SDsalsaguy
08-16-2003, 07:27 PM
Taken, with permission, from Terryl's Corner - Advice and tips for dancers (http://www.letsdancela.com/advice/)
What Level Class Should I Take?
By Terryl Jones
I am frequently asked the question "What level should I take?" The answer is an ongoning question one should always ask themselve. To fully answer the question I have to break down the learning process itself. Lets say that I was learning to play golf. Many skills are needed. Divided very basically I need to be able to drive the ball and to putt the ball. This doesn't even begin to describe the skills necessary. Take driving the ball, I need to know how to create power, how to create the correct vertical arc and how to make it go straight down the center. Then in putting I need to control direction, how much power (not too much or too little) and speed. If I were working on my putt, I would practice each skill separately. To practice distance I would draw a line and aim each ball for that line, not caring about it traveling right or left. I would then create a target to practice making the ball go straight. After mastering each of those skills separately I would put them together. By this time I should be fairly good at putting. That doesn't mean I'm good at golf, it simply means I am good at one of the necessary skills. I would have to go through that same process with learning to drive the ball etc etc. Now, if I go thru that process with each of the necessary skills, I will end up being a fairly good golfer. Does that mean I have nothing else to learn? To become a master golfer do I now only have to learn the "masters secrets"? What are those secrets and where can I get them.
I watched the World Latin Champions come off the floor between dances at a competition and intently focus on doing a very basic step extremely slowly and with utmost precision. They kept doing it over and over until it was time for them to return to the floor. I was new in dancing and it surprised me that they weren't practicing some fancy "world champion-type move". A professional baseball player has a batting coach. The player is video taped hitting the ball, then he and that coach go thru that tape in ultra slow motion, frame by frame, analyzing. The coach then helps the player utilize what they found in that tape. What did they find? The masters secrets? No, errors in basics. Simple elementary things that every little league coach tells his players. Yet this professional is not APPLYING what he knows. That is the masters secret. Learning to actually and consistantly implement the skills you know. If we could all actually implement the skills we know we would be at least 200% better than we are now.
Here is where the problem starts. If that professional player only plays with high school teams then he can really focus on his basics, refining them and working at becoming more consistant. On the downside he is not learning how to handle the speed and power that he will be subjected to playing against professionals. If a high school player plays against professionals he'll eventually learn to handle the speed and power, but his basics will be sloppy because he was so busy worrying about the speed and power he couldn't focus on the basics. His growth as a player will be limited.
So here is the answer: Part I - NEVER stop taking basic classes. Prima ballerinas still take daily beginning classes. The answer Part II- Challenge yourself just enough to stimulate growth, but not so much that you sacrifice the skills you've already worked for. How to do that? Never take a class more than one step above your comfort level (This is where teachers can help advise you, if you've lost clean basics the class is too hard for you) and PRACTICE every second you can. So many people want to take a more advanced class so they get to dance with the more advanced dancers. The problem is if there are too many people in the class that are below the level, the advanced dancers don't come back because they get "stuck" with beginners and they don't feel they got to learn. If you want to dance with advanced dancers ask them to dance during practice times (parties, clubs etc). Most of them are more than happy to dance with and help you when they are on their own time rather than their class time.
The final synopsis, What level should I take? ALWAYS take beginning classes, don't just walk thru it thinking you know it, LEARN! Analyze: are you really applying your basics?, is there a nuance to what the teacher is saying that you may have missed in past classes? Then challenge yourself by trying something just one degree harder than your comfort zone, this can be done on your own time, at practice times or at clubs. If the teacher feels you have enough skills to not struggle too badly or frustrate the partners in the next level up give it a try. Practice and have fun. Most importantly remember that anyone that stops learning, stops improving - the person that keeps learning keeps improving. Remember the tortoise and the hare!
What Level Class Should I Take?
By Terryl Jones
I am frequently asked the question "What level should I take?" The answer is an ongoning question one should always ask themselve. To fully answer the question I have to break down the learning process itself. Lets say that I was learning to play golf. Many skills are needed. Divided very basically I need to be able to drive the ball and to putt the ball. This doesn't even begin to describe the skills necessary. Take driving the ball, I need to know how to create power, how to create the correct vertical arc and how to make it go straight down the center. Then in putting I need to control direction, how much power (not too much or too little) and speed. If I were working on my putt, I would practice each skill separately. To practice distance I would draw a line and aim each ball for that line, not caring about it traveling right or left. I would then create a target to practice making the ball go straight. After mastering each of those skills separately I would put them together. By this time I should be fairly good at putting. That doesn't mean I'm good at golf, it simply means I am good at one of the necessary skills. I would have to go through that same process with learning to drive the ball etc etc. Now, if I go thru that process with each of the necessary skills, I will end up being a fairly good golfer. Does that mean I have nothing else to learn? To become a master golfer do I now only have to learn the "masters secrets"? What are those secrets and where can I get them.
I watched the World Latin Champions come off the floor between dances at a competition and intently focus on doing a very basic step extremely slowly and with utmost precision. They kept doing it over and over until it was time for them to return to the floor. I was new in dancing and it surprised me that they weren't practicing some fancy "world champion-type move". A professional baseball player has a batting coach. The player is video taped hitting the ball, then he and that coach go thru that tape in ultra slow motion, frame by frame, analyzing. The coach then helps the player utilize what they found in that tape. What did they find? The masters secrets? No, errors in basics. Simple elementary things that every little league coach tells his players. Yet this professional is not APPLYING what he knows. That is the masters secret. Learning to actually and consistantly implement the skills you know. If we could all actually implement the skills we know we would be at least 200% better than we are now.
Here is where the problem starts. If that professional player only plays with high school teams then he can really focus on his basics, refining them and working at becoming more consistant. On the downside he is not learning how to handle the speed and power that he will be subjected to playing against professionals. If a high school player plays against professionals he'll eventually learn to handle the speed and power, but his basics will be sloppy because he was so busy worrying about the speed and power he couldn't focus on the basics. His growth as a player will be limited.
So here is the answer: Part I - NEVER stop taking basic classes. Prima ballerinas still take daily beginning classes. The answer Part II- Challenge yourself just enough to stimulate growth, but not so much that you sacrifice the skills you've already worked for. How to do that? Never take a class more than one step above your comfort level (This is where teachers can help advise you, if you've lost clean basics the class is too hard for you) and PRACTICE every second you can. So many people want to take a more advanced class so they get to dance with the more advanced dancers. The problem is if there are too many people in the class that are below the level, the advanced dancers don't come back because they get "stuck" with beginners and they don't feel they got to learn. If you want to dance with advanced dancers ask them to dance during practice times (parties, clubs etc). Most of them are more than happy to dance with and help you when they are on their own time rather than their class time.
The final synopsis, What level should I take? ALWAYS take beginning classes, don't just walk thru it thinking you know it, LEARN! Analyze: are you really applying your basics?, is there a nuance to what the teacher is saying that you may have missed in past classes? Then challenge yourself by trying something just one degree harder than your comfort zone, this can be done on your own time, at practice times or at clubs. If the teacher feels you have enough skills to not struggle too badly or frustrate the partners in the next level up give it a try. Practice and have fun. Most importantly remember that anyone that stops learning, stops improving - the person that keeps learning keeps improving. Remember the tortoise and the hare!