[Azr4el]

This is the COMPLETE ORIGINAL FLARE GUIDE FROM THE NOW-GONE BREAKSTYLZ.COM! I actually printed out a hardcopy when the site still existed and I decided to type it into my computer. I personally think it's one of the best guides out there for the flare with tips and common questions. I take no credit for this guide as it was written by a bboy off breakstylz.com. I just think that since that site died, this incredible guide can find a home on www.bboy.com. I took the liberties of modiflying some language such as 'gonna' and 'kinda' because I typed this in word. Everything is original!!! Good luck learning, I start again next week since my hip doesn't hurt anymore!! Payce!

Original Breakstylz.com Flare Guide
~ Author Unknown

1) Developing Active Flexibility
Flexibility is a very important aspect of the flare. The farther you can spread your legs, the better. It helps you maintain a well balanced equilibrium and it will help you slow down your flares, giving you a little more time to place that hand down. Active flexibility just means being able to hold a stretching position by using your muscles to hold that position.
To develop flexibility, do left, right and center splits every day/night. Left splits are where you have your left leg in front of you and your right leg behind you. Right splits are the exact opposite of left splits. When you do center splits do them slowly so you don’t tear a muscle. Try to relax your leg muscles and let gravity push you down. You should feel your leg muscles tighten and when you reach a certain point you should feel a bit of relief. Another good way to do center splits is to face the floor and do the splits on a wall behind you and use your hands to push yourself back. When you are doing the splits, NEVER bounce to go further down because you will just tense up the muscles because the muscle cells think that your legs are in harm so they counteract with the force and tighten the groin muscles and we want them to be as relaxed as possible. Do splits everyday and you should notice a difference in just a week. It will hurt for about a week or so but after that your body will release endomorphines which will counteract with the pain and it will actually start to feel good.

2) Developing Upper Body Strength
Your muscles play a very important role in the flare. You will have to have a fair bit of strength. Now most people will tell you that the flare doesn’t take much strength cause you can rely on speed and momentum. Well that is kind of true. The faster you go the less strength it will take but it will still take a fair bit of strength. If you slow it down the gymnasts do during floor routines then you have to use a lot more strength to pull off a slow flare. Most people think that the most important muscles in the flare are your abs. Sorry to disappoint you guys but it isn’t the most important set of muscles used in the flare. What momentum will take care of is you abs. It is because you are only in the position for a couple brief seconds, the power and momentum from your legs will keep you hips up and you won’t have to use your abs 100%. The most important muscles used are your triceps and your shoulders. It is still a good idea to build your ab muscles by doing upper and lower ab exercises.
To build your tricep muscles get a chair and prop your legs up on to it. Now place your hands on the floor behind you and lean back on your hands and straighten your body so that you are now facing the ceiling with your hands on the ground and your legs are on the chair. Hold this position until you get tired. Try to bounce back and forth a bit on each arm to give it a little workout. Now for your shoulder muscles, all you are going to do is turn over and face the ground so that your legs are still on the chair and you are now supporting yourself on your hands while you are facing the ground. Hold this until you get tired.
Practice these everyday to help develop strength. Just practicing the flare will build muscle. After a month or so of practicing you should notice some changes in your abs. They will appear and you may even get a nice ripped six pack. The girls love it.

3) Performing the flare (CC)
Now you are ready to start the flare. What you have to do is start in a standing position. Now you are going to slide your left leg back and a bit off to the left so you are kind of doing the splits. Your right leg should be bent and just in front of you. You want to keep your left leg straight the whole time.

http://www.bboy.org/gallery/showphot...=38870&cat=500
Part 1. Look at the above diagram. This is a bird’s eye view of what the flare is based upon. The triangle symbolizes you. Now if you have done the above correctly your left leg should be straight and close to the blue line in section 1. Your right leg should be bent and just in front of the blue line in section 3. Now you are going to bring your left arm down and put it on the blue line just in front of your left leg so it kind of knocks your left leg away. Now swing your left leg around so that you are trying to draw the red circle with your foot. The whole time this is happening your right arm will still be in the air. Now once your left leg reaches the blue line in section 2 then you are going to kick your right leg up towards your face. Now a common mistake is to lift the left leg too. Keep it on the ground for a little longer. Continue to draw the imaginary circle with your left foot and when it passes the blue line in section 2, this is when you place your right hand down. Remember to keep your left leg straight and continue to draw the circle. Now when your left leg is directly in front of you or in other words when your leg hits the yellow line in section 3 then your left it up high and try to kick your left ear with it, keep it high!

Part 2. Now your have the start down. Your legs should be spread in front of your in a v shape. Now you are going to kick your right leg down straight and continue the imaginary circle from where you left off. The yellow lines are your exchange lines where your legs change positions and the blue lines are where your hand placement occurs. You are going to continue the circle from the yellow line in section 4. Your right leg will be close to the ground, but make sure it doesn’t touch the floor; it will be dragging above it. Keep your toes pointed when you do this. Now when your right leg reaches the blue line in section 4, you are going to left your left hand and reach over your left leg to allow your right leg to pass by. Don’t kick your leg backwards; make sure you continue to swing it around in a circle. When it reaches the yellow line in section 1 you are going to place your left hand back on the ground but make sure it is on the blue line so you don’t begin to turn and at the same you are going to bring your right leg up high and you are going to bring your left leg down low to continue the circle until it arrives in front of your again. Lean forward so that your legs get high in the back. Just continue from there. Keep your legs spread at all times!!! Remember when your leg reaches a yellow line then it will be going into the air while the other comes down low to continue the circle and circle and when that leg reaches the next yellow line they will switch again.

Tips:
1) Keep your legs spread at all times!
2) Try to picture the circle when flaring and when your legs reach the target points they switch positions. Meaning the one in the air will come down and the one that was previously scraping the ground will go airborne.
3) Point your toes. You won’t believe how much this affects your flare. Point your toes so it is easier to get your legs behind you.
4) When you are kicking your right leg behind you make sure you kick hard and keep the left leg high. The right leg can bend a bit but try to keep that circle as smooth as possible.
5) Keep your legs straight at all times. The circle is perfectly round and I expect you to draw a pretty good circle. When I see bboys do a flare and bend their legs when they are behind it looks totally whack! Don’t do it. If you do your flares like this do yourself a favor and don’t do them because you will get yelled at by a lot of good bboys.
6) Have fast hands. Pretend that you are doing your flares on a stove and your hands are getting hot. Move them hands before they get burnt!
7) Practice, practice, practice. It will come with time.
8) When your legs are behind you lean forward!

Common Questions:
Q: I can get my legs in front of me but when I go to put my right hand down. My body comes crashing down and I land on my ass! How do I transfer my weight to that hand without landing on my ass, it hurts!

A: The reason your body comes crashing down is because you have too much vertical momentum. You are lifting your left leg too early! When you swing your left leg around kick your right leg up as usual but don’t lift your left leg up yet. Once it has past your right hand place it on the floor behind you and wait until your left leg is directly in front of you, then lift. Make sure you kick it up high. Try to kick your left ear.

Q: Okay, I can get my legs in front of me but then when I kick my right leg behind me I smash it into the ground. What the frick am I doing wrong?

A: You are probably not elevating your hips enough which will cause you to smash into the ground. What you have to do is when you kick your right leg down, immediately lift your left hand and “REACH” over your right leg and place your hand on the ground. This should elevate your hips high enough to let your right leg pass under. Make sure you kick your left leg high enough as well and try to hold it there while kicking your right leg under.

Q: I can get my legs behind me but my right leg bends and it hits the ground. Sometimes my left leg comes smashing down too and it hurts. Help me!

A: This is a very simple fix. The solution. Point your toes when kicking your right leg behind. You’ll be surprised what this does. It will give you a fraction of a inch of more room to let your leg fly back and up. Make sure to draw a circle and not kick it straight back. Now for the bending part, it is a natural reaction because your body fears hitting the ground so it brings your right leg in so you don’t land on your (at least for bboys). You have to re-program yourself and just force yourself to keep this leg straight. You will notice after pointing your toes you can pull a full rotation now but your legs are bent. Try to fix it! Do not learn with bent legs or you will waste a perfectly good flare and if I see you doing it with bent legs behind you I will personally slap you.

Q: I can do everything but when my legs are behind me they are too low. What’s up with this?

A: All you have to do is kick you right leg back harder and lean forward. Stick your butt in the air. It will fell just like you are in a half handstand. Try to kick the back of your head with your right leg to elevate the hips. Remember to have fast hands too.

Q: Okay! I am fed up with hearing all of this stuff about learning forward and sticking your butt up in the air to get your legs up higher when they are behind you. Like gimme a break, this is easier said then done. What the hell am I doing wrong?

A: You are right, it is a lot easier said than done. But there is a way to get your butt higher to get your legs nice and high. What it will fell like is a half handstand. So spread your legs and jump up a bit to see what it will fell like. Now to get in this position, most people have trouble because they start to Czech their flare. In basic English this means that your body starts to turn the opposite way your legs are flaring. For example, if you are facing a wall when you start and then start turn and being to face another wall then you are starting to Czech your flare. It is very bad form and looks pretty whacked. This is also a common problem for going too low in the back because people start to Czech by reaching too far over their left leg and when they place their left hand back down it is too far over and it is just too hard to lean forward in time to get those legs up. And when they actually end up leaning forward they end up landing on their face.
I know this is a bit long but to fix this problem you will have to left and place your left hand down in good timing. When your right leg is kicking under your left leg and your are lifting your hand, don’t lift it over too hard. Try to focus and work on lifting your hand up THEN STRAIGHT BACK DOWN so that it is in line with your other hand. This may feel a bit awkward but this action of reaching down instead of over will start your lean. You should feel it, just go with the flow and lean a bit more and you might just surprise yourself and get some nice continuous flares going.

[ManHy xD]

WOW Really nice, TY for typing it. I sticky this if theres good reviews xD

[FlYgUy64]

wow thats a good guide even tho i dont realy get the diagram

[Azr4el]

Originally posted by FlYgUy64 wow thats a good guide even tho i dont realy get the diagram

Lol, I understand. I found the diagram to be a bit confusing at first but when you actually try to practice using it, it makes sense. I had to redraw the entire diagram using paint since the hardcopy pic is very low quality.

The triangle is you and basically it you are facing toward the top of the page. The red circle with the arrows indicates the direction of the flare. If done correctly you (the triangle) will stay in the center while your legs will draw the entire circle.

Blue Bars/Lines: These indicate the areas of arm/hand placement.

Yellow Bars/Lines: These are where one leg will kick UP and AROUND while the under kicks/swings under. The flare is produced by a continuous series of these transitions - much like the windmill.

Trust me, just try to follow the directions/placements exactly, and you'll be on your way to learning more how the flare works and how to do it. Hope this helps with any confusion. Think of it as a personal supplement .
Payce

[Azr4el]

Jus my 2 cents - I'd be awesome if we could get this guide stickied, long and confusing as it is. I'm sure some old skool ppl out there can remember this guide from the original website. It was actually recommended to me on the forum here. This is a lost jewl of flare guides. I can almost compare it to Mothergoose's Windmill guide (which is thankfully still in service) in that it is able to help all bboys/bgirls progress by leaps and bounds. While not the most clear and definitive, it is invaluable to progressing on the flare. Nuthin to my credit.

[Enchanting bBoy]

it improved my understanding of flares and also helped me to learn the motion. Thankyou.

Peace out

[Pahose]

question..!! how do u hang ur initial leg as long as u can?

[Bboy-pRopHetsVn]

as mason_boy said "lol" this post shuld be stikied

[Azr4el]

Originally posted by Pahose question..!! how do u hang ur initial leg as long as u can?

IMHO, when you kick as high as you can, your leg is basically making some sort of parabola. I'm guessing the 'hanging' term refers to how you want to keep it as a high as you can, maybe a little longer at the top of the motion so you can sweep the bottom leg under. My 2 cents

[lilpnoygothigh]

Can you show me a pic of the upper body strength..i cant quite get how you do the shoulder muscles. Thanks

[elements201]

I got a question. How come when I attempt to flare, in the 1st rotation i get my legs in front but my left leg always comes crashing down before i can swing my right under? Is there any fixes or tips? Cuz I know i need to keep the left leg up but i just can not manage to hold it there .

[Azr4el]

Sad thing is I still don't have the flare but it's a def on this year's resolution. I'm guessing the problem your having is either your left leg is too low coming in the front so it crashes or you're not swinging it hard enough to get enough lift.

[tiNn0centz]

i have a problem dunno if anyone else does when i attempt flares(CCW) i once both my legs are in the V in fornt of me and i place my hand down i slam it down, once i lift my left hand to let my legs sweep thorugh i calaps is that something you get over or is there something Im doingcompeletly wrong im doing?

[Bboy AlpinA]

nice guide!! i'll get cracking on this as soon as i master my mills so i can flare-mill =P

[BBoy27]

Before I couldn't do it because i didn't have any flexibility at all. I'm not sure what they meant about building triceps either but I'm sort of slow.