Yooo yooo yooo.
Its G-Man here, most of you lot here probably know who I am from the old BF days, if not you do now.
At the moment i am currently in my Christmas holidays, so I’ve got alot of time aside from freestyle and studying so i should be online abit more.
I’ve spent a lot of time on this thread so far, so please read through it thoroughly and drop a comment; I’m doing this for YALL!!!! This was all hand typed so appreciate it muddafuckers, it took me much longer to write than you to read and It will change your freestyle career FOREVER. (And any other sport, art, subject etc)
Anyways, I’ve been rather on and off with freestyle in the 2010 year, however whilst I’ve been away I’ve gathered a large amount of freestyle knowledge purposely and sometimes accidently, which ended up relating to freestyle in some form or another. I’ve made this thread to pass on this knowledge and share with fellow freestylers; I don’t claim to be an expert btw. But I’d say I know more than the average freestyle chump.
Alot of the knowledge has been acquired from Books and websites i have read and some from a Psychology class I’m currently studying.
So in this thread imma give out some tips about training, performing, whatever you name it etc. Most of this thread is going to be in formal terms, however if you are desperate me to find the proper sources etc, I will do my best to find them, i will try and update this thread regularly and answer any questions you have.
I’m going to start off by talking about this whole "Natural" myth many people have in freestyle and sport. They have this theory that people are born that way and are naturally born achievers at this field that’s why they are better than you. I’ve heard so many people saying that Skora is naturally a better freestyler, or MP must be born with some kind of gift. Absolute Nonsense. I’ll tell you now; practice is greater than any natural kind of gift. There is not one Athlete out there who got there because they was “born that way” Its pure dedication. (Exceptions to every rule, e.g. Basketballers, Sumo wrestlers, Bodybuilders will benefit much more). However I do not blame you for believing this whole natural gift ideology, I believed it very much so. Mainly due to the fact the way the media feed you this and how it was very much accepted by everyone in the sporting field until late, where the myth is slowly and gradually is being destroyed.
However in 99% of sports, including freestyle, Practice is the key. I’m going to now give an extract from the book “Bounce” a book based on this whole theory. (I will cut bits out due to the fact I’m typing this straight out from the book)
“In 1984 Desmond Douglas, the greatest-ever UK table tennis player, was placed in front of a screen containing a series of touch sensitive pads at the University of Brighton. He was told that the pads would light up in a random sequence and that task was to touch the relevant pad with the index finger of his favored hand as a soon as he could, before waiting for the next pad to light up. All the other members of the table tennis team had already undergone the test and were ribbing him in the familiar manner of team rivalry”. After a minute the task ended and Douglas team mates gave him a round of applause. Douglas grinned as the researchers left the room to collect the results… After 5 minutes, the researcher returned. He announced that Douglas’s reactions was the slowest in the entire England team, he was slower than the juniors and the cadets-Even slower than the team manager”.
Think about it rationally, surely table tennis requires great natural instinct reactions which you was gifted through genetics? How can the man who is recognized for his magnificent speed at table tennis be the slowest there? Surely this doesn’t make sense?
The writer goes on to explain how it is all down too how much Douglas had practiced and how he had practiced in a closed environment which also benefited him. He goes on to suggest that to be the top of a sporting field, be a master so to speak, it requires an incredible “10,000 Hours”. (May be different with freestyle with it being a relatively new sport).
So this shows that Practice is the key? Yes.
“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, It would not seem so wonderful at all” – Michelangelo, Arguably the greatest artist ever.
However in freestyle a lot of people have seemed to accept this. A lot of people realize that it is mainly down to practice and nothing else. I see threads on here all the time asking “HOW OFTEN DO U PRATTTTICE MAAAYN” Or commenting on Skoras video going “HE HAS NO LIFE HE TRAINS 48488574774676 hours a day”. Obviously Pawvel has trained a lot, however I bet know, if you trained as much as him, clocked up as many hours as he has, you would improve, but I very much doubt 95% of the freestylers on this forum reach the heights he has. Well surely G, this destroys your whole practice theory? No, not at all, it opens it up further.
Think about it, many of you will be too young to drive, so look at your parents but if you can drive, this relates to you. This is another extract from the book entitled “Bounce”.
“How many hours have you spent driving your car? I spent a little time working this out recently and figured that I have averaged 12000 miles a year since passing my driving test, more than twenty two years ago, adding up to a 264,000 miles in total. At an average speed of thirty miles an hour, that means I have spent almost precisely ten thousand hours at the wheel”.
“But I am not a world class driver. In fact, I probably have more bad habits now, and less knowledge of the rules of the road, than when I passed my test. I know what you are thinking, doesn’t this undermine the entire thesis of the book so far... What happens when I drive my car? I am certainly clocking up countless hours at the wheel but does this constitute the acquired of knowledge? It is not as if I’m straining to improve. Rather, my mind is on other things, I am figuring out what to make for dinner, I am speaking to my passenger, I am listening to the radio and strumming my fingers against the steering wheel, in fact, I am driving on AUTOPILOT”.
This is the main problem with your training sessions, You are training on “Autopilot”. Doesn’t it baffle you that the driver improved way in the first 3 months of his driving career (when he was learning) when he was fully attentive on the road ahead, trying his best to improve, no distractions, 100% training efficiency etc”. Most of you in a freestyle session will train for 3 hours, flicking through your ipod, texting girls, or guys in Ethan Altman’s case ;) You will be attempting a trick every minute, then walking around having a think, sometimes you’ll be free styling and be thinking and not even realize your actually trying the trick!!! If you’re nodding right now going “THAT’S ME!!!!” Don’t worry, I was the same and so are 99% of the freestylers out there” When the likes of Oli cherek, MP, Skora, ARS, Azun etc train, they will be training on full efficiency and will be pushing themselves and their ability to the limit each training session. They will be making sure they have improved each session, have you ever had a session where at the end you think “Ive not even learnt anything new”? I certainly have. The average freestylers training session of 3 hours will be the same of what Skora, Mp etc Does in one hour.
So the two main factors in practice is, Train a lot, but train efficiently too.
“Its now how much you train, Its how you train” – Lindroth. I agree 100% with this quote, So if a freestlyer A trains with 100% effort/concentration in there session trains 2 hours a week, then freestyler B who his always on autopilot, half heartedly training, trains 10 hours a week, it is likely freestyler A will learn more. However lets meet Freestyler C, who trains 10 hours a week, but has the effiency freestyler A has, and trains properly. This is how the best freestylers are made.
There is so much more detail to go into, and much more topics, I will happily update this and I will explain the whole “Russian/Polish freestlye Phenomenon” Why some freestylers choke on stage, What genre of music is best to listen whilst freestyling and many more topics.
Can I ask mods don’t move this topic into a different thread, there all about as dead as Micheal Jackson.
Ask any questions and discuss this, and ill update with more detail, explanations and many more tips.
Ill leave you with this short tip, always drink lots of water when your freestyling, “If the Human body is dehydrated by just 2%, it will result in a 20% Drop in concentaration"
Thankyou, G.
