So I have been watching a lot of Elliot Hulse recently on Youtube and he knows as much as I do... Okay a lot more then I do... about how the Central Nervous System plays the key role in developing all your skills and the feedback loop that it plays with the Peripheral Nervous System. In short it takes on average 500 Successful Focused Repetitions of any skill, or series of skills for the combined skill to be considered in your muscle memory or in your movement arsenal and ready to be used at any time. That being said, if you have bad habits it can take up to 1000 or more repetitions to reprogram and rewire over to a new habit.
So all the more important to take the time to do things right.
But what is right and what is correct.
If you're like me and you have learned a lot through being self taught then one of two things happens.
1) You have been blessed with a nice supple mobile body that teaches itself easily or makes very few mistakes, you don't have to think to much to learn something at first, you are a fast twitch monster, and has decent flexibility.
or
2) your like me and make a lot of mistakes when you learn a new skill, your jump sucks, and your mobility is that of high heeled, hunched overdeveloped hypertensioned bus driver, and the hips of Minecraft avatar.
That being said, yes I know many people do not consider me to be that, but it is what I sometimes feel like when I think of the right type of body for the skills I would like to acquire.
Now considering that I have overcome great odds and have learned to open up my body and develop my weaknesses so that I can focus on my strengths, and also considering that I practice a wide range of skill sets. Parkour, Acrobatics, and Dance.
I am quite accustomed to watching the agile warrior fly by me creating marvelous movement oblivious of their own gifts and how they got them. Not saying that these great movers haven't had to get sore, or work hard, but I definitely can say that they did the right things.
They had good building blocks, and that is what this Post is all about. The building blocks and the development of complex skills through stacking of basic skills and just making sure to do one before the other.
Sounds simple right?
and it is, that's the beauty of it.
The hardest part is figuring out what are the basics, because without that you have noting to go from.
In this post we are talking about adding twisting to flipping and it's relation and development through the Central Nervous System which I will now call CNS.
Now this is conceptual as I do not have a PHD in Neuro Science, but I have seen enough success with this to feel comfortable writing about it.
CNS first:
Now habits are formed through repetition, usually we don't take notice to them. For example if I get in the car I step in Right leg fist sit down rather hard and pull my Left leg in fast as I pull the door shut barely missing my foot, I put my seat belt on, right leg goes to the break and presses, right hand puts the key in the ignition while holding the wheel with my left arm. I turn the key hear the car start and then I have a few choices on what happens next depending on which direction I have to go. (YES IT'S AUTOMATIC, THE HELL IF I CARE!!!)
I developed that over a long period of repetitions, at first thinking about what I had to do and then doing it, but now I don't think about it I've done it flawless several times a day since 2009 with that car, and the only time I screw it up is when I do something different to start, like I have to answer a call before starting the car and I'm already in the car. Now wouldn't it be nice if that was how flips and twisting felt?
As I said earlier if you do each repetition successfully or in such a way for you to know what you have done wrong and you change it immediately then flipping and twisting can be just as simple as anything else you do day to day.
My current bane of my existence is my Cartwheel into a Back 360 Full Twist and a Front Rudy or Front Flip 540. I had both on lock down and then I got injured a while back and I lost them, I have a few successful landings with these in each session, but not good enough to use in the real world.
Why are these giving me trouble because I don't use my building blocks all the time, I do step 3 before I do step 1.
The order of all tricks unless acted on by another force is:
1. Jump/Set/Arch/Heal Drive
2. Hollow/Flip/Hips over Head Rotation/Toe Drive
3. Spin as much as desired or genetically possible
Bonus Step: Land like a boss (Actually that will happen just fine if you followed step 1 and 2)
So this is where the basics need to come into play.
You need to have an understanding of progressions that lead up to Jumping or Setting, Rotation, and Spinning. If you don't have that yet then this post will still help but just replace the steps with the beginning middle and end of any complex skill. A simple jump can be broken down into (Compression, Extension, Flight) (Desired Shape) (Descent, Extension, Compression)[another day sorry this is about twisting and how to attain it if you already have the prerequisites but the concept remains the same for all skills :p ]
First of all to be successful and for the rep to count and your CNS to be like "Bro that was awesome we can deal with that" you need to be aware of what you're doing and you have to land safely or safe enough to have some kind of feedback of what you did. In other words every time you land like a ton of bricks or like a bag of sauerkraut (in other words FAILED) and you don't change it then you put your ability to get that skill into muscle memory at risk. I have fallen so many times I am never quite sure if I am going to land these skills unless a set of steps happens.
The step is I feel I have Jumped or Set to my fullest and the second is that I have flipped as hard and as tight as I can so that I know I am at least going to get to my feet or be able to roll out/macaco. Not being safe with your landings is just plain stupid (unless your one of those guys that falls hard the very first try and then suddenly the next time you land it perfectly, in which case your CNS was like "hey man that sucked, but I know what you were going for so here you go")[I hate you guys, but I love you too, but mostly I hate you]
To get a positive rep that actually helps you, you have to land on your feet. The only time this doesn't matter is when you are intentionally landing in another position, in which case that position becomes your positive rep. Any way land in your positive position.
Now with me because if I over think my spin I spin early and don't flip enough and only complete 3/4 of rotation and I am on my side. Simple solution, spin late and focus everything on the flip, the flip is more important anyway and the spin will develop with time.
To make this simple. Your spin can always be sped up especially if you have practiced them independently.
JUMP HIGH, SET HIGH , Flip Hard, flip it as hard as you can, the goal is to get back to your feet.
Finally spin last.
With enough successful repetitions you will probably get the skill down strong long before you reach the 500 repetition mark. A prime example of this is Casey Wilson of Colorado. This is an old video but you can see he sets, he flips, and he finally spins. He gets to his feet first because he is flipping to land. This kid is friggin awesome, this is his old channel, his new one is here http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWrEc-d6fYS_fVr541DMMw give him some love.
With that drilled into your head I challenge you to take a skill that involves a complex set up. A jump, a flip, and a spin. Take this skill and with the steps in mind start to build your spin over a series of successful attempts, and with time you will find your spinning goals come into existence as well.
It has taken me this long to realize how simple this is and it is how I am approaching my spinning skills from now on. Now of course I am not going to do 500 in one day, but I am going to make sure every flip matters, no falls only doing what I intend to do, land on my feet and the spin will come with time.
Thanks for reading, be the 500 and let the CNS bring you a strong healthy life of Godly tricks. And I look forward to having these back again.
Francesco Caban
Live
Love
Inspire
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