Flare Tutorial (Breakdance)

This is the COMPLETE ORIGINAL FLARE GUIDE FROM THE NOW-GONE BREAKSTYLZ.COM! I actually printed out a hardcopy when the site still existed and I decided to type it into my computer. I personally think it's one of the best guides out there for the flare with tips and common questions. I take no credit for this guide as it was written by a bboy off breakstylz.com. I just think that since that sitedied, this incredible guide can find a home on www.bboy.com. I took the liberties of modiflying some language such as 'gonna' and 'kinda' because I typed this in word. Everything is original!!! Good luck learning, I start again next week since my hip doesn't hurt anymore!! Payce!

Original Breakstylz.com Flare Guide
~ Author Unknown

1) Developing Active Flexibility
Flexibility is a veryimportant aspect of the flare. The farther you can spread your legs, the better. It helps you maintain a well balanced equilibrium and it will help you slow down your flares, giving you a little more time to place that hand down. Active flexibility just means being able to hold a stretching position by using your muscles to hold that position.
To develop flexibility, do left, right and center splitsevery day/night. Left splits are where you have your left leg in front of you and your right leg behind you. Right splits are the exact opposite of left splits. When you do center splits do them slowly so you don’t tear a muscle. Try to relax your leg muscles and let gravity push you down. You should feel your leg muscles tighten and when you reach a certain point you should feel a bit of relief.Another good way to do center splits is to face the floor and do the splits on a wall behind you and use your hands to push yourself back. When you are doing the splits, NEVER bounce to go further down because you will just tense up the muscles because the muscle cells think that your legs are in harm so they counteract with the force and tighten the groin muscles and we want them to be as relaxedas possible. Do splits everyday and you should notice a difference in just a week. It will hurt for about a week or so but after that your body will release endomorphines which will counteract with the pain and it will actually start to feel good.

2) Developing Upper Body Strength
Your muscles play a very important role in the flare. You will have to have a fair bit of strength. Now mostpeople will tell you that the flare doesn’t take much strength cause you can rely on speed and momentum. Well that is kind of true. The faster you go the less strength it will take but it will still take a fair bit of strength. If you slow it down the gymnasts do during floor routines then you have to use a lot more strength to pull off a slow flare. Most people think that the most important musclesin the flare are your abs. Sorry to disappoint you guys but it isn’t the most important set of muscles used in the flare. What momentum will take care of is you abs. It is because you are only in the position for a couple brief seconds, the power and momentum from your legs will keep you hips up and you won’t have to use your abs 100%. The most important muscles used are your triceps and yourshoulders. It is still a good idea to build your ab muscles by doing upper and lower ab exercises.
To build your tricep muscles get a chair and prop your legs up on to it. Now place your hands on the floor behind you and lean back on your hands and straighten your body so that you are now facing the ceiling with your hands on the ground and your legs are on the chair. Hold this position until you gettired. Try to bounce back and forth a bit on each arm to give it a little workout. Now for your shoulder muscles, all you are going to do is turn over and face the ground so that your legs are still on the chair and you are now supporting yourself on your hands while you are facing the ground. Hold this until you get tired.
Practice these everyday to help develop strength. Just practicing the...