[Sekto|Z,]

INTRO

Back with a hopping flares/ king flares guide!

This probably won't be as long as the other ones, that's simply because this move is easier to explain... and also to learn in my opinion. It does look hard, but don't be discouraged by the appearance and you'll get this in no time. I first went ahead on them thinking at a nice flare variation, when I had never seen them yet, and so I had never heard about how hard they were supposed to be, and I got them around my second try. It's all psychology

This is for CW ones, so if you go CCW reverse all the lefts with the rights.

GO!


PREREQUISITES

Hopping flares are very similar to flares and involve czechin in some way, so if you want to have something to help you, that can only be some good-form flares. The czech motion isn't that important, but if you want to learn these I recommend gettin some nice, clean flares down... that's all you need.

NOTE- for those who don't know, the term czech means the movement that makes you turn in the opposite way you're going during the flare. For example, if you're flaring CW, you're czechin it if you're turning to face your left a bit more at every round. And no, I have no idea where the name came from =]P

Another thing that should help, at least for the most common method -see below- are hopping mills. They make you understand how important piking and kicking out is, and how much height it can give you. And not only for THIS move either.


THE TWO WAYS TO LEARN

Although it doesn't look like it there are two ways to learn hopping flares. The difference is about the same there is between learning hopping mills by piking or by plain momentum.

The most common way is to learn them by piking- you pike your legs and kick them out to gain enough height. To do this ou need to bring your body to closer to vertical, the more they're vertical the more height the kick out will give you.

Then there's some people who prefer learning without the piking motion. The main disadvantage of this is, you have NO height this way! All you can do is to be fast enough to replace height with momentum. In the case of hopping flares, though, this is a bit lighter since you're on your hands and so you have more margin between you and the ground. This is the most instinctive method, either for mills and hopping flares, but to me it's not the best one.

The majority finds it easier to learn mills piking, but a few go by momentum. Chances are, if you learnt mills by piking you will go by the same way here, while if you haven't used it to learn mills you won't use it here neither.

However, try both ways and see which one you like best.


STEP-BY-STEP

As I said, I think flares are a prerequisite for this move- so I'm going to explain the whole thing assuming you have good flares and know how to do them.

1- Ok. You're standing here, preparing to go. Take the usual step to the right with your right foot, "YOU" know how it's got to be in order to be comfortable for you. Just like a normal flare.

http://www.bboy.org/gallery/showphot...at=3702&page=1

2- Now, this is where you feel the first differences. On a Flare, you'd do everything you can to keep your feet low to the ground (as opposed to your waist, which stays high). Here instead, what you've got to do is quite the opposite. By this I don't mean you have to throw your legs straight vertical, the idea is STILL to get a mainly circular movement (which is why you start flares swinging low in the first place), just with your lower body a bit higher than usual. In other words, take a bit away from the horizontal swing and put it into height.

The idea behind this is- this is a disadvantage for the flare in itself, but makes the hop easier. You can choose not to do this and to go with the second way to learn the move (in fact the use or not of this movement is the difference between the two methods) but if your flares are clean enough this won't be much of a problem.

So, while you'd swing your leg totally horizontal if you were going to flare, what you want to do here is to make your legs reach the front of it piked and a bit higher than usual. This is meant to give you a higer angle in order to take the best from the kick out.

http://www.bboy.org/gallery/showphot...at=3702&page=1

3- Now you have reached the front- your legs are piked and ready to kick out and you're at a relatively high angle with your lower body. To have an idea of the angle, just think at two things:

- the higher you are, the more height the kick will give you

BUT

- the higher you are, the harder you'll have to fight aginst the force of gravity right after every round.

So, find a way betwen these two and you'll get the idea of a nice angle. Again, we're talking about an "angle" you don't even notice if you're looking at the move from outside. So that you have an idea of the proportions, it's something you don't notice unless you're the one who is doing it.

http://www.bboy.org/gallery/showphot...at=3702&page=1

4- The kick out! Not much to say here, just kick out your legs to start the hop as your right hand starts getting off the ground due to the flare rotation. Instead of keeping the hand up there and waiting for the time to put it down again, like you'd do with a flare, throw it around over your front, towards the ground.

http://www.bboy.org/gallery/showphot...at=3702&page=1

5- After your left hand following your right and a brief airborne phase, catch the ground with your right hand and make your left follow in order to get back to the position you started with... the front of a flare.
Remember to pike back your legs while you don't need them and your hands are doing most of the work- that's the catching phase.

A little note about hands positioning there: if you want to turn 180 degrees at every round, you’ll have to follow a precise hand positioning. Ever done skyscrapers? They're basically walking around in circles into a handstand, but there's a precise way to do it. Every time you lift one hand up, you turn 90° before putting it back down, in order to form a square/rectangle plant. Try and do that, place your hands in order to form a square or a rectangle. That will make you turn a nice, clean 180 degrees at every round. It's a bit complicated to explain, but you'll see it from the clip and the pics. Turning 180° may be a nice add-on to your king flares, personally I don’t like it because it looks too regular and foreseeable to me... kind of gymnast-style. But it’s up to you to decide.

http://www.bboy.org/gallery/showphot...at=3702&page=1

6- This is a little disadvantage of the piking method: it makes single rounds easier, but sticking them together may give some problems. That's because every time you catch you have to keep the "high" angle in order to go for the next round, and if you fail to do that your right foot tends to hit the ground. However, not that much of a problem, mainly because you have all the momentum from the previous round to help you. Aid with some abs work, and there ya go... pretty much like the previous round, when the rotation makes your right hand leave, pike out again and make it travel in front of you.

http://www.bboy.org/gallery/showphot...at=3702&page=1

7- Catch with your right hand again… focus on your right foot, don’t make it hit the ground! Like the previous round, help with abs work and if you’ve managed to save enough momentum you’ll be fine. Depending on how much you have turned it may be hard not to crash your foot, I’ve found the more you turn the harder it is to keep it up... and that’s pretty much the only thing I like better about 180° turns I like challenges...

http://www.bboy.org/gallery/showphot...at=3702&page=1

8- There ya go, second round done! You’ve just linked hopping flares... dum de dum dum...

http://www.bboy.org/gallery/showphot...at=3702&page=1


Last but not least, the clip!


TIPS

- First of all I’ll say it one more time: your flares have to be CLEAN!
All the stuff you’re gonna do requires pretty comfortable and clean flares. I did say this move is overrated to me, and my opinion is still the same, but it comes from the presupposition you could flare on your pinky fingers... IF you can then this move can be no pain for you, else I strongly suggest you to go back working on your pinky flares.

- Don’t try and get momentum from some flares first, just go for it.
In my opinion the best is to first learn a move raw, so that you have the most ‘volubile’ form of it, and then work on the connections starting from that. Sure, that isn’t always the best way, some moves like airflares have quicker ways to learn, from flares for example, and it’s worth to think at it in those cases... but here the difference is minimal, and the only ‘big’ difference you’ll notice if you learn king flares from flares will be that you still won’t be able to do them from standing.
Trust me, flare-started ones doesn’t help with standing ones as much as standing ones help with flare-started ones.

- Maybe rushing to 180° turns isn’t a good idea...
Let’s suppose you want the half-turn ones, where you turn 180° degrees each round. If your foot just can’t help but slam on the ground after every round (and you probably don’t go past the first one that way) then your trouble is right there. Try slowing down a bit, starting from a less wide angle and gradually getting up to your 180s. The mechanism is the EXACT same thing, either wtith a small or wide angle, with the only difference you can gain experience and muscle memory with smaller ones first.

- Abs are your friends!
Earlier I told you about using your abs to prevent crashes, right? Nice strong abs can do miracles! Since here you want them to keep your legs up, if you get problems with the linking part you could also go working your abs out a bit. The best workout in this case would probably be the ‘classic’ one, where you hang on a or anything similar and lift your legs up into an L or at a closer angle, keeping them straight all the way. I do mine touching my wrists with my feet, almost like a crunch.
Besides, do you think I’d make you workout your abs just for a single move? You need abs for anything!


QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Again, I've completely skipped the problems about flares and only counted hopping flare related ones.

ARGH! I don't get the whole piking thing! What the hell are you talking about??
Lie on your back and get your legs straight and open, then pike them and bring your back more or less vertical. Now kick your legs out (by bringing them back in-line with your body) and if you do that hard enough you'll notice you get a little hop off your back. That's at the base of hopping mills, and of hopping flares as well if you chose to go that way. I can't tell much about the non-piking way because I've learnt with the piking way, that's why I haven't written much about it, but it's really instinctive. I don't even think you'd need a guide if you could learn fine that way.

I can get one round but as I go linking with the second one my foot hits the ground. What's up with that?
As I said in the tips section, it's probably got to do with the wideness of the angle you're trying to turn. If you're trying to cover a whole 180° and have no experience with the move yet, you may be going to have some trouble. Start from small angles and get it wider with time, you'll get more results and less frustration.

I can link it, but my legs are low during the second round...
Apart from practicing more (duh) you may be piking too soon. If you pike when you're still in the airborne phase, you get to link to the second round with your body closed up and that doesn't let you get as much momentum as you could. Try and delay that a bit.


Hope this helps... Peace

[Sekto|Z,]

Sorry, pics and clips are still missing, I've got no time to upload and link to them now... I'll add them in the next days. Peace

[bboyzap]

Nice Guide

[Hurricrane]

Nice work this is one of your best guides

can't wait till the pics are up

and its a cooler move to do a guide on- rather than just normal circles or flares.

someone should sticky it.

[ice911]

yea, nice guide, man!!

i will have to try it out once i get better control of my flares.

--ice911

[Sekto|Z,]

Thanks yall... pics and clip finally added if any of the links don't work, let me know.

[Mistah P]

EXCELLENT.

[Hurricrane]

why won't someone sticky it?

this is a dope as guide.

[Sekto|Z,]

Heh... I think that's got to do with the sub-forums division... few people actually check all the sub-forums regularly, me included. I'm still of the opinion sub-forums are evil

[Mistah P]

Yea .. I wish they'd sticky my guide in the mills forum too xP

I liked it better when there were no subforums .. but i guess organization's better this way ..

[Sekto|Z,]

Well, there are positive sides as well... things are easier to find with sub-forums. BUT if you want something to be seen they're a bitch. Plus, if there's a sub-forum for any of the main moves cathegories, what's the main page there for anymore? Oh well... gnarf

[spincyclebboy]

i would but i dunno how, u do it hurricane!

[Hurricrane]

I Can't, a moderator has to do it- and they only do it for good/helpful guides

but this one is so i don't see why it hasn't been stickied yet.

Sticky it !!!
maybe it hasn't been dont coz there are heaps of stickies in the flares section- oh well- maybe they should move the airflare guide to halos/tracks section- and delte the flare q's and a's- coz it's gay and useless.

then sticky it

or mayb they can't be bothered- which is understanable. mmmmm lazy!

[Hurricrane]

I'm gonna keep posting in this guide to keep it up until it's stickied!!!
ok!???



Sticky It!

[Sekto|Z,]

Haha, thanks for the support bro you know, I'd ask a mod but it just feels so conceited to ask a sticky for your own guides lol. I've done that before, just not for my threads