Made this post on l2f some days ago, thought I'd share it here too since it might help some people
Since lately there has been more interest in sitdown freestyle, I've decided to write a guide about them. I've helped countless of guys before who were starting out with sits and trained hundreds of hours myself, so I think I have the knowledge to write this. This guide is designed for those willing to put in at least an hour of sits, 5-6 days a week.
First of all, let me begin with this, sitdowns are not easier than lowers or uppers! Every person that claims this is an ignorant fucktard with zero knowledge about hardcore sits, I strongly advice you not to listen to their advice. It's equal to any other style, it just matters what level you are on. Since most people never get past the basic level of sits (which is quite easy to reach) they think everything in sits is easy.
If you still think this is true, please stop reading here and go do 20 trick combos ending in abdullah for the rest of your life.
Part 1: Juggling
When starting out, it's ofcourse important to be good at juggling. There are many tutorials about this, but most of them exagerate the hardness of sitdown juggling. Just go sit in a corner for a whole day/afternoon, put some music on and start juggling. By the end of that day you'll definetely have learned to juggle, if not, repeat for another day. The most important thing is to hold your back straight, arms comfortably a bit behind your body and your feet/ankles locked firmly. Most people will tell you to learn more than 100 juggles before starting with combos, I say fuck that. As soon as you reach 60 consistently you can move on to the basics. Be able to do 20 juggles easily with one foot though, both legs. Also learn to kick the ball high in the air, and juggle after comfortably afterwards. This will be really hard at first, but you'll need it! Make sure the ball goes the same height at every juggle, this is the basic rule for having a nice combo style later on.
Part 2: Basics
This is the most important stage of your sitdown career, don't neglect this stage!
First thing you should do is learn x-over, the basic foundation of all tricks. Learn this both feet, hold your crossing leg straight and your knees close together. Don't just let your leg go to the side, also make it go a bit upwards. Try to do 40, both feet like this, xover-touch-xover-touch-... . Do the touch with the same foot, the other, ..., do all possible variations. This will help you save combos from all dangerous situations.
After this, try some (switching) nt. This is less important, but it's ofcourse a stylish thing to put in combos. Do this with both feet nt (one footed, like doing xover and keep juggling with the other foot) and switching untill you have about 25.
Now you're ready to learn some (reverse) crossovers. This is a bit more tricky, since it's hard to keep a good style at. Try to make your rotations around the ball and knees together! Do the same way as when you learned xovers, (rev)crossover-touch-(rev)crossover-... in all possible variations. Try to reach 20 before starting to do them nt, it's very important for later on! Also learn hatw's with a good style, this is very stylish and it'll give you a solution when you're about to drop a combo.
After you've done these records, you can start doing some basic combos. Record yourself from sideview to check if you're doing the rotations around the ball and from frontview to see if your knees are held together.
You can also learn a few shin juggles in this stage, but I'm not a big fan of it, since they're considered breaking a combo in sits.
Part 3: 'Long' combos
This stage is also important, I strongly advice you not to skip this. Try to do combos that are about 20-30 seconds long, with all movements around the ball and without using shins. This will be tiring at first, but after about two weeks you'll be able to do this.
Have some combo patterns of 4-6 tricks you can fall back on when you're about to drop. Watch any good sitdown freestyler, they all have their own combo pattern when the combos get hard. Try to save as less as possible with xovers, this will break the flow of your combos. If you really have to use it, try to do some switching ones nt.
Watch some videos of Ravil, Bulat, Leonraalte, ... when you reach this stage for motivation/inspiration.
Part 4: Develop your own style
You're now about 1-2 months into sitdowns, so it's finally time to develop your own style. Learn shinstall, solestall, kneestall, abdullah, ... do whatever you want! Just watch lots of sitdown videos and you'll get an idea of what you want your own style to look like, and 'copy' it.
Keep training long combos and basic records every second day.
Remember this is not a list you can tick off every time you did something this guide says, you'll have to brush up juggling every once in a while, basics weekly and long combos almost daily.
Good luck and keep training sits!
