Apathy to Practice

[Steve Pastor]

I will now somewhat reluctantly venture into gancho territory.
If you are kicking your partner, I'm going to guess that you do not in the correct position and are doing what I, and others, think of as a fake gancho.
Yes, these are done all the time, even in the movie "Tango" (watch in super slo mo).
I was taught that to execute a gancho there should be thigh to thigh contact, and it is the interuption of momentum that supplies the energy that makes the leg "flip up".
The upshot is that you should be in tight with your partner's thigh.
This is much harder to do than simply kicking between your partner's legs. But it makes it much harder to kick your partner. And no one will call it a fake gancho.

(Duck and cover!)

 

[Peaches]

Yeah. That's how I've been taught.

My concern is not being nicely positioned--and erring on the "too close", aka, too high up on the thigh side. Combine that with not having the coordination down with letting my leg be loose and simultaneously adding power to it to sharpen it...and...well...I don't know if my teacher wants kids or not, but I don't want to be the deciding factor.

I'm not talking about fake ganchos, here. There are ways to do them, technically correctly (minus the little placement problem) and still screw them up.

 

[Steve Pastor]

In "The Tango Lesson" (now I can't put a name to the face), as Sally Potter does ganchos from behind, her instructor holds his hand over his you know what.

Would you (meaning anyone) take the time to explain what goes wrong, other than being too far away?

 

[FTL]

That's the idea, a pendulum action from the hip joint interrupted by follows thigh resulting in a whipping action of leg from the knee joint. It's not really a kick.

If she is in a cruzada going to right molinete, I'll do forward gancho on her first forward step and back gancho on her side step using my right leg on both occasions just like a pendulum. The second part is tricky especially if you increase the speed of the turn. The side step should be led closer to the leaders back because if she goes tangential instead of circular I'll miss her thigh. My right heel that's on the upswing struck her gastroc. There is probably a breakdown in our connection/communication and it also happened so fast. It does not happen in slower music but we were dancing neotango at that time. I should have converted the second part to back sacada when I saw her in the wrong spot but my reaction time is slow. My leg is pretty much gone by that time.

 

[Ampster]

IME, Ganchos that go wrong are the ones that are not led. Let me explain a bit...

Steve has it right with the thigh to thigh contact. Also right about the right positioning thingy. What I'm talking about as "not being led" is this...

So, assuming the lead has setup the position: He positions his thigh behind hers, contact! He opens his leg slightly to make space for her leg to pass through... He LEADS the gancho by a very slight twist of his upper torso, in the direction of the gancho he wants. (This is the ONLY time the gancho should be done.) Setup, lead, execute. Realize that it takes practice to do this, as they happen only split seconds apart.

The times that I've been hit in the 'nads were when:

• My follows didn't wait and just gancho-ed it. Made me sing a couple of octaves higher and I could not even say Ouch
• (Just as we were talking about practice and state of mind) I was not in the right state of mind. So, I led it poorly causing me not to be ready, confusing my follow into doing a gancho, thus making me sing like a little girl

My advice is this. For the follows, when in doubt, or if you did not feel a clear lead, perform a Sentada instead. For the leads, don't just assume that because you blocked her thigh automatically means a gancho. You still have to lead it with that "Twist."
It's that invite-accept thing going on once again.

BTW, Gancho means "Hook." Basically, the lady hooks her legs around his, or vice-versa. It is NOT supposed to be a kick.

 

[Me]

I experience a lack of energy or interest to practice when I have nobody to practice with, which is ALL THE TIME. My partner/coach is out of town regularly and I just cannot find anybody who will partner me. I'm really not a difficult person... I just can't find anybody who is serious enough about dance to take it beyond beginner level.

When I have this lack of energy I flop on the couch and watch dance related DVDs. Usually CITA. This at least engages my mind in a dance-related way, and often motivates me to get off my duff and practice something I just saw.