When a Wild Plateau Appears...

Ever had a time when you feel like you can no longer improve no matter how much time and effort you put into your training? In case you haven't realized, that's the time when you have bumped into a "plateau". A plateau, as the name suggests, is just like writer's block, for bboys. Somewhere down your career, you will definitely hit that plateau at least once or twice. This is perfectly normal, really. I can't tell you how many times I feel like I have bumped into a plateau over the years...at least a dozen times I dare say. But question is not when or how would you feel when you hit that point in. It is how would you overcome it and move on to keep striving for excellence? I can't say that the solutions that I come up with in this post will work for everybody, but I will say that it at least works for me and a couple of my friends who had conferred to me that they encountered such obstacles.

The most important thing in this blockade is the realization that you have officially encountered it. The failure to realize this simple fact will greatly hinder your progress and build up immense amount of frustration. A prime example from my experience is learning master swipes. I was so determined to master the move over one summer that I constantly and endlessly drill the basic motion for the move over and over again. 3-4 Hours a day, 7 days a week. But after the first week, I feel like my progress has not improved at ALL. By that, I mean no matter how hard I try to improve my master swipe, they constantly stay the same. My hips sagged down, my rhythm of the movements weren't right, etc. I sincerely felt like I probably would never get the move, so I gave up. It was not until after school had begun and a couple weeks into the semester did I pick up master swipe again. To my surprise, my master swipe improved..a LOT all of a sudden. And I did absolutely zip practice for the move in between this lag period.

Now, after you realized that you are officially in the ditch, what's next? Easy really. Just move on! Practice fundamentals (you can never have too much practice in this aspect)or go make some new freeze...or or or just go work everything in the opposite direction! The point is, to never stop training your body. However, at the same time of "giving up" (not really giving up), you don't want to overexert yourself over one move. There are many things that you are going to be working on in the future. So just simply grab something else to work on in the mean time. The failure if you trying to learn something now is probably caused by the exhaustion of the muscles required to perform that particular move correctly. So just work on something else in the mean time.

Last but not least, one must continue to stay motivated! Even if you are not working on that one particular move that you clearly label as uber frustrating, don't completely give up! Continue to watch youtube tutorials and ask for some help about the move online or in real life. Try to imagine yourself "shadow-bboying" and doing that one move that you are trying to work for. Be patience! If it takes a short time and not a lot of effort, then you would be seeing every single person/bboy doing airflares or some ridiculous shit like that XD

Well, that concluded the point I am making with this post. Writing this mainly because I feel like I am about to overcome another plateau XD So I just wanted to share with everyone how I eventually overcome mine. Hope this helps you guys out! Peace out for now!

N-Dure