BBoy riPHt
Joined: 19 Jun 2005
Posts: 93
Location: Chicago/Boston
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| Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:19 pm Post subject: Windmill Tutorial |
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Hi everybody,
It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd throw in another tutorial for the sake of those trying to learn the elusive move known as windmills. For starters, let's talk about the windmills themselves.
Windmills, or mills for short, fall under the category of moves known as power. As the name implies, this category often requires large amounts of upper body and abdodminal strength. Most power moves involve spinning as well, and can be judged simply by how many times they are done and how clean they are. Style doesn't particularly play a large role in power moves. The "easiest" power moves are headspin and handglide, which are both relatively self-explanatory. Windmills are the next step up, and are the predecessors to harder moves such as flares and air flares. Windmills require the least amount of strength of these three.
Windmills are an adaptation from the gymnastics move by the same name. The difference is, most breakdancers will do windmills with their feet cocked, while gymnasts point their toes outwards. In terms of describing the actual windmills, that is a little difficult. Pictures will come later, but for now. think of it as a move with two different rotations, but with the same body position throughout. The body position is like an airchair with legs perfectly straight and spread behind you, but with the non-stabbed hand (hand not in your stomach) directly below your face instead of out to the side. By pulling on this hand, you can give yourself the horizontal rotation in this move. By horizontal rotation, I basically mean if you were looking down from the ceiling, you would see the dancer move either clockwise (for right hand dominant mills) or counter-clockwise (for left hand dominant mills). The other rotation applies to sort of a barrel roll motion with your body, essentially rolling from hands on to your back, then continuing around onto your hands. Combine them together, and you have windmills.
For simplicity's sake, I'm going to write the rest of this section as if you were a right-hand dominant dancer. If you are left hand, remember that everything is reversed (clockwise becomes counterclockwise, right hand becomes left etc. etc.)
To start windmills, get in the first position described above, namely an airchair on your right hand stabbed (in your stomach) with your left hand either below your face or even to the right a little more. Also, the fingers of the stabbed hand should either point from the right to somethere around your feet. Where in that range they point doesn't matter, but keep your fingers together, otherwise you might break them. Your legs should be straight out behind you, toes touching the ground. Keep your knees locked. This is essential to maintaining good form, because if your knees are bent, you'll look like an idiot flopping around on the floor.
From this starting position, push up with your legs so your entire body is in a straight line, angled with the ground at somewhere between 20-45 degrees. This action should feel somewhat like you're winding your body up, when done properly. Immediately after you get into this position, kick your right leg under your left leg in a counterclockwise motion. If you keep your legs straight and spread, this should lift your left leg out of the way. When you kick, your entire body should move about 90 degrees clockwise, still on your stabbed right hand. After 90 degrees, collapse from your right hand onto your right shoulder and tuck your chin. When on your back, your legs should stay straight and spread, with as little bending at the waist as you possibly can. as soon as your right shoulder hits the ground, you need to twist your torso in a rolling motion over onto your left as fast as you can. This will help in keeping your momentum up as well as help with moving your left leg as you will see in the next section.
As you roll onto your back, focus on your left leg, and sweep it under your right leg. Again, if you keep your legs straight and spread, the right should just move up out of the way without any actual "lifting." The momentum you got from rolling should translate your up onto your left shoulder. Your left arm should be bent so that your hand is roughly at your left shoulder, so once your left shoulder hits, it can push up and help you get back up on your hands.
Now your know how to do one mill.
However, doing multiple mills is what is truly impressive, and continuing them is slightly different. You need to be able to focus on keeping your momentum with each rotation, as well as on the sweeping motions of your legs. After the starting mill, you should not use your hands to propel yourself any more. The momentum from the past mill and your kicking motions need to be enough to rotate you clockwise, while your rolling motion must stay the same each time. If this doesn't happen, your mills will not look continuous. Thus, the second mill in a sequence is radically different from the first, but the third is very similar to the second, with the fourth being exactly the same as the third.
And there you have it. Mills. Now be careful. Don't do these on carpet until you're very experienced. You will burn your face. Even on smooth floors, you should get a scab somewhere on the upper area of your forearm, around your elbow. This is a sign that you are collapsing onto the right place. And don't get frustrated. Mills are something that surprisingly few people can get, despite being a relatively simple move.
Keep a few things in mind:
1. Keep your legs straight.
2. Keep your legs spread.
3. Keep your body in a straight line as much as possible.
4. Focus on things in this order; right leg, right arm, right shoulder, entire torso (twisting), left leg, left shoulder, left arm.
Good luck and happy dancing for the new year! |
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