kid who beat me "jay" hear's me talking to john and 

comes over and confronts me almost yelling at me (and this 

is the general conversation that ensues)
 
Jay-Why the fuck you tell him those things
-listen I'm not playin these thug life games with you
Jay-Nah man I'm serious I wanna know why you tellin him that
-aight well (I explain the above notations I made and explained

why I think he should slow his footwork down and get it pretty

before using it in a battle and the other things)
Jay-nah you wrong (at this point he's getting really aggressive

with me) and says something along the lines of I don't know 

shit and I'm wack (I'm fine with that because everyone see's

people differently. I think some of the bc one usa qualifiers

are wack, can I beat them? No but they aren't good to me)so 

I stand up and say 
-aight we'll agree to disagree, this just comes down to 

different views.
Jay-how long have you been breakin? (Now he's almost nose to 

nose with me)
-5 years (which was bullshit I've only been breaking 3 but 

sometimes I embellish a little to get my point across) 
Jay- see you've been breakin 5 years and got roasted cause you 

suck, I'd smoke the fuck out of you every time guaranteed.
 (so now I'm starting to get erked because he's in my face- 

I'm starting to walk away because I know me. Its about to turn

into a fight and I'm not someone who just stops because I got 

a few hits in. I wrestled and learned not to stop until I hear

the whistle and the ref is reachin for me to stop because its

done. Ontop of this the dude is attacking my character) So in 

my mind my two options are
 
1) Fight him
2) Cypher battle
 
Again, I am a guest at this event so I'm going to deal with the 

situation as best I can, fighting should be the last possible 

action and I'm only going to if I get corner into a fight and 

that's my only option out. 
 
So I forget the exact words but it came down to me saying "put 

up or shutup if you can smoke me let's fuckin do this then. I 

don't wanna hear you talk about it, let's just do this" - if you

can roast me, then do it, I have no respect for someone that 

says I CAN DO THIS. Just do it, then I may respect you, talk is cheap. 

a cypher battle is when person A goes against person B until either

someone earns respect,learns respect, runs out of moves, or gives up.

sometimes you may be battling to get a point across and if you feel

like no matter how many times you smoke the persons rounds, you still

arent getting your point across you may call it quits on that alone. 

but the goal is to show your better then the other person (in general),

that your better then person A things, or that you deserve the respect

you think is comin to you. 

So we throw down and after a few rds he gives up because he 

doesn't have the steam or the arsenal to roll with me. This whole

situation could have been avoided but because of his mouth and

attitude he lost the respect of those around him and he showed

his true skill level. I'm not going to call out everyone who 

has an attitude or anything. But make sure you are being arrogant

to the right people, had I felt like any less of a man that 

day this blog would be much different. There are people who look

upto you because you think your good and people believe in you.

But being arrogant can be a very humbling experience.

there are a million different views on breaking, i may think 

someone who other people view as dope, is wack, and vice versa 

because of my view, just like how i may judge an event differently

then someone else. but respecting someone elses opinion is still

necessary because you dont know their background. i can disagree

with you till im blue in the face but at the end of the day we 

still feel how we feel.
 
With that being said I have met this guy previously and he seems

to be a pretty good guy. He's doing things to help his community

and breaking community, he teaches people how to break, and he

is super supportive of his crew and others. There's no ill will

towàrds eachother and I would like to battle him again because

he has 1+ on me haha and I'd like to earn that loss back.

Rezerection of Breaking (blog 20) In the mind of a biter

Why do biters bite-

how can they feel proud of themselves using someone elses move

in a battle
 
They say that imitation is a form of flattery. In the breaking 

world we call it biting and is firmly looked down on (which I 

agree with) mainly because there's no originality, self pride, 

or flattery. It's our move and we've worked hard to come up with

these moves/sets. To have someone do them and pass it off as 

their own, or for someone to call you a biter because your better

then those around you is suuuper insulting. 
 
I know a few people who are openly biters, and a few who I know

are biters that are not so open about it. As much as I want to

use their names I won't because it'd be rude and I could be 

potentially wrong on the people who are obvious biters (they could

have came up with the moves on their own, or their friends could

have told them something to try, etc. Etc)
 
So I asked them pretty much whatsup with that and this is what 

I have gathered.
 
People bite as a form of flattery- they think a move is just that 

dope and they want to do it. They don't view the breaking culture 

like a die hard bboy that strives to be original and progress 

through their own accord. If they can break like someone super dope

then they will be viewed as super dope. It pretty much comes down

to recognition. They want to be noticed, and now a days people 

won't say anything because they don't want to cause ripples or they

don't care. Back in the 80s and 90s if you were caught biting you

were pretty much assaulted verbally at minimum. Now with youtube 

people can find moves in other cities,states,regions, countries 

steal some moves and have people never be the wiser so they do. 

They don't want you to know they stole a move, they want you to 

flock to them and tell them how dope they are etc etc (repeating

point) and if they can gain their piers respect with breaking then

they have just skyrocketed themselves towards the top of the list 

of area bboys and gain friends recognition and potentially girls.
 
They don't care about using your moves in a battle because "everyone

does it" no, not everyone does it, I feel a lot of people do NOT 

do it. They haven't seen the move used in the area and that is their

chance to coin the move as their own. If no one calls em out on 

it they're safe to use it. If someone does call em out on it then 

they need to back up where they came up with it from. 

Taking a break and appreciate the arts

So i have recently found some graffiti that was unlike any other graf i've ever seen. and im not disappointed about but i thought i'd share it with the rest of you haha. and to say i'm being unfair by only posting up female graf pics... i searched for a single guys image to be fair to the female readers...." unfortunately " i only found more female pictures haha. anyways enjoy. more blogs coming today

youtube

I have a bunch of footage of my battles up on youtube. But I searched and found a bunch of good workshops and re-posted them. I also found some power tutorials- feel free to check em out

www.youtube.com/snaketheassassin

Please subscribe or friend the page as well

Rezerection of breaking (blog 19) Do you

-Express yourself while you break
 
Everyone starts off doing the same old cross step toprock then hurls

themselves to the ground to do some choppy 6 step and 12 step 

followed by an awkward baby freeze, a set that you almost feel worse

off for seeing. But that's just the beginning of their process. 

Eventually people will turn into much more awkward creatures, reason

being- they have the moves,the flow, and the knowledge to be dope

but they just don't for whatever reason. I find it to be (from my 

experiences) that people try to learn a new move or combos and 

concentrate on that set. Then their whole goal and meaning of being

is to find a way to do that in a battle or cypher. Then they forget

that they can dance, or be creative with anything other then their 

move they're trying to throw out and by doing so lose themselves.
 
So I've told countless people this and has helped them be themselves.

Here is a major tip. When you step out into the circle, before you 

start doing anything (duel note- this isn't always the best case,it

depends on the battle and the tactics your using with each battle)

walk out and walk around the circle, or walk out and booty shake, 

something goofy and dumb- reason being is no matter what you do, you

won't look nearly as stupid as you did when you walked out lol.it 

gives you a second to gather your thoughts together for that final 

decision of what you have planned for the rd as well.
 
Another thing is bring your own personality into the battles/cyphers.

Anyone can learn and do a flare airflare halo, but how you get into

it,out of it, and what you do with it is what makes it unique. So if

you play video games, you can be your favorite character, no one 

else needs to understand what your doing or while your doing it. Your

dancing for you.
 
Ex- I am a sexual flirtatious person but I'm also very competitive. 

So during my sets there's a lot of humping, rolling around, booty 

shaking, etc etc. This is just expressing some of who I am. 
 
Ex- if you lift, while your doing ytour footwork do pushups (1-3 max)

while your doing backrocks do crunches. While your doing tops do lunges.
 
There's endless possibilities to dancing and moves, but if your dancing

and you don't feel yourself dancing but just running moves, then you

might want to explore new avenues.

Rezerection of breaking (blog 18) Politics

-how politics influence how your judged on breaking as opposed to the

actual skill
 
I have been asked by several people to write about this but I feel 

like there's some really common sense things here but I'll explain 

that later. Many judges vote on very different things, some people 

like tricks, others like dancing, some like foundation, and others 

like originality and or any combination of those (as well as other 

categories-such as they have no idea what they're looking for) sometimes

judges throw everything they look for to the side because they 

can't/don't seperate their personal feelings from their judgement.
 
With that being said
 
 If your that rude and mean to someone, they're naturally not going 

to like you as much. We've all been at that party with our friends 

 where the one person you don't like walks into the room, they don't

have to look at you or talk to you to feel like the party just got

worse. You then stop paying attention to the party and the fun you

were having and focus on what an asshole that person is.and vice 

versa that when someone comes into the party your pumped to see and

the party just got even more dope.
 
If you like someone they start off with +1 on the score card and 

if they don't like you -1. If they don't know either side it's even

at +O-.........
 
But that matters more in close decisions. When it comes down to it,

if you think you won, that's cool. But like I said before with 

judging- it depends on what has been seen at that moment. So if you 

don't want to leave it to the judges, destroy your opponents. If 

you destroy them and still lose, everyone in the building will know

and they'll let you know you got robbed unless your an asshole then

probably everyones happier they don't have to watch you anymore.
 
In terms of judging after the fact
 The video doesn't lie. But it also doesn't see what we see, it 

doesn't feel what we feel. And people don't always make the best 

decisions. But they're making the best decision that they feel at 

the time of the battle.

Rezerection of breaking (blog 17) Can you dance??

-how to get your point across in a battle without being an 

asshole-ie-let your dancing do the talking
 
This will be another shortie- just to get off my chest.I recently

went to NC to surprise my friend and take a roadtrip with a 

few others. Sadly most of them canceled out but nonetheless a dope trip.
 
While we were down there we battled a crew from florida, really

they weren't anything good but their battle tactics or tactics

I should say won them into the top 8. I personally thought they

were wack crashmasters and had they been in NY I would have snuffed

them, but I didn't know they were from FL and not NC.
 
Their guys had ok rounds but crashed a toooon. Their battle tactics

consisted of beating the floor with their faces,doing powermoves

into the crowd to take out those guilty spectators, pretending they

danced on a slushy floor, and scream BITERS, do chomping hand 

signals, and call crashing on everything, and just generally talk trash.
 
Had we been doing those things, fine whatever. But my issue is that

these gestures were their moves. There's no originality to them, 

there was no flavor. There was only hand signals that they used to

their advantage and did. Granted 1 of our guys lost both of his rds,

but the other 2 of our crew won both of their rounds.
 
I don't hate on people that talk trash and back it up, but if you

can't do anything, what are you even doing on the floor, you have

NOTHING to offer anyone!
 
And to the judges that fell for this wackness-shame on you, your

supposed to be good enough to not fall for gimmicks. If I can beat

all 3 judges single handily, then you should stop the competition 

and just give me all of the prize money or atleast all of the judges

pay because I'm not that good. I'm ok but I'm no lilou or someone

of that caliber 

Rezerection of breaking (blog 16) flow

Flow-
 
All too much we see people who have dope ideas but they are very choppy.

so I came up with a little something to show how important flow is. Now 

before I get onto that I have a little tip on practicing flow. People 

say it comes with time but it comes with practice. If you have a move 

down and you always do 6 step then 7 step, if you slip up moving from 6

to 7... What are you going to do? Your boned because you can't 

freestyle or flow. So here's what I recommend for practice to help you

with both of those.
 
Start off with a 1 step (helicopter/coffee grinder. Whatever) do that

3 times then do a 2 step 2 times. Then go back into 1 step. Then 

into 3 step. So on and so fourth until you've gone through all of the

footwork you know in rotation.
The goal of this exercise is simple-move through your footwork to learn

the transitions. So your set will look like this (s stands for step)
1s>2s1s>3s>1s>4s>1s>5s>1s>6s>1s>7s and so on and so fourth.
Then you go back through and do it with each step.
Going 2s>1s>2s>3s etc etc. 
 
That way you'll never be stuck in any position looking for a less 

awkward thing transition into to make your sets longer,from a stumble,

anything.
 
 
The importance of flow is immeasurable, I have seen many bboys that were

nasty, lose to people that were worse then them because their flow 

wasn't in order.I much compare it to water.like Ocean waves, there's a 

rhythm to it and its somewhat constant (when its slow the surface is 

smooth, when its harder the waves are about the same- strong, and when

the waves are high and fast it will be hard for someone to fight that

flow that is also very strong). Its not always pretty. When people start

out,its like throwing rocks into a pond, they concentrate on adding more

rocks to their pond and worry about making waves later. There's a 

general ripple that you feel but every rock you throw in changes the 

size and timing of the ripples. The more rocks you have in the pond and

the more flow you have, the more likely your pond will turn into a 

tsunami- a wrecking force that is not only intimidating but is deadly.

coincided, with that being said you need to remember to add the rocks

to the pond you can't have a great flow with no variation in moves.

When people work on making things flow but forget to add variety 

(the rocks), its like the tsunami is coming but dissipates a mile

away from shore before it can do any damage the moves you do is the

rocks, and the feeling of connecting them correctly would turn those

odd ripples into ocean waves. So when adding new moves to your arsenal

you can't just practice the move, you need to practice incorporating 

them into your move list and sets. That way you can have a smooth 

ocean wave or make a tsunami at any given time.

Rezerection of breaking (blog 15) are you qualified?

judges/who don't and what qualifications do I think are important.
 
 
Everyone that has thrown a jam at one point or another has picked

a judge (or all 3/5) judges that were probably not qualified to judge.
 
Here is something that I think qualifies judges (these 

may only be some qualifications)
 
Toprock
Footwork
Power
Tricks
Freezes
- this is a general thing I look for, granted not every

bboy has everything, there's a combination of these 

things. I feel you need toprock and footwork at a bare 

minimum. If you've been breaking 5+ years and you still 

can't do these things, then you need to look at yourself 

and realize your probably doing something wrong. Power 

tricks and freezes are in a category that's sort of odd.

Some people have tons of freezes-no power, tons of 

power-no tricks, tons of tricks and not a single freeze

and that's ok. Its one of those things that you kind of

decide what kind of breaking style you are. So if you 

have dope power then you'll prolly be a power judge. So

on and so fourth for tricks and freezes. But that's just

the start
 
Flow
Transitions
Repetition
Originality
 
Then there's flow and transitions. To me if your flow is a 

little off then it makes YOU look off as a dancer. It makes it 

hard to believe you understand flow if you can't grasp it. 

transitions is pretty much in the same category for me and 

follows the same stipulations,from footwork to freezes to tops

to power to etc and from style to style. Originality is a 

huuuuuge thing for me, everyone has ideas that they need to 

develope, if they haven't evolved into their own skin they 

probably aren't going to feel good enough to make a decision

on who's better. And repetition, I'm guilty of this in high

stress situations and it kills me. Constantly repeating every

single round is a sign to me that says I don't have a big 

arsenal so I'm going to do the same moves every round in a 

different order and try to sneak by the judges.
 
Accuracy (hit/miss ratio)
Idea/concepts
 
Some people hit their moves a lot other people don't. This 

isn't necessarily a deal breaker but it is something to 

worry about. I've been fortunate to get some expo battles 

but have screwed up some opportunities because my accuracy 

level was low and I botched my expo and made the jam that paid

me to come out look like jackasses. And someone who isn't as 

good that has dope ideas is also a potential judge. 
 
Lastly,
Personality
 
There have been so many bboys that I thought were dope bboys and 

I wanted to judge my events but they were so flaky and or rude to

me that I didn't want them at my events. I don't care if your the

worlds best bboy, your still a person just like everyone else 

and you at one point were shit.
 
Every one of those things has upto a 10pt value. (For a total of 120pts)
If I value someone under 75 points then I'd rather not have them judge.
 
 
 
 
 
 
SO, with that being said if you can't dance, and your judging other

people- you're probably a shitty judge and shouldn't judge at all.

If no one has seen you get down besides your own crew- then you 

have no basis to say your dope and better then anyone else, if no 

one knows your good then your probably not

Rezerection of breaking (blog 14) old school vs new

Old school vs newschool
 
Here's another shortie just to get a single point or two out there.
 
I'm down with old school, without them we would not be here today.

But since its started it has greatly evolved incorporating more 

dances and styles and acrobatics that the OG's would have never 

dreamed of. This isn't a post to bag on OG's or anything. But 

here's my issue with them. They have put in their work in the past

and solidified themselves in their OG history. The feeling that

because you put in work 10 years ago and got your respect, so I

should just respect you because is wack to me. There are bboys 

35+ that have been breaking along time and still hold it down and

win battles. as well as they judge jams like its the 70's or 80's 

when the concepts of breaking were completely different then now.
 
I've seen OG's get called out and refuse to battle because they

put their time in. A callout isn't only necessarily to show who's 

better, its also to show respect or gain it. There's a video a 

saw a few months ago about cyphers and I believe it was called 

" eye of the cypher" and it's sub title was called "catching rep"

if I can find it I'll post it in here. my main point about og's

is this
 
I don't care what you did in the past. I care what your doing now.

If you're still involved in your scene and holding things down 

then that's dope. If your not then you've lost your auto-respect 

if you will.
 
 
That is all lol

Rezerection of breaking (blog 13) step 1

-my basic battle strategies
 
Here is just a quick list of battle strategies that I use. 
 
Power vs style
If someones doing power I try to do a lot of style- it has to be crisp

though, any mess ups and its GG
 
Sloppy vs clean
If someones being sloppy its almost like a free rd win. My goal is

then to do some nice slow tops, some super clean footwork,and then 

end it with a solid freeze combo 

(generally basic freezes-chair> baby> headstand)
 
Foundation vs originality
When someone does a lot of foundation, its very hard to beat because 

generally its clean, crisp, very low rate of crashing, and it makes 

for a solid rd. So I try to do a lot of original moves that way I can

take my best bet at beating them. I also through in a little power 

because a lot of people don't have clean power so it helps because it

gets a lot of crowd hype
 
Style vs style
There's a lot of differen't styles of dancing. If someone's 

threading, I'm doing footwork techs, if someones doing basic footwork

then I'm going to level changing footwork, if someone does rotational

moves (where there feet rotate around their body) I'm going to do 

atomic moves (where the body moves in conjunction with the feet) 

its very easy to judge A against A. But to judge A against B is harder

because it makes the judges judge you on what you did and how you did

it vs who was better then the other person.
 
Tricks vs foundation
If I have tricks I'm going to throw them against foundation, the more 

oooohs and ahhhs you get the more times you'll sway the judges.
 
Tricks vs power
It's one of those things that goes back to style vs style and comes to

who's better at their trade
 
Crashing vs Not crashing
This should be pretty obvious- the more you crash the more likely 

you'll lose
 
Crashing vs crashing
If your opponent is crashing & hard at that (for this example let's say

they're better then you and your throwing your hardest moves) your goal

when throwing your moves is when you feel yourself going down, to fall

like a leaf and make it look like you fell from grace. A major crash is

waay worse then a minor crash that you can recover.
 
 
And with the talk of crashing- if you crash- DO NOT STOP DANCING. Start

doing your footwork again at a nice slow and steady pace- speed it up 

to battle speed throw in some solid freezes or power and end it after 

you've built your set back up. This can make or break a battle. 

NEVER END with a crash, its like signing a death wish

Rezerection of breaking (blog 12) whats he doing with his hands?

-gestures and the use of them in battles/ are you using them / doing

them too much? Or are you not using them to your advantage?

Why do I choose to be an asshole and call repeating,crashing,

and not call biting.
------------------------------
Biting (extending arms out, bending them at the elbow,

and moving one or both arms up or down almost clapping

your forearms together)
 
Repeating ( counting on your hands)
 
Crashing (slapping or stomping the ground)
 
Cocking (grab a coke can, point the drinking side at your 

opponent, now make the can disappear-keep hand in same 

position) +note+this means you suck, or your gay depending

on how you perceive it
 
Nice try (clapping your hands)
------------------------------------
I generally attempt to NOT use any hand gestures if possible.

Reason being is I like my dancing to do the talking. But if

I do use them, these are the reasons why I use them
 
A)my opp is being a douche or I have negative feelings about

them
B) its in the later rounds of a battle and I feel its an 

evenly matched battle 
C) I feel the judges aren't qualified or I think they aren't

noticing these things
D)it's someone I'm just messing with 
E) I feel the opponent is better then me
-------------------------------------
 
I can't remember ever calling biting in a battle because its

impossible to know where someone came up with their ideas 

unless they tell you or you see them watching videos etc.
-note-the only time I would call biting would be if someone 

did one of my personal moves I came up with (that I haven't 

seen anyone do before) because I stay off of youtube and vimeo

and everything else so I don't take other peoples styles

and moves. And I also know how everyone in my scene breaks,

so if they started doing my personal arsenal I would 

definitely call biting, but if you call biting. The next next

chance you get you need to perform the move "bitten" and 

you need to do it better then the "biter"..if you have 1rd left

then do it during your next rd. If there is no more rounds 

left in the battle, run out to the center of the circle- quickly

do the move. Reason being is judges will see it and people 

will get HYPE 

that there's a battle energy in the place now.everyone loves hype

battle because you can feel what the breakers are feeling during

their rds.
 
But most of the time's I'll only call stuff if I'm heated at

someone ( I hear them talkin junk) or I feel they're coming 

after me. There's all sorts of battle tactics, most times 

people just do their rds and whoever's got the better rounds

moves on. There's a technique called "answering" where 

someone does a chair and the 2nd person to go does a better 

chair (or more flashy). If I feel someone is attacking my 

rounds I don't care if they're in my crew I'm callin them 

out on everything and tryin to win. I don't always mean to do

it (it just becomes habit in certain situations like that)
 
When it gets to the final battle all bets are off, money is on

the line and I'm going to make sure the judges see the repeats

and crashes. I understand the judges are generally competent 

but they've seen upwards of 30 or 60 rds easy, them remembering

who did what may or may not be easy especially if theirs wardrobe

change. Sometimes I'll even call repeats on things that haven't

been repeated. Along with influencing the judges, these gestures

gets into the competitors skin and heads. They don't think 

correctly when their sets are under scrutiny and they have a higher

chance of throwing out a set they don't have 100 percent to show 

they aren't repeating (or the opposite happens and they throw a 

super dope round) so make your

decisions correctly.
 
I also clap a lot for people I don't feel are as good as me, or

if I feel like someones crashing a lot. It makes you look 

better and it says to the judges "awww yeah nice try buddy good

job, even your opponent is rooting you on. so you can't be 

doing that good"
 
Also if you use a lot of these "negative" biting, crashing, etc 

in the earlier rounds, it won't hold the same effect it would in

the later rounds ie. Finals.
 
 
And lastly WOOO's. Everyone overlooks the power of the crowd and

verbalizing your thoughts, if you have a crew or you can get the

crowd behind you clapping, yelling, wooing you'll easily sway 

atleast 1 judge because you'll be a "fan favorite" and they'd 

rather vote for the FF then get booed for a "bad choice" and people

train for gestures and styles etc. NO ONE trains for someone 

screaming at them "where's your footwork. You have no foundati

on. Your power is super sloppy. That's your set?" Things of that

nature. You can do this and it works awesome, but the negative 

side effect is you will be viewed as an asshole. I'm personally 

ok with that as long as I walk home with the money. Cause then

I'm an asshole who got paid for being an asshole.

Rezerection of breaking (blog 11) time to get to work

How I judge,battle tactics, and how to deal with callouts
 
Everyone has a different view on breaking and how to judge. So

as a judge I am naturally going to get called out for making

a "bad decision." When getting called out it starts off as a

verbal argument- usually like fuck you your wack my crew deserved

to win. And here's my response 
"Listen, first off your always going to feel your crew won because,

its YOUR crew." I then go on to say this "I'm down to throw down

but first I'm going to tell you why I voted the way I did." Then

after that if they still feel the need to throw down to see if 

I'm qualified then I'm down by all means. I feel if the occasion

Is correct- proving yourself as a good bboy (good enough to judge

others) is a must. If some scrub comes up to me bitching and 

complaining- I'm prolly not going to battle him, reason being- 

he doesn't understand breaking well enough yet, so regardless 

of you winning or losing the callout they'll still call you wack.

So in this instance I tell them to hang around till the end, 

after its all said and done we'll get down.
 
Before I get into how I judge I'm going to go over my call out strategy.
 
If I'm calling out someone, 
I start off with a super explosive quick set (I mean 5-10 seconds,

skipping major toprock, I mean a cross step at most. Then 1-3 

rds of footwork ending with a basic baby or chair freeze) reason

being I want to gauge them before things get underway. I want to

see if they're going to throw long sets, if it has mostly power,

mostly footwork, or a good mixture. This determines how I'm going

to attack them.if they're highly aggressive I'm going to attack 

them calmly and pick them apart with flow. If they have decent sets

mixing in and out of power my goal is to do the same and beat them

major move for major move. These callout battles are not usually

1-5 rds. The are 10-20 or more. You haven't won until you destroyed

your opp and they have nothing to come back at you with OR 

your beating them so bad and they just can't handle the heat.

The goal of these callouts is generally to prove a point as well

as gain the respect of your peers/judges OR to give respect to the

judge. If you feel they wronged you do your thing and at the end

say your peace, win OR lose, give them respect even if its a 

headnod and a pound. They deserve it for going the rounds with 

you regardless of who "wins." Because there's so many people who

will say you won and others will say the other guy won
 
If someone is calling me out.
I let them start it because they're calling me out. Again letting

them set the pace for the battles, i will usually let them win

the first 1-3 rds just so they use up their moves and give me 

a few rounds to feel out their style. I want to start out weak 

and end assaulting them. I will start off super mellow and as 

they get more hype and talk shit get more aggressive. The trick

is to NOT let the words get to you. My wrestling coach always 

used to tell me " don't let the other ref tell you how to wrestle.

You do what I taught you to do and you'll win, I promise you"

and this is the most influential quote that stays with me 

from wrestling. DON'T let OTHER PEOPLE tell you how to break

and don't let them change your game plan. I've beat much better

bboys because they were powerheads or trickers and it was 

soooo easy to get in their head. If you can get in their head

(verbally or not) you've already won. All I said is "where's

the footworkl? Where's your foundation? What the fuck were 

those tops? That's not dancing, THIS is dancing." Usually if

you got in their head with that, they'll try to top or do 

more footwork which just played into your hand. Note-if your

saying these things-Make sure its your strong point. Don't 

call out a powerhead on footwork and then have shitty footwork

yourself.
 
Coincidentally, if someones saying these things to you, just

smile at them and do your thing. By not playing into their mouth

your winning. It'll get into their head that you just fucked 

up their game plan.they'll start panicking and do whatever they

can to get into your head by being more explosive or mouthy. 

All you have to do at this point is say "clearly your not good

enough to let your moves do the talking, so while you talk, 

I'll dance." This usually gets the crowd (if there is one) on

your side of "oooooh shit did you just hear that-he just schooooled

him"
 
War is all about strategy. Example- for a 2v2, recently I 

had a battle and it was me (I'd like to say I'm mostly a 

powerhead because a lot of people say that's all I can do-

which is why I'm doing less and less power to show I can 

top,footwork,and freeze well, showing my originality instead

of some pretty power.- which I now get called a biter for 

because this wasn't stuff I used to do. But that's a whole nother

discussion) and my boy. He's a stylehead for sure with some flips.

we vs'd a powerhead and ablowup guy. (Regardless of the outcome) 

we decided to set up the stylehead vs the power head and the 

blowup guy vs me. Reason being when it comes to style vs power

it comes down to who's doing their art best. So often times 

it'll come to a tie or go towards the stylehead-reason being a

powerhead has to do dope ILL power that has a higher risk of

crashing where as style you just need to do footwork, make it

flashy, and throw some techs in there. And we didn't want my 

power that I was throwing against the blowup guy to be judged 

against the other power head because his power was superior to

mine. We also both decided to throw power just to show we have

it as well and it worked out well for us and it was a close 

battle.I feel the best way to start off is tops (do more then

the power step and cross step- its a very easy portion of our

dance to lose points for your round right off the get go)
 
 
 
NOW ONTO HOW I JUDGE- this isn't for calling other people out

on how they judge, because just like different styles of 

dancing there's different styles of judging and everyone judges

differently. If you don't like how the judges judged then YOU

shouldn't have played it so close to the cuff and made it so 

blatantly obvious you won, the judges have no choice but to 

choose you. Just like boxing "if you leave it to the judges 

then you have given up your decision"
 
I judge on multiple things
 
1- toprock 
Are you dancing on beat,are you hitting major and minor beats,

are you doing different tops/techs or is it the same 

crossstep/power step. Are you using the right kind of tops for

the music (you can't use heavy house steps to a metal breakbeat)
2-drops
Are you using different drops or dropping at all
3-footwork
Variation in footwork, is it all foundation or is there techs

in there, is it generic
4-freezes
How many are you doing, what's the level of difficulty these

freezes are, do you hold them/(did you crash it or did you 

hit it)
5-power/tricks (this includes blowups)
Are you doing power, is it clean, are there variations, how 

long are you doing it for (72 munchmills or 20 flare mill 

airflare combos does nothing for me, I got the point after 

3-you have tricks cool) the difficulty of them, and again 

IS IT CLEAN. I have super beef with people doing tons of 

power and it being ugly and getting moved onto the next round

because they did super sloppy power.
6-transitions
Do you move from one thing to another clean, is it awkward, 

are you doing the same transition from everything
7-originality
This goes without saying- have I seen the same set 1000 times 

from tons of other people. Are you doing someone elses moves or

your own (this comes down to where did you come up with this 

from-many people can comeup with the same move-there's only so 

many moves out there) 
8-crowd/personality
Is the crowd feeling you/can I feel your soul while your dancing.

If I can't feel your soul in your dancing or your personality 

shining through I have to assume your not being yourself or your

doing carbon sets that you do because they're pretty or something

to that reason. Don't fake the funk my friends- and if you do 

fake it, MAKE IT. Make me feel like your not faking it.this also

accounts for your battle attitude to me.I personally don't care

for douchebags so if I feel your a total tool I'll actually vote

against you more for being a douche rather then having no soul- 

odd right?
9- overall
How much did you put into your set vs your opponent. If your opp

did 30 moves and you did 3. Even if those 3 were dope I more 

than likely am going to give it to your opp or call it a tie- 

being- to me it says I'm giving up. It may not say that to the 

judge next to me but it says "I'm not even going to try this 

round" unless its some super fuckin crazy 3 moves, 1 handed 

flares> elbow tracks>elbow spin. Something crazy as hell like 

that,that the WORLD has never seen that makes the crowd jump 

into the battle and basically put it on hold will beat those 30

moves.
10-lastly resets
If your doing a set, stop stand up and start again, I take

off points usually because it breaks up the flow, unless 

you do a power set>reset>style set, or vice versa.there's always

exceptions to every rule as well you can do a set reset, lookl 

around or point someone out and do a move or series of moves, it

adds in a new dynamic factor of originality or battle tactics
 
Then after that I go rd for rd. We'll do a 1v1 scenario and

a 2v2
 
 
1v1
John vs mike
 
John starts out first, he starts off with the win for rd 1.
(Inbetween rd 1 is now J-1, M-0)
To win rd 1 mike has to beat johns rd.(And he doesn't)
(Inbetween rds- J-1,M-0)
John goes out, again wins his rd
Mike goes out and beats Johns round
(End of battle J-1,M-1)
Now I look at the overall battle and see how they did, if I

feel 1 person did better they get the win.
 
Final decision-John wins.
 
If I feel they both did equally good and it was honestly 1rd

each and no one won their rd by that much more
-example
Johns 1st rd gets a 6.5
Mikes 1st rd gets a 6.0
 
John's 2nd rd gets a 5.0
Mikes 2nd rd gets a 5.5 
 
There wasn't a significant winning round so a tie they'll get 

tied. Then going into a tiebreaker which will be judged only 

for their tiebreaker rd. I count it as a whole new battle
 
 
2v2 scenario
I'll use A,B,C,D for names because this shit takes forever to 

type on a blackberry lol. For 2v2's or crew battles I also 

factor in routines and commandos. They have to be legit or else

I don't count them. If 2 people do a forward roll and then a 

backwords roll and a 3rd guy just walks out-thats lame. Or 

after a commando/routine the guy brought in stops and walks in

a circle before their set (to me the com/rou. Was their entrance
 
A/C are teamed up and B/D are teamed up
A- starts out, rd 1
(Just like above, they start off with a win because there's 

nothing to judge them against)
B- goes out, and wins the rd
 
A/C-0 vs B/D-1
 
Now here's where it gets weird because there's 2 different ways

of judging and every one who judges will go back and fourth 

between these 2 ways)
Way 1- 1st person to go is battling the 2nd person to go. Then 

3rd battles 4th.
 
How person 2 does, doesn't get judged against how person 3 does.
 
Way 2- 
Person 1 goes, then person 2 is battling 1 and 3's set. Then person

3 is battling person 2 and 4's set. And person 4 is battling person

3 and 1st set. Sounds complicated but its not
 
(For this purpose since the 1v1 was done by way 1, the 2ve will be

done with way 2)
 
 
So for review
 
A/C-0 vs B/D-1
C goes out and beats B's rd
 
A/C-1 vs B/D-1
D goes out and loses to C's rd (so B/D doesn't get any points for

D's rd)
 
A/C-1 vs B/D-1
A goes out and does wack, so then b goes out and wrecks shit
A/C-1 vs B/D-2
C goes out and does ok but doesn't beat B's rd.
A/C-1 vs B/D-2
D goes out and does terrible! Poor guy, because of that terrible 

round C still gets a rd victory because his set was still better

then D's rd
 
A/C-2 vs B/D-2
 
 
I think that's about it. Any questions feel free to hit me up

Rezerection of breaking (blog 10) guess who?

Advantages / disadvantages of going in first in a battle
 
Many times when the emcee says "crew a" and "crew b" you guys line

up. The music starts. And then the staring contest begins to see

who's going to go first. This is a crucial part of the battle 

giving someone an edge before the battle even begins.
 
Advantages to going first- 
 
in many judges eye's starting first show's more confidence (but 

don't wait to long if your going to start it, otherwise it just

seems like "I'll go first.... If I have to :( "
The best/most crucial thing about going first Is YOU set the pace

for the battle. You set the bar for the first round, they have 

to beat your set. If you think you're going to lose to your opp 

(ie- you know them and what their arsenal consists of generally 

and its bigger and better then yours) and you take it to them, 

coming out aggressively the judges will see your energy and feel

it, as well as the crowd and you'll get bonus points for the round.

Now back to setting the pace- I personally set it off with smooth 

toprock, clean transition from tops to ground (hopefully anyway haha)

and then have some hard hitting footwork or threading. Setting 

the pace with some solid dancing and explosive footwork will now

mean, dancer #2 will have to follow that, if they don't dance or

aren't as explosive as you it's going to look like they're losing

(especially if it's a close battle). The next part is round 2. 

You'll get to see what they have to throw, usually dancer #2 will

throw one of their sets they think is one of their better ones. 

so now that you've seen what their better stuff looks like 

(their rd they did in the first rd) you now know weither you 

need to kick it up a notch and go even harder or if you should

just keep the same pace (depending if they can keep up with you).

This can also get into peoples heads because you WANTED to go 

first, so they'll be concentrating on your rd more to determine

what they should do as opposed to going out and doing their own

thing.
 
Disadvantages-
If you go first the biggest drawback is there's no real chance 

to "answer".
(Answering is a technique where if guy A does a chair, guy B will

do a chair but better then guy A to show they're better)
You have one chance to set the bar for the battle, its tough 

because I try to gauge how good someone is by how they're handling

themselves (how do they stand, are they pacing, are they moving

to the music before they're even close to stepping out, are they

tryin to bring the crowd into the battle by clapping and getting 

them hype for their round) because I don't want to go ape shit and

throw my best stuff because my opp might not be any good at all 

and I'll have wasted a round. But if I throw out too easy of a 

round and don't do my dope moves it leaves an opening for my opp

to take me out early in the game. Some battles are only 1 rd in

the prelims or quarters and you could get knocked ut because you

didn't judge your opponent correctly. This could also backfire 

because there are bboys I call "sleepers" which is exactly like 

it is with cars. They look trash but end up being super dope. I've

fallen for this many times.
 
So I throw out a higher level round (not my best but not an easy

to beat rd either) so I can find out how good my enemy is (if 

I haven't seen them dance before) 
 
And remember anyone can be beaten on any given day
 
Then there's the guys who ALWAYS go 2nd.
 
Advantages- the exact opposite of the first. You get to see what

level your opp is before you have to step out and do anything 

so your goal is to simply beat their rounds. you can capitalize

on their mistakes and accentuate their flaws as your pro's 

during your set.you can also increase the pace of the battle, 

slowing it down (to me) isn't an option unless you can do it 

right-start off with high energy toprock do a super fast drop 

and then back up (I call it resetting) look at your opponent, shake

your head, and redrop at your own pace, to me this style of 

battling is the only way to slow down the battle without it looking

like your losing the round. It's a lot easier mentally unless 

your opp throws a good round in which case could lead to...
 
Disadvantages-
Case could lead to... You overthinking your round. Because your 

goal is to beat their 1st round and then add some more to give 

them a challenge for their 2nd set. But what's enough to beat your

opponent? Are you throwing enough, too little? You beat 

their round but didn't do anything else... The judges will prolly

give you a tie or wave it in the direction of whoever started the

battle-reason being when you go 2nd you have an advantage but you

HAVE to beat them and make it noticeable. If people 

can't see it they can't vote in your favor. Also you can't set 

the pace for the battle. If you go 2nd its a game of simon says

and follow the leader, you can be explosive and that'd fine, but

if you slow down in your 2nd set or you aren't conditioned

for that explosiveness your introuble if you make it past this

battle.
 
 
 
All in all there are advantages and disadvantages to going first

and second in abattle. It really just depends on your battle 

strategy, the music, and how YOU feel. Remember you dance your 

way- don't fall into other peoples traps and dance how your opp

wants you to dance

Rezerection of bboying (blog 9) art of the session

SO, every day in and day out when you go to session, its the same thing. go in, stretch, top,footwork,power, or everyone does their own thing. not too many times are practices different because people don't realize that much like lifting if you don't switch up your routine your LIMITING yourself on getting better exponentially. Your body becomes accustomed to a certain task. so if you go to the gym everyday and do situps,pushups,and bar curls, your body will eventually become accustomed to doing these exercises and you will be able to do the exercises all day because your body (again if it hasn't been beaten into your head enough already in the intro paragraph, now say it with me) "gets used to the exercise" you will be able to do your normal session for hours and hours on end without getting tired. so what are we going to do? we're going to switch up our session routines. This is a great reason why i like to take workshops, not only does this give you a new perspective on breaking or a certain concept, but it gives you different things to practice.

i would like to just reference Paranoid Android, he came to NY and did a few workshops and we got to pick his brain about a lot of things from battles to sessions, to downtime at jams. but what was most useful was that he didn't come in and teach a set, "alright, here's a move and here's how you can work it in".... NO what he taught was a different way to practice, a way to make yourself better then you were before and a way to switch up your sessions and get the best out of your practices or a supplement practice.
                  -side note- I've recently become intrigued with body builders again, not because of their unreal muscle tone, but because of their drive and motivation to continue doing what their doing for nothing besides self improvement. so another way to think of this is much like working out (which i'm going to assume your all not nearly as lazy as i am haha), when you workout you tear the muscle which causes your muscle to grow more. You need to eat protein and carbohydrates for your body to get the most of the workout. every few weeks you switch the workout to work a different part of the muscle so (again, try it out with me) your body doesn't become accustomed to the workout and you make as much growth as possible. now i believe its something like you should be getting about 55/60 grams of protein a day on average without working out. your body can only process so much protein and calories in an hour (i wanna say 25) now if your working out and looking to gain muscle growth or strength you should be looking at more protein. FOR EXAMPLE if you are 150 lbs, you should be consuming about 225 grams of protein in a day.100lbs=150 grams of protein a day 200lbs= 300 grams a day,250=375 grams a day. you can't be eating 24/7 so people use a protein shake to supplement them eating and give them much more protein during the day (not even talking cost factor either)

SO BACK TO THE MAIN GOAL (because i could talk about lifting/protein all day long)
so again, the main goal of this is to give you multiple ways to train. i won't include Paranoid Androids workshop in this because he put it together. but what i will do is elaborate on what he is open about in his posts on "the road to bc one"
http://roadtobcone.tumblr.com/
*note* this is an awesome read and highly motivational and really informative, so if you have a chance to check this out and back read i'd recommend it*

Training Log
Tuesday June7th 2011
Weight training and Cardio 2 hrs.
Bboy Practice 2 hrs.- tbis is where you practice EVERYTHING you already have. every move you can think of from footwork to transitions to power to freezes ETC.
“Think Tank” 1 hr.- what you do is you try to come up with a combination of moves/transition/footwork (start with 3) that you have NEVER seen before, ever. cheating yourself on this is worthless, the point is to come up with your own original moves. and as PA said "some days you go fishing and catch monsters, other days you go and catch nothing"

Wednesday June 8th 2011
Weight Training & Conditioning 2 hrs.
Tricks & Power 1 hr.
Bboy practice 1 hr.
“Think Tank” 1 hr.
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BBoy Rez's Practices
Precook
5-10 minutes of toprock (to warm the body up, its better to get the blood flowing and then stretch as opposed to letting the stretching warm you up)
stretch (and then alternate stretching with tops until i'm completely stretched out, for me it generally takes 15-20 minutes)
light power-(i recommend a power move you already have like windmills or flares. i use the power to let me know if i have to stretch more in a certain area or if im ready to session)
Warming up
start off with 5-10 minutes of footwork that you already have just to walk through the motions
EXTEND-5-10 minutes of working in new moves to your sets to prolong your sets. this is extremely useful for when your in a battle and you fuck up (lets be real it happens to everyone) thats when you put in an extra transition and do another one of your sets without resetting, that extends your set and possibly changes the outcome of the battle
2-5 minutes of freezes
THE MEAT
now that i'm all warmed up i do all of my sets in their normal lengths (if i have 10 sets that take 5 minutes a piece i do them all)
power (i break it down into 2 sections, 1 of doing just a single power move, ie- windmills)
power part 2 (then i do combinations, that way i can gauge if i have windmill to flare that day, if you dont have the energy to do the move or your just in the mood for mill flare then dont do it. all you'll be doing is promoting ugly power and to me i'd rather have 1 pretty flare, then 10 ugly ones)
COOL DOWN
now that i've gone through my whole practice for the most part and i'm getting tired, i'd like to start winding down, this is when i do all of my experimental stuff, things that i dont have down 100 percent, or new transitions or combinations. i like to practice when i'm a little bit tired and beat down because i feel like if i cant dig down deep enough to pull the energy to do these moves at practice, they won't nearly be ready for battle when i'm hyped or if im at a practice jam where i may be tired. If the crew is in town then we usually do a 20 minute cypher or play a few games and call it a day. After that we go out and eat because we're friends, family,and crew. we eat together, party together, and practice together.

when i get more training techniques from different people i will be updating this blog or i will make a part 2


Rez





SO there's some things you can try to breakup the monotony of your practices

Rezerection of BBoying (blog 8) What are you guys doin?

After every jam or session or bboy gathering, the question always seems to be "What are you guys doin?","Is there something happenin?" and 9 times out of 10 there is. Be it getting a cheap dinner/breakfast, running to the liquor store and hanging out at someone crib, going out to the club or everyone just heading their separate ways.. There are things that should be noted

We'll start with what aggravates me the most out of these

GOING OUT TO EAT
Like most people, you have probably never worked in a service industry in your life and don't understand the whole "why's it taking so long to get my fuckin food?" Well boys and girls, here's how food industry works. The host seats you, they let the server know they have a table. The server comes over takes your guys orders (if its drinks, like water or soda they control that) they give the food orders to the kitchen, who may be high or pissed off that its 11 o'clock at night and they have about 15 orders of dennys pancakes and sausages that just came when when they were all relaxed and just finished cleaning up, if your ordering alcohol (dennys doesnt have this but again i dont know where you eat after the battle) the bartender gets that order and the waitress is at the whim of the kitchen and the bartender. When those guys get off their booties and get the orders made they give it to the waitress who brings it to your table. 9/10 all the waitress does is attempt to keep your table happy until the food comes, and if your food is messed up for cold gets a manager to remedy the situation. Everyone is happy with their meal and gets the check. here's where everything gets a little tricky
                      (for this example we will use 5 people)
Seat 1
    1 waffle @ 2.75, 1 water @ 0.00, 22 sausages @ .25 each (their total is 8.25)
Seat 2
    2 waffle @ 2.75, 1 water @ 0.00, 2 sausages @ .25 each (their total is 3.25)
Seat 3
    1 waffle @ 2.75, 1 water @ 0.00(their total is 2.75)
Seat 4
     4 waffle @ 2.75, 1 water @ 0.00, 5 sausages @ .25 each(their total is 12.25)
Seat 5
    1 waffle @ 2.75, 1 water @ 0.00, 22 sausages @ .25 each(their total is 8.25)

OVERALL TOTAL BILL IS
$34.75
+2.78 (lets say its 8% tax)
$$$$$$37.53

everyone has to pay their own bill, +tip. If you don't have enough money to buy your food AND tip, someone at your table has to then cover your cost. So now instead of lets say each person putting in $7 +tip, 3 people put in $7 & 1 person puts in $14 now doubling their own personal cost, BEFORE ADDING THE TIP. now financially you have just screwed someone in your group and doubled their cost because they are taking care of you expecting you to pay them back or atleast REALIZE what they have done for you. now not only do they have to put in their own tip, they have to put in your tip. so instead of $7 they are now paying 17-19 dollars for both of your meals +tips. This weekend i went out to dinner with about 5 people, my meal was 20 dollars, 1 person paid their meal in full (THANK YOU) 3/4 of the rest of the people only had barely enough money for their meal sticking me with the left over cost of their meals and the tips. so a meal and tip that should have cost me $20 bucks now just cost me $40. So if you don't have the money to eat AND tip, don't order anything besides water or something really cheap. Ask one of your friends to spot you some cash so you can eat. AND PAY THEM BACK, remember to say please and thank you, show appreciation. That $12 meal you just ordered, your buddy had to work an hour and a half just so you can enjoy that food you scarfed down in 32 seconds.

Tipping-General rule of thumb is to double the tax for tip, but again that barely makes it worth while for the server.*IF THE SERVER WAS GOOD, don't be greedy, give them a little extra they deserve it**and the flip side** IF THEY SUCKED TIP THEM JUST THE MINIMUM** The servers tips don't go directly to the server, Servers make about 2.75-4.25 per hour depending on business establishment. 1-5% OF THEIR SALES go to paying the hosts and bussers (so if they sell $100 worth of food, they have to tip out the host/bussing station $1-$5 regardless of how much money they were actually tipped) If you don't tip the server, the busser, and the host don't get any money either because again in service industries pay is based off what people deem we deserve.
              I can bet we've all gone out with our boyfriends or girlfriends and had a 100 bill and only left 5-10 bucks as a tip. That server now doesn't make a penny off of your table. They now just busted their ass for an hour making sure you had a good dining experience and are now going home with barely 3 dollars an hour because you thought since you spent 100 they were making minimum wage. Since their wages are generally cash based the businesses DO NOT have to reimburse them with minimum wage since the government has such a hard time baby sitting who's declaring their cash tips correctly on their income taxes. If one of your friends can't afford a dinner of 3 dollars, i think it wouldn't hurt you to offer some of your food to them, there's ways to do it without making them look like broke ass bastards. "hey man, i'm full, you wanna eat the rest of this?"

GOING TO THE LIQUOR STORE
 All i really have to say about this is don't let one person buy all of the alcohol,mixers,cups.If someone is buying the alcohol, buy the mixers, don't be stingy and don't be rude. alcohol isn't cheap and odds are the person buying the alcohol isn't buying a bottle for everybody so make sure to chip in for supplies. Help carry the stuff. and lastly IF YOU AREN'T 21 DON'T GO IN THE STORE, stay outside out of sight or in the car out of sight. If you don't have your ID there is a very high chance NO ONE will be leaving with alcohol. Be respectful of someones house, ask if they want you to take your shoes off at the front, if you aren't sure its acceptable for you to open their cupboards and rummage for any and all crumbs of food, ASK or OFFER to order a pizza. Again, someone is putting you up right now and doing something out of the goodness of their heart, don't take advantage of their kindness.


GOING OUT TO THE CLUB
 Try to pick a place that is 18+ if possible, it sucks when your out with your crew and planned on hanging with them all weekend to find out they're all going to a 21+ only and you gotta find something to do for a few hours or go chill at someones house. If that's what you had in mind for a crew outing, that's not a really family oriented crew. I grew up (personally) around adults and very family oriented people, if they were with someone who couldn't get into club A, or eat at restaurant B for ANY reason, then they wouldn't go there. WHY YOU ASK? I said the same thing and realized this, if your with your friends or family, it doesn't matter where you are, it will be fun and memorable. i cant tell you how many times i went to go out to a club with people and we ended up chilling in a parking lot talking for hours and genuinely had a great time. *NOTE- this isnt necessarily true for all events, if a few people want to go out and a few people don't, then that's cool and you guys can part ways. multiple times i didn't want to go out to a club after and i just chilled at someones house and watched t.v.* REMEMBER you guys are a CREW and if someone in your crew isn't accepted someplace, how good of a friend are you to ditch them and say peace? it hurts your friends feelings a lot wither they say it or not to have your family ditch you because they want to get drunk and f*ck bitches.
   Breaking in the club, DON'T DO IT (my personal feelings on it) i was just breaking for the last 4-8 hours at a jam with people that respect what i do, i am not just some monkey that jumps around for the meat grinder music box. When i go out, the last thing i really want to do is break dance for a bunch of drunk people that are just going to jump in my circle and mess up my flow and potentially start a fight, cause lets be real... how pissed do you get when your breaking in a cypher and someone walks through your zone? add alcohol and tough guy attitudes, doesn't really take a genius to know that could spell some pretty bad trouble for some people. ****NOTE**** If you've got a friend from out of town who breaks and didn't get down at a jam or you guys went out specifically to dance and didn't hit up a jam that day, i think its completely acceptable to go out and break. If your friend has a good time, then being a show off isn't such a big deal.

HEADING YOUR SEPARATE WAYS
Also a very simple thing, if you were just chilling with people or talking to them, be polite and say bye it was nice meeting you even if it wasn't. Being nice to people will get you much further then not. If i just spent a few hours with some people and they didn't slap me up (shake my hand/ say bye in some form) it'd leave a bad taste in my mouth about them as a person.If i had paid them as a judge or expo battle and their crew wasn't polite to me, it'd make me less incline to invite them out or hire them again.**SIDE NOTE THAT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED**If someone's girlfriend/wife/family is there, make sure to be extra polite to them, DON'T cross the line of being flirtatious or making gestures that could be misconstrued AND ESPECIALLY BEING RUDE. Remember where you are, if someone was doing those things to your girlfriend/wife/family would you care? At the same token don't treat your guests like that either.Treat people how you want to be treated because the next weekend it could be your gf/wife/family that someone is doing that too. treat people with respect and they will return it to you. I know personally that I've had an after party with some pretty big named bboys and they thought cause they had traveled the world as bboys that they could do/act however they wanted, i am by no means a world class bboy, but i am a world class person, and i don't care how many members of your crew are in my house or my apt or how big your name is, if you step out of line I'll make sure you and your crew knows it and will NOT step out of line again. So bottom line, make sure to be respectful to everyone you run into.

final words, this comes from my high school wrestling coach Tony Policare and holds true - "you should always leave a space better then when you entered it. There's no reason to go someplace and leave it trashed. your an adult and a wo/man. There are only 2 rules, don't do something that would disrespect yourself, or your family"

Rezerection of bboying (blog 7) Chomper no chomping!

This is a conversation i had on a forum a few years ago, i had to search my archives and dig it up but i feel like this pretty much explains it all

ITZ BOP SAYS
So what constitutes Biting?

We are all familiar with the term biting: Taking another dancers move and using it as your own. It is very disgruntling to work so hard on a move to find that someone else has either done the move before you or to see someone else do the same exact move after you've done it. In this day and age, there is plenty of biting going around. Many dancers are constantly biting another dancers move/combo/technique. Many even have the gall to ask for instructions on performing that same move. It is very common these days to walk into a competition and see a dancer copying a well known move or floor pattern.

However, there are many people these days who throw around the bite sign. A number of times, I've noticed, people throw the sign for moves that are quite common and are in fact not biting. Nowadays, the bboy world is larger then its ever been. As a result many bboys often have similar ideas on new moves and patterns and techniques. Because of this many bboys are often accused of biting; even if the move was completely their own idea and a coincidence.

Other times moves may look similar but are entirely different. Many people justify their "borrowing" of moves by saying they have a different set up or finish. Others claim that since they add their own style to moves and transitions that it is in fact a completely different move; and thus no biting involved.

I've heard some people say that they won't do that move until more people start doing the move. That way it isn't biting since many bboys do it now.

So where do we draw the line at biting? Is it biting if the same move is done in a different manner? Is it biting if the bboy coincidentally had the same idea as another bboy?

IN REPLY JEN 1 STATES

From my limited knowledge, I feel like a lot of bboys have signature moves. Moves where you go like "oh that's totally so and so" I think that if someone bit a move that is obviously someone else's like that then it's a real bite. But the internet is a tricky thing. People accuse people of biting a move they saw on youtube and the "biter" had no idea and actually created the move through his own practice. I think that that's a coincidence and not a bite.

There's a group called Boogie Monstarz who has a great saying "Byterz will be eaten." They've had other groups literally steal their entire routines. I think that if someone bites your move there's a good chance that they won't be able to do it as well as you can. In that case put them in their place and show them how it's really done.

Also somebody invented every single move in bboying. Are you gonna accuse someone of biting a six-step?


IN REPLY TO ALL REZ STATES (i have made alot longer more in depth reply about it but due to how much i post it ive dumbed it down to make it as simple as possible

  i think a little different

yes there are certain people who have their own special moves IE the hong 10 freeze, physixc spinning flag
thats stuff is obviously theirs but taking that single move and making it your own isnt biting.

if i were to do move a
and someone else did move a thats not a bite

if i were do move a c b d a a bc
and someone else did the same combination or even took part of it (acbdaabcbcac) then i would concider that a bite

a single move no, but stealing a string of moves transitions or exact set is. if i went into a thread a special way and i saw someone else do that id say it was a bite. if i were to do it and then see someone do something similar but not that (maybe change a little something) then id say f***er snagged my stuff and changed it up a bit but that was mine. you'd know but i wouldn't conciser it a bite, id say i influenced them
______________________________________________________________________________
and when i say i influenced them i mean more of They flipped it. They saw something i did and liked it, and used it with their own flavor and spice. They aren't doing what i did. When we see things at a jam or practice we are bound to like some things and want to do the stuff.

ex. my boy outbreak did a combination of ABC, i thought it was cool but didnt try to do anything with it. i had watched him do it so many times that i had started thinking in my head of creating ABC, after i had came up with the sequence in my head i had flipped it into DEF. When i showed outbreak my new combo, he laughed and said "dude, you got that idea from me".... did i mean to do his moves, absolutely not, did i flip it and mold the clay in a different way, yes.
i also explain it like this
"think of building your own dream house. you start off with all of your own ideas and everything. as you travel you start to want different things, and you want to redecorate your house. because you saw someones house that had wood floors while you had tile, does that make you a copy cat because you put in redwood instead of oak? no, you were influenced,saw something you liked, and put it in your house because it makes you happy and it expresses you better then the oak does"

No one is going to be happy with you when they think you took their moves. But lets be real, i don't care if your domkey,born,tommy-o, or my boy lin, anything you think of has more than likely been done, the odds of you being the first to do something isn't very likely, IT IS POSSIBLE, but just not likely until you've spent a good many years around to know what has and has not been done. so don't try so hard to be original, just try to be you and express yourself in a way you feel comfortable and happy with regardless of what other people think of you.