Alright, this is the turtle help post. Give details on your problem and we'll do our best to solve them. Heres my guide and tips:

1st- The two main keys you need to turtle are balance and wrist strength. There are many exercises you can do to build wrist strength, a few are - hand stand pushups against the wall, and the handglide position (where you put one elbow into your gut right above your hip bone, with your arm straight down to the floor, perpendicular with it. The other hand is by your head used just to balance yourself. Pull your legs in like a frog would and put all your weight on that arm under you. Do this alot, switching off arms)
Building balance is done by putting both arms under your body and holding yourself off the ground with both of them. Your body should fairly horizontal, with your head 2 to 4 inches off the ground, and feet like a frog tucked in. Your left hands fingers pointing left of you, and your right fingers right. Dont leave your hands facing forwards or backwards to balance, it will just be harder. You then slowly rock (switch weight) from one arm the the other. Try to get as much weight as you can off one arm and still stay balanced.

After building balance and wrist strength, you can begin to learn how to WALK backwards, forwards, and in a circle. Walking backwards and forwards is done by shifting your balance to one arm while in the turtle position, and moving the hand that has the weight off of it forward or backward in that split second. This will build intense balance, strength, and give you the feel for moving each arm while distributing weight to the other.

Now the turtle spin:
Step 1 - Start Position - (Counter Clockwise)
Start in the kneeling position and put your left hand on the ground, finger FACING left of you. It should be much like the hanglide position. Then leaning over your left hand put your right hand LESS than a foot from your left hand straight out from your body and parrallel with your left hand. Fingers pointing to the LEFT, like the left hand.

Step 2- The First Swing -
Putting your bodyweight on your left arm like the handglide position swing your body in an arc (feet off the ground) and land on your right elbow in your right side gut. When you transfer all your weight to your right arm, move your left towards your body and under you by your left hip to catch yourself from falling off your right, feet and head are still off the ground during this point. (if you fall alot, or dont have the balance yet, just practice your hand movements and swinging arcs of your body without all your weight on your arms) It should just be like putting your weight on one arm, moving the other and putting your weight on that arm, moving the other, etc.

Step 3 - Catching yourself -
Now that both arms are under you for support it should be easier to hold yourself up. However, this is the hardest part to not touch the ground on with your feet, because your left arm cant get under you far enough in time to catch your body from falling because of all that momentum you gained from swinging your legs. Dont worry if you touch down though, just keep going. The key to not falling is bringing your face closer to the ground and your arm a bit back further in your gut almost on your hipbone to catch yourself. Sometimes this results in hitting your face down, but let me tell you, if your touching your face down and not your feet, your alot better off and will learn alot faster.

Step 4 - Last Step -
Remember, that you'll only be on both arms for just a split second, dont just hang there on both and then start the movements again, its got to be a continuous movement, switching your weight off each arm while your legs are in a continous swinging arch behind your body. In the last step, you just re-balance your weight on that left arm that came back under your body and bring your right out in front again, like the first step. Then you just keep continuing that movement and you'll find your body going in a small circle or even a figure 8.

Remember, balance and wrist strength are crucial to learning the turtle. So, if you cant keep balanced and you keep touching the ground with your feet or head, just keeping building strength and the rocking balance. It took me about 3 months to get turtles down, so try hard to improve and dont get dissapointed.

DONT RUN, WALK! Dont go into the turtle really fast thinking you can make it around. You have to learn how to walk in a circle before you can run.

Pay attention to your direction of your fingers so that you dont swing your body weight onto a hand and have it twist too far the wrong way. This happens ALOT in turtle, and its due to how your place your hands.

Go slowly, and try hard. Keep your head about 4 inches or less from the ground, and feet tucked in to get better balance.

Since this explaination is really long and complicated, feel free to ask for any help or clarification on what I was saying on the move. And give details about what your problem is with it.

Hope it helped. Peace!
BBoy Drizzt

Oh, and remember, there are lots of variations to turtle too, so if you thought turtle was something different, explain it to me and I'll help. This guide is for the common turtle spin.

dude...love ur guides. helped me out pretty good. keep it up. practicing turtles now

i was wondering if you can start the turle from the handglide position..?

lol, thats how you start the turtle, from the handglide position. Unless your thinking of a different position than me. Thanks for the compliment. I try hard to make the guides make sense, give helpful advice, and detailed instructions. So far from Windmill its payed off. Im starting a swipes guide today. Peace.

ah..help. i cant swing my legs and i cant land on like my right arm. I dont know why, but my right arm is stronger than my left but i can support my body with my left and not my right.

Just keep building strength on the right arm then. Do 1 handed handstands with your right arm against the wall and hold them, and do that handglide strength position letting your weight strengthen your right wrist and arm. Remember, I said in the guide after you build enough strength and balance you should start the spin. Make sure you can walk backwards and forwards without touching the ground often or losing balance, then try the spin.

Sheesh, we're going to have to find some way to put these on the top of the forum, or contact the management and have them make them sticky or make a new forum. If we make guides for all the powermoves we'll be taking up 1/4 to 1/2 of the page. lol.

we need our own area...like a move help area

yo wassup Drizzt, I'm a learning breaker (but who isn't) and a not yet retired popper and have been trying to just fly into the turtle like I was supposed to get it right off the bat without taking it slow...w/these babysteps I'm sure I'll definately get it in no time...I've already worked on strength and can toss my weight around pretty well..but I was shown to just go into it fast..thanks for advice with the walk don't run.

(JCs my name, freestylin's my game...)

Ya, babies have to learn to walk before they run, as with turtles. I tried that when I started them too, just throwing my body into and seeing if I can get it.
Once you do it slow it takes a bit more time to gain strength but you have alot more balance and you can start to speed them up faster and faster. I need to learn how to go in a wide circle like on the vid of Breaking it Down with da Flying Steps.
I find I still tap with my right foot on the ground every bit too, which I need to get out of the habit of.

question!!

For the balance training? is there a specific distance for the arms to be apart? how close can it be to maximize balance training?

Nope, they just need to be under your body and perpendicular/straight with the ground.

I just recently learned another good tip from my buddy Kujo on turtles. He said to try to keep your head and face looking up and out, not down on the floor while you do the spin, cause it helps alot with moving. Peace.

The turtle requires almost no strength at all so if you cant hold yourself up with one hand then its balance thats the problem...unless youre sticking your elbow in the wrong place...other than that turtles just take balance and momentum to do. just do what drizzt said in the guide and rock from arm to arm to slowly build up balance and wrist strength. then youll have turtles in no time.

thanks for all the great help! They are GREAT guides!

Um, I am wondering, WHERE exactly do your elbows go in your gut? Is there a certain place? THAt is my BIG question!!
Again, the guides are awesome!!! THANK YA!
bgurl

i stick my elbows about 2 or 3 inches from either side of my belly button but it doesnt really matter where they go. If you just keep on practicing youll get a feel for it