Basic training for January - February 2015

This time it has been a sturdy piece of work to find the videos for the period. Oou yes! there is more than ever of these workouts on youtube but I have grown picky during the 1.5 year of home training. I know more about what I want and what I like to follow in two months. I have also - anyhow I think so - learned to tell apart the good trainers from the really bad ones. That makes the 5 milj videos shrink to a handful interesting ones! Here you have them!

The week starts on Monday with pilates - a short one. I found later that they have a 30-minutes variation too, but I stick with this now.

On Tuesday the heet must on, but if you have read the earlier ones so I can not jump and the workshops are really calm to meet that special need of mine.

In this version we can alternate - he is showing a though one and she keeps the line for me! It is also longer than earlier and we will se if it has an effect on me. As you notice this is the Day 1 of a serie for 5 days. I will pick up a new day every Wednesday!

These three will hit my week as shown here - an easy start and end are scheduled!

Even if I am loading the videos this late in the month I have been doing the thing and tested some videos in the background. These three I will keep for the coming weeks! Stick to me and we will manage our turns better and we can run wildly the whole milonga tanda with our cardio capacity!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0hYNRxK_dg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdQLw9jPuu4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR31lyaxJE4

Basic training for November - December

This will be the last period of training for 2014!

My Pilates will be the workout from the very beginning. I just love her knowledge and talk!

For the other days I have picked one more Fitnessblender workouts. She uses small weights which is maybe too much. I maybe test with some small bottles to try out the moves.

November you are Welcome! I am prepared!

Basic training for September - October

My training has been going on 12 months so this program starts a NEW YEAR

I started last September but first in February I updated this blog with the links to the training videos. I think the best result has been that my strength is now enough to keep me dancing for several hours. The most valuable result is still the spontaneous comment from my sisters grown up daughter - She could see the muscles around my shoulders!

Actually that is a small problem for me! I do not want big muscles, just lean ones with strength for dancing long hours. I am monitoring this and asking people advice. I need these morning workouts to push up my low blood pressure and start the day

I will use this Pilates series. It is totally about one hour with two separate half-hour workshops. I will keep my 30 minutes limit and do the first part on Monday and the second later on the week.

The easy cardio will land on Tuesday and Friday.

Follow up for September - 2014.10.03
I think these cardio sessions are the best thing happening for my dance now. The balance training in March-April did wake up the tiny muscles in the ankles and they are growing slowly as recommended for me. Pilates is good for the core but leaves the ankles and the rest of the legs with insufficient training.

Earlier I had a strong wobbling solo caminata but today I can walk alone in much more controlled way. For me this is a great progress and it will make the life easier for my followers too. I can also do 360 degree stable turn on one leg and it is ok for left and right leg.

You can control the SPEED in youtube

One of the most valuable option in youtube of today is the speed control: You can decide if it goes slower than normal or speed it up. 

Here you have the control button:

If this option is not available at your youtube window you maybe are missing the add-on called HTML . All things remain the same on your youtube window but you just get the control button!

Place your cursor on the youtube window and RIGHT click. This click brings up a list of options and you take the HTML line.

(this information goes out to all may channels - Sorry if repeated for you)

SACADAS Mauricio's theoretical approach

Mauricio Castro has a quite different approach to sacadas showing just fragments of explanations and presenting most of the information as lists of steps, footprints and arrows leading our steps through the process.

He agrees with the other authors and his opinion is that the visual expression is an illusion so no one is kicking or nocking off the leg of the partner. He explains that the effect is based on synchronization of different movements.

The easiest way to find the flow for sacadas is to focus on the exchange of places during the performance of sacada. He finds this far better than searching a way to send the partners leg away.

He divides the sacadas in two bigger groups:

• Back sacadas: The sacada step is a back cross
• Forward sacadas: The sacada step can be an opening or a forward cross.

This theoretical presentation of sacadas gives an easy way to count the number of possible sacada variations, a possibility attracting my brain a lot! We have now 3 kinds of sacada steps for a leader, these steps can target 3 kinds of follower steps, which can be performed to left or right, giving us 2 more possibilities. Totally 18 sacadas for a leader. If the leader decides to let the follower do all these sacadas we get 18 additional variations. So with these steps you can perform 36 different sacadas!

The basic three steps to start with: Front cross, Side step, Back cross
(more about this in the very end of this posting)

In these tables you find the first 18 sacadas for the leader.

(Mauricio starts the second group with an Opening followed by a Front cross.)

All these variations are presented in short descriptions with visual addition of footprints, arrows and lines as the case for number 5 and 6. (I have the book in German :))

5. Front cross, to right  -  Sacada Front cross
  6. Front cross, to right  -  Sacada Back sacada

The name of the book is as below and the German publisher is ABRAZO books

Castro, M. (2003). TANGO Die Struktur des Tanzes II, 67 -78


My addition:
To understand the actual movements when looking at the sketches is as challenging as to sing while you are looking at the dots of sheet music. If you take that challenge your will boost your inner world of movements but for us others: Please find some help via the pictures below!

The types of steps Mauricio is talking about are as follows:

In these three pictures I am moving to the left and you see the movements from leader angle. In this way we get the Counter Clock wise giro steps. The blue ribon is a symbol for the follower step.

I. I take a front cross with the left leg
II. A side step with the right leg.
III. The left leg takes a back cross

The sacadas are entered on or beyond the right the blue ribbon which is symbolizing the follower step. The follower is moving to left.

Front cross    -    Opening    -    Back cross

When the follower is moving to the right the option to place the sacada is from the departuring spot on the left nearly up to the right end of the blue ribbon, the length of the followers step.

Front cross    -    Opening    -    Back cross