Why would an advanced leader train with me?

This question a follower was wondering about!

I don't think that the advanced social dancers have all techniques at top level and if the leader wants to lift up something the problems can be similar to those at my level. When I want to add a variation of a known figure to my milonga vocabulary there are just a short rough period and then we can catch up the normal flow. If I instead want to introduce, develop a for me totally new technique the situation is quite different.

The day I want to expand to a new skill I start to work on it at home up to a level I remember the steps for me and the follower on the chosen figures. After that I can have a private lesson with a teacher but later on I need to train them with a partner and Yes! At this point the problems start!

In my world most of the followers start at beginner courses but as soon as they can atract sufficient number of tandas most of them stop regular courses and trust on that the leaders will teach the rest of the needed skills. There are not many at a practica who wants to sparring dance with me not even if I promise to dance the same number of songs so they can train the steps of their choice!

When it is time to introduce the new elements to an informal milonga there is a clear drop of skill on several areas. Even if I can move ok on pista the flow is not so smooth, not so effortless. When I am tweeking in the new steps the variation of other content gets lower as well as my focusing, selfconfidence and musicality.

There are followers who do not accept this drop in the tanda quality, but want a full dance experience always! This forces the leader to seach new partners and here is an opportunity for the followers willing to cooperate in learning and learn themselves. Maybe you are interested to get new friends also! Here the changes are quite obvious!

Are you training with me now?

 A follower asks irritated at a milonga

Nooo, I just dance badly today!  

A suggestion to the leader

I have been asked and others have confirmed the same phrase at milongas

 

Feeling for cultivating or for composting learning?

It is crucial for your development to know what type of learner you are, before choosing your long-term learning process. I am a visual learner, who has an enormous appetite for training and tango is my main hobby. Are you also towards those patterns then you may have use of these my experiences!

Do you too recognize this?

I participated in a lot of workshops. Afterward, I talked sometimes about the content with my partner and we tried to run it occasionally. Time passed by and little by little other things occupied my time and mind. However, some figures and techniques survived and became part of my pista vocabulary but the extensive majority of them have withered at some remote corners of my mind.

It looks like this! All my forgotten figures . . .

What about frequently reactivate the knowledge history?

I was not happy about my routines and started to cultivate the workshop content instead! I use my camera to film the class summary and I try to memorize the verbal instructions and teachers' feedback on my issues. At home I watch the video material/run through the memories and decide what to keep and update into the training log**.  That log is maintaining and organizing all the material for my coming reviews at practicas and solo training sessions! Those two are my knowledge cultivation events!

To develop a decent physical fluency on sequences requires repetitions but not so much time. The bottleneck slowing down and lengthening the repetition sessions is the memory* - or anyhow my memory for me! Use any tricks you know to memorize the steps and the groups of sequences - pictures, stories, whatever you have learned during a lifetime, to support your memory!

How much time is needed?

To get an idea about the time needed for repetition we assume that you want to keep 60 of your favorite workshop figures for social dancing. If you still remember the steps from the workshops your solo training will take about 15 minutes and some longer with a partner. This is realistic when you can the steps by heart but if you need to check the video often then two hours will not be enough!

In a 5 mins micro training session you are able to run through a lot of details you want to improve and maintain. I watch also the videos regularly and the time varies. It can be 10 mins but it can be longer if not properly prepared. I run all these activities several times per week and after a rest period of 4/5 weeks, they are activated again! The key is to pick them up before you start to forget them!

When you prepare your review material do it carefully and edit your videos so only the important pieces are on the final compilation. In this way your review time will become shorter and your learning becomes focused. You get faster to your goal!

 If you choose to work with the figures, micro train your technique consistently and review the material regularly you will develop a stable technical base. When you cultivate systematically the chosen part of tango, you will feel the difference in your body and I am pretty sure it will become visible too!  

What do you think, are you interested?           

This routine will have an impact on certain parts of tango, I mentioned the technical development, but there are more to tango and you will always be surprised and challenged by new learning possibilities!  :)

*The memory is highly needed at practica but it should be shut down in a milonga!

** Via the link below you can read about a Training log I use

https://offpistaaction.blogspot.com/2021/05/get-training-done-tango-training-log.html

Bored? When and how to get benefits from it?

Some workout channels on YT advertise sessions put together for people who get easily bored. These workouts had new movements all the time keeping my attention at a higher level than comfortable for me. It really wasn't my favorite workout! Obviously, there are individual differences and it could be useful to think about your personal style and if it has an impact on your learning. So what is your way, your actual style to get bored?

Do you get easily bored?

There is a need for repetition when you want to grow your muscles, brain structure, or nerve paths. In tango, many skills need quite a lot of rehearsing and if you get bored on those drills before you reach your goal it will keep you back on the tango path. If this happens often on your projects take a look at the situation and find a way around this hindrance. There are for sure ways to push your boring limit later!

Bored at the correct moment!

There are definitely situations when boring is just a correct indicator that you are not captivated by your goal and it is maybe best to skip the training! Or it just indicates that you actually have reached your learning goal and your mind cannot find anything interesting left to explore on the subject. It's time to move on!

Or do you get bored (too) late as I easily do?

Hard to get bored is not necessarily a good alternative either! I have noticed that I easily continue repeating things far beyond the moment I made the last active effort to learn something new on the subject. When the repetition has an air of exploring I would continue or if I feel that there is a stabilization process of the knowledge or a movement, going on I would continue. On contrary, if the repetition is just a dull rolling on a daily routine it should be checked out. I have learned to recognize these change points but earlier I was continuing too far and losing time!

Move sideways or push deeper when you get bored!     

During an ordinary training with TangoTools milonga steps, (which are easily added to a training routine without any preparations. I'm just saying!) I became aware of something new. I do not remember the exact clip but it was one similar to this.

Usually, I change to a new video on Sunday after a number of repetitions during the week. Normally I was doing the steps reasonably well so the shift was ok, based on the fact that I couldn't find any new details to add to or correct on my repetitions. A stable routine to grow my basic step-pool!

Then for some reason, I continued to repeat the old video longer than usual. In the middle of a later session, I suddenly noticed that my steps were not clean!. I didn't just land on my feet but there was also a tiny little flex, an extra movement I had not been aware of earlier. I remember that some teachers had talked about a problem with my walk but at that time I didn't get it. - I wasn't aware of the flex at all, but this simple, repetitive movement pushed my brain to find something to work with and it started to track the detailed step process deeper and new information about the movement became available.

The thoughts about the student's boring points were inspiring but not bringing any radical change to my mind. On contrary, the idea of my possibility to choose at a certain level of boringness to advance sideways or drill deeper has became a new instrument in my learning toolbox!

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun 1. boringness - extreme dullness; lacking spirit or interest
dreariness, insipidity, insipidness
dullness - the quality of lacking interestingness; "the stories were of a dullness to bring a buffalo to its knees"

Merriam Webster  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boring
bor·ing | \ ˈbȯr-iŋ  \
Definition of boring
: causing weariness and restlessness through lack of interest : causing boredom : TIRESOME
a boring lecture

ADJECTIVE
dull; repetitious; uninteresting
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Derived forms

https://youtu.be/Q370yGIqFE4?list=PLuZgN3SYIPX5hO3BS8iUpJOToo-GUCruo

Me, tango and it's teachers

During the dancing years, some aspects about my relation to tango and it's teachers have become visible. When I first time entered a milonga and saw how ages were mixed on the pista I was struck by the thought: T h i s  I could keep up for a long time! Today it seems that I had the rest of my life in mind.

Limited or lifetime in tango?

You maybe feel that you will stay just a few years in tango or you have a clearly limited goal then you could pay some extra attention to the choice of a teacher and the style. You maybe want quickly become a member of the local community in that case it is wise to follow the style and teachers for that group! Ask for advice, talk with people and stick to your plan - that teacher and those people!
Your goals will define your learning, direct your development until you reach the goal!

Another possibility is just to start in a way and place most comfortable for you. That was the choice I caught! By testing the possibilities I have found out what I like and what inspires me. A vast number of techniques and sequences will be available on that path!

A long stay itself will create pressure for change. New ways to dance will develop refreshing the old steps and give a new look to the pista. That learning will create a new edge for your personal expression in tango.
In other words, the learning will reveal to you your tango and develop it!

In both cases keep in mind that you need somehow check and monitor the technique to be ok for your body and mind.

The relationship to teacher's knowledge - apilado; in axis; colgada

 

apilado - no own balance, towards the teacher        

In the beginning I believed and learned everything my teachers told me and so did my classmates! I wonder now if anyone has skipped this mode? Usually we got just one version of a figure and it becomes the only, the only right way to do it. In other words we were leaning heavily towards our teacher and his/her ideas, knowledge. One common consequence of this was that the alternatives we saw around us were all errors, signs of bad learning and unskilled teaching!

 

That period was the prime time for critics. When we watched the pista we repeated the technical details and tried to map the ochos in our mind to the variety of ochos performed in front of us. Some of them showed hardly any of the traits we had learned and kept in mind. We wondered if someone could educate those poor dancers!

 

The funniest story was told by a laughing follower who during her whole first year felt deep sorrow for a couple who had totally misunderstood the way how to dance tango. Could someone help them? Later on she learned the reason -  they were the absolute best canyengue dancers in our community! So different but still right.

in axis - solo, own balance                 

During the following years, I knew better what I liked and took more control over what kind of movements I wanted to include in my skills. I picked the suitable parts of the teachers' offerings and became aware of the choices others did, how different variations came alive. The deeper I came on this path the clearer it was that I will never again be able to find one teacher who totally responses to all my needs and goals. My future learning was more like finding the puzzle pieces a teacher could offer and it was my responsibility to fit them to the rest of my skills. All the different ideas about tango and the knowledge now built in my body became a platform to understand and manage my tango and tango life. I found my own balance in it all, I was in balance on my mental axis; not running around so much but staying where I belonged.

colgada - hanging out, away from the teacher

In spite of all learning this dance has it's secrets and some of them I have become aware of by coming across the opposite ideas. I call it for Colgada learning and it occurs when I disagree with the ideas and offerings a teacher or fellow dancers have.  It is not just that the stuff is not ok but it is not my thing.  This gives me the possibility to recognize the edges of my personal platform, opinions, and ideas. You test the offering but feel that it is nothing for you and develop instead a variation which will fit your milonga night. Now you also know more about where the others are, what they prefer and enjoy!

All these aspects have passed by and will be met again! It keeps me activated and maybe you also! 

 

Teacher: 3 meter tall!

For several years I have been fantasizing about using hologram kind of frames for intensive learning of tango steps. You buy a set of hologramsteps and load your devise, adjust the size of the image to contain your body and there you go. The game is to keep your body inside the hologram frame and if your feet is sticking out, there will be a signal so you and your neighbours know about the mistake! And of course a great fanfare for a success!

As a first step to this direction we could have instruction videos and performances in 3D holograms. You can go around and watch from different angles when  your favorite couple is performing. To understand better the difficult parts you can play it slower, just in the same way as on your screen, but here in 3D hologram, 3 meter high. I am sure I would get better understanding for the details then!

 Click here to se him walk around!

Seriously guys! Here you get some technical information and please watch anyhow
the last 20 seconds with a running image.


Some fun from Japan - 3D images in the air 
(I put you directly on the fun part at the end of the video :)