Why So Serious?

It sure has been awhile since I have updated this blog...and I apologize for that. The reason for my hiatus was to sort things out in my life as I gradually approach graduation day. Ya, I know right? A big milestone known as college almost finished...time really does fly like an arrow..I can still vividly recall my initial excitement of entering college as a freshman...but that's prob for another time/blog as this blog will stay on topic of bboying :D

Recently, I have noticed a trend that is flourishing within my social circles. A trend so contagious that once someone started it, it is nearly impossible to stop. Even I was once a victim. What trend you may ask? I am talking about the trend of people trying to imitate gangster-like behaviors and speech while displaying excessive obsession over Hip Hop. To be honest, I find it both humorous and a little annoying that such trend is actually thriving, especially near me, because most people around me actually came from respectable families with high socioeconomic status, which is like the farthest thing away from the term "gangster".

Every day, as I tour around campus, I almost always hear people use the term "dope" to describe something that is amazing. While that itself is not a bad thing, I feel like such term is inappropriate when it comes to describing something casual. When bboys say "that is dope", it means they like what they see on the floor. Nowadays, I hear people use the term "dope" to describe food and drinks = = Sometimes, I even hear people say "this candy is dope!". Really? Be glad you are surrounded by people who can actually understand what you mean by that, otherwise, you might just get arrested or tackled by police for saying "this candy is dope", because dope also refers to a narcotic substance that is illegal.

Since I established myself as a bboy three and half years ago, I have witnessed and learned many things from bboys around me. One thing that I recently realized, though, is the fact that a lot of bboys made it seem like all they listen to was Hip Hop. No, I don't mean the mainstream Hip Hop artists like Lil Wayne. I mean beats that bboys dance to. While I agree doing research on music is both vital and essential to promote growth as a bboy, I HIGHLY doubt that it is the ONLY music you listen to. Is it really that shameful to be listening to music that you truly enjoy? Even DJ/bboy Ynot from the legendary Rock Steady Crew admitted that his actual Hip Hop collection takes maybe 10% of his entire music bank at best. I will attach the interview with bboy Ynot and DJ Skeme Richard here for those that wants more info~

Point is, why are you trying so hard to be something that you are not? I understand that it can be a way for an individual to express admiration, or sometimes even wishes. However, Hip Hop really is not that serious. It is something that was created from nothing so people who were suffering from poverty can have something that would fuel their daily lives with passion. To totally disregard your background in pursue of Hip Hop

Personally, I find that insulting to your parents as well. They tried their hardest just so that you don't have to experience what the pioneers of Hip Hop had to go through. Is Hip Hop something admirable? Hell yeah! But is it something that you should completely replace your life with? No. Even Skeme Richard said it himself, "Hip Hop used to be such a natural thing, now people are trying way too hard to be extra hip hop." 

Just a piece of my mind,
N-dure

Thank You All!

What is goooooood! I am sorry for have been on hiatus for the last 2 months...ya I know I shouldn't have..but I have a very legitimate reason: I was studying for the MCAT..which I just finished as of Thursday, 6/21/2012. But now that's over with, I am back with full force! Though this post won't really be talking about some usual bboying stuff, this post will talk about some future directions for this blog.

 As mentioned wayyyyyy before in the very beginning of this blog, this blog serves as a good way to valuate my crew and my bboying development in addition to a good tracker for our crew activity. However, besides the physical training apart, I also believes that a bboy should also be armed with some mental arsenal such as history, knowledges, tips, insights, etc. Therefore, this blog serves as a good collection of such gems. Although I cannot guarantee that what I post will be the absolute best things, but they will be things that I found to have been helpful throughout my bboy career.

 For some reason today I randomly checked the stats for this blog and it has most DEFINITELY surpassed my expectations o.O Heck I even swapped up a few bucks because of it. I am very grateful for all the viewers support and hope that you guys would continue to show me some love ^_^ In return, I will try my best to accommodate you guys with my service XD

 On a side note, my friend and I are thinking about starting a mini project of our own that may/should help out up and coming bboys. I will post some more details about it as soon as we figured out the groundwork. New posts shall be coming sometime this week. After all, this is what you guys came here for right? xD But for now, PEACE OUT!

Cheers,
N-dure

IL Breakz 8 @ UIUC ARC MPR6 on April 7th, 2012!

Glad to be back after an extremely stressful week in preparation for IL BREAKZ 8. This is the jam that all of FLI has been waiting and working for all year long; this is the jam where bboys come and representing their names/crews in, as my mentor BennyBen said, the "corn town". But first and foremost, this jam marked the beginning of my crew. The Suburbaknightz crew had its debut previously on IL Breaks 7. Looking back, we have accomplished quite a lot in between ILB7 and ILB8. No, I do not mean accomplishments in terms of winning jams, but rather bonding through attending jams together, battling together, and having fun together.

As the treasurer/member of the organizing board for this jam, I have but one word to describe the feeling I during the jam: EXHAUSTING. Putting the paperwork aside, which, may I add, is unnecessarily complicated, long, and tedious, trying to get everything to go according to plan is simply next to impossible. With our guests arriving day/days before the event, it was still pretty impossible to push the jam forward as a whole entity.

One of the most agitating/annoying feedbacks or/and comments I have been getting regarding to the jam happens during workshops which one of our guests, bboy Physicx (Rivers Crew) was in charge of.

Just because he is known for his explosiveness and powerful dancing styles does NOT mean he has to teach those kind of techniques during his workshop. He had already emphasized that he firmly believes that foundation is more important than learning big moves. And with the modern bboy scenes' tendency to sacrifice foundation for big moves, it really isn't surprising that he would want to make sure that we learn proper foundation.

Secondly, people needs to have more patience.
I CONSTANTLY, and yes I mean CONSTANTLY, got people bothering me about how bboy Physicx could not have both a functional mic and music simultaneously at the beginning of the workshop due to the way the system was set up. The moment that I heard from the tech staff that he could not get both equipments to work, I immediately requested to speak with his superior in order to pursue the slight possibility that this issue could be addressed. Luckily, within ten minutes of time, the tech staff came up with a plausible solution and finally resolved the issue. But during those few minutes of waiting, I was CONSTANTLY bothered with complaints from the same individuals even though I already told them that I was trying my best to accommodate. Dear lord people, I was just as displeased as you were, perhaps even more so, and I DO HAVE A GODDAMN BRAIN so saying it once is more than enough. Phew, finally let that out.

Now, onto the bright side of the jam. This year, as aforementioned, we were very blessed to have big names in the house. The judges this year were Roland Bluntz (Battle Born), Physicx (Rivers), and Wicked (Phase II). The DJ lineup is composed of the legendary DJ Skeme Richards (Rock Steady) and DJ Edouble (Phase II). In addition, MC AMS (Self-X/FLI) truly made the jam entertaining with his mere presence. With such solid lineup, the jam was nothing more than action-packed amazing. Physicx and Roland Bluntz both hosted some very inspiring workshops that are bound to ignite some sparks of creativity under each participants.
This video entails the judges show case. Big shout out to Wicked. Despite his busted knee, he still went out and put out an amazing go on the floor!

I have to say, I am rather damn proud of my crew in this jam. We made it to the top 16 prelim selection out of 24 crews and then lost to our bros from the chicago tribe/cypher headz crew. There's no beef/hate in the battle. In fact, there's nothing but respect, peace, and love. Below are the footage of our battles:

PRELIM:


TOP 16:


In all honesty, for a commando which we JUST MADE and rehearsed for a day to turn out as well as it did during our preliminary round, I was both amazed/shocked by how well it turned out! Surely with more practice, the execution would be way better. But hey, like I mentioned, that commando was under 24 hours old LOL! In terms of battling, I think we did a solid job in demonstrating our foundation while throwing down some pretty legit rounds. However, we lost at the top 16 most likely (just my opinion) due to the difference in the difficulty of our moves of choice in addition to the dynamics of our overall rounds. But nonetheless, we did our best and had a great deal of fun, and in the end, that's what really matters!

My crew and I left early in order to celebrate my boy/crewmate Blu-Jay's 21st birthday! Needless to say, whatever happened in our private after party will stay strictly confidential ^_^ but this jam truly brought our crew even closer. Actually, now that I think of it, this is probably one of the bigger crew gathering! Six out of eight members were present on that day! With most of us attending different universities in pursuit of our academic growth, it is extremely difficult for all of us to have a chance to gather like we did on April 7th. I am very happy that we were blessed with such opportunity and am very glad that we took advantage of it. I miss you all already!

Now the only thing left is the paperwork that is involved. Hopefully I can finalize everything and get everyone who contributed to make the jam successful rewarded.

With curtain for this jam finally fallen, I now have to put a pause into training/sessioning until I am officially done with MCAT on June 21. Ironically, my bro Justinian will be taking it on the same day, time, and place with me. Guess we truly are repping on and off the floor! LET'S DO THIS!

But fear not, I will still be posting on this blog on a regular basis. In fact, bboy Minus-One and I are doing this mini project together that, if successful, can be quite informative for those that are interested in learning more about the dance in general. Well, enough talk for now. PEACE!

N-dure

Suburbaknights @ School of Hard Rocks 3v3

What is up y'all! It has been a month or so since my last post. To live up to my new year's resolutions (one post a month..AT LEAST), I am here to provide a quick overview of a very recent jam that I went to last weekend called School of Hard Rocks at Loyola University in the windy city Chicago. This battle stands a rather important presence for many reasons.

However, the most notable of the reasons being that it serves as a indicator of where we are prior to a series of jams/battles that are coming around the corner. Below is our battle footage:



Due to the amount of crews that signed up for the 3v3, 20 crews to be exact, the judges decided to run the format of preliminary. In other words, the top 8 crews out of the 20 will proceed to the second round utilizing the format of elimination.

This battle is also significant because this is the debut battle for our newest addition to the crew: Rex Chau! Welcome aboard bro! That commando you came up with is so dope! As testimony, just look at the judges face when we did it!

As you may have guessed, because there's only one footage, it is clear that we did not make it past the preliminaries. Am I a bit disheartened? I would be lying if I said I am not. But it doesn't matter to the extent that I am severely disappointed. I had so much fun representing my crew all over the ciphers and I put myself forward as a test of skills. If this is level where I am at, then this is it. This just means that there are still many more areas where we, as a crew, can improve on. On a more positive note, this could probably be a good thing. Because prior to the battle all of us were pretty anxious that we couldn't go out to cipher our hearts out until after we learned that we were not part of the top 8. So either way, it's really for the better ^_^ After all, this is all about having fun!

And to our surprise, guess who we met at this jam :P

Yup! El nino, the RedBull BC Chicago qualifier champion! Got a chance to talk to him in person and found out that he is a very chill and approachable individual who are very humble. Respect bro, keep doing what you do!

In addition, we also got a chance to meet up with DJ Edouble and Wicked from the legendary Phase II crew. It's like meeting with old friends really. We chilled a little bit during the breaks and just talk about how excited we are to have both of them on board with us for IL Breaks 8.

Here's Kmel, another judge in charge of this jam.

Unfortunately, I didn't really have the chance to talk to him in person. One of my biggest regrets in my bboy career being that Kmel "shot an arrow" at me during this jam while he was rocking it out on the floor and my lack of courage to dance on the same floor as him...I did not feel like I was worthy enough at the time...there are tons of people way better than me at rocking at the jam as well...I feared that other people may start hating on if me I went out there...*sigh* note to self: don't be afraid.

We also were fortunate enough to attend workshops prior to the jam hosted by bgirl Asia One of the Mighty Zulu Kingz. Her workshop was very similar to my mentor's, bboy Benny Ben's. which makes sense since they rep the same crew. She takes the concepts of foundation further and even pointed out where we can potentially imbue the foundation with our own flavor. A very insightful workshop. My inability to have a camera ready when bboy Blujay and I talked to her after the workshop really makes me SMH really hard....but I guess it can't be helped :\

Remember how I said this jam is rather important for several reasons? Well, putting aside the two aforementioned reasons, here is the last one: It serves as a reminder of why I was attracted to the culture of Hip Hop in the first place. What is it you say? Well, it is about making bonds with other people who shares the same passion for dance. I can truly be myself on the dance floor and not feel awkward because there are tons of people around me who feels the same way. The indirect companionship provided by people known or unknown to you is like a form of trust that you wouldn't realize you would get and take comfort from. But fact is, I did in this jam and I will continue to do so for as long as I can.

Cheers,
N-dure

Preparing for the Battle Section 2: Point of Focus

Now it has been a long time since I last take an excerpt from the book titled "The Art of Battle" by Alien Ness of the Mighty Zulu Kings. I really don't know why I just decided to stop doing so even after I look back at all the previous posts I made in between this one and the last one that centered its content on it. But in any case, since I figured that out, now I must fix it!

As the title suggests, today's topic is the point of focus. What is it and what does it have to do with bboying? Well, it has everything to do with bboying. Another way to say point of focus is directionality. As many of you know, a bboy battle often features two sides (can be more than two): your crew and your opponent. Because the nature of the battle is aggressive, everything you do is in attempt to "burn" or "out do" your opponent. In other words, EVERYTHING YOU DO WILL AND SHOULD BE DIRECTED TOWARD YOUR OPPONENT. However, how can one say that a gesture is done toward your opponent if you are not even facing him or her? Let's take a good look at this image below:

What do you think? That freeze, if held, would be sick IF he (I think?) does it in a manner that would allow him to look at his opponent at the same time. Many up and coming bboys are, surprisingly, not aware of this small yet vital detail and often times just simply go ridiculously crazy with his throwdowns without giving it much thoughts. Yes, it would be ill if you can pull out of your throwdowns with a clean-cut freeze. But it could be even BETTER if you can be precious about it and face your opponent while doing the freeze. By doing so, it not only shows solid foundation and knowledge about the culture, but also demonstrate mastery over one's own body flow and motion.

However, one thing to keep in mind while doing the aforementioned point is the positioning of the judges.

This pictures pretty much says it all. Due to the poor quality of the picture, I will say the caption here myself. The picture says, "Address the ball? I can't even see the ball!"

Really, enough said. Even if you do all the crazy witty foot techs and what not, if the judges can't see it, it doesn't count for anything. Therefore, while you should maintain eye contact and pinpoint everything you do toward your opponent (and focus your moves in that direction), you should also keep in mind that whatever you do, the judges have to see it as well.

So what if you are in a sticky situation where you have to sacrifice one for the other? Well, to be honest, I really don't think there's a clear difference on which one would be the better of the two. If I really have to choose, I would probably choose to sacrifice the viewing of the judges. Even if they can't see it, if the freeze/or whatever you do is going to make the crowd go wild, then the judges will realize the crowds reaction and act accordingly. However, if you just do it in a way that only the judges can see it but you misplaced your focus somewhere else, then the judges might misinterpret it and blame you for the lack of focus and, consequently, may cost you the battle.

How would one train for the point of focus? It is simple, really. Just keep practicing what you do, but make choose a direction and make sure whatever you do, you end up facing that direction. Sometimes, a move's flexibility on direction may be limited by various reasons. When that happens, know your capacity and accommodate accordingly. If my icy ice to chair can only spin for 270 degrees (3/4 of a full circle) instead of a full circle, then I must adjust where I must face right before I initiate my icy ice, etc.

Hope you guys take some information from this post. Happy learning and keep practicing!

Cheers,

N-dure

With New Year....comes with New Responsibilities!

Is it really that time already? I can't believe a year has already flew by without me being aware of its passing. Well first off, HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL MY FRIENDS/FAMILY/BROS from around the world from TAIWAN!!! That's right, despite all the unexpected turn of events, I have finally arrived at my final destination. To make a long story super duper uber short, I pretty much was a nab (the new term for noob..credits goes to a friend of mine) and did not realize that my passport has expired months ago until I arrived at the Los Angeles's international airport in attempt to board my transfer flight to Taipei. I was fortunate enough to have wonderful in-laws to take me in until I got everything figured out. Thank you all very much if you are reading this!

Anyways, as I was typing up this post I suddenly realized that I had most definitely not been active on this blog for the last month or two. To be honest, this is most likely due to my laziness than anything else. Instead of spending some time blogging, I use my residual time from studying/sessioning/sleeping/eating to play a game known as League of Legends. Hey y'all, if you guys wanna hit me up in game my IGN is speedypeng456 ^_^. Why I have a Riven picture on the left? Well...BECAUSE SHE IS CURRENTLY MY FAVORITE CHARACTER!!!

In any case, let's get back to the point. As I finally completed 50% of my third year of college, I realized that some shift of priorities must be done in order to ensure some degree of success in life. Therefore, with all the extra time I got during this winter break, I had been doing quite a bit of thinking. What was I thinking? Well, to be honest, quite a bit of things. Mostly about life in general and how bboying has impacted me in the past, present, and how it will in the future. To be honest, I do not know how long I have left to dance, and this very thought is very scary. I want to follow the medical track as my career choice but that itself requires countless hours of dedication to studying. With my GPA not as high as I have hoped it to be, I absolutely must focus my attention on to the other giant portion of medical school application: The notorious MCAT. The mere thought of studying for it is frightening, but I sure as hell am not the only one among my friendship circles to walk down such path. Why I am mentioning this? Well, I have made up my mind that I will dedicate the majority of my free time besides school (meaning session/gaming/sleeping time) into studying for MCAT in the following semester. I had been a coward and kept postponing such task in the past year, but I shall run away no longer.

With all this long chit-chat about setting goals of studying for MCAT for myself, it is time to finalize a list of my New Year Resolution!

Supposedly, the resolutions that one makes over New Years are always unrealistic and unachievable. But to be honest, I think setting goals for oneself is very important because it establishes a set distance one needs to cover in order to achieve one's goal. Therefore, setting small goals that are practical and reasonable is a great way to gain some self-confidence and self-motivation in my opinion. Therefore, without further ado....below is my list of New Year Resolutions!

1) Study for MCAT at least an hour or an section a day until the day of the test.
2) Play 3 games of LoL at most per day (if a game lasts longer than 30 min, 2 games a day at most)
3) Keep up with the school workload...even if it means skipping session.
4) Be a loving and thoughtful boyfriend.
5) Be there for my brothers when they are in need.
6) Be as frugal as possible.
7) Always learn/make something new each time I session
8) Drills at session least once a week.
9) Make IL BREAK 8 the best possible jam it can be
1) Update the blog at least once a month

Well, that about sums up my ambitions for the year. Hopefully I can pull through with some amazing determination to achieve them all! What are your New Year Resolutions?

As always, Cheers and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

N-dure

2 Weeks, 2 Jams..then it's...THANKSGIVING!!

Last two weeks had been nothing short of amazing. Literally, I don't think I had the chance to dance so much in not one but two hyped jams. Shout out to my friend Steve Rei Han for organizing Release the Dawgs at Butler University and the bboys at Nequa Valley high school for putting up Suburban Noize 5.

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

Creation vs Cleaning

What is up y'all~ bboy Ndure here once again to share some of my thoughts regarding bboying.

As IL Break 8 approaches closer and closer, many bboys who intend to participate are starting to get hyped up and start to train hardcore for the event. I can't blame them, as I am one of those bboys that intend to be part of the battle with my crew.

However, as of late, my thoughts are torn and split into two during sessions: Should I make new things/combo for IL Break or should I just practice what I have so far and clean it up as much as possible? Every damn time I go to session, I find myself try to create new things at first, but then immediately shifted to clean up my old combos because I suddenly experience a change of heart and feels that doing so is truly the right decision. This is legitimately a never ending cycle.

Originally, I didn't have so much thought about this topic. That is, until one of my crew mate, Justinian, talked to me briefly after I viewed his battle video at his school, Indiana University. He told me straight up that he just did an old set which Rox-it,one of the judges of the event, had seen a gajillion times already. Justinian stated that he just didn't feel comfortable doing new things after a long and exhausting Friday he had. This comment, although may not be perceived as significant, definitely caused me to think.

What would you do 2 months before participating in a bit event? I recalled two years ago before IL Break 7, one of my senpais, Josh Ong, told me that people usually have their "experimental period" in the beginning of the year, then about a month before people started to just practice the same sets over and over again until they can execute it flawlessly. However, not being a firm believer of sets, I find this suggestion to be inapplicable to me. So I started to think what I can do in order to prepare myself when it comes to utilizing the session time. And trust me, it is definitely not as easy as 1 + 1...

For me, because I realized that I have very limited arsenal of moves, I decided that each time I session I should dedicate a good 15-30 minutes to experimentation. By constantly experiment, I should be able to create new moves or combos that I can truly call my own. Then for the remaining time period, I should practice various combos that I want to work on and to be included in my getdowns when it's time to show the judges what my version of bboying is about. And since I am a firm believer of improvising according to the music, I would only practice combos and not sets. There's a huge difference, in case you don't know it yet :P

So the take home point of this post? Well, don't have one in mind XD Well..to be exact, I don't have a CLEAR one in mind, as the answer to each bboys will be different. If you feel like you have very limited arsenal like me, then it probably would be wise to dedicate at least a portion of your session time into the creation process. If you feel like you have enough arsenal but they are not to the point where they are presentable yet, then you should work on cleaning up those mess. If you are just unsure of where you stand in this spectrum, then just do whatever you want really. Afterall, what you do on the day of the battle can't be predicated by premade sets, but be modeled after your interpretation of the music.

Decisions Decisions and...More Decisions....o.O

Since I couldn't sleep late last night ( or rather, this morning ) around 4 am...my mind couldn't help but ponder into the world of bboying. Looking back, I remembered and realized that I went through several different phases of learning about the culture since I first started. Then I compared to my current goals as a bboy to the goals I had set for myself back then...oh boy...what a big difference.

Like many bboys that first started out, I was merely mesmerized by the pure physical capabilities that a bboy can reach. In other words, the field of power moves was, undoubtedly, my ultimate goal as a bboy years ago. Reasons? Well, to be honest, was probably to gain some additional brag rights :P DON'T LIE! IF YOU ARE READING THIS YOU KNOW THIS IS TRUE! But, that was back when I was a junior in high school. I was not exactly into the Hip Hop culture as much as I am now. Quite frankly, I am actually rather ashamed of myself back then. Why? Because I only focused on the physical aspect of the dance instead of the spiritual and musical aspect of the expression. No, it is more accurate to say that back then I viewed bboying not as a dance, but as a sport.

Enough of my shameful past. Now let me show you where I stand in my philosophy/perspective in terms of bboying. After almost 5 years since I was first exposed to the scene, I have learned quite a bit. Hats off to all my mentors and crew mates for illuminating the path which I followed as a bboy. See that picture on the right? His name is bboy Zeshen of the Havikoro crew. I wouldn't say he is my current favorite bboy, but he is definitely one of the bboys who I can watch over and over again and never grow tired of him. His styles is so original and inspiring that I can't help but keep watching him as he dances to the music in his own way. Few have strong enough will to continue to create and follow his or her own path while not conforming to the popular preference of the mainstream bboys/bgirls. Like the infamous Paranoid Android, who also emphasizes on his own personal style regardless of the popular opinion, Zeshen has created a whole new category of dance that is sure to be followed by many future bboys who share the same determination and passion for the dance. At this point of time, this is very important for me. Due to academic pressure, I am chained down to a desk and study my behind off instead of training to be a better bboy. However, with the limited time which I have to do so, I learned to session however the heck I want and disregard many other criticisms. Though I have felt that I may have "dropped down" in the "social hierarchy" of the scene here in Champaign, I do not feel one bit of regret in what I do and how I train as a bboy.

Getting Ready for IL Break 8!!!

After a long period of time this blog has been going MIA, I finally conjured up enough motivation to make another post. Let's hope that this keeps up in the long run :P But this time it was rather easy because I am very excited to announce the coming of another IL Break!

As the treasurer of Floor Lovers Illinois, it is not an exaggeration to say that the whole role of being a treasurer of FLI is to ensure that the club can afford such an extravagant jam. So one can actually say, this post is mainly my overview of the jam that will go over most of the costs and miscellaneous stuff like that :P But for those that are interested in hosting jams in the future...I hope this can be served as a good reference ^_^

Well then let me first put it out front my estimated price for IL Break 8...ready? YOU READY FOR THIS RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF CASH THAT WILL MAKE MOST COLLEGE KIDS GO W-T-F LIKE THIS?!?!

The amount is roughly 6000 US dollars. Ya, That's right...this is quite a grand amount of money. Of course, let me put it out in front, this is NOT INCLUDING the price money for winning IL Break. The reward, according to traditions, are always roughly 1000 US dollars... but usually covered most of that amount by collecting entrance fee to non-university students.

At first glance, this just sounds plain retarded. You may be like "man you don't know what you are talking about"...well I am about to prove you wrong :P Let us start by the most basic part of the jam that features battles: Judges and DJ. As tradition state, IL Break always like to include 3 judges: One judge from a local background; one judge from an international background; and one judge from another part of the USA. Each Judge will be paid 400 dollars for their troubles. That is already 1200 Dollars. As for DJ, we are fortunate enough to have the legendary DJ Skeme Richard as our returning DJ. As signs of our appreciation and respect, we are paying this legend a grand total of 800 dollars. But he's not our only DJ. DJ Los Boogeys are also included on the roster, but the club is going to offer 350 dollars to him. That already put us up to 2350 dollars. Now, if we are to have an exhibition from the big names that are going to show up in the jam, we are going to offer each exhibitioner (going to have 2) 200 dollars...that make it 400 dollars in addition to that 2350...so 2750 dollars. Now each person (that would make it 7 people) need to stay at a nearby hotel in order to provide them courtesy. Hotel costs roughly 75 dollars a night and each person is going to stay 4 days and 3 nights. So that would be 75 dollars x 3 x 7 = 1575 Dollars. 2750 + 1575 = 4325. Now, we are also responsible for covering judge's travel expenses...and since we are going to have an international judge...depends on the flight ticket price..we are talking about roughly another one thousand dollars...the other two judges' gas are also on us...assuming the judge from somewhere in the USA is also within driving distance. So OPTIMISTICALLY SPEAKING...I am assuming roughly 1200 dollars to cover all 3 judges travel expenses. So just base on the roster alone, we are talking about 5525 dollars total. And this is only half the game.

A big event like IL Break definitely needs to be advertized across campus, therefore, it is essential to have fliers to be passed around. Now, one would ask me why we need to have the campus students to know about IL Break and spend another 50 to 100 Dollars on them. Well, the reason is rather simple yet at the same time complicated >.<. To make a long story short, college student organizations simply cannot afford such colossal amount of money on their own. Therefore, registered student organizations are eligible to apply for funding from school known as SORF funding. But to do so, the treasurer of the club (namely me) has to score 100% on a 35 question quiz on SORF funding in order to be eligible for the club to apply. In addition, the school's ability to fund is constantly decreasing over time. SORF was able to cover roughly 83% for IL Break 7. But my current guestimation is that even if SORF is applied, they can probably cover up to 80% at BEST. To apply for SORF funding, I have to also put up a "portfolio" that can convince the school to fund IL Break 8. And to be able to do that, I have to make some kind of bullsh!t like "spreading the hip hop culture to the student populus..and this is beneficial to the campus because...." something like that....all just to increase the chance of getting funded. The more the fund, the better because it is rather hard for the clubs on campus to make money. SORF usually covers approximately 80% of the total cost. However, due to the fact that SORF is getting poorer and poorer by the year, it is questionable if it can do the same as two years ago. In fact, it is relatively safe to assume that SORF will probably cover up to 75%-78% this year...optimistically speaking.

Putting those fliers aside, the vendor also costs money. Being a university student and returning customer does have its advantage :P We are able to reserve the Illini Ball Room ABC for roughly 250 dollars. In addition to that, we also need the union's kickass audio system that will probably cost around 50-75 dollars. All in All, we are talking about another 325 dollars. 5525 + 325 = 5850 Dollars. There we go! Quite a colossal amount no? XD

Well despite the seeming impossible amount of money required to make this jam happen, FLI will definitely try their bets to bring IL Break 8 into existence. Hope to cyall there!

Resting is Part of the Game Plan

Sup people! Bboy Ndure here once again to just talk about random crap that will probably make you not wanna read this post anymore ^_^ But any case, for many of us, Summer break is already half over. Being to this bench point, it really made me look back and think about what I have accomplished as a bboy. To be honest, I am both disappointed and happy at the same time. Ya, I know..rather confusing right? XD

Well, I am happy because I have been trying to put some focus on a specific move while trying to redefine the kind of bboy I am. By doing so, it soaked up quite a bit of my training time o.O In fact...it definitely have prevented me from learning or creating a couple more things >.< Then I remember somewhere in my mind (not sure where I heard it, but it's just there...so just accept it) that "resting is part of training too".

Then I recalled the time when I started learning my first and second power moves, windmills and master swipes respectively, and compared the learning processes of both. It seems like I obtained the two techniques not due to the result of constant and continuous training, but as direct consequence of taking a minor break in between those intensive training sessions.

I am no doctor (although aiming to be one), but my guess is that the stress accumulated while trying to learn something is the major factor that prevents us from achieving our desirable results. If our muscles are all worn out from, let's say, 4 weeks of daily and strenuous training, how can one expect one's body to comply and perform as if it is not exhausted? Therefore, taking a short break may prove to be more productive than training. Resting is kind of training too~

This will be short post...just because I wrote this at 4:51 AM =.= BUT TOMORROW IS REDBULL BC ONE USA QUALIFIER!! Can't wait to get together with the rest of my crew brothers and rep it hard on the dance floor! ^_^ Don't get much of a chance to do that nowadays..gotta make every second count >:3

How a Bboy is Judged?

What is up yall! N-dure here once again to share some of my thoughts regarding the dance. I thought today would be a good time to take a break from taking lessons from Alien Ness' book and talk about something else. Something has been bothering my mind recently about the way people perceive bboys. It is rather difficult to put into words, so bear with me with my horrible fobby english :P This is something I have pretty much confirmed after attending Breakin the Law 8: Elev8tion.

Now I urge you all to think from a perspective of an audience at a jam. No, you are not a complete stranger, you are just a regular bboy attending a jam and watching the battles as a spectator. Now a battle has just started. Two bboys came on the floor and faced off against each other. The DJ played a chill song for the bboys to dance to.One bboy came out hard, toprock -> transition -> ground work -> airflare -> power combo -> clean freeze. The other bboy, on the other hand, did some pretty simple stuff in comparison. Toprock -> transition ->footwork/groundwork->freeze. Who won? You guessed it! The second bboy ^_^

Now I am not saying how I judge a bboy is the absolute right one. Don't get me wrong. However, the example I just gave will support my upcoming thesis. So What is my thesis you may asked? It is simple: More and more bboys are losing the artistic/dancing aspect of of the dance.

Ya, many of you will probably call it bullshit. Well, chill out dudessss =.= Keep in mind that this is merely my opinion and I did state that how I perceive a bboy is NOT the right one. What I am about to say in this post is merely the projection of my perception of how a bboy should be judged. So don't take it too seriously. But since you already read this far, might as well keep hearing me out.

Now what would cause me to say such a thing? Do I hate power moves because I can't do them as well as many bboys so I am merely making an excuse to put down power moves? Bullshit. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely a fan of that aspect of the dance. Hell, I train hard for those too. However, from what I see in the jams that I have been to (small and big), many spectators often emphasizes on the "athletic aspect of the dance rather than artistic"..as bboy Prince from Ichigeki (Planet Bboy) stated in the documentary.

What I am putting out here is not merely based on a single experience that I had, but of the several. I attended Il Break 7, Breakin' the Law 8, and many other decent size jams. So if my hypothesis was wrong, then the trend should have been nonexistent...but sadly enough, it does exist. Whenever a bboy put out some hard or rare power moves, he is almost always are guaranteed to receive props. Whereas a style head that emphasizes on style work may or may not receive equal amount of respect and props if he or she brings out her own flavor while dancing to the music.

I understand that doing harder things definitely should receive good amount of props. However, that should NOT the only thing you judge a bboy on. After all, no matter how hype people put it out to be, it is ultimately, and undeniably, a dance. It is not what a bboy can do while the other can't separate the elite from the rest. It is how a bboy make use of what he has in his arsenal in such a way that it would go well with the music. If the music calls for a power move set, then that's great. But when the music doesn't fit at all, then the "musicality" factor needs to be considered before finalizing an opinion on a bboy's run. Bboying, as flashy as the it is, is not gymnastic, it's a dance. So let's perceive the participants as dancers rather than stunts men. That's just my two cents.

N-dure

Breakin The Law 8: Elev8tion

To be honest, I almost wanted to neglect writing a post about Breakin the Law 8: Elev8tion for many reasons. Most important reason out of all, however, is the lack of footage or pictures to go along with the blog post. As many readers have already noticed, as you should, I love to put some pictures to either help me illustrate a point or to just give a nice visual effect to the post. However, because of my stupidity of leaving my camera battery charger in Taiwan during my visit last winter, my camera activity has been reduced to 0. But this will change because I just got the charger from my mom! ^_^

Another reason that contributed to the shaky fate of this post is the timing. Due to the fact that Breakin the Law 8 happened the week RIGHT BEFORE the last round of exams, which was also RIGHT before finals. So right after BTL, I went into hermit mode and studied like a mad man like a college student should. Then before I knew it, it has been a good 3 weeks to a month before I finally have the free time to post.

However, since I promised in the previous post that I would blog about Breakin The law, I must dismiss my laziness and man up and blog like a boss! However, because of my horrible, and failing memory, I may not be able to supply this post with accurate details. So in order to supplement for the possible short ass post about a huge event on the caliber of BTL, I will most likely include some other stuff in this post. So again, forgive me, but this time, for my randomness XD

Getting to Wisconsin Madison was no simple task, especially when you are about 5 hours away from the place. Furthermore, having classes on the day of definitely does not help with the case. Nonetheless, a group of Floor Lovers Illinois (FLI for short) members were determined to get there, me included. Because BTL was a two day event that lasted from Friday to Saturday, many of us, having classes on Friday, would have to rush our asses to Wisconsin right after classes. And God definitely did not like the idea, and punished us with never-ending shower. After a few minutes of attempting to rendezvous, at long last, we were off! I was in the same car Tom, Jason, Cary, and Vicki.

The ride was rather interesting. Even though it was long, it really wasn't as bad as many people would think. We stopped by somewhere in Chicago to drop off Vicki at her mother's office. Jason and I were rather surprised by the fact that her mother works for a biomedical firm! Being students of the science, we were intensely interested and could not help but ask a few questions regarding having possible internship under her guidance. However, since we were obviously short on time, we cut our conversation short and got back on track to Wisconsin.

On the way, we listened to various kinds of music, as well as in various languages. Most notably, the Asian kinds. It's been quite a while since I heard and sung "Sakura", by Naotaro Moriyama. It was indeed a beautiful piece that is worthy to be played on the day of graduation, as many Asian schools have done. While listening to this song, I was utterly reminded that after this semester, I will be half way done with college. While the mere thought definitely saddens me, I definitely look forward to the life afterward. But hey, that's for another time. Gotta focus on the present!

When we finally arrived to the capitol, we were utterly frustrated and shocked by the unorganized directions as well as an insane amount of ridiculous one-way streets. It took us about an hour before we finally were able to locate our destination. Drenched in rain and soaked in exhaustion, we dragged out asses into the prestigious-looking building and found the place where the event was held. To our dismay, we found out that the room was covered by carpets. There were only the main lino, which was used for competitions, as well as about 2 other linolium/floors that were set up for the ciphers. Blujay and I were rather disappointed by this. It was not until we pretty much said "fuck it, we drove 6 hours to get here, and we are going to fucking get it down on the floor" did we realize that it was not that bad at all. The carpet was totally smooth and allowed people to do spin moves like 1990/2000s on them.

While ciphering was definitely our main way of showing our participation, watching the battles were the other half of the game. However, it was a rather difficult task to find a good spot to spectate since we arrived so late. But we managed to get a pretty decent view of the battles. While the battles were divided into many categories, our main interests lied within the bboy crew battles and bboy 2 vs 2 battles. I just gotta say, being to a jam of this huge scale for the first time, I was definitely impressed with what the participants had to bring to the floor. Not only were they creative, they were also energetic and unique. Ciphers...not so much. The ciphers were more like "practices" for the participants. Only a few, including Blujay and myself, were there to just dance.It was rather hard to break the power move practice theme and just dance to the music, especially when those kind of bboys are clearly the minorities at the scene. Hopefully this won't be the case throughout.

Another thing which I noticed during my stay is the level of energy of the crowd. Perhaps it was because of the weather, or perhaps it was because of the level of the jam, the crowd was usually dead silence unless one of the participants busted out some unique or uncommon power moves. While styling/killing the beats of music still scored some props from the crowd, the ratio is significantly lower. This made me think....in what direction has modern bboying evolved into? Has the younger generation bboys come to only appreciate power moves rather than perceiving the art form as another form of dance? Or perhaps other reasons that I am just not aware of? This is for another time.

After the Friday portion was finished, us FLI people returned to our hotel. To our surprise, we were welcomed by a big hotel room that was facing the lake! After paying our respective amount of money for staying at the hotel, we quickly searched for a solution to our immediate hunger. It was here, James Park came to the rescue with his amazing knowledge of food. After hearing some suggestions, we decided to eat some local flavored pizzas. At the place, we ordered 3 humongous pizzas. At the end of it, we were mighty full...afterward all that jazz, we were extremely exhausted and immediately claimed our spots on the floor (only girls and couples slept on the bed) and went on to dream about tomorrow.

Waking up to the alarm around 9 am, I slowly crept to the tables in the hotel room and started to work on some homework that I brought from school. However, after about an hour, Jenkin Ng woke up and started his day. After awhile, I decided to just say screw it and talked to him a little bit. Being probably the eldest member currently in FLI, I thought he would probably share some knowledge he has, seeing that I was planning on be part of the executive board next semester. Then I realized that, it has been quite a while since I first approached FLI. This conversation was both nostalgic and saddening, seeing that after one more semester, a lot of current members will be gone for good. I guess we just gotta make the best out of it and treasurer every second we have.

After everyone slowly came to their conscious from their deep slumber, we were going to watch the Bulls game, but decided to simply leave and explore the town before the jam. We went out and explored Madison's equivalent of our Green Street. And dear lord, was it wayyyyy longer and wayyyy more prosperous than our Green Street. Their shops were not only filled with various kinds of restaurants, but they also featured some really interesting shop. After we decided to settle with "Five Guys" for lunch, we went in and I was simply amazed by the quality of their fries. It was soooo...good....simply orgasmic ^_^ Afterward we went to get some ice cream. Having sensitive teeth usually prevent me from enjoying this desert, but hell I would endure the pain for THIS ice cream. It's the tastiest ice cream I have ever eaten!

After all the exploring, we proceeded to the last day of Breakin the Law. To be honest, the second day definitely was not as hyped as the first day. Perhaps it was because we were finally adjusted to the atmosphere, or whatever the reason. But the battles just simply didn't appeal to me all that much. True, there were a couple dope battles, but I definitely liked what I saw on Friday way more. Nonetheless, I still were amazed by the popping battles and the house/footwork battles. It was the first time I was exposed to the latter battles and I wonder how it will help me with my dance when I learn it. Perhaps some other time XD

But my night at Breakin the Law had to be cut short because I left with James in the middle of the second night. Although a little bit unwilling, I promised Grace that I would return on Saturday instead Sunday if an option was available. A promise is a promise. So I took the ride from James with Sean and Sherry. On the way back, I kept reminiscing about the event. It was, after all, my first time in a big scale and well-known jams that's not Ill Break. I have witnessed many new things in this jam, and I intend to make use of this new found experience.

Preparing for Battle Section 1, as worded by Alien Ness

As bboys, I am sure many of us will be interested in the method which Alien Ness used to practice in preparation for battles. Well, despite the misleading title, Alien Ness did not reveal his session routine. Instead, he simply drew an outline as to how and where you should practice. The personal schedule is up for your imagination. Even though this section of the book lasts exactly two pages (with size 14 font + all caps...).

Despite the short length of the section, this section definitely made me think harder than any other sesction of the book. As an up and coming bboying, preparing for battles are really what concerns me the most due to the fact that the amount of jams I can attend to is very limited to do school work and such. Given the limitation, I want to make each and every single opportunity counts. With that said, the preparing process for such golden opportunity is really what I want to know. Nonetheless, even though Alien Ness himself didn't go into details, I was able to take a few minutes off of my studying and think about how to make a practice/session productive. Here is his outline!

Level 1: The Creative Process
Alien Ness believes that the process of creating a set/run should be done at home in PRIVATE. Now, I did not just capitalize the word "PRIVATE" because he capped that word in his book. I want to emphasize on the importance of the word "PRIVATE". Recall a couple posts ago I compared the advantages and disadvantages about sessioning alone as oppose to sessioning with a group. The post is here: http://suburbaknightzcrew.blogspot.com/2011/02/just-some-food-for-thoughts.html . Do check it out if you need a reminder!
In level 1, this is where all the magic begins. This is the step that will define you as an individual and differentiate you from other bboys with your style. This is where you can come up with a blueprint of your set before you test it out in your practice spot. Personally, this step is truly the enjoyable part for me. I would come up with a couple things that I would want to try out next time I go session.

This step is also the place where you can think about how and what you can do to improve in general! Be it foundation, power, combos, or anything. Personally, I am starting to dig the idea of having a little handy dandy notebook with everything I know written in it. That way, it will allow me to look through my list of my arsenal and perhaps have an epiphany.

Level 2: Training
This should really be very very obvious. This is the part where people would refer to it as "in da lab!" This process is where you put your ideas to a test and see if you can do it. This should always be done at 100%, as if you are battling someone. I call this "shadow battling", named after "shadow boxing". This process is to pretend that you are battling another individual. This mindset will allow you to practice your set/run at 100%, if not more. Should always try to make this happen as many times as possible.

Keep in mind that even if you can pull it off successfully on the first try, it does not mean that you have it down solid. Explore the possibilities. Pretend that you fail to do this one particular move and you crash, what would you do then? Make several possible scenarios and grow on it. That way, you can build on to your already expanding arsenal!

Level 3: The Actual Practice
"Okay wait a minute...didn't we just go over practicing?" is what you may ask after looking at the title of this level. But in reality, the two are completely different thing. By level 3, Alien Ness is referring to the place that is the absolute best place to test out what you have obtained during practice: Cyphers! Recall that I also mentioned the importance of cyphering a couple posts ago. Refer to this post if you need a refresher: http://suburbaknightzcrew.blogspot.com/2011/01/battles-vs-cyphers.html
Anyhow, Alien Ness believe that cyphers are the best place to test your sets/runs for two reasons. One of which, as mentioned above and from previous posts, is that you are at the mercy of the music, energy of the cypher, and the dangers that are all around you, familiar or not. This is the place to test your strength as a dancer under pressure and many unknown variables. Another good reason pertains to those that plan on battling at jams right after cyphers. If you keep on cyphering on and on, it makes people/judges eager to see you battle. By building up the anticipation, you can play a couple mind games with the judges/potential opponents in such a way that it may be advantageous to you. I will cover mind games in later posts.

Well that's about it for now! It maybe awhile until the next post is available due to the fact that finals are coming up in 2-3 weeks...and Breaking The Law: Elev8tion is next weekend! Rest assured that I will update on the event on this blog right after...but perhaps it will be more of a picture/video oriented post ^_^

Until next time!

N-dure

The 10 Battle Commandments, as revealed by Alien Ness

As promised, in this post I will talk about "The 10 Battle Commandments" that Alien Ness organized in this book. Again, I will be doing this from the perspective of the Suburbaknightz Crew because, after all, this blog is dedicated to mainly the SK members. However, I will also summarize what Alien Ness has to say for each of the commandments. So fear not!

1. Don't Sleep!
Well, the title of it all is rather deceiving. what Alien Ness really mean by this is to "ALWAYS EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED".

Dancers are bound to have their off days, whether they are experienced or inexperienced. With that said, any given dancer has the potential to win in a battle against any other dancer. The chance is never 0%. From experience, I know that Suburbaknightz Crew are very humble and will never underestimate our opponents. Great job following this commandments knightz!

2. Never Show Your Whole Arsenal!
As many bboys/bgirls SHOULD KNOW, there are always cyphers at jams that hosts battles. This commandment is really straight forward. Never show EVERYTHING you have in the cyphers if you are participating in the battles. If a bboy fail to follow this, then the bboy will definitely ruin the element of surprise, which is, arguably, the greatest weapon a bboy or a bgirl can utilize.

Going off tangent for a little, I recall my mentor, Benny Ben, implied something different. To him, competition is not the most important thing in a jam. A jam is a place where one can experience and test where he or she stands in the scene. As mentioned in one of the previous post, cyphers is THE best way to do so. However, since this book is mainly written to provide battling tips, one should see what Alien Ness' mean.
Ya...about this commandments. Maybe because we have limited arsenal, we are pretty guilty of doing this. So just keep working on expanding our vocabularies and techniques and we will eventually over come this weakness! Alien Ness suggests that we should try to organize our moves/sets into two categories: Cypher moves for the show and burners for the battles.

3. Never do any Moves that are not Mastered!
Again, pretty straight forward. Don't do things that you are not sure of. Many experienced bboys know that one crash is pretty much all it takes for you to lose the round. Therefore, a bboy must make every round counts! Doing moves that you are not confident with will only do you harm. Leave the practicing part at home/lab!
Well, most of the knightz are guilt-free in this matter. Personally though, I am like the worst when it comes to doing moves that I JUST learned in battles. Definitely not a good thing....

4. Never do Multiple Runs!
Well let's take it easy and define the term "run" in this case. The term "run" most likely refers to a get down, or a set. Ever see a bboy do a pretty quick set on the floor, stand up and pause for a beat or two, then get back down to the floor again? That's what Alien Ness means by multiple runs. To his standard, he find that redundant and will bring negative scoring. How? Well think about it. If you do one clean run first, stood up, and then do another run, can one guarantee that the second run will be as clean as the first one? No. You are spending some extra energies that you could potentially save for later. On top of that, if your second run is sloppier than the first, then it will most definitely affect your scoring.

Again, my mentor Benny Ben mentioned something that is a little bit contradictory to this. In one of his sessions, he taught Blujay and I a few transition that will allow us to stand up after a run, and then proceed for another run to continue the flow of the set. So my best guess is that this is probably more of a personal taste. But if you are going to do a second run, you better as hell make sure that your second run can either top or maintain your energy from the first round to make it count!

5. Never Follow a Move with the same Move!
I guess Alien Ness is a man that emphasizes simplicity when it comes to words :P. But again, like the title suggested, do NOT do the same move that your opponent before you did. According to Alien Ness, doing so is only a waste of energy. One is better off use another counter move to fend off the round. However, he did mention that there is an exception to this rule, and that is if you are absolutely certain that you can top your opponent in that move or to use it as a way to mock your opponent. Otherwise, it is better to use another counter move so you can save the move your opponent just did before you for another round. This is, apparently, very effective against opponents with limited arsenal.
Alright guys, let us be honest. How many of us actually do the moves RIGHT AFTER our opponents when we know that we can do it either on the same level or better? I know that I am most certainly guilty of this. Evidence can be provided in our most recent battle against Cypher Rangers @ Cypher Central. I went and did plane millz right after my opponent. Is this one of the exceptions? Whether be a yes or no, definitely need to avoid this!

6. Less Talk, More Concentration!
Ever see one crew continuously bash on the other crew while the opposing crew was doing a getdown in the no-man's land? Oh hells I have seen too many of these. The crews will not be mentioned, but many outstanding crews that doesn't really need to trash talk down the opponents constantly violate this commandment. Save up that energy and try to at least leave a good impression at the end of the battle, even if you lose. According to Alien Ness, most trash talkers that he had encountered were remembered as trash talkers rather than good bboys, even if they did win the battle.

Growing up in the suburban area, it is rather hard for us to jump right into the "bboy mentality", or the "confidence", so to speak. To many inexperienced suburban bboys, showing "confidence" can sometimes be labeled as simply being rude to the opponent. However, I know that the Suburbaknightz Crew have the ability to find the balance between being rude and showing confidence simultaneously. In fact, we did in all our battles. But to many judges, perhaps a more aggressive approach would be preferably. But hey, that's who we are. If they don't like it, too bad.

7. Strategy Wins Battles, not Moves!
Many bboys often times are judging a battle by seeing which side can offer the most variety of impressive moves. However, while having many good moves are great, knowing when to use them is truly the key to winning battles. When you see a bboy that clearly outdo you in power moves, would you go out there and respond with your own power moves knowing that you are probably going to not impressive the judges and audience? There are two things you can consider doing at this point: You can either just throw a wasteaway set to give your opponent this round while saving up your energy so you can do an impressive set in the next; or you can respond with something you have saved up in your sleeve and utilize the surprise factor. Alien Ness spoke about in the past how he should have lost many battles, but because he can strategize well in these kinds of situations, he emerged victorious.

Well, like many bboys, I tend not to have a plan whenever we have a battle, putting commandos aside. Whenever the opponent outdo me right before my run, I tend to just go in and try to outdo him with the best of my abilities. Like the rest of the knightz, we attempted to outdo our opponents every single time by going all out. By doing so, we are not using our arsenal very wisely, and this can be fatal in battles. Perhaps we should start having some kind of plans before going in.

8. If it's a Battle, Let it be Known!
Since this commandment really applies to battles during cyphers, this really doesn't apply to the Suburbaknightz Crew YET, since we haven't encountered a battle during cyphers yet. However, to those that did, make sure that your opponents KNOW that it's a battle. Don't just go say you owned the guy without the guy even realizing that it was a battle. I know it sounds silly, but this has happened in Il BReak 7 and School Yard Brawl.

9. Keep your Eye on the Prize!
I have seen too many battle footage/battles where bboys will attempt to do a freeze or toprock while NOT FACING the opponents. This pretty much defeats the purpose of even doing a battle in the first place. Keep your eyes on the opponent to show that you have got that confidence! If you don't, it could potentially lose you the battle! KEEP YOUR FACE FACING TOWARD YOUR OPPONENTS DURING TOPROCK AND ALL THE FREEZES! One way to practice this is to place an object on the ground and set it as the "returning point". For every set/freeze you do, try to end up facing that object in the end. This is the training method recommended by Alien Ness.
As of now most of the Knightz don't have too much problems with this commandment. In fact, I would say we are pretty decent in this aspect. But I know for a fact that we can't truly follow this 100% of the time. So more training to raise up that percentage!

10. Admit your Losses!
Finally, the last commandment. Since Alien Ness actually worded this commandment better than I can, I will quote him for this one: " THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD IS WHEN ONE CANNOT ADMIT TO LOSING A BATTLE. TRUTH IS, IN A BATTLE ONE PERSON HAS TO LOSE. IF IT'S YOU, MAKE THE BEST OF IT AND COME BACK STRONGER".
This is probably the most important commandment in my opinion. When you enter competitions, there WILL be times when you lose, it is as simple as that. Don't be one of those assholes that will criticize the choices made by judges when they decided to fail you. Instead, go up to them and ask them why they think you have lost the battle. Learn from your mistakes, and come back harder next time!

The Suburbaknightz knows our limitations as bboys and college students. We can't dedicate 100% of our time to bboying because we have our academic priorities and expectations to meet. We know that we are definitely not as good as bboys who dedicate their time 100% and wholeheartedly to the art. While power to them, we know that there are battles which we simply cannot win, and we acknowledge that. Great props Knightz!

Well this is it! The 10 commandments of battling. I apologize for such a long post...but hey, if you really want to get something from Alien Ness, take your time to read it, review it, and apply it. The next post about the book will be titled "Preparing for Battles: Section 1". Look forward to it!

Cheers!

N-dure

What it Means to You

So Bboy Blujay here:

It's my birthday today, and I am at an age where I wonder where I am in life... who I am, what I've become, what has shaped me to be the person I am today. And I look back at what is me, and there is one striking portion of me that I will never forget, and that is bboying.

The 5 elements of Bboying, as worded by Alien Ness

I am sure that many of you are familiar with the manga called Naruto, I mean..it's only one of the most popular yet very long manga series ^_^ Sometimes in the series, they mentioned that each ninjutsu element traces back to the 5 natures of chakra: Fire, water, lightning, earth, and wind. Well similarly speaking, Alien Ness categorized everything about bboying into 5 similar elemental classifications. He divided the dance into fire, earth, air, water, and ether. Let's go further into the details of each.

Fire: The element of fire, when mentioned, is often associated with a hint of heat and danger. With that said, it is only logical for Alien Ness to define the element of fire as a a bboy's attitude in battles. He stated: "YOUR FIRE IS HOW HARD YOU COME OUT OF THE GATE,WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE ALL IN YOUR OPPONENT'S FACE, AND NOT JUST LOOKING AT THE GROUND". As I was reading this, I recalled the teaching from one of the OG of FLI named Edward Moses. Recently he came to visit campus and pretty much taught the exact same thing to us. This made me think: Did we do a good job as a crew to enforce this element? The Suburbaknightz crew definitely can improve in this aspect. Seeing that we were involved into the scene at a minor environment back in the suburban area, it is hard for many of the suburban bboys to adapt to this fiery spirit that is meant for pure agitation and aggravation. But nonetheless, I think this is one thing that all of us can work on, especially if we are fairy new to the scene.

Earth: As many bboys know, we spend a whole lot of deal on the floor itself instead of dancing at standing height. Therefore, it only makes sense for Alien Ness to define the element of earth as floor work. Now what does that entail? This includes all your footwork, freezes, rolls, back rocks, and even power moves like windmills and, according to Alien Ness, headspin, which depends on how you get into it. This is pretty much the bread and butter of the dance in my opinion. This is the element which all bboys will strive to improve constantly. However, one thing I realized when I watched bboys practice is that it is one thing to know how to do it, it is another to know how to apply it. Even though one may know how to do a move, but this bboy or bgirl may or may not have emphasized on the form as he or she trains for it. Another possibility is that he or she may not even know how to get into it during a set. Therefore, when training, try to keep a look out for both form and application methods.

Air: You may wonder what the element of air may represent. Well, seeing that tornado picture, what's the first thing you think about? That's right, Power! This is the category which defines all the power moves that makes you "fly" in the air. In other words, this includes, as Alien Ness said, "AIR CONSISTS OF(BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO) ALL YOUR AIR MOVES, FLIPS, SWIPES, FLARES, CONTINUOUS BACKSPINS, HALOS, AIR TRACKS, AIR FLARES, 1990'S, ELBOW SPINS, SWIRLS, AND SOMETIMES HEADSPINS (DEPENDING HOW YOU GET INTO THEM)." This is the acrobatic aspect of the dance, and it is many bboys dream to have a huge arsenal of moves in this category. This is definitely one of the weakness of our crew. One reason being that power moves requires tons of hours of training. But because all of us are pretty tide down by academic pressure, it is very hard to put into that many hours into the move while improving our earth element. This is why a lot of bboys nowadays either choose to follow the path of earth or air, but rarely both. However, this should definitely not dishearten us. Instead of feeling discouraged, we should still continue to invest part of our session time into learning power moves. Then we we do learn it, we will try to corporate it into our style work or find various ways of getting into it. Learning one air move will provide a tons of possibilities, therefore there is no rush in learning many air moves at once.

Water:The ultra-uber-sexy Bruce Lee once said "Be like water, my friend." in one of his interviews. What does that mean? Well, what he means probably contains a different meaning from the way Alien Ness views it in terms of bboying. The element of water represents the flow of movements in bboying. In other words, this element defines what we call the transitions. Only when correct transitions are applied in between movements can it maintain, and even increase, the flow of the set. Alien ness stated "I BELIEVE EVERYTHING SHOULD HAVE A CONTINUOUS FLOW, WITH NO HESITATION FOR A SET UP." My mentor, bboy Benny Ben from the Rivers Crew and Mighty Zulu Kingz also emphasized the same thing: Everything needs to have, or maintain, the flow or the energy that one creates in the beginning of the set. Some members of the Suburbaknightz Crew definitely are the masters of this element. This is definitely one of the bigger focus for bboys that emphasizes on style work.


Ether:What is ether? To be honest I definitely did not hear of this element until Alien Ness mentioned this element...but I guess this was some ancient Western ideals. Ether, according to wikipedia, was once believed to hold everything together. It is this very element that keeps the other four elements together like a glue. What would be the bboying counterpart? Ether in this case would then represent Rhythm. No matter what we do as bboys or bgirls, the most important thing to do is to make sure that everything you do is on beat. Ultimately speaking, bboying is a dance, not a move contest.

Therefore, dancing on a beat is a GIVEN. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. One mishap with the music it could almost always mean instant lose in a battle, as Alien Ness mentioned. The Suburbaknightz Crew in general definitely don't have too much problem with this element. However, there are still room for improvement. After examining our past battles, it seems like we rock the beat when we get a good feel of the music. We can definitely be more consistent.

Well this is it for the 5 elements of bboying, as worded by Alien Ness. The next post will cover the content of the book called the 10 Commandments of Bboying! Look forward to it!

Cheers!

N-dure