Lesson Last Week....TNT Helps Me With Technique

Last week found the majority of the staff off at the Ohio Star Ball. So I was left with a couple of options. 1- no lesson or 2- have a technique lesson with one of the girls. The latter of which being the preferable option. So, after careful consideration I chose to schedule with TNT. I’ve worked with her briefly in the past, and I recall that she is very good at explaining things so that I understand them almost right away. That way most of my lesson could be focusing on actually putting these things into practice.

We opened with a little hustle… and then TNT asked “Do you need more warm up than that?”

“Ummm…for a technique lesson? No…” I responded as we headed over to the music machine.

We then talked about what I wanted to work on. I mentioned the backwards Rumba walks from my last lesson with RT, and how much it frustrated me that I wasn't really able to get them. TNT was very excited to show me her technique for this... Something she swore to me would make backwards Rumba walks almost easier than forward walks. This I'd have to see to believe... after selecting some background music we set to work. I was already starting my deep breathing relaxing techniques to keep me from being frustrated with TNT.

You know what? turns out I didn't even need to keep my frustration in check... I don’t know if my processing all the words RT used to try and describe this concept to me helped…but as soon as TNT said “Ok…don’t let your knee pass your straight leg when you step back.” It was like a light bulb moment. Honestly… in the span of oh…maybe…five minutes TNT was saying that my backwards Rumba walks were looking fine! This was very reminiscent for me of the whole "leg crawl" issue I had with RT a while back... if he would have just SAID for me to not let the one knee pass the other I wouldn't have burned nearly an entire lesson trying to get this all right! Something I'll have to point out to him next time I work with him. (I'm not upset with him mind you...I just want to let him know that it was much easier for me to process this way... maybe help him to explain it in a more concise manner.)

See…told you I picked her for a reason.

So once I had a really good idea of how to practice these Rumba Walks we moved on. I asked her “Did you happen to ask [RT] or [Largo] about what we should work on?”

“No…I didn’t get the chance…I’m sorry”

“That’s ok… I know exactly what we’ve been trying to work on.”

So we worked on cross over breaks, some fine tuning from my last lesson with Largo, and then I remembered about the tweaking RT and I were working on in my East Coast Swing. All of which went really well. I even received a compliment on the finer points of my East Coast Swing rock step…which I quickly accredited to her work out class. (We spend a really good portion of the work out class on East Coast Swing/Jive type movements). TNT really got a kick out of my getting technique pointers from her work out class. (I wouldn’t have told her if it wasn’t true!)

The hardest part of all that we reviewed is the cross over breaks… I have a really hard time balancing if I have to hold that position for longer than a second. Now I just have to practice… practice…and even more practice…thankfully all of these are things I can practice within the confines of my small abode.

I’m really glad I signed up for a lesson with TNT… now I can’t wait for my instructors to get back so I can put this into practice!