Hi I'm New

Hey everyone I've been shuffling for about 2 - 3 months, on and off. Been making videos as well for a bit cause I have nothing else to do in my free time lol. Anyways some advice and feedback would be really nice because I am the only person that I know who shuffles



I'm just playin around at the start so skip to 3:50 and watch in HD

hey that's some really smooth shuffling there well done

thanks i am trying to get a good smooth style

by the way just have a quick question

how do the expert shufflers make that sliding look while doing the running man? like they'll be doing the running man but gliding around at the same time. I've tried to practice it but can't seem to get the technique correct.

if you know what i am trying to explain could you please teach me

Yeah sure It's an illusion move, you shift your weight onto your grounding foot and lift it off your sliding foot so it can move easily.

So it's more how your weight is distributed and using moves to give you that. For instance the inertia you've got going in rm you time your glide to flow when your weight is on the grounding foot.

For balance exercises to strengthen the muscles needed for a flexable balance, try standing on one leg for a while. Just anywhere around the house. Try for a few minutes, then do the same for the other foot.

hmmm i've read your description a few times and i think i sort of understand it thanks for teaching me

i will definitely do those balance exercises so i can running man glide i reckon it looks really cool and am keen to learn!

it takes practice, expect to spend 3-6 months working hard at it. I know it looks easy, but that's the skill, to make it look effortless and as though you slide on ice.

But you've got a smooth style already so it shouldn't be too hard. You need to start expanding your style, get your feet lifted off the ground some more and a bit more arms, but that will test your balance as well.

So you need to get your body used to intentionally shifting your body mass and centre of gravity to do the dance moves. It's not natural movement and that's where the training comes in. You control your body. You train it to do what you want - within your physical limitations of course, don't expect to fly like a bird just by flapping your arms

To test your balance progress, stand on one leg and stretch out your arm at shoulder height and hold it there, timing how long you can hold it.

If you can do 30 seconds without holding onto anything to support your balance and not fall over, you're doing pretty good. Your muscles will ache at first, but they'll strengthen over time. Do a bit each day. Swaping from one leg and arm to the other to even out the muscle strength.

Yeah I really want to get the sliding and gliding illusion in my shuffle! I am determined to learn and practice this skill. Thanks for the compliment do you mean like lift my legs higher when I'm doing the running man/T-step? Yeah sometimes I do arm movements at the start of my shuffle but I quickly forget and concentrate on feet movement lol.

Which arm do I hold out? I did it with both arms out and got a minute lol but wow it does ache your leg muscles! I will do these exercises daily!

Thanks a lot for the advice!

Yeah lift your legs a bit higher, but not all the time. Change between low to the floor moves and then bring in a higher leg movement to emphasise things.

With the balance alternate between leg and arm combinations to give yourself a more balanced workout.

For instance there's lots of variations you can do while standing on one leg.

So stand on one leg, then with both arms, stretch out in front of you at shoulder height until they meet, then slowly spread your arms in a arc motion until they're both pointing sideways. Then try it on the other foot.

This redistributes your weight and you'll feel the muscles compensating for the shift in the balance and centre of gravity. The centre of gravity is basically around your waist area, so if you lean over, there will be a point when you loose balance, that's when your centre of gravity has gone past it's safe area. To compensate for bending over, you can use an arm or leg going out the opposite direction to adjust the centre of gravity back to a stable area, by evening out the weight distribution.

Once you've got a bit more strength in your legs, stand on one leg then lift your other leg off the ground and stretch it out in front of you. Aim for a full 90 degree right angle, then hold it there for as long as you can.

Once you've got the leg straight out in front of you, try to do the same as the arms and swing your leg sideways, keeping it as high as you can.

This is all done on one leg btw Then swap legs.

When you're really confident, try doing the arms out in front and leg out in front at the same time, then swing them all out slowly to the sides - while still balancing on one leg.

When you see dance movies in the dance studio usually there's a bar/barre a wooden rail about waist height on the wall, ballet dancers can spend a couple of hours a day doing bar work, simply to strengthen balance and stretch their muscles.

You can use a bench top or chair or something at home, it's just something to grab hold of if you loose balance, so you don't fall over all the time and injure yourself.

Wow I saw this video and I was really impressed with your video, Dingy. You're only been dancing for 2-3 months and it looks pretty smooth, I still have trouble with smoothness to be perfectly honest. and gliding I've never really tried so I wouldn't know but keep up the good work!

Thanks for all that advice and help Garry! Really appreciate you writing all that for me haha

Thanks Stark! Garry said the same thing lol but I really don't see the 'smooth' I have :L Don't worry about the gliding it's all explained in the posts above lol.

Also I just wanted to ask some advice for arm movements, is there any specific thing I can do to practice them other than doing them while shuffling? Cause when I practice arm movements I tend to focus less on feet and then I turn my focus back to my feet and completely forget about my arms.

It depends what you want to get out of arm movements. Personally, since I think dancing should be full body I usually shuffle while combining upper body movements from other styles I know.

If you're just worried about your arms looking stiff and awkward then I can give you a piece of advice from Big Milan (I think). Instead of having your arms simply flop around at your sides, bring up your hands to about chest level and just let them relax there. They'll move naturally as you shuffle for balance and it'll look better with minimal effort.

You can also look up some arm movements from dance styles like Techtonik and practice those until you feel comfortable incorporating them into your shuffle. The other way to go is to look up dance styles with more emphasis on 'feeling' like Liquid, Digits, and Popping. The former will have more of a 'list' of moves, while the latter focuses more on musicality. The thing is, this'll be a bit more advanced and you'll need to get to the point where you don't think about your foot movement so you can focus solely on your upper body.

And some random but related advice:
I took a look at your week 18 video and I noticed you ball your hands up into fists. I would recommend against that because it implies you're tense when it should look like you're relaxed. Also, since you can express a lot of things with your hands you lose that ability when you just keep them balled up like that. If you want to see some stuff you can do with your hands alone, look up Digits.

Last thing, you can always look at other people's shuffling and see what they do. When you're a beginner I think this helps a lot because it gives you something to work with and something to shoot for.

If you have any other questions just ask.

-Cz

Hmm just the illusion that there's strings attached to my feet and my arms are telling them what to do, kinda like a puppet .

That sounds like a good idea! I learnt the basics of shuffle from Big Milan as well, I will practice with that technique and see what happens.

Yeah when ever I dance in a club I always have my hands curled up in fists lol so I just tried it out but yeah you have a good point it does look a bit stressed.

What do you mean by Digits?

Yeah I've been watching lots of shuffling videos and seen heaps of good styles, I want to develop a smooth style of my own though.

Digits is a type of dance (usually paired up with Liquid) that involves making illusions with your hands and fingers. Some people also wear gloves with light-up fingertips to further emphasize their fingers. If you want to know more about it look it up 'cause I'm not that into it. It's pretty cool though.